YOU MIGHT AS WELL CATCH THIS ONE, TOO.

Byline: David Bloom  Staff Writer

Parents may be forgiven if they feel a bit confused by this weekend's arrival of ``Digimon: The Movie.'' Didn't they, after all, just have to take their tykes to two other movies just like this last July and October?

Well, yes and no.

Those previous films were the first two Pokemon films, based on the fabulously successful Nintendo videogame franchise and its multitudinous spinoffs, including a TV show, trading-card game and much else.

This movie does have a similar-sounding name, and is based on another videogame franchise, this one owned by Bandai Entertainment and seen on the Sony PlayStation. And there are plenty of spinoffs, including a trading-card game and TV show that have even been outstripping their Pokemon competition of late in the race for children's esteem.

But there are differences between the ``Digimon'' movie and its Poke-predecessors. For one thing, this full-length animated film actually isn't bad, which couldn't be said for the first Pokemon film (though the second was a decided improvement in most categories).

In fact, it had my 8-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter raving that it was the best film they'd ever seen. Admittedly, their cinematic critical skills remain in a - shall we say - somewhat nascent state, but they are the target audience.

From an adult's point of view, the film hews to most of the conventions of Japanese animation, with cute sidekick creatures, saucer-eyed child protagonists and truly fearsome-looking villains.

The art by Toei Animation, part of the same organization that gave us both Godzilla and Akira Kurosawa, is often quite arresting, despite its mostly 2-D look.

There's even a story line, though it's delivered in three oddly organized segments, two of them extended flashbacks that set the prologue for the final act, where a virus-corrupted Digimon, or digital monster, that tried to take over the world's missile systems comes back to encourage its American child owner to roll back time and redeem it.

It has more violent fights than the Pokemon films, and the villains may be more alarming to the youngest viewers, which helps explain the film's PG rating. But as with Pokemon, no blood is spilled and nothing dies (Digimon can't die; they just get their bits defragmented).

Given the dearth of competition for young audiences in theaters this fall, this movie should find a lot of favor among the elementary school set. And their parents may find themselves actually enjoying chunks of this one. To steal yet another cue from Pokemon, you may have to catch all of this one, too.

``DIGIMON:THE MOVIE''

(Rated: PG)

The stars: Lara Jill Miller, Joshua Seth, Dorothy Elias-Fahn, Michael Sorich, Colleen O'Shaughnessy, Bob Glouberman, Doug Erholtz.

Behind the scenes: Original concept and character design by Akiyoshi Hongo. Animation directors Takaaki Yamashita, Hisashi Nakayama, Masahiro Aizawa. Adaptation and screenplay by Jeff Nimoy and Bob Buchholz. Produced by Terri-Lei O'Malley, from Saban Entertainment/Toei Animation Co.

Running time: One hour, 30 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and one half stars

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Favorites, from left, Guimimon, Gatomon, Kari, Patamon and T.K. spring into action in ``Digimon: the Movie.''