Pokémon 3: Spell of the Unown

Three Poké flicks in 12 months - which suggests how little work goes into these confounding Japanese creations. As usual, the quality of the animation is abysmal: lead characters hardly move as they speak, while those towards the edge of the frame remain resolutely motionless. There are many things which we, as parents, simply cannot understand. Why are the films often saddled with two or more titles (this one's subtitled 'Spell of the Unown' [sic] - or should that be 'Entei', as listed on the press invitation)? Why is the dire accompanying short called Pikachu & Pichu, when it features not two but three lead characters? And then - a small but perhaps not insignificant matter - why have the characters' eyes changed from animé-style horizontal to a more Westernised vertical? However, the film is a shade more coherent than its predecessors, which is saying something. Addressing darker elements of loss and loneliness, it finds young hero Ash on a quest to reunite Molly with her missing parents after a brush with the mysterious Unown, whatever that is.