Digimon: The Movie

What’s the Story?

The plot of DIGIMON: THE MOVIE is less an actual story than a pretext for staging increasingly spectacular battle scenes between outlandish monsters. Viewers must keep track of a large roster of characters and a swarm of constantly evolving Digimon. The Digimon (short for digital monster) are creatures from the digital world that have befriended a select group of kids, known as the DigiDestined. The Digimon evolve (or Digivolve) into larger and more powerful creatures when necessary, such as when hostile Digimon try to wreak havoc in human society. The ongoing battles showcase a non-stop parade of weird but cool-looking creatures, and one of the more memorable fights takes place inside the Worldwide Web, with monsters duking it out against a surreal backdrop of spinning computer animated geometric shapes.

Is It Any Good?

As any Godzilla fan will attest, these types of monster movies are not without their pleasures, but enjoying them requires that you buy into the fantasy worlds they create. For the unconverted, and for many parents, the movie is likely to induce a state of total confusion.

The movie excels in visual extravagance, and compared to the TV series it has more action and lots of new Digimon characters. However, it fails to build any kind of emotional involvement with the characters, human or otherwise. The protagonists are given little to do other than explain the latest crisis then cheer on their respective Digimon.