A film so heavily edited?

Key things

• Digimon: The Movie was heavily edited due to the challenge of adapting three short films into one cohesive story.
• Despite the messy execution, the film worked well enough with the Americanized elements and 2000s pop music.
• The success of Digimon: The Movie was a necessary evil to capitalize on Digimon's popularity and compete with Pokemon.

In the 2000s, when PokeMania was in full force, rival series emerged to challenge Pikachu's dominance. One of those series – Monster Rancher – wasn't exactly a hit (we can explore that later), but it was another series with the title Digimon: Digital Monsters eventually became a decent hit for rival network Fox Kids. It was enough of a hit that parent company 20th Century Fox began exploring options to bring the franchise to the big screen. In 2000, they would succeed with Digimon: The Movie. However, the film was released with one severe caveat: it was heavily edited and altered from its original form. Unlike most cases, however, this may have been a necessary evil rather than mere meddling by corporate executives. Read on to find out why.

What is Digimon?

Digimon (short for “Digital Monsters”) is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Akiyoshi Hongo. Believe it or not, it originated as a virtual pet device in 1997, much like the Tamagotchi, another virtual pet that owners could carry in their pockets (these things, by the way, were EXTREMELY necessary and demanding, probably requiring more of your time than an actual pet unlike Tamagotchi (which was about taking care of a virtual pet), Digimon were designed with a focus on fighting creatures after Pokémon exploded in popularity, Bandai quickly expanded the franchise into other media, including anime, movies, video games, manga, and trading card games. from the most iconic franchises of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

in the core Digimon centers on the concept of digital creatures that exist in the data of Earth's networks and devices (and later the Internet, for obvious reasons). These creatures can evolve (or “Digivolve”) and form strong bonds with human partners, typically children known as “DigiDestined”. Together, Digimon and their partners (usually players in games or children known as DigiDestined in other media) go on adventures, confront villains, and often work to save both the digital world and the human world from threats.

How popular was it in America?

Digimon gaming devices weren't exactly a big hit when they hit America, with sales barely noticed by most retailers. However (due in part to the popularity of Pokemon) the first anime series of the franchise, Digimon Adventure (which was renamed Digimon: Digital Monsters in America), it ended up being a surprise hit for the Fox Kids network and differentiated itself from Pokémon by focusing on story arcs, character development, and memorable villains (much the same way Dragon Ball Z would).

It eventually became one of the highest-rated shows on Fox Kids and (again, after success Pokemon: The First Movie) 20th Century Fox decided they wanted to bring Digimon to the big screen. They would do it in one of the weirdest ways possible.

What is Digimon: The Movie?

Digimon: The Movie is a 2000 animated film that was an English adaptation of a popular Japanese film (the word “adaptation” is key here). This is a big screen presentation Digimon franchise and centers around the first two seasons of the anime series, in which children work together with digital creatures called Digimon in a parallel world known as the Digital World. The film was released in North America by Fox Kids, with significant adaptations and localization changes to suit Western audiences. Why was the film edited so heavily? The answer may surprise you.

Fun fact

Unknown to many people, Digimon: The Movie was one of the first theatrical films directed by the then unknown Mamoru Hosoda. Hosoda played a major role in this Digimon Adventure anime (and even directed episode 21 of the series), and this would be his introduction to film directing. He later went on to direct anime classicsWolf kids, Belle, summer campand Mirai (which would earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature).

Why was he Digimon: The Movie So heavily edited?

Reason Digimon: The Movie it had to be so heavily edited because there wasn't really a working Digimon movie that could be brought to America as such. While the three films were technical the problem is that they were all around 30 minutes. Which was perfectly fine in Japan (they were screened at festivals and as a double feature with other anime shorts), but it was a big no-no in America. The films in question were:

1. Digimon Adventure (1999)
2. Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! (2000)
3. Digimon Adventure 02: Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals (2000)

The first two were based on the first season of the anime, while the third movie was based on the second season (titled Digimon Adventure 2 in Japan). None of the films are connected to form an overarching plot. While Fox could theoretically release them on TV as prime-time specials or something, Warner Bros. (under the Kids WB banner) for $85 million Pokemon: The First Movie was (probably) hard to ignore. If only Fox could match half that would make them in a pretty tall cotton.

Therefore, it was decided to merge these three films together. Kairi became the film's narrator, while Willis—a character who appeared in the third film—was inserted into scenes to create the illusion of a narrative that would (theoretically) lead to the climax of the third act. Fox then includes music from popular bands of the time such as Fatboy Slim, Barenaked Ladies and Smash Mouth (it wouldn't be the 2000s without performances from All Star). Finally, while none of the characters' names have directly changed (and everything is still set in Japan), the characters have been given American nicknames.

The execution was messy to say the least. But… it worked pretty well in the end. Although the fact that Digimon: The Movie The fact that the three shorts were cut into one wasn't exactly common knowledge, fans would eventually see it that way, and some admit to watching their favorite part more often than the “full movie” (the second part – Our war game! – is considered by many to be the highlight of the film). Through it all, was the movie the success Fox wanted it to be? Well, as they say, that's another story for another day.

Digimon: The Movie (as well as the uncut versions of all the original films) will be re-released by Discotek Media.