Pokemon Heroes

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Brimming with values that should serve its young audience well: altruism, friendship, self-sacrifice, responsibility.

Chicago Reader Bill Stamets

A sunny, gentle action yarn with numbingly repetitive chase scenes and bouncy interludes of playtime.

San Francisco Chronicle C.W. Nevius

Better for several reasons. First, they've jazzed up the animation. The backgrounds appear to be digital, and they are striking. The story is also less violent and combative.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Sometimes the 2D and 3D animation doesn't blend, and the heinous pop songs would embarrass Peter Cetera, but there's plenty to like, including a fascinating mechanical contraption and musical score both shamelessly and lovingly stolen from "The Dark Crystal."

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Clearly, interest has waned - both because children grow up and because they move on. It might be time for the folks behind this particular fad to do the same.

Chicago Tribune Patrick Z. McGavin

An insubstantial addition to the cycle. It looks cheap and feels slapped together.

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

Gallops along at a quick, easygoing clip. Grown-ups may have to scrub the sugar from their frontal lobes. But it's not about them, is it? Never was. Never will be.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Given that most fans are very young, ignoring a key aspect of the Pokemon mythos is bound to confuse and disappoint them.

LA Weekly David Chute

Surprisingly, not bad.

Village Voice Nat Johnson

The pied piper of shameless kiddie-marketing strikes for the fifth time in as many years.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Kids who love Pokemon movies are no doubt going to see this movie, and they'll have a blast watching it. Very soon they will become older and more sensible and understand how terrible these movies are.

Variety Robert Koehler

Demonstrates no improvement or enhancement. But the action this time is even less inspired than past battles

Boston Globe Louise Kennedy

Any richness in the drawing of the backgrounds only underscores the weirdly flat, affectless renderings of the characters moving through them.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Doesn't have much to offer viewers who aren't still eagerly awaiting their first adult tooth.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

Plays more like a catalog than a movie... a tedious, unimaginative affair.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Crudely animated, badly dubbed, incomprehensible, boring -- and headache-inducing -- attempt to wring a few more yen and dollars out of a thoroughly spent franchise.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Kids will revolt, parents will snooze, and I will be downright giddy if I never encounter another Pokémon movie as long as I live. Ack!