Pokemon TCG Dark Explorers Prerelease: Rockford, IL

Here's an interview from a Pokemon TCG Dark Explorers Prerelease I went to this weekend:

Blu-Ray Review Pokemon Collection

Here's a review of the Pokemon Blu-Ray released earlier this month:

Pokemon VG Midwest Regionals 2012: Trick Room/Rain Dance

Here's an interview from the video game portion of last weekend's regional:

Pokemon TCG Midwest Regionals 2012: Terrakion/Mewtwo

Here's an interview from one of last weekend's TCG regionals:

First Look: Pokemon Collection Blu-Ray

Neil Lumbard, frequent reviewer at DVDTalk.com, sent us his first impressions of the recently released "Pokemon Collection" Blu-Ray compilation of Pokemon movies four through seven:

Pokemon 4Ever is easily the weakest transfer on the set. It looks barely better than DVD quality from what I viewed. It is a disappointing transfer but it is at least in widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Digital audio*. It should still be a minor improvement over the widescreen DVD Echo Bridge released.

Pokemon Heroes seems to be the same transfer as the earlier Double Feature release. It's a clear improvement over the DVD release, but still not as amazing a HD transfer as one would hope for. It is still better than the transfer given to Pokemon 4Ever. Echo Bridge only gave 2.0 Dolby Digital audio and it sounds inferior to the LPCM version on the first BD release. I also noticed a slight, tiny hiss from one of my speakers (not sure if this is because of the audio-track or if I need to fix something, it is probably a fault of Echo Bridge).

Pokemon Jirachi Wish Maker is the best transfer of the bunch. Finally in widescreen. Definite improvement over DVD. Looks like real High Definition and it is not even a weak transfer. 5.1 Dolby Digital audio sounds nice.

Pokemon Destiny Deoxys is the same video as the Double Feature release. It is the second best transfer included. It's not quite as impressive as Wish Maker but still a good HD effort. Again, Echo Bridge went from a 2.0 LPCM to a 2.0 Dolby Digital. The sound is slightly inferior. I did not notice any hiss issue on this film as I did with Heroes.

The menu designs are actually somewhat nice. Echo Bridge designed something pretty decent in that regard.

The cover art bugged me by being out of order in presenting the four films but then I realized they likely intended it to be like a right to left manga presentation -- sort of a neat if unnecessary design idea. Some might consider this a "cool" aspect.

The disc itself lists the films out of order (which is irritating), and it has a generic disc label. Nothing interesting about it at all. Blue background with white text. The actual menus used for the release present the four films in chronological order though.

All of the films are in 1080p 1.78:1.

None of the short films have been included.

*The disc is ls listed as having DTS sound, but Neil confirmed that the 5.1 is in fact Dolby Digital.

Alternate version of Pokémon the Movie 2000 to be released

In a set of press releases, The Pokémon Company and The Pokémon Company International announced that a new version of the second Pokémon movie will be released this year. This version will feature Ho-oh, and will be presented in 3D.

“Following the success of Pokémon the Movie White: Victini and Zekrom and Pokémon the Movie Black: Victini and Reshiram, we decided to go back and create a new version of the classic movie from 2000,” a spokesperson for the Pokémon Company International said. “Fans have always told us that they wanted to see Ho-oh in a movie, and this seemed like the perfect way to do it.”

In case you haven't guessed, yes, this is an April Fool's Day gag. Hope you enjoyed it.