Why Diancie And Volcanion Rank So Low

Two Pokemon movies kicked off my worst-to-best ranking season, and they immediately raised a question I didn’t expect to be so decisive: when a Pokemon can talk for most of the movie, does it deepen the story or break the spell? I’m Nathan, and on The Couch Critics I start our Pokemon journey at the bottom of the list with “Diancie and the Cocoon of Danger or something” plus the Volcanion movie, then I get honest about why both left me cold even with Ash Ketchum and Pikachu on screen.

With Diancie, the premise centers on a Pokemon whose power is literally creating diamonds, which turns the plot into a long chase where everyone wants to capture the “diamond maker.” The problem is clarity and payoff: the story feels confusing, the stakes don’t sharpen, and the resolution leans on another big Pokemon swooping in to save the day instead of letting the main character earn the ending. I also talk about what I did enjoy, like the familiar voice acting energy and the way these films mix computer animation with hand-drawn animation.

Volcanion gets points for a slightly more intriguing setup, especially the mega evolution angle and the idea that power can be forced without a true trainer bond. But the emotional center hinges on a sacrifice that doesn’t stick, and that choice drains the impact of the character’s shift from anti-human to protector. I wrap up with Pokeball ratings (1.5 out of 5 for both), tease next week’s “Pokemon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened,” and share where to follow what we’re doing next. If you like Pokemon movie reviews, rankings, and hot takes on franchise rules, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review, then tell me: do you want Pokemon to talk, or should they stick to saying their names?

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Transcript

Welcome And Season Game Plan

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Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new episode of The Couch Critics. I am your host, Nathan, and on today's episode, we are officially jumping into our Pokemon journey. If you don't remember, this season we're talking about the worst to best Pokemon movies. Cartoon and at least one live action. So to get

Diancie Review And Plot Confusion

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started, we're talking about Diancey and the Cocoon of Danger or something. It this movie is obviously on the bottom of the list. It's the worst, according to, you know, people. This is the worst Pokemon movie. The thing about these first two movies I'm talking about this episode is that the one thing that really bothered me is that the main character Pokemon could talk. Now, granted, this is probably through Talkinesis, but it kind of rubbed me the wrong way that the Pokemon spoke almost the entire movie. Now, the Diancy movie was confusing when it comes to plot. It was basically like everybody was trying to get this Pokemon because its superpower is to literally create diamonds. And I don't understand how that's a superpower, but that's what it does. And so the whole movie is like people chasing after this Pokemon, fighting each other, trying to get it. And by the end of the movie, it's not even Diancy that does anything. It's this other giant bird Pokemon who saves the day. Yeah. I didn't really like it. I sat through it, tried to enjoy it. It did have Ash Ketchum in it, so that was fun. But this movie was just not good. And I understand why. It is on the bottom of this list. And again, I tried to enjoy it. And I was waiting for an actual interesting plot to occur. And unfortunately, it never did. But of course, the voice acting was fun. Again, you have Pikachu, you have Ash Ketchum. You don't have the other two characters, Misty and Brock from the TV show, but you do have Ash, which apparently he's still trying to become a Pokemon master for however long he's been trying to do this. So

Volcanion Review And Mega Evolution

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the second to worst movie is a movie about a Pokemon called Vulcanian, which I'm assuming that all the newer generation movies are probably going to be the worst ones. And as we go down the list, you will get to like the original generation, the one I grew up with. And that's when we'll get to the better stuff. But for now, we're starting with I guess the next gen with the mega evolution kind of stuff. And that's what this movie was really all about. It was really focusing on the mega evolution and how I guess usually with these things, it only works if the trainer has a bond with the Pokemon, but they found a way to do it where you didn't have to have a bond with Pokemon. So these like these evil versions of these mega evolution Pokemon. Can you find this, I guess, machine Pokemon, which is Vulcanian trying to protect Gigare Gig Megurian? I don't even know. That was apparently created as like a robot. And for some reason, Vulcanian is trying to protect her and all these other Pokemon on this island. And again, for some reason, he doesn't trust humans. But again, just like every Pokemon journey, he comes around and is okay with humans. It kind of reminded me of Big Hero Six. Even though in Big Hero Six, the main robot character does trust humans, but he ultimately tries to sacrifice himself. But then you find out that he's not really dead. And this is what this movie does. Spoiler Volcanian tries to sacrifice himself to save all of Pokemon and all the humans. And I was kind of hoping that he actually did, but he ends up surviving. And it was kind of kind of took away all the feelings that you might have had if you take this character at the beginning of this story that is totally anti-human and doesn't want to have anything to do with them. But then yet by the end decides to sacrifice his life to save them. But then it's it's all for naught because again he doesn't die. So both of these movies were kind of a letdown because but it makes sense because again they're on the bottom of the

Ratings In Pokeballs And Pet Peeves

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list. And it was another letdown because I couldn't get anybody to record with me. So this is me by myself. But I will say I totally understand why these movies are dead. So I would give Diancy, and I think for this season, we're gonna do Pokeballs. So I would give Diancy probably a 1.5 out of 5 Pokeballs and Volcanian. The storyline for that one was somewhat more intriguing, but still I wasn't really invested because again, Volcanian could talk, and none of the other Pokemon could talk in this one. At least in Dancy, there are other Pokemon that could talk. But in this one, it was just Volcanian. And so again, I I'm just not a big fan of Pokemon who could who can talk. I'm used to the ones who can only say their names, which was like every other Pokemon in this movie. So I would give Volcanian a probably a 1.5 out of five Pokeballs as well. So those are our first two Pokemon movies of the season, and it's only gonna get better, hopefully, from here. Because, like I said, we are starting from the worst and going to the best. So next

Next Week’s Genesect Tease

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week, if I can find somebody to record with me, I won't have to do a double feature again. But hopefully, we'll be talking about Pokemon the movie, Genesect, and the Legend Awakens. So this is I'm hoping this is not one where the Pokemon could talk because, like I said, I'm not used to that. I know that was like a big thing after they introduced Mewtwo. And so I guess they just decided to go with it. Now, another another thing I didn't mention is that I visually these movies are kind of cool because you can tell they're kind of mixing computer animation with hand-drawn animation. So I thought that was kind of cool, but not enough to give these movies any higher. So to

Animation Note And Where To Follow

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find out, well, I can't I guess I kind of already told you what we're talking about next week, but our cinema Sunday this month is going to be epic. There's gonna be so many movies, it's not even fun. So check that out. Find out even more about what we're doing on our social medias, Facebook, Instagram. Check us out, The Couch Critics. Thank you for listening once again to the Couch Critics. Where every movie gets its close up.