Digimon: The Movie

It's no surprise that Capitol Hill has been coming down so hard on the entertainment industry, especially when Hollywood tries to pass off overly violent swill like "Digimon: The Movie" as acceptable kids' entertainment.

In fact, about the only nice thing that can be said of this witless cartoon is that at least it's not as bad as "Pokmon: the Movie 2000," which also started as a Saturday morning cartoon.

(By the way, for those ready to write off the "Digimon" phenomenon as a knock-off of "Pokmon," it should be noted that in Japan, "Digimon" came first.)

But only thing that gives "Digimon" the slight nod here is the fact that most of the characters can talk somewhat intelligibly, instead of babbling in nonsense syllables like their "Pokmon" counterparts.

Otherwise, this is a big load of "DigiDoo-doo," with terrible animation and voice performances, as well as an incoherent story line that suggests the cast is simply making it up as they go along. (About the only clue that they're not is the fact that this is an animated film.)

And lest anyone mistake what the "message" of this film really is — after all, there are some rather half-hearted attempts to preach about unity — the underlying one is that you can use violence to solve problems.

The plot is made up of two separate stories that involve the "DigiDestined," young Earthlings who stop threats to both the real and digital worlds with help from their "digital monsters," or "Digimon."

In the first, Tai (voiced by series regular Joshua Seth) and his pals face their toughest challenge yet — a new Digimon called Diabormon, which seems to have hatched from a computer virus and that eats computer information for sustenance.

To make matters worse, Diabormon has seized control of most of the world's computer systems and is "Digivolving" into an even bigger, stronger form that may be impossible to defeat.

And in case the DigiDestined survive that experience, they still have to contend with a rogue Digimon that is kidnapping their older members — in an apparent attempt to coax its one-time master into a showdown.

To adults or to those unacquainted with the "DigiUniverse," the plot probably doesn't make a lick of sense. Of course, it's not really worth doing the research just to understand it.