It didn't go over very well. First of all, Saban only had enough room in their budget for an 83 minute movie. Movies 1, 2, and 3 together run for a little over 2 hours. Meaning over 30 minutes were cut between the movies, most of it being from the third movie. Second, their timing of the release couldn't have been worse. The first Pokemon movie had recently come out, so this merely fueled the notion of Digimon being the 'Pokemon rip-off' that so many people have. And finally, they took out the awesome music, as always. But this time, they thought they could spice up the soundtrack by throwing in a bunch of pop hits by Smashmouth, Barenaked Ladies, etc. They even turned their Digimon theme at the beginning of the movie into a rap "song". I'll take the original Japanese soundtrack over that junk anyday, thank you very much.
I read the reviews of the movie shortly after the release, and few people had any kind words to say about the movie. After seeing it for myself, I can agree to some extent. It's simply the usual dubbification that ruins any anime. After seeing the original movies, here is a list I can give of all of the changes made to the dub movie:
This goes without saying, but those shots of Wallace, Gumimon, and Chocomon in the dub, along with the picture of the older Hikari and Takeru were spliced in from the third movie.
Also, the dub added the words “Heighten View Terrace, Japan”, just so everyone knows where this is going on (At least they don’t try to hide the fact that this is taking place in Japan, as many dubbed anime do).
Taichi suggests in the original that they eat the giant egg, while in the dub he wants to use it as a soccer ball. That was a really idiotic change in dialogue, and it wasn’t even necessary. How would anyone think that an egg (large or small) would make a good soccer ball?
Taichi: “If somebody asks about the egg, tell them our chicken coop is on a nuclear waste dump!”
WTF?! This is an apartment building in the middle of Tokyo! Where the hell are you going to find a chicken coop?!
When the egg is about to hatch, it falls to the floor and rolls around, with Hikari chasing it all over the apartment. In the dub, this was shortened (probably for time), and Hikari chases it directly into the bedroom, where it hatches.
Again, this is probably obvious, but the whistling and singing going on between Hikari and the Botamon in the original does not involve the American Digimon theme song in any way. Also, a short scene was cut where the bubbles blown by the Botamon float out the window, and are observed by others.
This is the first of a string of attempts by Saban to imply that the Chosen all knew each other at this time. The phone ringing was simply a malfunction caused by Botamon’s evolution, but the dub put Sora on the other end complaining about Taichi throwing up in her hat.
I am actually surprised that Saban showed the bits where Koromon crapped on the floor. Seeing as how in the first season, they had tried to slide around fecal references by calling it ‘sludge’.
The scene where Miko attacks Koromon was much longer in the original, with the two of them tearing around the entire room. The dub just showed the cat jumping on Koromon, Taichi picking it up, and Miko scratching him, then Koromon.
While Koromon is evolving to Agumon, there was a little scene involving Taichi’s dad staggering home, apparently drunk. He goes to Taichi and Hikari’s room to say goodnight, but he’s stopped by Mrs. Yagami, who nags him for drinking too much. This scene was likely cut both for time as well as the obvious alcohol reference.
There’s no dialogue while Agumon is running around wrecking stuff. The dub has Hikari running her mouth almost constantly. As we’ve seen by now, the dubbing rule is ‘Dramatic Silence = Bad/Boring’.
Agumon does not call his attacks in the original movie, and neither do any of the other digimon. Incidentally, the dubbers misnamed Agumon’s attack, changing from ‘Pepper Breath’ to ‘Pepper Flame’ (same with Greymon). This was probably to drive home the fact that this isn’t the same Agumon that Taichi befriends in the main series.
Again, the Chosen do not know each other at this point. Yet the dub has Jou talking to Mimi on the phone, and later with Koushiro (In the original, he was just talking to an unknown person). Saban actually shot itself in the butt here. Notice that neither Mimi nor Koushiro is on the phone when they’re shown. Plus, in the main series, when Jou is recollecting this event, he clearly says he didn’t know Koushiro at this time. Gotcha.
While Greymon and Parrotmon are fighting, there is a short bit that was cut out of the dub where the horn on Greymon’s nose tears into the bottom of Parrotmon’s beak and rips part of the beak out. If you look closely at this scene, you can make part of it out, and it’s kind of choppy. Plus, you’re left wondering later why Parrotmon is missing a section of beak (they made no attempt to paint it back in).
By the way, neither Greymon nor Parrotmon talk at all in the original. Not even to call attacks.
Again, the dub tries to tie the Chosen together too soon, having Sora say “C’mon, Tai.” while he’s blowing the whistle. She just says “That boy…” in the original. Once more: The Chosen do not know each other yet!!
Most American viewers missed out on the nice scene during the ending credits of Taichi hugging Greymon while ‘Butterfly’ plays in the background. The dub just had more stupid narrative by Hikari, then moves directly to the second movie…
In the original movie, we see Taichi first, working on Sora’s e-mail, and then we see Koushiro discovering the digimon on the Internet. The dub movie flipped those two scenes around.
A short bit was cut where Hikari says goodbye to her mother before leaving for the party, and Mrs. Yagami tells her to be careful. And then we see the computer screen on Taichi’s computer actually saying that the mail was unable to get through.
Of course, the dub movie cut the opening title (Children’s War Game) along with ‘Butterfly’. We still see the short scenes of what the other Chosen are doing, but ‘Butterfly’ is replaced with ‘One Week’ by Barenaked Ladies, and there are no credits.
Taichi’s mom is not a god-awful cook in the original. There are numerous remarks scattered throughout the dub movie that make her out to be a sadistic health-food nut. The oolong tea she gave them was changed to weird stuff like beef jerky shakes and potato juice (What the hell’s wrong with tea?). She is actually a decent and sensible cook in the original.
Koushiro’s explanation of the net digimon’s origin is a little off in the dub. He says there it was an ordinary digimon egg that was infected with a computer virus, while in the original, it was actually a number of viruses that somehow merged and formed a digimon.
Also, Wallace is nowhere to be seen or heard of in the original movie. He was tossed into the dub to try and keep the movies linked together. Koushiro’s net buddy is actually an unnamed friend that lives in L.A.
There was a scene right after the 1,000,125 yen chocolate box showing a woman in a supermarket looking at packaged meat priced at a million yen that was cut, probably for time.
Neither Keramon nor any of his other forms talk at all during the original movie (except during Infermon’s phone call). That includes calling his evolutions and attacks. Incidentally, the digimon is simply referred to as ‘the jellyfish’ in the original (since Taichi in both versions of the movie commented that the baby form resembled a jellyfish).
Why did dub Gennai think that Keramon was not a digimon?
Jou is taking an entrance exam. He’s not in summer school, since the movie is supposed to be taking place during spring. In fact, just a moment later, Taichi’s mom asks Koushiro what he’s doing for spring break (in the original at least; the dub had her asking him to try her ‘spinach cookies’).
The dub altered Mimi’s answering machine greeting to be of insane length, with no room for Taichi to leave a message. The original’s is of decent length, and Taichi does get to leave a message (she just can’t return it because she’s in Hawaii). The dub even cut out part of the shot of Mimi’s bedroom for some odd reason.
The original has Taichi asking his mom for the phone number of the house Hikari went to. The dub changed it to him asking if Hikari brought her cell phone with her. A pointless change if you ask me.
Another scene was cut where we see some kids on a Ferris wheel that suddenly freak out because it starts going abnormally fast (because Keramon is screwing with it).
Again, Wallace is not in the movie, and so he does not e-mail Koushiro to say, “This is all my fault”. The e-mail is actually from an unknown kid watching the fight. They also cut a second e-mail from another kid before the one from Infermon.
There was another cut scene of Hikari at the birthday party. The girls are playing a card game when Taichi calls for the second time telling Hikari to come home.
Taichi does not get an angry phone operator when he calls the others. It’s just a busy signal. I have to admit, though, that was actually one of Saban’s best attempts at humor, because I actually laughed instead of groaned.
When Infermon calls Taichi, he doesn’t say, “Hello, did you program me?” He just says “Hello!” over and over, just like his e-mail. And he wasn’t “looking for someone” either. He was simply trying to cause some mayhem by dialing every number on the switchboard, causing it to overload and crash.
The device Koushiro got is a satellite cell phone, not an ‘uplink’. I’m actually at a loss as to why Saban thought hacking into the military satellite was preferable to just using a cell phone.
Part of the conversation between Taichi, Koushiro, Yamato, and Takeru was cut. Yamato explains that their grandmother doesn’t have a computer and they’ll have to go find one. Taichi flips out and does one of those anime ‘falling over’ bits, while Koushiro urges Yamato and Takeru to hurry. That section was actually pasted into a later part where we hear Koushiro say, “We lost our connection.”
The part where Yamato and Takeru are searching through Shimane was cut as well. The two go door to door, asking people to use their computer. Then they find the guy who takes them to the one at the barbershop. The dub probably cut it for time, and perhaps because they were also afraid of showing kids asking to enter a stranger’s house.
Koushiro just has to take a leak. He is not sick from Mrs. Yagami’s cooking. Note that he’s doing the pee-pee dance as he leaves the room. Other than death, dubbers also love to deny the fact that anime characters go to the bathroom just like everyone else…
Diablomon’s e-mail in the dub says, “Who can count backwards from ten?” the original said, “Who’s got the clock?” Emphasizing that the copy with the clock was the one controlling the nuke’s detonation.
Diablomon only launched one nuke in the original (two in the dub). And Koushiro did not know that it was aimed at them until the end of the movie. Actually, I’m again surprised that Saban left in the part about the missiles being nuclear. They feel their kiddy audience can’t handle characters being killed, showing their naked behinds or going to the bathroom, but they can handle an imminent nuclear attack? Ooookay…
Another cut scene. The woman at the barber shop is rambling about going home because it’s going to rain and she wants to bring her clothes down from the line. She then asks Yamato to take some things home to his grandma, but he isn’t paying attention because he and Takeru are stunned by the news about the nuke.
Koushiro’s estimation of the number of Diablomon copies was off. The original said around 32,000. The dub said over a million.
The fight between WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon and all those Diablomon was the point in the original Koushiro realized the huge influx of e-mail was slowing their digimon down. The dub had him come to this realization much earlier.
Another Saban surprise. We got to see Diablomon getting impaled through the head in the dub.
A short scene is cut right after the missile touches down. Koushiro runs out on the balcony in a panic, thinking at first that they were too late.
Once more, the US viewers were denied the original closing credits. It had a nice song and we see a sort of ‘epilogue’ picture of each of the characters. We also see Sora’s e-mail at the end, “Taichi, I’m so sorry. Thank you for the present. Sora.”, and then a pretty picture of Sora wearing the hairpin.
First of all, the scene of Wallace in the flower field with Gumimon and Chocomon was moved to the end of the second movie. But I suppose that isn’t such a big deal compared with what’s to come.
The story was completely changed from the original version. Other than the shots of the original Chosen at the beginning of the movie, we don’t see them at all for the rest of the movie. Meaning the dub movie has nothing to do with them being kidnapped. Even though the back of the movie box says, “a wayward digimon kidnaps the Digidestined”, it doesn’t happen at all here.
So the scene of Takeru and Hikari with Mimi is edited so that we don’t see Mimi at all, even though Hikari’s narrative says that they’re in New York to visit her. The scenes of the other Chosen disappearing are cut as well.
The dub also pasted in a short scene from the end of the movie, with the overhead view of everyone on the bridge. What’s that doing there?
The scene of Takeru and Hikari’s pictures was also edited. Recall that the original had Mimi looking at the pictures on the laptop. When she vanished, the laptop was deft dangling from the wire that was plugged into it. The dub added a little digital editing here so it looked like the laptop was taped to a pole! Who on earth tapes a laptop to a pole to send pictures through a phone booth?!
The original had Hikari sensing a crying digimon. The dub had her sense someone who needs help (implying Wallace rather than Chocomon).
The order of the scenes of Hikari and Takeru and the ones of Wallace, Terriermon, and Wendimon was changed a little.
When Takeru calls to Wallace, Hikari exclaims that she hears Taichi’s voice. The dub had her calling to Wallace as well, and cut the short bit where she explains it to Takeru further.
Wallace is going to a place called “Summer Memory”. I’m not sure if Colorado is even mentioned at all in the original.
This is the point where Hikari e-mails Daisuke, but the dub brought part of the train scene up to this point to have her e-mailing him after they’re on board.
The e-mail to Daisuke said, “Please save my brother” in the original. The dub e-mail talked about a “New kid with a digimon.”
Saban went to great pains to keep us from seeing kids hitchhiking. A whole scene is cut where Wallace and Terriermon have hitched a ride on a cargo train. And rather than stowing away on the airplane, the others are using “frequent flyer miles” from Miyako’s uncle. The part with them hitchhiking with the “with monster” sign was cut, and the dub has them riding with a taxicab instead of that psychotic Japan-nut.
Now is where the train scene actually begins in the original. Hikari is receiving a reply from Daisuke saying he’s on his way instead of just now sending one.
Wendimon stopped the train, all right. But what Takeru actually observed in the original is the fact that everyone else on the train vanished. A part was cut where Hikari opened the door to the engineer’s compartment and also found no one.
Again, the dub turned the pilot giving Daisuke & co. a lift into Miyako’s uncle instead of a stranger.
Now after all that, suddenly it’s okay to stow away? That’s right! When the truck stops, Daisuke and the others sneak on board in the dub, where they meet Wallace. In the original, we see Wallace climb on board the truck, and Daisuke asks the driver if they can ride too. Now stowing away is preferable to hitchhiking? I’ll never understand dub logic…
Daisuke explains Chibimon to Wallace by saying, “he’s young” in the dub. The original has him saying “it’s a space cat”.
The scene where everyone is talking with Wallace has them talking about being on a team in the dub. In the original, they’re grilling him on what he knows about the disappearance of the other Chosen.
Wallace doesn’t call for pizza in the original. And that scene with him on the phone was taken from a bit later on. And the guy who gives them a ride isn’t the pizza guy either. He’s just a stranger. An impatient one, too, which is why he leaves Daisuke for taking so long (why is it okay to hitchhike with the pizza guy, but not anyone else?). And where Wallace is talking about leaving on foot on his own, the dub replaces with he and Daisuke arguing about who’s paying for the pizza. I guess what I’m trying to say is…the original never mentioned pizza!
That face Chibimon made when the ‘pizza guy’ drove away without him was hilarious. Too bad the dub decided to cut it…
Okay…this is going to get confusing. The fight with Wendimon was really sliced up by the dub, but I’ll explain it as best I can. In the dub, Wendimon shows up immediately after the ‘pizza guy’ leaves Wallace and Daisuke. Chibimon evolves to V-mon and head butts Wendimon in the stomach. Daisuke says “How ‘bout a little teamwork?” then V-mon grabs Terriermon and they fly through the air together, with Daisuke running underneath them talking about “attacking from the air”. The three of them then smack into a sign, and then V-mon evolves to Fladramon. That works a bit differently in the original. After getting ditched, now is the scene where Wallace is on the phone, and he’s talking to his mom. Daisuke is harassing him for being a momma’s boy. Then Wendimon appears. Chibimon evolves to V-mon, head butts him, then evolves to Fladramon right after. Now a short scene is cut where Wendimon is engulfed in Fladramon’s attack, then a couple of parts with the original Chosen, now looking much younger. There were also a couple extra shots of Galgomon that were cut in the dub. Now, after the fight, is when we see V-mon and Terriermon flying around, just goofing off. Daisuke looks up at them, saying, “That looks fun. I wish I could do that!”
By the way, Wendimon and all of his forms are called by his baby name, ‘Chocomon’, all throughout the movie. Same for all of Terriermon’s forms, referred to as ‘Gumimon’.
I can’t blame Saban for this; but notice V-mon’s evolution to Lighdramon. Where it’s supposed to have V-mon’s name in the background, it has Armadimon’s name instead.
Miyako: “So this Kokomon attacked you?! I knew we shouldn’t have split up the team!”
Eh? It wasn’t really intentional that they split up anyways. Besides, is it just me, or did the dub seem to turn this movie into one big public service message about friendship and teamwork?
Daisuke: “Spill it. How do you two know each other?”
Miyako: “And more importantly, why is he only attacking you?”
Wallace: “…Because I created him.”
Uh, no you didn’t, Wallace. According to the dub, you created Diablomon, but Chocomon hatched from the same egg as Gumimon.
Another cut scene: Where they hitch another ride on a truck and Wallace has a flashback about Gumimon and Chocomon. The flashback was actually taken and pasted later on. Another section was cut where they’re camping outdoors and Wallace gets up and goes for a walk, eventually followed by Daisuke. The dub made it cut past this part, making it seem like Daisuke followed Wallace after he stormed off earlier on and they’re just now talking again. “We’ve been walking for hours and you haven’t said a word.”
Another big scene alteration. During the scene on the cliff, the dub has Wallace explaining how he wanted to make more digimon like Gumimon and Chocomon, so he made one on the computer, which was infected by a virus and became Diablomon. After Omegamon destroyed Diablomon, the virus tracked Wallace down somehow and infected Chocomon. The original has Daisuke realize that Chocomon is Wallace’s digimon. Wallace explains further that Chocomon mysteriously vanished three years ago. Now that he’s returned, he appears to have gone mad, desperately hunting Wallace down, kidnapping anyone with a digivice to find him, and attacking anyone who interferes.
Daisuke suddenly has an emotional breakdown at this point at the thought of fighting and killing Wallace’s partner. He breaks down and cries, saying he could never do it if something like that happened to V-mon. Since drama and emotion is taboo in dubbed anime and dub Daisuke is supposed to be a cold-hearted asshole anyway, he instead pretends to cry in the dub, saying sarcastically, “That’s the saddest thing I ever heard!” The bit with him wiping his eyes is cut.
Another teamwork lecture graces the dub, where in the original, the boys are just ripping on each other. When Terriermon comes, Wallace says he wants to go back and see Miyako again. This clearly agitates Daisuke.
Another cut scene: Chocomon approaches the kidnapped Chosen in his dimension and examines each of them, looking for Wallace. He realizes none of them are Wallace and he turns back into Wendimon and leaves.
Wendimon evolves to Antylamon as soon as he appears at the flower field in the dub. The original had another big scene that was cut. Wendimon realizes Wallace is who he says he is, and wants him to go back with him to the time before he disappeared. He reaches for Wallace when Terriermon pushes him away, saying that Wendimon isn’t himself. Wendimon responds by clobbering Terriermon. He then demands over and over again that Wallace come back with him, getting louder and more demanding each time. Wallace says no, and Wendimon loses it completely. He screams angrily and evolves to Antylamon.
The fight with Antylamon is a bit longer in the original, with a few snippets cut for time, and perhaps content, as one cut scene involves Antylamon bashing Holsmon’s and Digmon’s heads together, and another shows Galgomon getting slammed against a wall. The dub movie also just feels really rushed from this point on.
More was cut right after Antylamon evolves to Cherubimon. Daisuke says that now Chocomon is dangerous to the entire world and he must be destroyed. Miyako and Iori, meanwhile, comment on the “black snow” that the creature is giving off. Miyako says that it’s given off from his black heart, and again muses, “He has a black heart…” And Galgomon is just looking at Cherubimon, guns drawn, and he trembles, muttering, “What ARE you…?”
While Cherubimon is juggling the other digimon, Wallace yells at him to stop. After flinging them into the rocks, Cherubimon sinks into the ground and reappears behind Wallace and moves toward him, but is stopped again by Terriermon. Curiously, the dub cut some of this, namely the part of Cherubimon disappearing and reappearing, making some people wonder why Cherubimon is suddenly standing behind Wallace and co.
After Cherubimon blasts Terriermon, we see him briefly revert to Gumimon before becoming Terriermon. Again, that was another dub cut.
Yet another cut after the scene mentioned above, Wallace begins a rather touching scene where he agrees that Chocomon isn’t what he used to be. In fact, he says that the real Chocomon is dead, and for Chocomon’s sake, Cherubimon must be destroyed, but he needs power. Terriermon says that he is Wallace’s power. Daisuke, Miyako, and Iori also stand ready.
Hikari: “Gatomon and Patamon were worried. So they digivolved to Angemon and Angewomon.”
First of all, that just sounds cheesy. Second, in the original, Hikari looks at Cherubimon and says that he’s no longer the crying digimon from before.
A brief shot of Angewomon dodging Cherubimon’s ‘black snow’ was cut.
There are a bunch more snippets after Cherubimon is blasted apart by Angemon and Angewomon. The last part of him dissolving was cut, along with a couple of small parts after the sky darkens.
Angemon: “Let’s digivolve to our Mega forms so we can release the golden digi-eggs!”
Again, this line just sounds rushed. Also, they did not know ahead of time that Seraphimon and Holydramon’s evolutions would create the golden digimentals. They simply said that something would be bound to happen from the miracles of Hope and Light.
Rapidmon: “Every time we attack, he regenerates! Let’s blast him from the inside!”
Magnamon: “Good idea. Follow me!”
You don’t even need the original version to know there’s something wrong with this. Right after they say that, Cherubimon’s head appears behind them and swallows them. That should indicate that going inside was not their intent.
More snippets. The two biggest are when Magnamon and Rapidmon are inside Cherubimon and they forget who Daisuke and Wallace are. Their partners’ calls outside, however, bring them back around. Also on the outside, Tailmon, Patamon, Poromon, and Upamon launch another attack on Cherubimon and are beaten up good.
The image of Wendimon inside Cherubimon doesn’t talk at all in the original. He just points to himself, indicating he wants Magnamon and Rapidmon to kill him. After they do so, a shot was cut where Wendimon is smiling, knowing that he can finally be at peace.
When Terriermon and V-mon fly out of Cherubimon, the dub has Terriermon giving us more cheesy dialogue on how friends are always there for each other. The original had him telling Wallace that Chocomon “had a lot of tears”.
Daisuke: (yelling after Wallace after stealing a kiss) “Stay away from Kari! She’s my girl!”
Hikari: “What do you mean ‘YOUR girl’??”
Daisuke: “Oh, nothing… Just guy talk.”
You go, girl! Don’t let that male pig talk that way! ~_~ Sarcastic comments aside, that piece actually had them wondering out loud if Wallace was really going to come to Japan like he said (apparently not, since he never shows up in the main series).
As you can probably guess, that scene right at the end with Wendimon dancing to “All Star” didn’t happen in the original. That is actually part of the cut scene from the flower field mentioned above. The real end just has some pleasant scenery while the end credits roll, finishing with a shot of Wallace, Terriermon, and Lopmon, Chocomon’s Rookie form (Lopmon is in the movie promo card set, but we never saw him at all in the dub movie).
