Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys was released to theaters in Japan on July 22, 2004. The English dub made its premiere on Kids' WB on January 22, 2005. This was followed by a DVD and video release on February 15, 2005. This is the last Pokemon film that Miramax distributed in the United States. Destiny Deoxys also has the distinction of being the first Pokemon film to not have a short packaged with it.

Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys starts with the arrival of a meteorite heading toward the earth. As it enters the atmosphere, it almost wounds a Rayquaza in the ozone layer. The meteorite crashes into a polar zone, revealing two sparkling egg-shaped objects. The purple one regenerates into a Deoxys. However, before the green one can regenerate, Rayquaza comes out of the ozone layer and attacks the purple Deoxys.

As they battle, a nearby research facility is destroyed. A young boy named Tory, who is with the research facility, is traumatized by a stampede of Pokemon. Just as the purple Deoxys is about to finish off Rayquaza, it is distracted by electrical charges coming from broken computers nearby. Rayquaza attacks the purple Deoxys with its Hyper Beam. The Deoxys returns to its egg form and falls into the sea. The researchers at the facility take the green egg with them when they leave the region.

Four years later, Ash, Brock, May, and Max arrive at LaRousse City, so Ash can battle at the city's Battle Tower. They meet Tory there, who Ash mistakes for a Pokemon trainer. Ash and Tory battle together against Rafe and Sid, with Tory using one of Ash's Pokemon. However, with his fear of Pokemon, Tory is unable to guide Ash’s Pokemon; this causes Ash and Tory to lose the battle. Tory flees from the tower, but stops to save a Minun that has gotten stuck in an automatic garbage can. Meanwhile, the purple Deoxys has regenerated and heads to LaRousse City to find its companion. Rayquaza follows behind, and a battle ensues at LaRousse City. Can Tory overcome his fear of Pokemon to help Ash and his friends save the day?

Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys clocks in at 98 minutes, making it one of the longer Pokemon films. Personally, I thought there were one or two sections of the film that could have been shortened a little and not affect the storytelling very much. To me, the pacing of this film isn't quite as strong as in the previous Pokemon films.

On the DVD release, the first special feature is "What's That Pokemon? Meet the New Pokemon From the Movie." This is a series of still images that not only include pictures of most of the Pokemon shown in the film, but also include the name, the height, weight, species, and abilities for each one. The Pokemon included in this feature are: Rayquaza, Minun, Plusle, Deoxys, and Munchlax.

Next is a gallery of poster art from the Japanese release of the film. The feature includes a total of three posters (with two of them on the same page, so it's only a two page feature). Then, there is "On Location With the Director." This feature runs a little over two and a half minutes. It has Japanese audio, but there is an English voice dubbed over it instead of using subtitles. This feature shows the location scouting in Vancouver, Canada. Then, the director briefly talks about the actual film.

The final extra is "Be a Poke-Quiz Wiz!" This is like the trivia games that appeared on Pokemon 4Ever, Pokemon Heroes, and Jirachi Wish Maker. However, there was one major difference: the only time there was any audio with this game was when the footage from the film was shown when a question was answered correctly. Outside of that, it was silent.

While Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys is a decent film, I was rather disappointed by the lack of effort Miramax put into the DVD extras on this release. However, if you are a fan of the Pokemon anime, you should purchase this DVD for your collection.

In order to write this reivew, I checked out a copy of the DVD through the King County Library System.