"Yo-Kai Watch: The Movie," Japan's highest grossing film for 2015, is about to have a US release at a special Fathom Events theater showing. Fortunately, the film version has retained much of the wackiness and silliness of the television show, even when the survival of the entire world and the human race are at stake.
The movie opened with an alternate possibility of Nate not meeting the melodramatic cat. It would be a normal day for our hero. The film gave us that sneak peek to Nate's world without the supernatural spirits and not having learned their existence. It seemed that the entire magical world has been wiped out from existence.
Fortunately, Jibanyan and Whispers are still there to remind Nate of everything. Nate's spirit friends were present during Meganyan's arrival asking for some assistance. The two gave Meganyan some context as to the situation.
The trio then travelled to Nate's grandmother's farm where they learned that Meganyan is actually the caped hero Hovernyan. For decades, he has been searching for a sidekick to help his own heroic human pal stave off an all-out invasion of evil spirits. His heroic human pal is no other than Nate's grandfather Nathaniel, the creator of the Yo-Kai watch.
Using a magic orb called the Rewin Stone, Hovernyan then transported Nate, Jibanyan and Whispers to 60 years back in time to help grandpa Nathaniel and save the human and spirit world alike from a creepy-looking lady, the Dame Dedtime. Her prime motivation for all the menace is her dislike for humans and Yo-Kai to be friends.
To stop this from happening, the creepy lady is sabotaging Nathaniel's creation of the Yo-Kai watch. She infected both humans and the Yo-Kai with some sort of a violence plague.
Despite the higher stakes of the impending destruction of the world as we knew it, "Yo-Kai Watch: The Movie" chose not to stray away from its usual goofiness and craziness. The show's humor is still prevalent in the film, even in time of grave danger and even when the situation is at its darkest. There will be a bit of drama, but being a kid's film from a kid's show, it was barely noticeable.
Overall, it is a fun movie, not only for kids but for the whole family. The film is being shown since Oct. 15, 2016 at select theaters in the US. But in case one missed the cinema release, there will always be Disney XD where Yo-Kais are everywhere.