Pokemon Movie Gets Off to Animated Start With Young Fans

Six-year-old Matthew Vasquez, dressed in his favorite Pokemon T-shirt, arrived at the Edwards 21 multiplex in Irvine at 8 a.m. Wednesday with his mother and cousins for the 9 a.m. showing of “Pokemon: The First Movie.” Popcorn and a Coke? Nah, he watched Mewtwo battle it out on the big screen while chomping on a bagel and sipping milk.

“We all played hooky today to see it. I’ve got to tell the truth,” confessed his mother, Tina Vasquez. “We got up like we were going to school, but we came here instead. It’s going to be so crowded tomorrow.”

She’s got that right. As “Pokemon” opened Wednesday on nearly 3,000 screens nationwide, theaters braced for young mobs Thursday when most schools are out for Veterans Day. With theaters giving out “exclusive” Pokemon cards and some featuring live appearances by Pokemon characters--not to mention a Burger King promotional tie-in featuring 57 new toys--there’s no telling how big a pocket monster Pikachu and pals could be at the box office.

Warner Bros., which is releasing the big screen version of the Japanese anime TV cartoon, didn’t disclose box office totals. But Warner executives said the film is running well ahead of how “Rugrats”--another TV cartoon-turned-feature film--fared in its first day of release last November. “Rugrats” went on to make $27.3 million in its first three days.

“We’ve had a bigger response today than we expected,” said Brad Ball, a Warner Bros. marketing executive who noted that some kids cut class to catch the morning shows.

Reviews of the film were less than kind. But then what do adults know about Pokemon and its 151-character cartoon universe of pocket monsters and human trainers? The kids thought it was cool--as did some of their parents.

“They liked it,” said Carlos Hernando, who took Christian, 6, and Andrea, 4, to the Irvine show. “There’s fighting, but it’s not crude. It’s a good story for the kids. No S-E-X,” he spelled out.

At the Northridge Fashion Mall Stadium theaters “Pokemon” was playing on five screens. A steady stream of kids queued up for the film Wednesday afternoon, many of them walking advertisements for the film, outfitted with Pokemon tote bags, card collections, T-shirts and other paraphernalia.

“[Today] should be a crazy day. We expect to sell out,” said movie theater manager Candido Hernandez, who noted that the phone had been ringing nonstop with calls from parents asking about show times and how they could celebrate birthdays at the theater. And at the Loews Cineplex on Universal CityWalk the 4 p.m. show sold out.

Norma Morales, who feared a long line, said she arrived in Northridge at 9 a.m. to buy tickets for the early afternoon. She accompanied her son, Mark, and 13 other children who got off early at St. Catharine of Siena Catholic school in Reseda. “They kept bugging me. They wanted to see the first show,” said Rosales, 44, of Van Nuys.

Some adults used “Pokemon’s” opening day as an incentive for doing well in school. Teacher Abraham Chong brought five of his top fourth-grade students from Vermont Avenue Elementary School to the 4 p.m. show at Universal CityWalk, where it sold out on two screens. “I wanted to do something special for them, so I brought them to the show,” he said.

Already there has been some Pokemon backlash. The fuss over the trading cards caused such a disruption in schools that some school officials banned them on school property. They are in such demand that a secondhand market has sprung up where some cards go for $100.

Josh Fox, 5, has been jazzed about the movie for the past month. He’s such an avid collector of cards that his dad took him on the Web to trade cards. “I bought an ancient Mew on eBay,” Josh said. “I bid $76 to get that card.”

Times staff writer Roberto J. Manzano contributed to this story from the San Fernando Valley.