In a surprising turn of events, the three original Digimon movies that made up Digimon: The Movie are set to be rereleased separately with a new uncut English dub. Despite being marketed as a singular film, Digimon: The Movie was actually three separate movies—Digimon Adventure, Digimon Adventure: Our War Game, and Digimon Adventure 02: Hurricane Landing!!—edited into a single film with a loose overarching plot. Fans and critics have speculated that this was done in a poor attempt at replicating the success of the Pokémon films, and the end result butchered the original.
Digimon: The Movie completely ruined its source material, but that mistake is soon to be corrected. At Otakon 2023, it was announced that Discotek would not only be rereleasing Digimon: The Movie, but the three original films that made it up with new uncut English dubs that would be more faithful to the original Japanese, with the original cast members even set to reprise their roles. This finally gives English fans a legal way of watching the original versions of the stories that made up Digimon: The Movie.
Digimon: The Movie’s English Version Completely Changed The Original Story
With the first three Digimon movies receiving an uncut English dub, that invites discussion of the biggest changes Digimon: The Movie made to their stories. Like with many anime dubs of the 90s and early 2000s, the English script had more jokes and bits of dialogue where there was originally silence, most notably with Kari narrating the movie when there was originally no narration, at all. The Japanese soundtrack was also replaced with a mixture of an original score and American pop music, the most egregious instance being Omnimon’s birth, which replaced the somber, orchestral melody of the original with Paul Gordon’s “Let’s Kick It Up”.
The biggest changes, however, came about with the handling of Digimon Adventure 02: Hurricane Landing!! The plot of Hurricane Landing!! centered around Kari and T.K. needing to find the missing Adventure cast, but that was completely removed from the English dub. Not only that, but in an attempt to create an overarching story, Willis was stated to have created Diaboromon who then corrupted Kokomon with a virus, something completely made up for the English dub. All of this created a movie that barely resembled its source material, so it’s great that fans will soon be able to experience the movies in their original form.
Another question that needs to be addressed is if the rerelease of Digimon: The Movie and its source material means that the other Digimon movies will ever be released. Not only has there never been a physical or digital release for any of the movies between Revenge of Diaboromon and Digimon Adventure tri., but Digimon Savers: Ultimate Power! Burst Mode Activated!! and Digital Monster X-Evolution have never even been dubbed. With the first three Digimon movies set for a rerelease, there’s clear interest on Discotek’s part to make the franchise as available as possible, so it’s likely that the other movies will be released at some point, as well.
Source: Anime News Network.