Animerica Magazine is the last word in anime in North America. It's a slick, professional magazine with great features and articles. Here's what Animerica had to say about Mewtwo Strikes Back:

"As the twentieth century draws to a close, we find ourselves surrounded by monsters...cute, cuddly monsters. They lurk in the pages of comic books, on video store shelves, in packs of collectible cards, within Game Boys and Nintendo 64 consoles, and on our television screens. Now, with their movie debut on 10 November, it can truly be said that Pokémon are everywhere.

Entitled Pokémon: The First Movie, this theatrical feature is a spinoff of the television series that draws a huge audience of impressionable children in both the U.S. and Japan. For the last few months, we've seen 10-year-old Ash wander the world with his companions Misty, Brock, and Pikachu, capturing and training all manner of odd creatures in his quest to become a Pokémon master. Like the television series, the movie incarnation is full of exciting Pokémon battles, devious antics by the scheming Team Rocket, action, and humor. But, in going beyond the typical lighthearted adventures of the small-screen series, Pokémon: The First Movie will also expose a new generation to the full scope of the anime medium.

And make no mistake-this is anime in its full glory. Mewtwo Strikes Back, the seventy-minute feature that makes up the bulk of the theatrical Pokémon experience, has all the hallmarks of classic anime; epic scope, atmospheric visuals, hyperkinetic action, natural catastrophe, awesome psychic combat, weighty philosophy, wrenching drama, comedy, tragedy, and terrifying yet somehow sympathetic antagonists. It's truly Pokémon as you've never seen it before.

The First Movie is actually two features in one, combining Mewtwo Strikes Back with the shorter (and decidely lighter) Pikachu's Vacation into roughly a hundred minutes of running time. Released last summer in Japan, this two-in-one feature arrives on the big screen in the U.S. just in time to stoke the winter Pokémon feeding frenzy. It can also count on a big promotional push, courtesy of Warner Brothers. After its acclaimed Batman and Superman cartoon series and the sophisticated movie The Iron Giant, Warner is developing something of a track record for expanding U.S. audiences' expectations of animation, and the surprisingly weighty Pokémon movie may well uphold this tradition.

Mewtwo Strikes Back, the headliner feature, tells the tragic tale of this rarest and most powerful of Pokémon. Mewtwo is the product not of nature but of human science, created through genetic engineering as an artificial replica of the legendary psychic Pokémon Mew. The moment it awakes, Mewtwo's telepathic powers give it instant awareness of its origin, but it searches in vain for a deeper meaning to its existence. For a time, it falls under the sway of the mysterious leader of Team Rocket, who argues that Pokémon exist to serve the will of humans. But Mewtwo ultimately rejects this philosophy, and breaks free to set its own plans in motion....

Some time later, we catch up with our wandering heroes. After a music video-like sequence in which we observe our heroes' prowess as Pokémon trainers, Ash, Misty, and Brock receive a invitation from a mysterious rival. Along with three other talented trainers, they fight their way through a raging to storm to answer the challenge. At the eye of the storm, a bleak castle rises from a desolate island, and within it waits the most dangerous foe that Ash and friends have ever faced...

With its lavish sets and special effects, Mewtwo Strikes Back certainly surpasses the production values of the Pokémon television series, but its story also represents a significant evolutionary step. Until now, evil and danger have largely been lacking from the Pokémon universe, with the adorably hapless Team Rocket providing a pretty harmless form of villainy; even their presumably more competent allies threaten nothing worse than elaborate Pokémon-heisting schemes. But in Mewtwo, our heroes face an adversary of almost infinite power and genuine malice. They face peril in the form of a raging storm, a multi-story fall, and the unleashed energies of the most powerful Pokémon. This is pretty scary stuff.

There's also an element of philosophical depth. Driven by an agonized longing for identity, meaning, and purpose, the tormented Mewtwo is a villain with motivations more complex than mere greed or lust for power. And the central problem Mewtwo grapples with-the relationship between humans and the creatures they control-is echoed in the developing bond between Ash and his faithful Pokémon Pikachu. While regular viewers of the television series well know that these two are not master and servant but genuine friends, the movie's perilous plot twists push their mutual devotion to the very limit. Delving into the true nature of the human-Pokémon relationship, Mewtwo Strikes Back goes far beyond the simple notion of "Gotta Catch 'Em All."

If that sounds kind of heavy, then take heart-the movie's other component, the short subject Pikachu's Vacation, is nothing but pure lighthearted fun. Removing the human characters from the scene altogether, this half-hour feature lets us observe Pikachu and our heroes' other Pokémon taking a break in a special Pokémon resort.

Unlike the television episode "Island of the Giant Pokémon," in Pikachu's Vacation the pint-sized protagonists babble away without subtitles for the Pokémon-language-impaired. But moviegoers won't have to strain very hard to follow the wacky plot, in which a petty squabble between roving packs of Pokémon escalates into a series of athletic contests that is finally resolved in a team rescue effort. Crammed full of sight gags, creature cameos, and slapstick comedy, Pikachu's Vacation upholds the comic tradition that's been a key part of the television series's appeal. And darn, but aren't they cute."