Digimon: The Movie Part 3: Digimon Hurricane Landing

In this movie, something happens to some kid's Digimon and somehow they end up as kids or something. Your guess is as good as mine.

How do you begin to describe a movie that makes absolutely no sense?

Considering the proper response to the beginning of the third segment is “wait, it's not over yet?” it's at an immediate disadvantage. The animation's different, the director's different and the cast is different. Willis has been on the screen for maybe ten seconds, but thanks to him dropping into the first two parts, he's already worn out his welcome. This third part needs to be damn well worth it. Instead, it brings the whole house down.

The original source material is the longest of the three, but because of time constraints, about half of it had to be cut out. This includes an entire subplot involving the season one gang and everything that happened to TK and Kari after the funky train sequence. Even pretending that never existed, what we're left with has a million holes itself.

First off, the premise is that this Willis kid has been basically alone with nothing but his two Digimon his entire life. Or rather, one Digimon after the second, Kokomon (more accurately Wendigomon, but whatever), catches a virus and spends the next four years stalking Willis and making anyone who gets close to him disappear. So you figure he'd be a complete outcast with no social skills, right? Nope! He doesn't let anyone other than Terriermon close to him, but when our heroes force the issue, he's polite, charming and flirts with both Yolei and Kari. You'd think he'd be a grizzled hermit or something.

He's even nice enough to call his mommy to tell her his camp group was heading to Colorado. Because that's what summer camps in New York City do. They make unscheduled trips to Colorado. In reality, Willis is returning to Colorado because Kokomon tells him to “go back.” And apparently, he plans to walk there. After witnessing the whole thing, TK and Kari decide to help him, cancel their entire New York itinerary and hop on a train. They'll certainly find Willis in Colorado. It's not like the state's all that big.

They even tell Davis, Yolei and Cody to drop what they're doing and fly across the ocean to meet them at The Only Place In, Colorado. After Yolei's many uncles get them close, they end up in the back of a truck and happen to find Willis there too. They leave the truck for whatever reason, opting to have a “pizza delivery guy” take them the rest of the way. They're totally not hitchhiking; we've already seen the perils of that. Whatever they do, they do it poorly as Davis and Willis miss the boat and end up fending off Kokomon before magically rejoining everybody.

The digidestined convince Willis to accept their help fighting Kokomon and together they are able to eliminate the virus so Kokomon (more accurately Cherubimon, but whatever) can die in peace. That's the comprehensible description of the final part of the movie. What actually happens defies comprehension. We've got random scenery changes, teleportations, TK and Kari showing up out of nowhere, everybody turning into kids, Angemon and Angewomon going Mega for the only time ever... for about five seconds, and something called a golden digiegg that brings forth Magnamon and Rapidmon who win. Even typing this I have no idea what happened.

Along the way, the shot selection is strange, dominated by uncomfortable closeups of characters saying really uninteresting things. The spot-on writing in part two has been replaced by awkward lines and poor deliveries. And the whole thing ends arbitrarily with a Smashmouth song. What the hell is this, Shrek?

My Grade: F

Loose Data:

• Joe is so completely inconsequential that he isn't even mentioned in this part of the movie. Mimi doesn't actually appear, but at least she's the reason TK and Kari are in America.
• I have nothing clever to say about Yolei's moo-cow swimsuit, but I include this bullet point to make fun of it anyway. Also, Upamon volleyball may be the single most enjoyable thing about this movie.
• There is a nice attention to detail as TK and Kari's train is clearly identified as Amtrak.
• At one point in the final battle, Veemon, Terriermon, Hawkmon and Armadillomon all attack Cherubimon at the same time. That's four Rookies against a Mega... and the Rookies knock him over.
• The digidestined go back to New York with Willis in order to say goodbye. It's not like it's out of the way or anything. Willis, being the anti-social reclusive genius that he is, gives Kari and Yolei innocent pecks on the cheek. If he were truly an anti-social recluse, he should either be too scared to even talk to them or do something that would get him arrested.
• Let's make this clear: this part of the movie is not canon. I know there's a subsequent audio drama featuring Willis, but that's not canon either. While most audio dramas are considered part of the timeline, this particular one isn't. You know how I know? It states that Cody has a girlfriend and that's almost as far-fetched as anything in this movie.