Digimon: The Movie

Digimon: The Movie is a 2000 American film adaptation of the first three Japanese Digimon films distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film used footage from the films Digimon Adventure (1999), Our War Game!! (2000), and ''Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals'' (2000).

In comparison to the original films, Digimon: The Movie had a significant degree of editing, with more than 40 minutes of scenes from the individual Japanese versions cut out to save time and several plot changes.

Eight Years Ago
In Highton View Terrace before their adventure in the Digital World, siblings Tai and Kari Kamiya witness a Digi-Egg emerging from their computer. The egg soon hatches, revealing a Botamon. The Digimon rapidly digivolves into Koromon and then a very large Agumon, who unintentionally destroys a good part of the neighborhood. A second Digi-Egg appears in the sky to reveal a Tokomon. Agumon digivolves to Greymon, but brutally loses the battle. Tai revives Greymon with Kari's whistle, who defeats Parrotmon and disappears with him.

Four Years Later
About six months after the DigiDestined departed from the Digital World, Izzy discovers a virus infected Digi-Egg on the internet and rushes over to Tai's apartment to inform him about the newly-hatched Digimon, Kuramon. Tai and Izzy monitor him, horrified as Kuramon rapidly digivolves to its Rookie level, Keramon, all the while consuming large amounts of computer data until Gennai appears in a transmission from the Digital World, warning them about the dangers of his growth. He dispatches Agumon and Tentomon to stop the corrupted Digimon. Keramon digivolves into Infermon, and easily defeats the Champion and Ultimate forms of Tentomon and Agumon, revealing that Keramon completely skipped over his Champion form and digivolved straight to his Ultimate level. Tai furiously tries to alert the rest of the DigiDestined, but succeeds enlisting only the help of brothers Matt and T.K.

Agumon and Gabumon Warp Digivolve to WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, prompting Infermon to Digivolve into Diaboromon, but they slow down and are severely beaten because of the massive amount of e-mails being sent to Tai and Izzy from people around the world who are watching the battle from their computers. Diaboromon begins to duplicate himself and sets up a timer for 10 minutes as he forces the Pentagon to launch two nuclear missiles: one headed for Colorado, the other for the Tai's own neighborhood in Odaiba, Tokyo. Unable to accept defeat and because their bond with their Digimon is so strong, Tai and Matt become digital and enter their computers to talk their Digimon. WarGreymon saying feeling the light and he and MetalGarurumon gain the ability to DNA Digivolve to Omnimon, who easily defeats all but the original Diaboromon. At one minute to go, Diaboromon is still too fast for them to hit, but Izzy forwards him the massive amount of e-mails to slow him down. At the very last second, Omnimon impales Diaboromon through the head, disabling the missiles and killing him. Unfortunately, the Diaboromon's spirit tracks down Willis and possesses Kokomon.

Present Day
While visiting Mimi in New York, T.K. and Kari witness a battle between Willis, Terriermon, and Wendigomon, Kokomon's corrupted Champion form (still referred to as Kokomon). Wendigomon cryptically insists for Willis to "go back", to which he interprets as returning to Colorado. Kari, believing him to be in danger, e-mails Davis Motomiya and the other Digidestined for help in hopes of assembling in Colorado. Unfortunately, T.K. and Kari's train becomes derailed by Wendigomon on the way and they are unable to meet with the others.

Meanwhile, after taking planes and taxis, Davis, Yolei Inoue, and Cody Hida meet Willis in a truck. When Willis tries to get their group transportation to his house, the ride leaves without him and Davis; however, Davis devises a plan to get themselves to Colorado faster with the help of Raidramon. At the rendez-vous point, Davis, Yolei, and Cody began to question Willis' knowledge about Wendigomon. Hesitantly, Willis reveals that he, as a child, tried to create a digi-egg after experiencing the joys of having his twin Digimon (Terriermon & Kokomon). However, a virus attacked the egg which mutated into Diaboromon. After the original Digidestined defeated Diaboromon, the Diaboromon's spirit tracked down Willis and possessed Kokomon. Willis assumes full responsibility for the situation. However, Davis and Terriermon convince him to let them help, as they are friends and are on the same team.

At Willis's home the next morning, Wendigomon expectedly reappears, but Digivolves to Antylamon and easily defeats the DigiDestined. Once digivolved into Cherubimon, he proceeds to eat their Digimon, but T.K. and Kari arrive at the nick of time to provide back-up with Angemon and Angewomon. Angry, Cherubimon de-Digivolves the Digimon then de-ages the Digidestined, revealing that he wanted Willis to "go back" in time to when the virus first attacked him. To combat him, Angewomon and Angemon Digivolve to their Mega forms, Magnadramon and Seraphimon, to release two Golden Digi-Eggs for Willis and Davis. Veemon and Terriermon Golden Armor Digivolve to Magnamon and Rapidmon and allow themselves to be swallowed by Cherubimon. Inside, they see a manifestation of Wendigomon's true self, who begs them to destroy the virus. After doing so, Cherubimon is purified, but succumbs to his injuries and dies. After saying goodbye to his new friends, Willis and Terriermon walk back home to find Kokomon's Digi-egg on the beach.

Development
After the first two Pokémon films, Fox wanted to replicate its success by having a theatrical feature for Digimon as well. Unfortunately Toei Animation had no feature-length films for Digimon, but instead had animation fairs every spring and summer with featurettes showcasing their current animated titles. The only films produced for Digimon at that time were Digimon Adventure (1999), Our War Game! (2000), and ''Digimon Hurricane Touchdown! / Supreme Evolution! The Golden Digimentals'' (2000), the first two directed by Mamoru Hosoda and the final by Shigeyasu Yamauchi.

As the three films were respectively 20, 40, and 60 minutes long, footage was condensed to fit 85 minutes. The last film included in the compilation, ''Digimon Hurricane Touchdown! / Supreme Evolution! The Golden Digimentals'' was heavily cut because Saban Entertainment lacked funding to produce a full two-hour movie. Alongside of that, "culturally awkward" Japanese elements are removed, and many North American jokes were written into the script.

Writer Jeff Nimoy noted that the first cut of the movie consisted of just the first two films and had plans to release the third film separately as a television movie or direct-to-video, but the idea was overruled. In order to connect the stories of the different movies together, the adapting screenwriters rewrote ''Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals'' to include Willis being involved in Diaboromon's creation. In addition to this, the subplot of the older DigiDestined being captured by Wendigomon was cut out altogether. Originally, Nimoy had Tai narrate the movie, but as Tai did not make an appearance in the third part of the movie, he changed it to Kari instead. The budget of the film production was estimated to be at $5 million.

Promotion
Taco Bell heavily promoted Digimon: The Movie the summer before the film's release via a summer partnership with the franchise from July 13, 2000 to September 9, 2000. Participating restaurants offered toys and other collectibles with purchase of their kids' meals. When the film debuted in local theaters, a limited edition "Digi Battle" trading card was given out with every admission. There were a total of 12 cards obtainable.

Box office
Digimon: The Movie opened at #5 in the box office and earned $4,233,304 on the opening weekend. The movie's run ended on December 3, 2000 at #56 drawing in a weekend gross of $19,665 grossing a total of $9,631,153 domestically. The movie also drew in $1,567,641 in the UK after its release on February 16, 2001 and $2,200,656 in Germany the same year.

Critical reception
The film generally received negative reviews. On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an average "rotten" rating, as only 25% of critics gave the movie positive reviews based on 39 reviews. Overall, critics claimed that the film is an improvement over Pokémon: The First Movie, however in itself was "predictable" and suffered from "mediocre animation". Metacritic gave the movie a "generally unfavorable" score of 20/100. Lawrence van Gelder of The New York Times describes the film as "noisy and ill-conceived", as it focused too much on "morphing monsters" and too little on "storytelling talent" and animation. Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail gave the film two stars, noting that the "scenes alternate between kitschy cuteness and spectacular violence, with only a nod toward plot, character development, and motivation".

Rating
In America, this film was rated PG by the MPAA for action violence.

Soundtrack
Music from the Motion Picture Digimon: The Movie is the original motion picture soundtrack for the film, Digimon: The Movie, released September 19, 2000 on Maverick Records. The original music was composed by Shuki Levy, Udi Harpaz and Amotz Plessner, and was performed by the Tel Aviv Symphony Orchestra and was also used throughout the second and third series. No official version of the orchestral score exists, although there are clips from the soundtrack on Udi Harpaz's website.


 * Track listing