The Pokémon franchise, Japan's most popular export since the Toyota Camry, started as a Nintendo Game Boy. Its success begat a TV cartoon, which begat trading cards. And now, like "Rugrats," "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and "teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" before it, Pokémon is a feature film.

For kids already indoctrinated into the cult of Pokémon, the movie amay add something to the ever-growing mythology surrounding the characters. For most others, it will be an appealing diversion, though by no means an exhilarating one. For those completely on the outside (read: adults), the Pokémon world is baffling, even somewhat troubling.

The Pokémon universe is complicated; there are 151 Pokémon characters, for instance, about 20 of which make appearances in the film. The human protagonist, Ash Ketchum (voiced by Veronica Taylor), and his buddies Misty and Brock are trainers. They capture these "pocket monsters," the Pokémon, teach them, and pit them against those of rival trainers. The Pokémon is a willing gladiator. The trainer is a gerneral--he issues the commands he hopes will win the battle. The prize: possession of the Pokémon.

"Pokémon: The First Movie," sub-subtitled "Mewtwo Strikes Back," is about a powerful Pokémon gone bad.Mewtwo, a cat-like biologically engineered Pokémon clone, has more supernatural strength than any regular Pokémon. (One of the handful of adult laughs comes from Mewtwo's decidedly feline character. Pathetic humans, he tells his creators, I will not serve you. I am superior to all of you.)

Superiority complex aside, Mewtwo is racked with existential angst. "Why am I here?" he says after destroying the lab where he was created. "What was my purpose?" Well . . . fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. And hate leads to suffering, right? Mewtwo sets out to wipe the trainers and their lackey Pokémon off the face of the planet.

Great Japanese animation "Pokémon" is not. ("Princess Mononoke" is still in theaters, if that's what you're after.) "Pokémon" isn't even good animation, unless the standard of measure is the crude LCD graphics of a Game Boy. The characters are flat--apparently deliberatly so, to resemble the TV drawings. But unlike the TV program, the film at least contains movement that is somewhat fluid, and director Kunihiko Yuyama creates surprising angles and unexpected extreme close-ups.

The film has, however, been "Americanized." Producer Norman J. Grossfeld, voice director Michael Haigney and John Touhey essentially wrote an American script that lays like a template over the 75-minute Japanese movie. It's impossible to tell whether Yuyama's vision of the film remains inctact. The most obvious change is a jarringly bad pop soundtrack that even second-graders can tell doesn't suit the film.

But it seems the Americans have made other, more subtle changes. Writer Stephanie Strom made a good case in Sunday's New York Times that the "Pokémon" TV shows is steeped in Japanese values: responsibility, empathy, respect for elders, cooperation, obedience and humility. One wonders what happened to the film, then. There are no elders present or even mentioned. Only the Pokémon are obedient. There's very little teamwork between Ash and buddies. To the contrary, Ash hollers at the wicked Mewtwo, "I won't let you do that!" That's pure, undiluted American individualism.

But like most children's entertainment, the "Pokémon" themes seem disturbingly unexamined. Aspirations for world domination aside, Mewtwo objects to the enslavement of Pokémon to their trainers. Viewed in that context, Ash's declaration that he cares for his Pokémon seems eerily antebellum. The whole competition between trainers starts to look like cockfighting, or worse.

But elementary schoolers, for whom the world is still fairly two-dimensional, probably won't be bothered by such thoughts. It's the parents who might be, as they take their kid back to the theater for the fourth time to get that last "exclusive" Pokémon trading card. They will look at their child's overstuffed binder of cards, the well-worn Game Boy, and wonder if they've been had. And then the title may start to seem like a threat: "Pokémon: The First Movie."

~ MPAA rating: G. Times guidlines: Pokémon fight one another; attacks on human protagonist; villain threatens mass destruction.

Kids' WB! presents a 4Kids Entertainment production. American adaptation by Norman J. Grossfeld, Michael Haigney and John Touhey. Voice direction by Michael Haigney. Produced by Norman J. Grossfeld. Directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. Produced in Japan by Choji Yoshikawa, Tomoyuki Igarashi and Takemoto More. Japanese version written by Takeshi Shudo based on characters created by Satoshi Tajiri. Distributed by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. Runnin gtime: 1 hour, 15 minutes. In general release.