Well this film had Millis who has become one of my favourite pokemon film characters. I liked the premise especially how Avignon town looked and Diancie was cute. Yveltal and Xerneas were kind of lacklustre however. I guess I expected a big showdown between them, but that didn't turn out how I wanted. O and Merilyn and Riot were such fun villains. ^^
-
Hi all. We have had reports of member's signatures being edited to include malicious content. You can rest assured this wasn't done by staff and we can find no indication that the forums themselves have been compromised.
However, remember to keep your passwords secure. If you use similar logins on multiple sites, people and even bots may be able to access your account.
We always recommend using unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication if possible. Make sure you are secure. -
Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction (M17)
- Thread starter Serebii
- Start date
Speaking of which, I kind of shed a tear when Merilyn's Yanmega and Delphox got turned to stone although when it was Jessie & James' turn I didn't think it was dramatic enough, so I kind of just shrugged it off ha ha.
Mega Altaria
☆~Shiny hunter▢~
Well yeah, it was hard to understand whether Yveltal was actually angry because it fairly suddenly woke up from its cocoon. All I saw was that the group, including those trying to catch Diancie and TR, were in a pool of water and as they were in the pool for long enough, Yveltal woke up from its 1000 year slumber and literally destroyed everything in its path.
We had seen a stone "death" before in the 1st movie, so the whole thing was cool yet predictable since we knew everyone would be revived.
O definitely. But even tho I knew Yveltal's rampage would be stopped and the deaths would be reversed, I still felt bad for the petrified pokemon, even the ones belonging to the film's villains. :[
Alexander18
Dragon Pokemon fan
I enjoyed the Diancie movie very much. Xerneas and Yveltal were awesome in it. Loved the plot. I give this movie a 10/10.
munchlaxboy
Catching up on XY
Previously, on January 29th, I had ordered this movie on DVD and promised to review it in accordance with my Pokemon XY Saga watch-through. Six months later, I have finally watched the full, uncut version of the film. Yeah, kinda took me a while.
Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction is a messy film. Diancie, the princess of a Carbink colony, is unable to create a Heart Diamond--a grand, pink crystal that keeps the colony running smoothy. Because the old Heart Diamond is dying, she and some Carbink bodyguards go out on a journey to find Xerneas, who will apparently grant Diancie the ability to create a Heart Diamond. She runs into Ash & Co., they have frolicking fun and fight foes, blah blah blah, badda-bing bad-boom, there's your film. And that's all well and good.
Problems with the film arise when there becomes too many problems...and by that I mean there are way too many dilemmas and predicaments at hand for the film to maintain a consistent focus. There are eight villainous characters in this movie--EIGHT. And they're not even all on the same side: there's the lady with the Delphox, the guy with the Greninja, the father and daughter duo with the Aegislash line, the Team Rocket Trio, and Yveltal. That's FIVE separate villainous factions all working against one another. It is simply too much for what should be a simple kids film about creatures that battle one another.
The movie's visuals are bright and colorful, and the atmosphere throughout Ash & Co.'s journeying with Diancie is pretty enjoyable, so at least the film has that going for it. But that's the problem: I liked the film the most when there wasn't a conflict. Every film has a conflict--it's what drives the story. The conflict is the most essential part of any narrative work. But the movie's conflict is so convuluted that it becomes difficult to enjoy. The Carbink bodyguards are chasing Diancie to protect her, the thieves are trying to steal her, Yveltal somehow get involved and threatens to destroy the whole forest and all the characters--it's just too much! The film was the most entertaining when there was no issues at hand, and that is problematic.
The film's resolution is all the more frustrating. With Yveltal destroying the forest, Xerneas comes out of nowhere, stares it down for a few seconds, and Yveltal goes away. Then we see Pikachu start turning to stone and the movie has to go into flashback mode to show that Pikachu was struck by Yveltal's Oblivion Wing like five minutes before and is only just now turning into stone. Ash & Co. cry it out for what could have been no more than twenty seconds when Xerneas steps in and is like, "Nah, s'all good," and brings Pikachu and everyone else that was stone-ified back to life. Ugh, such a tease. Of course I don't want Pikachu to die, but at least make it appropriately dramatic and believable. If Pikachu was gonna turn to stone, it should have happened many minutes previous to its resurrection so that when the resolution came a bit later it could have produced an emotional effect. And despite the convoluted nature of the plot, the whole thing resolves in ridiculously simple fashion: Xerneas. Xerneas just shows up, does some magical fairy nonsense, and the day is saved. It feels like the characters of the movie--the people and Pokemon we've been rooting for this whole time--had nothing to do with fixing the actual problems at hand. A movie's conclusion is supposed to feel satisfying because the characters overcome an obstacle, which is only possible because of a change has occurred within them that the viewer has seen happen in the movie. For other films, this might be that the character(s) gained courage, had a change of heart, learned a lesson, etc. But the characters in Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction did not do any of these things--they overcome the obstacle because some Pokemon shows up and saves the day. It's a deus ex machina-esque ending. I guess you could say that Diancie learned a lesson in friendship, allowing it to Mega Evolve and create a Heart Diamond. Fine, okay, that's something I guess. But they would've all been dead--and thus Diancie wouldn't have been able to make the Heart Diamond--if Xerneas hadn't just randomly shown up and saved them all.
Overall, Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction is a sloppy movie. Yet, despite all the negativity I expressed here, I find myself having somewhat of a soft spot for the film. I liked that every human hero character--Ash, Serena, Clemont, & Bonnie--all make a contribution somehow, a feat which many Pokemon movies cannot claim to have accomplished. There are some fun scenes in here; I especially liked the whole shopping mall sequence. Diancie--the star of the film in a way--is alright, too. But Team Rocket is terrible, the villains are too numerous and too blah, and the voice acting from Ash and Team Rocket still strikes me as very off at times. There are just too many misses to balance out the hits.
Grade: C-
Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction is a messy film. Diancie, the princess of a Carbink colony, is unable to create a Heart Diamond--a grand, pink crystal that keeps the colony running smoothy. Because the old Heart Diamond is dying, she and some Carbink bodyguards go out on a journey to find Xerneas, who will apparently grant Diancie the ability to create a Heart Diamond. She runs into Ash & Co., they have frolicking fun and fight foes, blah blah blah, badda-bing bad-boom, there's your film. And that's all well and good.
Problems with the film arise when there becomes too many problems...and by that I mean there are way too many dilemmas and predicaments at hand for the film to maintain a consistent focus. There are eight villainous characters in this movie--EIGHT. And they're not even all on the same side: there's the lady with the Delphox, the guy with the Greninja, the father and daughter duo with the Aegislash line, the Team Rocket Trio, and Yveltal. That's FIVE separate villainous factions all working against one another. It is simply too much for what should be a simple kids film about creatures that battle one another.
The movie's visuals are bright and colorful, and the atmosphere throughout Ash & Co.'s journeying with Diancie is pretty enjoyable, so at least the film has that going for it. But that's the problem: I liked the film the most when there wasn't a conflict. Every film has a conflict--it's what drives the story. The conflict is the most essential part of any narrative work. But the movie's conflict is so convuluted that it becomes difficult to enjoy. The Carbink bodyguards are chasing Diancie to protect her, the thieves are trying to steal her, Yveltal somehow get involved and threatens to destroy the whole forest and all the characters--it's just too much! The film was the most entertaining when there was no issues at hand, and that is problematic.
The film's resolution is all the more frustrating. With Yveltal destroying the forest, Xerneas comes out of nowhere, stares it down for a few seconds, and Yveltal goes away. Then we see Pikachu start turning to stone and the movie has to go into flashback mode to show that Pikachu was struck by Yveltal's Oblivion Wing like five minutes before and is only just now turning into stone. Ash & Co. cry it out for what could have been no more than twenty seconds when Xerneas steps in and is like, "Nah, s'all good," and brings Pikachu and everyone else that was stone-ified back to life. Ugh, such a tease. Of course I don't want Pikachu to die, but at least make it appropriately dramatic and believable. If Pikachu was gonna turn to stone, it should have happened many minutes previous to its resurrection so that when the resolution came a bit later it could have produced an emotional effect. And despite the convoluted nature of the plot, the whole thing resolves in ridiculously simple fashion: Xerneas. Xerneas just shows up, does some magical fairy nonsense, and the day is saved. It feels like the characters of the movie--the people and Pokemon we've been rooting for this whole time--had nothing to do with fixing the actual problems at hand. A movie's conclusion is supposed to feel satisfying because the characters overcome an obstacle, which is only possible because of a change has occurred within them that the viewer has seen happen in the movie. For other films, this might be that the character(s) gained courage, had a change of heart, learned a lesson, etc. But the characters in Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction did not do any of these things--they overcome the obstacle because some Pokemon shows up and saves the day. It's a deus ex machina-esque ending. I guess you could say that Diancie learned a lesson in friendship, allowing it to Mega Evolve and create a Heart Diamond. Fine, okay, that's something I guess. But they would've all been dead--and thus Diancie wouldn't have been able to make the Heart Diamond--if Xerneas hadn't just randomly shown up and saved them all.
Overall, Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction is a sloppy movie. Yet, despite all the negativity I expressed here, I find myself having somewhat of a soft spot for the film. I liked that every human hero character--Ash, Serena, Clemont, & Bonnie--all make a contribution somehow, a feat which many Pokemon movies cannot claim to have accomplished. There are some fun scenes in here; I especially liked the whole shopping mall sequence. Diancie--the star of the film in a way--is alright, too. But Team Rocket is terrible, the villains are too numerous and too blah, and the voice acting from Ash and Team Rocket still strikes me as very off at times. There are just too many misses to balance out the hits.
Grade: C-
Last edited:
AuraChannelerChris
Easygoing Luxray.
I told you there was too much deus ex machina in this movie, dude.
munchlaxboy
Catching up on XY
Haha, I remembered that you had told me that more than six months ago and you were right on the money! Just a totally terrible ending. Not satisfying or sensical in the least.
Hauteclaire
Well-Known Member
Bulbapedia says that Alain made a cameo appearance in that movie but I just rewatched the whole thing and haven't seen him.
Wednesdayz
Meowth fanatic
Didn't care for this movie much because it featured Diancie, aka the ugliest Mythical Pokemon since Darkrai. What I did like was all the death caused by Yveltal, even though no one stayed dead.
I finally saw this movie after completing the first XY season, and it was pretty good. I was surprised that Team Rocket had such a large role in it, usually they only make a few cameos. This was the most they participated in a movie since the lucario one. I did like that they were only after the diamonds and Diancie was able to get away, sort of. I liked the romance brewing between the two thieves too, nice side storyline. It may not be one of my top favorite movies, but it was enjoyable.
8/10
8/10
zdbz_sn
Well-Known Member
Fair warning: this is going to be a meandering review. But then, this is a meandering film. Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction is an overstuffed, disorganized, plodding mess of a story with a frustrating lazy streak to its plotting…but it’s not without its charms.
Let’s tackle the big problem up front: the over-stuffing. There is too much going on here, with too many characters competing for narrative space. You have Diancie’s search for Xerneas for help making a Heart Diamond, ostensibly the primary story thread. You have three different groups of thieves after Diancie (four, if you count Team Rocket, who once again have no real reason to be here), all with the same cliché motive and only the father/daughter team possessing something like personalities. You have Yveltal, who’s so late in coming into the plot that he feels tacked on, yet consumes most of the film’s oxygen in the final third. And you have our main cast who, as in so many of these films, just kind of stumble into the middle of things.
Rather loaded, no?
The problem that having so many plot threads creates is easy to spot: they interrupt one another constantly. And when one of those threads is meant to be the A Plot, the interruptions, rather than serving as effective complications, can end up as unwelcome disruptions that drag the story out, as is the case here IMO. Other distractions hurt the story, the most baffling being Serena literally telling Diancie to forget about Xerneas for a while so the film can stop and indulge in a shopping montage, something I never wanted or needed from Pokémon.
Laziness dogs the plot as well. For all the fuss over finding Xerneas, she helps Diancie with shocking ease and lack of fanfare once they meet up. Her defeat, if you can call it that, of Yveltal is similarly easy and underwhelming. When Yveltal’s destructive power kills the thieves’ pokemon, they get over it quickly, and as they have so little character, their own deaths carry no weight. The means by which Xerneas revives the dead is easy to guess thanks to the opening backstory, and by having the revival happen so quickly after Pikachu’s death, the film robs that moment of any chance to build a sense of loss. Granted, all the fake-out deaths with Ash over the years, and Pikachu’s untouchable mascot status, don’t help that cause, but still…
I’ve mentioned in past reviews that some of these movies lack a certain scale or scope for a movie. I wish I could articulate what I mean by that better, but it’s hard to explain. It’s not fair to say that, say, the Sinnoh trilogy is made up of nothing but overlong episodes. Most of these movies tackle subject matter beyond what the show usually would, they all have bigger budgets and higher quality animation, and they all make some stab at cinematic staging - multi-plane, moving camera, etc. But it’s the way such elements are used that makes the difference, I think. It’s where they’re placed in the story. It’s the use of other elements, like music, art direction, and color timing. It’s the way the plot is organized, the choice of which story elements to linger on, the pace, and the use of character. In all these things, the films of the OS, and Lucario, just felt more cinematic, whereas most of the later entries, were more akin to an episode of the show, even if they aimed somewhat past that level of storytelling. In the case of Diancie, up until Yveltal enters the plot, the stakes of the story are not unlike a standard episode - “Clefairy and the Moon Stone” comes to mind.
And there were a few aspects of this movie that just plain bugged me. Such as:
- We all know Ash is no brainiac, but how does the boy not know what diamonds are!?
- More annoying than that - how does Diancie not know what friends are!? We see her getting along just fine with the Carbink down in the caves; you’re telling me they have no conception of friendship? And don’t tell me they wouldn’t recognize the word - they speak English!
- OK, TCPi, let’s go through this: when XY/Z materials started appearing on your desk, they would’ve included the character design of Clemont. You see this guy, shorter than Ash, in a onesie, with round head, round glasses, rounded points on his hair - an altogether roly-poly figure. Upon seeing this design, you think to yourself, “you know what kind of voice this guy should have? One that sounds older than Eric Stuart’s Brock.” Talk me through that logic, please.
But I said that this film was not without its charms, and Diancie herself is the big one. She’s a very sweet character, delightfully polite and naive, and one of TCPi’s better casting jobs. If her wandering about exploring life outside the caves can drag the pace down at times, it can also be charming, and her ultimate mastery of the Heart Diamond technique is satisfying to see in spite of the serious flaws in the story leading up to that moment.
This film also offered a pleasant surprise: the travelling companions have something to do in the plot! Their shepherding Diancie to safety while Ash holds off the thieves is comparable to Brock and Misty’s role in Spell of the Unown. That film gave the individual companions a chance to shine, whereas here, they function as a unit without individual distinction, but it was still nice to see.
On the other hand, outside that one moment, they have as little to do as in most of these movies. And Ash himself has a greatly reduced role. He’s not personally invested in the conflict, he’s not pegged into saving the world, he’s not the deus ex machina for defeating the antagonists, and he’s not even the back-up to the real hero the way he was in 4Ever or Heroes. He’s just along for the ride.
And the prequel included on the DVD really didn’t explain anything that one couldn’t pick up just by watching the movie.
Let’s tackle the big problem up front: the over-stuffing. There is too much going on here, with too many characters competing for narrative space. You have Diancie’s search for Xerneas for help making a Heart Diamond, ostensibly the primary story thread. You have three different groups of thieves after Diancie (four, if you count Team Rocket, who once again have no real reason to be here), all with the same cliché motive and only the father/daughter team possessing something like personalities. You have Yveltal, who’s so late in coming into the plot that he feels tacked on, yet consumes most of the film’s oxygen in the final third. And you have our main cast who, as in so many of these films, just kind of stumble into the middle of things.
Rather loaded, no?
The problem that having so many plot threads creates is easy to spot: they interrupt one another constantly. And when one of those threads is meant to be the A Plot, the interruptions, rather than serving as effective complications, can end up as unwelcome disruptions that drag the story out, as is the case here IMO. Other distractions hurt the story, the most baffling being Serena literally telling Diancie to forget about Xerneas for a while so the film can stop and indulge in a shopping montage, something I never wanted or needed from Pokémon.
Laziness dogs the plot as well. For all the fuss over finding Xerneas, she helps Diancie with shocking ease and lack of fanfare once they meet up. Her defeat, if you can call it that, of Yveltal is similarly easy and underwhelming. When Yveltal’s destructive power kills the thieves’ pokemon, they get over it quickly, and as they have so little character, their own deaths carry no weight. The means by which Xerneas revives the dead is easy to guess thanks to the opening backstory, and by having the revival happen so quickly after Pikachu’s death, the film robs that moment of any chance to build a sense of loss. Granted, all the fake-out deaths with Ash over the years, and Pikachu’s untouchable mascot status, don’t help that cause, but still…
I’ve mentioned in past reviews that some of these movies lack a certain scale or scope for a movie. I wish I could articulate what I mean by that better, but it’s hard to explain. It’s not fair to say that, say, the Sinnoh trilogy is made up of nothing but overlong episodes. Most of these movies tackle subject matter beyond what the show usually would, they all have bigger budgets and higher quality animation, and they all make some stab at cinematic staging - multi-plane, moving camera, etc. But it’s the way such elements are used that makes the difference, I think. It’s where they’re placed in the story. It’s the use of other elements, like music, art direction, and color timing. It’s the way the plot is organized, the choice of which story elements to linger on, the pace, and the use of character. In all these things, the films of the OS, and Lucario, just felt more cinematic, whereas most of the later entries, were more akin to an episode of the show, even if they aimed somewhat past that level of storytelling. In the case of Diancie, up until Yveltal enters the plot, the stakes of the story are not unlike a standard episode - “Clefairy and the Moon Stone” comes to mind.
And there were a few aspects of this movie that just plain bugged me. Such as:
- We all know Ash is no brainiac, but how does the boy not know what diamonds are!?
- More annoying than that - how does Diancie not know what friends are!? We see her getting along just fine with the Carbink down in the caves; you’re telling me they have no conception of friendship? And don’t tell me they wouldn’t recognize the word - they speak English!
- OK, TCPi, let’s go through this: when XY/Z materials started appearing on your desk, they would’ve included the character design of Clemont. You see this guy, shorter than Ash, in a onesie, with round head, round glasses, rounded points on his hair - an altogether roly-poly figure. Upon seeing this design, you think to yourself, “you know what kind of voice this guy should have? One that sounds older than Eric Stuart’s Brock.” Talk me through that logic, please.
But I said that this film was not without its charms, and Diancie herself is the big one. She’s a very sweet character, delightfully polite and naive, and one of TCPi’s better casting jobs. If her wandering about exploring life outside the caves can drag the pace down at times, it can also be charming, and her ultimate mastery of the Heart Diamond technique is satisfying to see in spite of the serious flaws in the story leading up to that moment.
This film also offered a pleasant surprise: the travelling companions have something to do in the plot! Their shepherding Diancie to safety while Ash holds off the thieves is comparable to Brock and Misty’s role in Spell of the Unown. That film gave the individual companions a chance to shine, whereas here, they function as a unit without individual distinction, but it was still nice to see.
On the other hand, outside that one moment, they have as little to do as in most of these movies. And Ash himself has a greatly reduced role. He’s not personally invested in the conflict, he’s not pegged into saving the world, he’s not the deus ex machina for defeating the antagonists, and he’s not even the back-up to the real hero the way he was in 4Ever or Heroes. He’s just along for the ride.
And the prequel included on the DVD really didn’t explain anything that one couldn’t pick up just by watching the movie.
Leonhart
Imagineer
Allearth Forest was such a great setting for this movie, and even though we didn't get much interaction between Yveltal and Xerneas, I thought that the plot handled them both decently. I loved Millis and Argus, especially when they revealed their true motives. Hitotsuki spying on Diancie was clever, and Marilyn Flame and Riot were intriguing thieves, too. If I had one complaint to make, it's that I found Diancie to be irritating.
Leonhart
Imagineer
Mewtwo Mega Evolved despite not having a Mega Stone or a trainer in the sixteenth movie, so Diancie doing the same in this movie wasn't a bad thing. Mega Evolution simply works differently in the anime in some cases.
FullmetalJackie
Banned
The CN/TPCI version's cuts and the music replacements made the movie nearly unbearable for me. On the bright side, while most of the Pokemon movies tend to have the same plot, this one was less predictable and more dark at the end when it seemed like almost everyone was dead. Diancie was a nice character and even before she met up with Ash, they set up her issue with creating the diamond well.