A truly "Digital" movie: Digimon delivers a feast for the eyes

With the success garnered by the television series, video game, and collectible card game, it's only natural that "Digimon: Digital Monsters" would enter the big screen. "Digimon: The Movie" is the franchise's first foray into the world of cinema. The movie delivers excellent animation, exciting fight sequences, and enjoyable new elements to the "Digimon" universe. It avoids sappy endings and delivers what amounts to a feast for the eyes.

The movie begins by introducing the DigiDestinied as they were four years before the beginning of the first television series. Tai and Kari discover a strange egg, which later hatches into a digimon. After a day spent with the small creature, it digivolves to a larger form, and with Kari riding his back, explores the city. They are interrupted by the appearance of another Digimon, Parrotmon, and a fight ensues. In the movie and in the television series, it's explained that the first DigiDestinied were chosen from the group of children who watched the fight.

The second part of the movie takes place six months after the conclusion of the first TV series. While surfing the Internet, Izzy discovers a new digiegg. Before it hatches, a virus attacks the egg, and mutates the digimon within. When the digimon hatches, it begins to "eat" data from the internet, disrupting electronic functions across the world. The DigiDestinied once again call upon their digimon to battle the enemy and must stop the evil digimon before it causes nuclear missiles to rain down on Japan and the United States.

The final segment of the movie stars the five DigiDestinied from the second TV series and takes place sometime after the series's conclusion. TK and Kari are traveling together in America, and happen across a boy named Willis. Willis is also a DigiDestinied, like them, but has been alone the entire time in Colorado. Now, a large, dog-like digimon named Wendimon is hunting him, so the five new DigiDestinied offer to help Willis defeat his stalker.

"Digimon: The Movie" is actually a composite of three short features released separately in Japan as a part of yearly anime festivals. While it's obvious that these three segments have been forced together slightly haphazardly, ala "Heavy Metal," all are enjoyable when taken individually. My personal favorite was the second part, originally titled "Our War Game," which introduces a new heroic digimon named Omnimon.

The animation for the movie is much better than that of the TV show. All of the characters move fluidly, and their facial expressions are very well drawn. The detail on the digimon is such that you can see the muscles flexing on their bodies as they move to attack. The fashion used is a blending of the realistic drawings found in movies such as "Akira" and "Heavy Metal" and the more cartoony style of shows like "Sailor Moon" and "Card Captor Sakura." This style is far superior to the stiff figures seen in both Pokemon movies.

The soundtrack is also well done, featuring the talents of Smash Mouth and Fatboy Slim, among others. The instrumental score is also well done, and suits the mood of the movie perfectly, changing from pulse-pounding action music to the slow dirge of dire circumstance. Is there a chance for a sequel? While there is a chance, it's not likely. Toei Animation has not released any plans to continue past the second "Digimon" series, even though new video games and toys are expected. Until Toei changes its mind, fans will have to settle for the new series currently running, syndication, and video releases.