>>45340273Had to check the verified official critic reviews on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes (most of the review are down, so I had to use the internet archive to skim the reviews as they were published in 2001) and it actually appeared that the general consensus was that it was too much for kids.
>"Creepy cartoon mayhem that's confusing as heck." -Washington Post>"Parents need to know that it includes a scary dog, though he later cooperates with the Pokemons. " - Common Sense>"May cause uncontrollable bodily seizures. There could be no end in sight until at least 2035, although the Pokémon phenomenon is pretty much already considered passe." - Hollywood>"A bizarre, almost-meaningless world, if not interesting exactly - then at least recognisable." - Guardian>"A halfway tolerable, colourful, mayhem." - BBC>"Beautiful, chilling and unnerving. But boils down to having Entei to play daddy." - TVGuide>"A loud, claustrophobic movie packed with artificial colours and characters whose weapons are rockets of debilitating spew they summon at will from their throats" - Ottawa Citizen>"It’s dark and scary stuff that cracks and crashes. Loudly. Nonstop. People who have never given sound design a moment’s thought will suddenly understand why people get Oscars for it." - Los Angeles Times>"Starts off undeniably adorable. Then quickly devolves into a sense-numbing succession of showdowns." - Entertainment Weekly>"If you've seen the first two Pokemon features -- or Pokeman's spawn, Digimon, or the video games that launched the Pokemon craze -- you'll know this is as predictable and uninspired." - Chicago Tribune 