As you can guess, this movie was my childhood, in fact every Pokemon movie up until Lucario, was mine and my siblings childhood, these Pokemon movies were just so engaging, endearing and awesome, despite being corny ( come on its Pokemon), i always felt i would never be the same without these films. I love this movie and all the others so much, my siblings and i always try to watch them at least once year. But enough about my childhood, lets get on to the review. So this movie takes place in a city called altomare which is basically Venice in Pokemon world, but just as gorgeous, you could tell the animators took their time designing the city. There is a story, that legendary Pokemon called latios and latias, would protect the city from evil people with evil Pokemon, and that they had to flood the entire city, drowning the evil Pokemon ( yeah dark right), and there were only 2 survivors, a brother ( latios) and sister ( latias); from the get go this movie establishes some very interesting lore, and i only wish there was more of it. The movie starts off with ash and misty in a water Pokemon chariot race, with the master quest song playing ( This song and this moment is so awesome and memorable, i got into wake boarding just to try to replicate it), through the race you notice that latios and latias have the power of invisibility and watch over the city, latias is revealed to be able to look like a human girl. Ash and his friends then explore the city and visit the museum which has the fossils of the evil Pokemon, and a weapon that was used to protect the city using the soul of a latios ( very rich lore). Meanwhile we follow 2 sexy cat burglars who work for team rockets boss Giovanni, these 2 women are named Annie and Oakley; let me just say that these 2 became some of my favorite Pokemon villains, just their intro is awesome ( its a spy car that can turn into a jet!) their spy like style is very cool, they even have cool Pokemon; a espion and ariados who also become antagonists. Annie and Oakley's goal is to capture both legendary Pokemon, find the crystallized soul of a latios, and use the city's weapon for their own agenda. The 2 end up being very intimidating as they ruthlessly pursue latias through the city, ( they can even see through the Pokemon's invincibility, using spy glasses). The movie is very short, and cuts right to the final climax very quickly, Annie and Oakley use the weapon to control the city and resurrect the evil Pokemon, making ( gasp) ZOMBIE Pokemon!!! So... as always ash is the only one who can stop them, and there is a very impressive chase scene involving ash, latias and the zombie Pokemon. And just when you think the day is won, the weapon actually causes a tidal wave to occur, as it comes closer to destroying the city, latios give up his life to stop it ( yes an actual death in pokemon!) This leads to a bittersweet ending involving latias saying goodbye to ash, which unsettling leads to a kiss from latias to ash ( in human form, Brock was really jealous), the movie then ends with ash seeing the ghosts of latias's family in the sky. Also it shows Annie and Oakley in prison looking at a book with a picture of the collector from Pokemon 2000, establishing continuity between these movies. The story is simple but engaging almost whimsical in fact, but the music is awe inspiring, it haunts me, the end credits sequence doesn't have 1 but 5 different songs that are all very good songs. The animation looked good but nothing special, there was a lot of CGI used in this ( that wasn't very good), but as your traveling through the CGI halls of altomare, there's this beauty and atmosphere about it, i think this sort of CGI worked really well with this movie. i love this movie, and despite it having its flaws like being too short, i couldn't imagine living without it! May it touch your soul as it has touched mine.

This is a great movie, one of the movies I grew up with. It was excellently done, a decent story, and great characters. I love the bonds shown or developed throughout the movie, especially Latios and Latias. These two are the closest Pokemon duo I have seen, and they were quite well done. So you ask, why is it 9 stars if you enjoy the movie so much? Well, I have quite a few problems with the movie. First, I would like the clear up that this is the shortest Pokemon film released so far, and will probably stay that way as long as Pokemon is running. If you skipped directly to the race and watched to the part where 2 Latios and 1 Latias fly towards Alto Mare, it would be about 30 seconds under an hour. This leaves Pokemon fans hungering for more, and I myself wish this was a longer film.My second problem is that the English version should have had a more similar story to the Japanese version. The Japanese version was a very successful film, with a brilliant story. So why, just why, was this all changed up? This isn't a question I've seen many people ask, but I am wondering. Why was Latios's voice changed in the English dub. It helped distinguish Latios and Latias's differences better, which is one of the things I liked about the Japanese version.These are only three problems, but they are big enough to knock the movie down a star for me. But the movie is still kid-friendly and entertaining. I love it until this very day, and the movie itself was very emotional. Latias and Latios are adorable and cool at the same time, just the Pokemon I love the most. Latios's death set a new course for the Pokemon world, and it still affects some today. Annie and Oakley were funny and unusual villains. I like both of their characters, Oakley's desire for power, and Annie just the more girly of the two, wanting to steal pretty things and wear nice clothes. I wish they were given another role in the future.I am not denying that this was a great film, but it could have easily been better. But this movie is unique for its design focus. I like how Alto Mare is loosely based off of Venice, which is a gorgeous city. Latios and Latias will always have a special place in my heart, as well as this movie.

Pokémon films are the only Japanese films that I would always go for the English dub because I am used to it as it is the most common version available in stores near me. I also thought they wouldn't differ a lot from the original Japanese version since Pokémon is a renowned franchise but now after reviewing them in 2014? That thought have been proved completely wrong especially from this film.Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias (2002) is beautiful, it sets in a refined city and it has great music. It feels romantic. It feels otherworldly at times. Unfortunately in the English dub, the entire backstory introduction has been removed and ultimately making the whole story altered. It is a wonder why the Pokémon company allows this or the production company decided to do this for the English version but it is evident that their "creativity" isn't fruitful.In the beginning, it appears to have an interesting storyline. It also seems that they have played more with camera movements and angles which are refreshing and fun to watch as the city is beautiful. In the end, the story and concept is not and it isn't satisfying. They could have been done so much better. I won't say there isn't story, there is but it isn't well developed. There are female villains that appears to be promising too, but well, the overall character and story development is just unfortunately terrible.Sad to mention, the last half of the movie seems like casual work. There are a lot of thoughts put into the visuals and music but certainly not the story. There are several scenes that are quite sudden too. For instance, what happened to all the other citizen? They just disappeared and even the Alto Mare city is facing doom, no one even comes out panic, ever. It seems like as if people from the entire world has vanished. I understand it is night time when that happened but it feels like as if the whole movie is about these several characters only. Honestly, the story could have been so much better if they put more effort into it, did not decide to alter it completely and remove the introduction segment from the original version. This animated feature could have been one of the best Pokémon films out there with its beautiful music and settings but it just didn't make it.Ending this post, if you are not bothered by the lack of depth and weak story, Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias (2002) should be good. I love to watch Latios and Latias and all the other Pokémon coming to life through animation but I will be honest with you, it may disappoint if you're watching not solely for Pokémon.

I enjoyed this one. Better than the 6th Jirachi movie.From the start you could see the villains were much smarter and well prepared, their pokemon quite strong. You still see the other two Team Rocket members Jesse and James who are useless.I had to rewind the part I thought Latias got captured, after a few rewinds Latios got in front of her otherwise it didn't make any sense. It was a bit hard to make out it definitely looked like she was captured.The ending was sad, a bit confusing to see 3 latios. If you're going to see a poké movie this is the one.