Digimon Adventures 02: The Golden Digimentals

Digimon Adventures: Digimon Hurricane Juuriku – Chousetsu Shinka!! Ougon no Digimental
Also Known As: Digimon Movie 3, Digimon Adventures: Digimon Hurricane Landing – Excellent Evolution!! Golden Digimentals
Genre: Action
Format: 1 Movie
Allegiance: Toei Animation
Director: Hosoda Mamoru
Vintage: 2000
Intelligence Agency Report by: Drake
Hikari and Takeru are on vacation in the Big Apple visiting Mimi, a fellow Chosen Child (someone chosen to have a Digimon companion). All seems well until an unknown Digimon appears and traps Mimi and the other older Chosen Children in a vortex to de-age them. This Digimon is hunting for his human partner, unable to grasp that his partner has grown up over the years. To aid the new generation of Chosen Children there comes a new Digidestined from America, Wallace, who has a mysterious link to the unknown Digimon. Can the younger Chosen Children save the older kids and unravel the secret link between Wallace and the mystery Digimon?

Field Agent Report by: Drake
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
4.50
5.50
2.00
3.50
3.00
Overall 3.75
(not an average)
I originally saw The Golden Digimentals as part of the American version of Digimon: The Movie, a compilation of the first three movies in a series of what is now eight in Japan. Recently, I revisited the movie in its original Japanese form, and man is it different. Normally when one watches the original anime before the US dub, the differences are very minute. The differences in the Japanese and American versions ofThe Golden Digimentals are so massive, it causes one to wonder if the two movies are the same at all. 

The movie overall was highly disappointing, greatly due to the technical aspects. Where the animation in the Digimon television series was bright and vivid and the character designs were well done, in the movie we get the exact opposite. Also, the soundtrack did not meet my expectations. The music was very mellow and had a jazzy feel to it. This can be a good thing in the right setting, but in this case I don’t feel the music really fit the overall mood of the movie. 

The story itself was not that bad, though some of the details are a bit confusing. However, this is more noticeable for viewers who have seen the American version and then watch the totally unedited Japanese version. I’d recommend watching it twice if you feel confused at the end of the first viewing – that is, if you care enough to understand the entire plot. The main characters were pretty much the same as they were in Digimon Adventure 02, and the movie brought them little to no development. However, I must admit, I was impressed with Daisuke’s signs of maturity towards the end of the movie. Other than that, the only other noteworthy development was seeing the Ultimate forms (“Mega” form in the American version) of Patamon and Tailmon. 

In the end, The Golden Digimentals will most likely be a huge let-down to fans of the series. This movie’s strengths lie in an interesting plot and never-before-seen ultimate evolutions of everyone’s favorite holy Digimon duo. However, don’t expect too much more than that.