Digimon: The Movie Movie Review
Major Spoilers are included in this movie review. Please read with caution.
On October 20, 2020, I revisited Digimon: The Movie after my time saying “goodbye” during Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna. Released in the year 2000, Digimon: The Movie was a bold, innovate masterpiece—being made from three different Digimon movies—that features all the major characters from Digimon Adventure and 02 with a plot that spans over eight years.
This movie had its flaws—connecting all three movies loosely to a DigiDestined named Willis from America was definitely one of them—but it’s ultimately a modern classic for the most diehard Digimon fans. Before truly saying goodbye—like how Digimon Adventure Last Evolution told me to do—I decided to revisit this beautiful classic before trying to move forward with my adult life.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the movie review:
The first part is about Tai and Kari as children and their first encounter with Digital Monsters. This was initially misconstrued as an obvious continuity error—since Tai and Kari didn’t remember this—but the original series did explain that the kids blocked this out over time and believed all the damage done was caused by terrorists in the Japanese Sub. The English Dub cut this aspect out in the original series because it was too “9/11” during the time, so that’s understandable.
The second part covered Our War Game!—arguably the awesome middle part of the movie—where Tai and Izzy discover a virus Digimon destroying the Internet. The comedy was gold throughout this part of this movie, with Tai’s mom cooking the most ridiculous recipes and Izzy loving every bit of it until it made him sick was just icing on the cake. Rewatching this movie also made me realize my opinion on Tai and Izzy’s close friendship came from this movie.
Also, I realized the comedy was reminiscent of an Abridged series—like DBZA and Yu-Gi-Oh—which makes sense considering this movie took parts from different Digimon source materials with added Dub humor to give everyone a riot. Oh my Digimon! Digimon: The Movie is essentially a “canon” Abridged series given a huge budget and an awesome soundtrack. What a masterpiece.
The emotional moments were the strongest in the awesome middle part too, with Tai’s sad feelings about Sora and his beautiful emotional speech to a nearly dead WarGreymon—prior to the epic Omnimon scene—demanding our attention. Joshua Seth conveyed Tai so well with every scene, which hadn’t changed in the past twenty years when he returned to the role during Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna.
The third and final part centered around the Digimon Adventure 02 kids helping Willis from America fight against his evil Digimon partner. Willis was officially introduced as a lady-killer—flirting with both Yolei and Kari much to Davis’ chagrin—but also a tragic character who lost one of his partners to the forces of darkness and not willing to accept help from others. The epic climatic battle using the Golden Digi-Eggs of Miracle and Destiny came out of nowhere, but that’s okay because everyone goes home happy!
Overall, Digimon: The Movie will always hold a special place in my heart. While everything from all three parts are now noticeably rushed and awkwardly chopped into pieces—especially since I’ve watched all three individual movies at this point—I still found enough enjoyment to suspense my disbelief. Viewing the movie as an abridged series also helps with this mindset. I would highly recommend watching this movie at some point if you’re a Digimon fan or thinking about visiting the Digital World.
Thanks for reading this movie review, everyone! If you’re interested in more Digimon review content, the link to my episode reviews on Digimon Adventure 2020 Reboot is listed here. Otherwise, I’ll see you all again sometime in the Digital World.