The Essentials
Name: Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Episodes: N/A
Released: August 21, 1999
Based On: Cardcaptor Sakura anime series
Director: Morio Asaka
Produced By: Bandai Visual, Kodansha, Madhouse
US Distribution By: Pioneer/Geneon
Major Japanese Cast
Sakura Kinomoto: Sakura Tange
Kerberos: Aya Hisakawa
Madoushi: Megumi Hayashibara
Tomoyo Daidouji: Junko Iwao
Syaoran Li: Motoko Kumai
Meiling Li: Yukana Nogami
Yelan Li: Kikuko Inoue
Yukito Tsukishiro: Megumi Ogata
Toya Kinomoto: Tomokazu Seki
Clow Reed: Kazuo Hayashi
Major English Cast
Sakura Avalon: Carly McKillip
Kerberos: Matt Hill
Madoushi: Nicole Oliver
Madison Taylor: Maggie Blue O’Hara
Li Showron: Rhys Huber
Meilin Rae: Nicole Oliver
Yelan Li: Stevie Vallance
Julian Star: Samuel Vincent
Tori Avalon: Tony Sampson
Clow Reed: Dale Wilson
Scores
Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Music: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Coherency/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: 4/10 (x 1 = 4 pts)
Gut Score: 7/10 (x 5 = 35 pts)
Total: 135/180 (75%)
Review
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie continues the adventures of Sakura Kinomoto (or Sakura Avalon, depending whether you watch the English version) while she’s still collecting Clow Cards. The movie aired after the 2nd season and the completion of Sakura’s mission to collect the Clow Cards but is set between the 1st and 2nd season (I believe that, if you watch the first episode of the 2nd season - episode 36 - you even see the Arrow card that Sakura collects in the movie).
This time Sakura and friends find themselves in Hong Kong after Sakura wins a lottery drawing. Of course, Hong Kong happens to be where the Li clan lives, and it doesn’t take long for the group to run into Syaoran and Meiling. We also get to see Syaoran’s mother and Syaoran’s four sisters, whom I believe he referenced late in the first season.
Of course, Sakura didn’t really “win” the lottery. One of Clow’s magical rival, who has kept herself alive using a book, lures her to Hong Kong believing that she’s Clow, unaware of how much time has actually passed. In the process, the rival, named Madoushi, captures Li, Meiling, Toya, and Yukito and Sakura must use her powers to try to rescue them.
I think this movie was a pretty good movie on it’s own, but I was kind of disappointed in it when one puts it in context with the rest of the franchise. The only Clow Card captured was the Arrow card at the very beginning of the movie, and then just happened to be used at the end. It doesn’t seem like that her ordeal rested on the need to use that card specifically and just seemed to me that it was thrown in just so they could say she collected another card during the movie. Another thing that rather disappointed me was that Sakura didn’t really use many Clow Cards in battling Madoushi except for Arrow as stated above. I found myself, at numerous times, being like “use X card!” only for Sakura to stand there like she can’t do anything.
Now that I have that out of the way, as I said this was an enjoyable movie. It was a nice change of pace from the series where Sakura is just roaming around her town looking for Clow Cards. As expected, the animation is crisper than in the series, and while the music in the movie appeared to be new, some of the music, at least to me, seemed to include some chords from the music in the series. I’ll also note, the music in the English version is completely redone from the Japanese version, but I’m scoring the music score based on the music used in the Japanese version.
One more note. I watched, or attempted to watch, the English dub. While the voices for most of the adults that I heard seemed to be ok, the voices for Meilin, Syaoran, Tomayo (or Madison), and Sakura were, well, I’m not sure when the last time I heard 4th graders with the voices of high schoolers. I don’t think I’d mind kero with a guy’s voice, but its just the partciular voice he has which just….doesn’t sound right. It’s not the worst dub I’ve ever heard, but it’s definitely not one that I’d watch dubbed on purpose from now on.
First Watched: June, 2006
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Indifferent
Name: Cardcaptor Sakura
June 20, 2006
June 20, 2006
