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Pokemon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back (G)
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Based on the Pokemon TV series (see anime shows 4). Before the main movie is the short Pikachu's Vacation (IMDb; Movie Tome; Serebii.net). Ash, Misty, and Brock's pokemon all take a vacation together without the humans. Pikachu's supposed to look after Togepi, who of course gets into all sorts of standard-issue cartoon trouble, though Pikachu's the one who suffers. Then the group encounters some other pokemon and square off against each other. Then Charizard's head gets stuck in I don't know what it was supposed to be, but they all work together to free him. The song at the beginning of the whole thing was catchy, and the scenes are all separated by some trippy segues. It wasn't great, but it didn't suck, either.

The main movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back, was better. Giovanni, Team Rocket's boss, had a bunch of scientists use legendary pokemon Mew's DNA to create a clone, Mewtwo, who was the most powerful pokemon in the world. But Mewtwo didn't want to be used by humans, so he set out to take over the world himself. He lured trainers, including Ash and company, to New Island, where he cloned all their pokemon. Then there's a big battle and stuff, and everyone learns a valuable lesson in the end. Although ultimately it was rather forgettable. Anyway, the movie wasn't great, but I liked it.

Pokemon: The Movie 2000 - The Power of One (G)
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There was a short adventure along with the movie, but I didn't see it yet, cuz Cartoon Network didn't play it when I watched the movie. The main movie was The Power of One. Some evil pokemon collector captures Moltres and Zapdos and tries to catch Articuno, cuz having all three is somehow supposed to help him catch Lugia. But the weather gets all screwed up because of this and Ash and his friends have to try to make it right again. Ash is like this "chosen one" from an ancient prophecy, though it doesn't really seem to me like it mattered that he was the one who fulfilled it (although there was a decent pun about the world turning to ash).

Meanwhile, there was some girl named Melody who made Misty jealous, though Misty kept insisting Ash was just a friend. And Team Rocket tries to be heroes. And Professor Oak and Ash's mom and Professor Ivy come looking for everyone. And there was a talking Slowking for no apparent reason. And stuff. I dunno, it was kind of not that great, but it was okay. Plus the end credits had a few songs, one of which was "Polkamon" by Weird Al Yankovic, which was kinda cool.

Pokemon: The Movie 3 - Spell of the Unown (G)
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The short is Pikachu and Pichu (IMDb; Serebii.net). Once again, all the pokemon get dropped off to have some fun by themselves. Pikachu meets a couple of Pichu brothers, and they get chased by a Houndour, and then meet a bunch of other pokemon and have some fun. Then Pikachu, Pichu, Houndour, and all the others they met have to work together to prevent some junk from collapsing, and then Pikachu goes to rejoin his friends before Ash and the other humans get back. Then there's a feast to celebrate the anniversary of the day Pikachu and Ash first met.

Then the main movie, Spell of the Unown. A pokemon researcher discovers some Unown, and then he disappears. But they show up back at his place because the researcher's assitant brought back a box of tiles. And the Unown start bringing the researcher's daughter Molly's fantasies to life, including an Entei who she thinks is her papa. The whole town gets encased in crystal, and Entei kidnaps Ash's mother Delia and hypnotizes her into thinking she's Molly's mother for a little while (because Molly's own mother had disappeared a few years ago).

Ash and all his friends go to rescue Delia and get Molly to realize that none of this is reality, and Entei has to help defeat the Unown. Then her father reappears. Plus Team Rocket does stuff, mostly talking about being in the movie. I dunno what else to say. It was all kinda weird, but I thought it was okay and stuff, I guess.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light (PG)
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Based on the TV series (see anime shows 4), though the movie doesn't really fit into the series. It was, it seems, made specifically for Western audiences. Okay... it sort of fits into the end of the third season, after Yugi Mutou acquires the three Egyptian God Cards at the end of the Battle City tournament. But it starts three years earlier, when Yugi first put together the Millennium Puzzle. At that time, not only did the Pharoah start sharing Yugi's mind, but apparently Anubis (here depicted as an ancient sorcerer, rather than one of the gods of ancient Egypt, but at least he's still associated with death- and has an army of mummies fighting for him) was released from an ancient imprisonment (sort of; he doesn't show up till 3 years later). There were a group of archaeologists exploring Anubis's tomb, though I'm not sure if that was supposed to be set when Yugi put together the puzzle, or 3 years later, when the rest of the movie is set.

At this point I'd like to stop and mention that, while everyone keeps saying Yugi's been dueling for 3 years, none of the characters seem any older. But hey, that's in keeping with the TV series, so whatever. In any event, Seto Kaiba is sick of losing to him, so he sets out to find a way to defeat him. Kaiba wins a duel against Pegasus, who promised him one card (Blue Eyes Shining Dragon) that could beat Yugi's god cards, but instead Kaiba gets two cards, much to Pegasus's surprise. It seems the other one, the Pyramid of Light, was somehow put there by Anubis. I have no idea how. But Kaiba wanted a rematch against Yugi, and meanwhile, there's this ancient artifact in the museum, the Pyramid of Light. Yep, just like the card. And the artifact, along with Anubis's body, disappear from the museum when Kaiba duels Yugi.

In the course of Kaiba's and Yugi's duel, Anubis takes over when he feels he has no further use for Kaiba. Anubis wants to take revenge against Yami for imprisoning him 5000 years ago, and also destroy all life on the planet, or whatever. You know, the usual. Somebody always wants to destroy the world.... Of course, there's also stuff for Yugi's friends to do. Their souls all get trapped inside Yugi's puzzle. Well, Yugi too, I guess, since of course it's actually Yami Yugi dueling Kaiba and Anubis. They all have to work against Anubis from the inside, while the Pharaoh is dueling on the outside.

Not sure what else to say. The good guys win, in the end, once again saving the world, so that they can go on to fight the next villain, in season four. I don't think the movie has any effect on the rest of the series. It's pretty pointless and unnecessary, and I'm not sure whether it even officially happened or not. Still, it was an enjoyable enough diversion, I guess....