Lest anyone underestimate the cultural longevity of Pokemon, consider the statistical rarity that an animated film franchise lasts long enough to avoid irrelevance or the consolation prize of direct-to-video anonymity. The Care Bears called it quits after three feature films, and even contemporaries like Digimon (the Go-Bots to Pokemon's Transformers) didn't make it past one movie.

It seems odd then that Pokemon, seemingly fallen to the wayside of kid culture in favor of new trends like Yu-Gi-Oh and Spider-Man, has lasted long enough to produce (or rather, import and redub from Japan) four animated movies starring cuddly creatures who fight each other on their masters' whims.

The unfortunately titled "Pokemon 4 Ever" picks up without losing a beat from the TV series. Young Ash Ketcham still roams the countryside in search of becoming a Pokemon master, aided by his faithful electric mouse Pokemon, Pikachu (sample dialogue: "Pika pika, pika-chu!"). Accompanied by fellow trainers Misty and Brock, Ash finds himself at odds with an evil Pokemon hunter who is after the elusive Celebi, a rare Pokemon said to embody the spirit of the forest. The iron-masked hunter, an agent of frequent TV series foe Team Rocket, has waited years to capture Celebi, last seen decades earlier using its time-travel powers (no, seriously) to escape to the future.

Celebi has indeed escaped to our heroes' present, unwittingly transporting with him a young boy named Sam. Disoriented and far from home, Sam joins up with Ash and company to save the dying Celebi before the evil Pokemon hunter can capture it and corrupt its power for his own ends.

Like the previous Pokemon movies, little about "Pokemon 4 Ever" makes any kind of sense outside its own context, which means parents will continue to wonder just what the hell is going on while kids will no doubt enjoy seeing favorite Pokemon and cartoon mainstays like comic villains Jesse and James of Team Rocket. Little is done to disguise the fact that the movie is a slightly longer episode of the television show, choppy animation spruced up with a few computer-generated backgrounds and at least one fairly impressive-looking creature to be found in the tree monster which devastates the forest in the film's climax.

The Pokemon brand, traditionally pretty shallow even for merchandising-minded children's entertainment, here offers an unsubtle environmental allegory with the added message of "Be true to your friends," and as far as generally bland, inoffensive kid stuff goes, it's hard to argue with anything willing to impart such a basic lesson (such as the recently released, more direct "Jonah").

"Pokemon 4 Ever," no matter what the title hopefully suggests, more than likely marks Pokemon's theatrical swan song after four years (an eternity on the pop culture radar). Though not quite out of popular consciousness yet, the Pokemon phenomenon is well past salvaging, and this fourth movie is, like Pokemon in general, pleasant and forgettable. Think of it as future nostalgia.

"Pokemon 4 Ever" opened at theaters across the country Fri., Oct. 11.

Two stars.