Rating: 
Summary: BEST POKÉMON MOVIE!!!!
Review: Although the English dubbed version may kill quite a bit of it's greatness, the movie is heartwarming, exciting, and is very different than you'd expect. Believe it or not, later into the movie, it resembles Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke" quite closely! The basic plot is that a Team Aqua member got mocked in front of his fellow members for messing up an experiment of his so he is after Jirachi to carry out his expertise. His lover wants him to forget about Jirachi-but there is a price to pay for interference.
Rating: 
Summary: Alright, but could have been a lot better...
Review: As an avid Pokemon fan I couldn't wait to see this film, I have all the films so far in both Japanese (as the UK is also region 2 so I get the originals from Japan) and English.
However, as I couldn't find Jirachi Wish Maker in Japan and I only have the original version of the short 'Odoru Pokemon Himitsu Kichi' (appaulingly dubbed 'Gotta Dance' in English) I had to settle for just the English version of this film.
I feel that the plots of the films are beginning to slip, well, it's not really suprising as this is the SIXTH installment.
The story to this film was VERY dull, and Jirachi wasn't as much cute as he was annoying ! Although I am glad that they let another character take over the limelight other than Ash (Satoshi) and Max (Masato) did a great job as main character.
As usual, nintendo of America made many dubbing mistakes that just make you want to cringe, for example, when Max wishes for 'candy' Jirachi not only makes candy appear but also boxes of crackers and crisps (or chips to Americans) surely wishing for 'snacks' would have made more sense, even a three year old could see that !
The animation is very rich in quality, which is impressive, but sadly this is ruined by the less than perfect voice acting. Even Veronica Taylor who has had years of experience playing the role of Ash sounded like she had a sore throat at times, this can never live up to Rika Matsumoto's flawless performances as Satoshi.
Although impressed that they kept the Japanese background soundtrack (including the instrumental version of 'Advance Adventure' the original Japanese opening theme song) the English versions of 'Chisaki Mono' ('Make A Wish') and the even worse attempt at 'Polka O Dolka' (the theme song from Gotta Dance) can only be described as vomit-enducing to all those with a sense of hearing.
As for the short, it is simply terrible !!! and yet, I love the Japanese version, this just goes to show that original really is best. Do yourself a favour and buy the DVD from Japan.
I am glad that they have started showing the ending videos along with the shorts though - the one triumph of Miramax over WB !
Problems aside, I generously gave this film a 4/5 rating simply because I'm too much of a Pokemon fan to be able to rate this any lower.
If you are not a huge fan of Pokemon then you will simply hate this film ! But not to worry, the first 5 are really good so check those out instead =D
Rating:
Summary: Pokemon from a rock
Review: Ash, May, Brock and Max are off to another feature length adventure in Jirachi Wish Maker, where they encounter a Pokemon that only comes out every 1,000 years. Max who is the youngest of our hero's is the one who gets Jirachi and the events sprial out of wack from there.
With a magicians assistant helping them, they travel in the magicians bus that his assistant has taken from him in order to take Jirachi home. From the rough cross country drive to pushing the stuck bus out of the mud our hero's do their best to get Jirachi home.
With well drawn animation mixed with CGI it will keep the young and old alike glued. Fantastic flight scenes utilizing new Pokemon are a wonder to look at.
Team Rocket of course puts in their obligatory appearance with the usual and hilarious results.
Special feature includes the Pokemon Let's Dance short and a very moving rendition of "Make a Wish" sung both in English and Japanese at the same time. Interview with the director is also on DVD. A music video of "Make a Wish" is on DVD in Wide Screen Format.
Rating: 
Summary: It was okay...
Review: First of all,I'll start with the short,Gotta Dance. Jessie and James leave Meowth alone to give the boss,Giovanni,a welcome home party. He creates a device to make Pokemon dance. He kidnaps three Whismur and the Pokemon Kids' Pokemon try to rescue them. Meowth tries to get them back,but while doing so the stick makes them dance a number of times and completely crashes the party. Is cute and funny,and very amusing to see Meowth and Pikachu dancing together.(for all you parents, Pokemon don't have genders)THat's Gotta Dance
The actual movie is really funny in some parts,and its cute to see Max and Jirachi. They really become good friends in such a short time.
Jirachi is a Pokemon that comes to earth only when the Mellinium Comet is visible in sky,which is(hence its names)one week every thousand years. In order to wake up,it has to find a friend. It chose Max as its friend,and they become like brothers. Therefore,May is like a sister to Jirachi as well, so its hillarious the mess they get her in together. They really act very realistic,even though usually May and Max don't act like brother and sister. Jirachi was cute,exept the fact that Jirachi had an eye on its stomache was kind of wierd.
I'm also very glad Ash mentioned Misty. He didn't say her name,but I'm glad he mentioned her. My wish on Jirachi would be that Misty was not completely forgotten,which she basically is,exept when Ash mentioned her,so I geuss Jirachi can make wishes come true. Well,I recomend you order this from Netflix or rent it instead of actually buying it,but its good and definatley worth watching. The only problem is that it doesn't really have a story line,they fit every day into about a minute and the end is longer than the middle,and the ending part is actually kind of boring. But,watch it anyway,just don't buy it untli you've decided for yourself that its good.
Rating:
Summary: A very cutesy movie
Review: Kudos to "Pokemon" for turning out yet another wonderful masterpiece!Like"Pokemon Heroes" and the other "Pokemon" films,JWM has a unique plot,well-rounded characters,and plenty of action,suspense ,comedy and drama!And the scenes are breath-taking and well-animated!
Get this for your family today and watch everyone's faces light up with pure joy!
Rating:
Summary: WHERE IS MISTY?!
Review: Out of the 6 Pokemon films that have been released to the U.S so far, this one takes the cake. There wasn't an opening "theme song and battle some random trainer" segment, which I thought was a nice improvement, so the movie could get right into the story. The focus on the bond of friendship shared between Max (Masato) and Jirachi was a welcome change from having Ash (Satoshi) save the world over and over again. Also, the slight undertones of romance between Diane and Butler, and also the darker themes of losing a friend made this movie "not just kids stuff." Superb animation, original music (even the song May (Haruka) sang was the original Japanese track!), almost dead on translation (only a few dumb jokes sprinkled here and there) and even a combination of an English/Japanese ending theme! Now THIS, my fellow Pokemon loving fans, is how a movie should be done! Maybe for the seventh movie (entitled "Destiny Deoxys" being released in February here in the U.S), 4Kids will actually not tamper with the footage (Unedited?! My GOD, could it be so?! *dies*) and include a Japanese audio track along with the standard dub track. I'd KILL for that. This was a definite hit for me, even though I'm considered "too old" (high school) to like Pokemon anymore. It's a wonderfully heartwarming movie; it made me cry a little bit at the end even. Go out and buy it and you'll see what I mean!
Rating:
Summary: Jirachi Wish Maker's A Highly Recomendable Adventure!
Review: Pokemon Advanced (aka Pocket Monsters: Advanced Generation) is one of my absolute favorite anime seasons and in my opinion far better than the Johto seasons. Naturally, I had high hopes for the movie and wasn't very dissapointed, either.The first Advanced Generation movie features many new changes that I'm asuming will be present for the future films as well. There's no opening music video with the theme song, giving a bit more mature look. The intro is different as well, with the new changes to have the film fit the changes the series went through as well. I was surprised with Jirachi Wish Maker (in the Japanese version called The Wishing Star of the Seven Nights). It stared Max more so than any other character...even Jirachi. Personally, I liked that because Max is one of my favorite characters. There are several adorable scenes featuring Max and Jirachi, and you can't help but feel bad for Max by the end. Jirachi Wish Maker also featured a lot of romance, something that most wouldn't expect in a Pokemon movie. No, it's not between any of the main characters...it's with the two new ones Butler and Diane, who guest star in this film. But for those looking for a little "shipping" with the main characters, hints of pokeshipping are given. As far as art/animation and so forth, what can I say, the Pokemon movies are excelent. The animation's smooth (even better than the TV series) and has an interresting detailing to the backgrounds that are quite eye-catching. Another nice thing was the singer of the Japanese theme sang the English version as well, and is very beautifull. My only grudge was that pace can seem slow at first, but picks up heavily as the story progresses. For an 80-min film that covers a span of seven days, nothing seems rushed at all, though I wish they didn't save all the action and drama for the final day... but all great movies save the best things for last, right? As for the Pikachu mini-movie: Gotta' Dance, I found it was the funniest of all the mini-movies so far. Perhaps not the best, but the funniest. Though I'm not overly nuts over the mini-movies, and the main featurettes really what I'm talking about, on that subject, I found it was highly entertaining for a 20-min short (Meowth is downright hilarious!). Overall, Jirachi Wish Maker is excelent and a must for Pokemon fans. Viewers unfamiliar with the show don't have to worry too much, because a breif intro to the series is given in the begining. Despite the slightly slow beginning pace, I found it great and was a nice change from the usuall Pokemon films with a bright atmosphere and darker inside. Though it's not my absolute favorite Pokemon film (my two tops are the 4th and 5th films) it's pretty close. It's very adorable, entertaining, and recomendable!
Rating:
Summary: Jirachi Wish Maker - A Wish Come True?
Review: Pokemon fans everywhere, it's that time again! Another new Pokemon movie hits the market, and it's an Advance Adventure! Jirachi Wish Maker is number 6, and is set in the land of Hoenn where Ash, Brock, May and Max find themselves at a travelling fair! There they meet a magician called Butler, who has secret plans, involving a Pokemon who only wakes up once every 1000 years ... And, you guessed it, the alarm clock is about to go off! This DVD comes with extras, including "Gotta Dance!", involving Meowth and a magical wand that makes Pokemon dance to "Polka O Dolka" (Japanese name). Can Pikachu and friends save the captured Whismur, and themselves at the same time? Also, the DVD contains a music video of "Make a Wish", the ending song, which is sung by Asuca Hayashi. She sang "Chiisaki Mono", which is the ending song for the Japanese version of "Jirachi Wish Maker". I personally love the song, but we'll wait and see with "Make A Wish". Having seen the Japanese movie, I can personally say I LOVE this movie! It's darker than some of them, but can be slightly corny at times (I don't like May, and therefore don't like the fact she is "pure" enough to awaken Jirachi! Sorry!). So, I give it 4.5/5!
Rating:
Summary: A Pokemon for the older fans
Review: Pokemon: Jirachi Wish Maker may have gone direct to video, but that doesn't mean it's not as good as previous installments. In fact, in some ways this entry could very well be the best Pokemon movie so far, especially in the way the franchise seems to have grown up with it's original fans.
The basic premise of the movie is that Ash and company attend a festival for the Millenium Comet, which only comes to earth once every thousand years. They meet a magician named Butler and his assistant Diane, who have found Jirachi deep in an isolated forest and convince Max to befriend it. However, Butler has dark motives and it's not long before he is found out and it's up to Max, Ash and the others to save Jirachi.
The story is actually quite good, considering this is a direct release. This time, Ash takes a back seat to May and Max, and we get to see their characters really develop. The themes of the movie, such as the relationship between brother and sister, and having to say goodbye to friends, are subtle at first, but by the end of the movie you realize they've been around all the time. We even get some foreshadowing for Season Seven of the tv series... the only thing that disappointed me was the lack of a theme song during the opening credits, but the Pokemon Advanced theme really wouldn't have fit the action on screen, so it was probably the right decision to exclude it.
One thing I would like to add... this is a film for the older Pokemon fans. Parents would be advised that the movie might be a bit intense for their littlest Poke-fans, especially the creature Butler creates near the end. I'm a college grad, and it creeped even ME out! The accompaning Pikachu short, however, is perfect for all ages.
If I liked the film so much, why only four stars? Well, Miramax and 4Kids have done better with this release than the previous two. There are no color tint errors this time around (ie, Pikachu doesn't appear green in some scenes) and the production values are quite high. But some of their decisions are still baffling. The movie end credits, the Pikachu short, the music video, even the DVD menus are all presented in widescreen, but the main feature is not. It just doesn't make sense why they could not present the main feature in widescreen as well. The ending song includes Japanese lyrics, the music video is completely Japanese, the director's message is Japanese, yet there is no Japanese language option for the main feature. It's just very frustrating and odd. Perhaps they're planning on releasing special widescreen versions of the films down the road...
At any rate, despite the shortcomings, Pokemon fans will really dig this entry. It definately competes with Pokemon 3 and Pokemon Heroes as the best entry in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Wish I hadn't seen it
Review: The Pikachu short, Gotta Dance, is mildly fun/funny and will appeal to the younger ones, but has too many squealing Pokémon to warrant a sit for anyone older than eleven. The movie itself is slow, boring, uneventful, and without the charm that has been seen in previous movies. It's really just clip after clip of the main characters grunting and sighing at something while they struggle to be even remotely entertaining. Max's friendship with Jirachi is stale and seems kind of forced, and there's no real climax (or threat) until the movie is almost over. Then, the evil is quickly discarded and you find yourself not having cared for anything that happened. I've seen the first, fourth, and fifth Pokémon films, and they were all much better than Jirachi. This is only for the purist who has to have everything.
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