I have heard that the “One Piece” manga (Japanese comic) has sold hundreds of millions of copies and that the anime has several hundred episodes. I’m not very familiar with “One Piece” so I hoped “One Piece: The Movie” would help show me what I have apparently been missing. It’s definitely better than “Pokémon” but not as entertaining as “Dragon Ball Z”.

Monkey D. Luffy has the power to stretch his limbs and has set his sights on becoming the ‘King of the Pirates’. On his epic quest, a group of thieves steal his treasure and this leads him to an island believed to be home to the treasure of a great pirate.

I did not really know the “One Piece” characters coming into this film. Monkey D. Luffy might be the silliest name for a protagonist in an action franchise that I have ever heard. The villains are not going to stick in your minds for very long after you finish watching this movie. A lot of the comedic interactions between the characters are underwhelming. The animation on the characters appears to be consistent with the little that I have seen of the series; it’s good but nothing ground-breaking.

Some of the action sequences are fairly creative given the abilities of Luffy and his friend Zoro fights holding two swords in his hands and a third between his teeth. However, I did not find the overall adventure very engaging. Maybe those that are more familiar with the show and the comics will have a lot more fun with this. I cannot imagine this film being enjoyed by those that do not care for anime or no nothing about “One Piece”. There are lots of other “One Piece” films out there but this is the first one so maybe at some point I will check out another one.