Trivia / Digimon: The Movie

• Author's Saving Throw: Discotek Media announced they were releasing the Digimon movies on Blu-Ray, only to announce two things awesome about the dub:
  • They remastered the original Saban Entertainment Fox Kids dub, with the only issue being that the Angela Anaconda opening scene couldn't be included... Which many wouldn't care less for anyways.
  • They also announced that most of the original dub cast had done, at the same time, a faithful, uncut version of all three movies as well, keeping the same show accurate cast but using the score and plot as originally presented.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Jeff Nimoy has made it no secret that he did not like "Hurricane Touchdown" and it was only included because of an executive mandate. The Executive Meddling was one of the reasons he and co-writer Bob Buchholz left the dub's writing staff near the end of 02's run. Haim Saban also trashed it as inferior, saying that it took him a week to watch!
  • Nimoy also felt apprehensive about introducing 8 new characters late into the film, with Tai (who had been the protagonist up to that point) just vanishing from the film. Also the characters in the first two segments were all from Digimon Adventure and familiar to the target audience, while "Hurricane Touchdown" uses the Digimon Adventure 02 cast, which had not aired in the west yet when production began and had only started airing less than two months before the film's release. And these are the main gripes many fans of Digimon has with the film.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: In addition to examples carried over from the series, the film has Peggy O'Neal as Botamon, Brianne Siddall as Kuramon, Mona Marshall as Terriermon, and Wendee Lee as Kokomon, all female actors voicing male characters. The redub adds Madeline Dorroh as Cody, Cherami Leigh as Lopmon, and Marissa Lenti, who is agender, as Sora's mother.
• Executive Meddling: Jeff Nimoy stated that the film was supposed to just feature the first two movies, but higher-ups demanded that he add the third movie in, which he wanted to be shown as a TV special.
• International Co Production: The Saban English dub had its dialogue recorded at Studiopolis in Los Angeles while the score was recorded in Haim Saban's home country of Israel.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: This movie hadn't seen a single re-release since the original DVD from Fox, which has since gone out of print; the other dubbed Adventure 02 movies haven't seen a DVD release either. This is likely because of the rights of the movie and show being juggled around by numerous companies - for a time, it was believed Disney owned the movie through their purchase of Twentieth Century Fox, as well as their earlier purchases of Saban Entertainment and Fox Family Worldwide, but they would've had to talk to Toei Animation who in turn shares the rights with Bandai Namco who owns the Digimon IP, and Discotek Media, who hold the license to Digimon Adventure, to negotiate another home video release. Though thankfully, 2023 would see an announcement of the original Compilation Movie being remastered by Discotek, with its component films getting a full redub and remaster as well.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.":
  • For Latin America, this is how viewers were introduced to Digimon Adventure 02 before the series itself debuted on TV.
  • In some countries like Italy, this movie also introduced the viewers to Angela Anaconda.
  • The third segment features Raidramon. In North America, the film was released one day before Raidramon's debut episode aired on Fox Kids.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Discotek Media's re-release of the Saban dub won’t feature the Angela Anaconda short due to the show's rights currently being with WildBrain and the former not willing to negotiate due to the main show’s reception by many Digimon fans.
• The Original Darrin:
  • The Discotek uncut dubs bring back Lara Jill Miller, Michael Reisz, Doug Erholtz, Brian Donovan, and Edie Mirman as Kari, Matt, T.K., Davis, and Gatomon/her evolutions, respectively, for the first time since the dub of Revenge of Diaboromon, plus also bringing back Wendee Lee as the younger T.K. for the first time since the original movie. Kari had been voiced by Tara Sands in Digimon Adventure tri., Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, and Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning and by Ryan Bartley in Digimon Adventure: (2020), Matt was voiced by Vic Mignogna in tri., Nicolas Roye in Last Evolution Kizuna, and A.J. Beckles in the reboot, T.K. was voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch in tri., Last Evolution Kizuna, and 02: The Beginning and by Corina Boettger in the reboot, Davis was voiced by Griffin Burns in Last Evolution Kizuna, and Gatomon was voiced by Kate Higgins in tri., Last Evolution Kizuna, and 02: The Beginning and by Erin Yvette in the reboot.
  • In the same dub, Neil Kaplan returns as Hawkmon for the first time since Digimon Adventure 02 ended, having been replaced by Jeff Nimoy in Revenge of Diaboromon and Christopher Swindle in Last Evolution Kizuna. ^note Both Donovan and Kaplan would first reprise their roles in the dub of Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning, which was released first, but announced later.
  • The Discotek dub also brings back Lex Lang as WarGreymon for the first time since 02, as well as the WarGreymon half of Omnimon for the first time since Revenge of Diaboromon, after Kyle Hebert took over in tri. and Last Evolution Kizuna.
  • In the remaster, Brianne Siddall once again voices Koromon, whom tri. implied was the same one as Tai's, after Doug Erholtz stood in for tri. and Last Evolution Kizuna.
  • Likewise, Tai, Sora, Izzy, Agumon, Gabumon, Tentomon, Palmon, Gomamon, and Patamon are all voiced by their original series actors (Joshua Seth, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Mona Marshall, Tom Fahn, Kirk Thornton, Jeff Nimoy, Anna Garduno, R. Martin Klein, and Laura Summer, respectively) instead of the voice actors from the reboot, which aired shortly before (Zeno Robinson, Cherami Leigh, Anne Yatco, Ben Diskin, Dave B. Mitchell, Christopher Swindle, Corina Boettger, Alex Cazares, and Lizzie Freeman, respectively). Thornton also takes back over the roles of Gabumon's evolutions from Swindle.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the English dub, the flashback to the Parrotmon battle in episode 29 of Digimon Adventure had Greymon being voiced by Michael Lindsay, who voiced the Greymon partnered to Tai in the series. In the film, likely to better differentiate between the two (though tri. would later suggest that they were one and the same after all), Red Greymon is instead voiced by Bob Papenbrook.
  • For the Discotek Media remaster, several characters had to be recast due to several actors passing away between the two dubs, with a credit added in tribute to them, while others had retired.
    • Bob Papenbrook, who died in 2006, is replaced as Red Greymon by his son Bryce Papenbrook.
    • Philece Sampler, who died in 2021, is replaced by Elsie Lovelock as both Mimi and Kinu (Matt and T.K.'s grandmother), and by Madeline Dorroh as Cody. Lovelock also replaces Kate Higgins, who voiced Mimi in Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, and Suzie Yeung, who voiced Mimi in Digimon Adventure: (2020), while Dorroh also replaces Bryce Papenbrook, who voiced Cody in Last Evolution Kizuna and Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning.
    • Michael Lindsay, who died in 2019, is replaced as Joe by Eli Farmer, who also replaces Robbie Daymond, who voiced Joe in Digimon Adventure tri. and Last Evolution Kizuna, and Daman Mills, who voiced Joe in the reboot. Bradley Gareth also takes over from both Lindsay as Greymon and Joseph Pilato, who also died in 2019, as MetalGreymon, after Kyle Hebert took over those roles in tri. and Last Evolution Kizuna.
    • Mike Reynolds, who died in 2022, is replaced as Gennai by Jason Marnocha. Marnocha also replaces Ralph Garman as the newsman, likely due to Garman's increased profile since the original movie was made making him more difficult to get.
    • Robert Axelrod, who died in 2019, is replaced as Armadillomon by Wayne Grayson, who also takes over from the retired Dave Mallow as Upamon, with Robbie Daymond having previously done those roles in Last Evolution Kizuna and 02: The Beginning. Mallow is also replaced as Angemon and Seraphimon by the aforementioned Bradley Gareth, after Jamieson Price voiced them in the later episodes of tri. and Last Evolution Kizuna and Chris Hackney voiced them in the reboot.
    • Tifanie Christun, who hasn't done any voice work since 2008, is replaced as Biyomon by Cherami Leigh, who previously voiced her in tri. and Last Evolution Kizuna, returning to the role after Tara Sands voiced her in the reboot. Christun's role as Yolei is taken over by Jessica Peterson, who also replaces Jeannie Tirado, who voiced her in Last Evolution Kizuna and 02: The Beginning.
    • Marissa Lenti replaces Ellyn Stern as Sora's mother.
  • Many international dubs replaced the entire original cast from Angela Anaconda in the short in favor of maintaining the cast of the original Digimon Adventure shows. For example, Angela Anaconda used to be dubbed in LA Spanish in Argentina, but their Digimon short was dubbed in Mexico instead because of the anime series also dubbed there.
• The Other Marty: Tom Gibis was originally cast as Willis, but due to a lack of experience, the role was given to Bob Glouberman instead, while Gibis was cast as Michael in the series.
• Promoted Fanboy: Marissa Lenti has made no secret of the fact that they are a Digimon superfan, having grown up watching it, so getting to work on new dubs for the Digimon movies is an absolute dream come true for them, as they mention here.
• Role Reprise: The Discotek Media redub brings back several actors over twenty years after they last played the roles in the original film:
  • For the first segment, Peggy O'Neal returns as Botamon and Michael Sorich returns as Big Agumon. Sorich also returns as Gargomon in the third segment.
  • In the second segment, Brianne Siddall returns as Kuramon.
  • The third segment brings back Bob Glouberman as Willis, Wendee Lee as Kokomon, and Lex Lang as Rapidmon.
  • Steve Blum returns as Poromon for the first time since the dub of Revenge of Diaboromon. He also voices Veemon's armor forms for the first time since the penultimate episode of 02, as does Tom Fahn as Digmon and Neil Kaplan as Halsemon.
  • Paul St. Peter also voices Diaboromon and his evolutions for the first time since Revenge of Diaboromon, plus Wendigomon/Cherubimon from the original movie, after having voiced the Digimon Frontier version of Cherubimon a few years afterwards.
  • Likewise, Mona Marshall returns as Terriermon almost two decades after last voicing the Digimon Tamers version of Terriermon in the dub of Runaway Locomon.
  • The redub has Cherami Leigh voicing Lopmon, having previously voiced the Lopmon in Digimon Fusion almost a decade prior.
• Technology Marches On:
  • The movie showcases the latest in turn of the millennium consumer tech like bulky laptops, brick cellphones, PDAs, dial-up internet, low-res plasma monitors, VCRs...
  • The plot of Our War Game could never take place after the year 2005, largely courtesy of infrastructural improvements in Internet connectivity and the explosive propagation of cell phones.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to Jeff Nimoy, it was originally only going to be the first two Digimon movies, and the third one would have been released as a Made-for-TV Movie or DVD extra, as suggested by producer Terri-Lei O'Malley, due to having a radically different art style from the prior two movies (the first two were both directed by Mamoru Hosoda, while the third was directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi). Executive Meddling forced him to include Hurricane Touchdown! despite it making little sense to the plot.
  • Originally Tai was supposed to be the narrator, due to being the protagonist of the first two movies, but because he had no role in the third, especially after the subplot with the older kids was cut, Kari became the narrator instead, due to being the only character to have a non-cameo role in all three segments (even though her role in the second is pretty minimal).
  • Willis' name was left as "Wallace" (his name in the original Japanese version) on an early version of the official website before it was later changed to "Willis."

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