‘Pokemon’ Draws an Animated Crowd

Cameron Kiesau and Cameron and Mackenzie Nizdil), three second-graders from Mountain Meadows elementary school in Moorpark, were so excited Wednesday afternoon they couldn’t keep still.

They sat down, got up, and bumped into one another outside the United Artists box office at The Oaks mall. They chattered on about “Mew” and the other animated Pokemon characters that filled their imaginations while draining their parents’ wallets. They sat down again. They got up again. The bumping continued.

Their mothers, already exhausted with more than an hour to go before the 4 p.m. screening, were doing their best to stay upbeat. “They’ve been waiting for this for a long time, for months,” Melissa Nizdil said.

As “Pokemon: The First Movie” premiered nationwide, children swarmed to Ventura County’s theaters for a big-screen look at the Japanese cartoon characters that are the biggest thing since the Power Rangers--maybe bigger. Today is expected to be a brisk day at theaters, because schools are closed in honor of Veterans Day.

On Wednesday, at The Oaks, tickets began selling at 9:15 a.m. for shows throughout the day. The 4 p.m. show was close to selling out by early afternoon.

Several parents, such as Philip Souza of Newbury Park, decided to pull their kids out of school early to make the daytime shows. “But they’re A students, so it’s OK,” Souza said of his sons, John, 10, and Scott, 13.

Children emerged from the film wide-eyed and smiling.

“It was good, really good,” said Justin MacLean, who, counting duplicates, has more than 200 Pokemon trading cards.

Justin’s aunt, Karen Thompson of Simi Valley, said the movie had a good message, which she summed up as “we’re all different but everybody should get along.” But, she told Justin and her two children, one theater viewing was all she could take. “I’m sure we’ll have to buy it [on video] and watch it at home,” she said, sighing.

The Century Downtown theater in Ventura had a series of glitches that left many fans of the animated “pocket monsters” disgruntled.

Eager children and compliant parents waited for hours or rushed to another theater after a scheduling mix-up brought ticket holders to the theater after one showing already had begun. Technical difficulties ruined one of the film’s major fight scenes, and the sound was obscured for the beginning portion of one showing of the movie, according to disappointed children.

“I hated it when the picture burned because that was when they were just starting to battle,” said Cody Ferguson, 9. But Cody got over it quickly; he’s planning to see the movie again anyway.

“Mix-ups happen,” said Marc Padilla, an apologetic ticket clerk. “But this is a very big deal for the kids. It’s like telling them their cake doesn’t have icing, but they still get to eat the cake.”

The Pokemon movie is just the latest installment of a craze that took off in the United States last year, when a simple TV cartoon and video game already popular in Japan began to swell into a multibillion-dollar industry.

The cartoon first made headlines in 1997, when one episode with fast, flashing colors triggered convulsions for hundreds of Japanese children watching it. No such problems were reported by moviegoers Wednesday.

Movie industry experts predict the animated feature will be a hit, with box office sales of $75 million to more than $100 million.

Pokemon’s 151 characters--about 20 of whom are featured in the movie--also created a natural market for a series of trading cards children use to play a complex game based on the relative powers of competing Pokemon characters. Fast-food giant Burger King recently picked up on the craze, and is spending millions of dollars to draw customers to its restaurants by giving away the cards and other Pokemon toys in conjunction with the movie’s release.

Nintendo Co.’s Pokemon video games alone are predicted to do $1 billion in sales in North America this year, and the newest Pokemon game, released in mid-October, instantly became the fastest-ever-selling video game in the United States. The cartoon show airs on the WB network 11 times a week.

Many parents say Pokemon teaches wholesome concepts about people’s differences and appropriate versus inappropriate ways for individuals to use their strengths against others. But the craze can be expensive for parents trying to keep up with it, and a distraction for educators across the country.

Many schools countywide have banned virtually all traces of Pokemon on campus. At Manzanita elementary school in Newbury Park, students can wear Pokemon T-shirts, but that’s about it.

Pokemon trading cards, books, bouncing balls and video games are strictly prohibited, largely because administrators fear the paraphernalia would breed theft, fighting and jealously among the Pokemon haves and have-nots, a school official said. “It’s very distracting,” she said. “It just causes problems.”

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Talev is a Times staff writer; Blake is a Times Community News reporter.