Is the film so heavily edited?

Key conclusions

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

Back in the 2000s, when PokeMania was in full force, rival series emerged to challenge Pikachu's dominance. One of those series is Monster Rancher – not quite a hit (we can explore that later), but another series with the title Digimon: Digital Monsters ended up being a decent hit for rival network Fox Kids. It was enough of a hit that parent company 20th Century Fox began exploring options for bringing the franchise to the big screen. In 2000 they will get Digimon: The Movie. However, the film was released with one major caveat: it was heavily edited and altered from its original form. However, unlike most cases, this may have been a necessary evil rather than simply the meddling of corporate executives. Read on to find out why.

What is Digimon?

Digimon (short for “Digital Monsters”) is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Akiyoshi Hong. Believe it or not, it originated as a virtual pet device in 1997, similar to the Tamagotchi, another virtual pet that owners could carry around in their pockets (those things, by the way, were EXTREMELY necessary and demanding, perhaps requiring more of your time than Tamagotchi's real pet (which was about caring for a virtual pet), Digimon were designed with an emphasis on After Pokemon grew in popularity, Bandai quickly expanded the franchise into other mediums, including anime, movies, manga, and trading cards, becoming one of the most iconic franchises of the late 1990s and early 2000s. x.

At its core, Digimon centers around the concept of digital beings that exist in the data of earthly networks and devices (and later, the Internet, for obvious reasons). These beings can evolve (or “Digivolve”) and form strong bonds with human partners, usually children, known as “DigiDestined”. Together, Digimon and their partners (usually the player in games or children known as DigiDestined in other media) go on adventures, confront villains, and often work to save the digital and human worlds from threats.

How popular was it in America?

The Digimon toys weren't a big hit when they hit America, and most retailers barely noticed sales. However (partly due to popularity Pokemon) the first series of the anime franchise, Digimon Adventures (which was renamed Digimon: Digital Monsters in America), was a surprise hit for the Fox Kids network and differed from Pokemon by focusing on story arcs, character development, and memorable villains (much like Dragon Ball Z would have done).

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

What is Digimon: The Movie?

Digimon: The Movie is a 2000 animated film that was an English adaptation of a popular Japanese film (adaptation being the key word here). This is a presentation on the big screen Digimon franchise, and centers around the first two seasons of the anime series, in which children interact 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 editing and localization changes to suit Western audiences. However, why was the film so heavily edited? The answer may surprise you.

Interesting fact

Unknown to many people, Digimon: The Movie was one of the first theatrical films directed by the then unknown Mamoru Hosoda. Hosoda took an active part in Digimon Adventures 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 Children, Belle, Summer Campand Mirai (which went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film).

Why was it Digimon: The Movie So heavily edited?

The reason Digimon: The Movie had to be edited so heavily because there wasn't really a viable Digimon movie to bring to America. So far there have been three films technically done, the problem is that they all lasted about 30 minutes. Which was perfectly fine in Japan (they were shown at festivals and as duplicates with other anime shorts), but in America it was a big no-no. These films were:

1. Digimon Adventure (1999)
2. Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! (2000)
3. Digimon Adventure 02: Digimon Hurricane Touchdown!! / Higher Evolution!! Golden Digits (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 Adventures 2 in Japan). None of the films are connected to a common plot. While Fox could theoretically release them on TV as primetime specials or something, Warner Bros. (under the Kids WB banner) grossed $85 million with Pokemon: The First Movie was (probably) hard to ignore. If only Fox could compare half of this they would be in quite high cotton.

So, it was decided to combine the three films. Kyrie became the film's narrator, and 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 would then include music from popular bands of the time such as Fatboy Slim, Barenaked Ladies and Smash Mouth (it wouldn't be the 2000s without an appearance All Stad). Finally, while none of the characters' names were directly changed (and everything still takes place in Japan), the characters were given American nicknames.

The punishment was dirty, to say the least. But… it ended up working well enough. Despite the fact that Digimon: The Movie three short films edited into one wasn't exactly common knowledge that fans would end up seeing it that way, with some admitting to watching their favorite cut more often than “the whole movie” (the second segment – Our war game! – many consider the highlight of the film). With all that effort, was the movie the success that Fox wanted it to be? Well, as they say, that's another story.

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