“The Rise of Darkai” Ending Songs

Thanks to SkittyoW, who found The Rise of Darkrai at his local animé shop early, we now know the songs that play at the end of the movie:

• “We Will Be Heroes – Pokemon / Rise of Darkrai” By John Loeffler
• “I’ll Always Remember You” By Kirsten Price
• “Living In The Shadow” By Chris “Breeze” Barczynski

The first song is, of course, the theme song of the 11th season and the song heard at the beginning of the movie when Ash and crew battle the D/P trio evolution trainers. The other two songs seem to be original for the movie’s ending. All three replace Sarah Brightman’s “I Will Be With You,” which was an English song in the original Japanese credits. The rights to use the music in the American release must have been too expensive, so Pokemon USA (PUSA) decided to make their own.

The DVD packaging for the movie is rather basic (containing only one insert), and the DVD itself comes with no special features of any kind. Admire your Lucario and the Mystery of Mew DVDs everyone – it is probably the last one PUSA will ever put effort into. It must be against their principles to include a commentary, or to invest in higher-grade DVD packaging that doesn’t look like it came from Target’s electronics section with HP printouts slipped in to the plastic for the cover and back art.

The Rise of Darkrai will be released on May 27th, several days prior to the Darkrai giveaway at Toys R Us (check the 2008 calendar in the right menu for the dates; I am trying to get people to use it).