Point to make before carrying on. This review will not focus on this film alone, but will be an overview of the All Star Pretty Cure series of feature films, the transition to the Dream Star crossover concept, and the prospect for any effort which would give adequate airtime for a prospective seventy+ cast of legendary warriors. I chose Pretty Cure XD3: Deliver the Future! The rainbow-Colored Flower that Connects the World as the most solid storyline and most representative of the classic period of Pretty Cure, the three XD and three New Stage series. I would not say it would be the best overall. For a quick review, here would be the five best All Star Precure Movies (IMO) in the franchise, along with my rationale:
1) Hugtto! Precure Futari wa Pretty Cure: Memories. This movie celebrated fifteen years of Precuria. It was the best movie in the crossover-style period which offered a decent amount of time for all the cures to be seen. Granted that the first views were the fifty-some girls as toddlers. But identifying them at that age, along with the final scene of these fifty-some as normal girls, was half the fun. It returned to the technique of giving each precure team battling a legion of mini-clones of the villain Miden, from Kirakira Precure ala Mode back to Max Heart. Plus, it asked the important question: Who was your favorite Pretty Cure?
2) Pretty Cure All Stars: Singing with Everyone♪ Miraculous Magic! Introducing the Mahou Tsukai Precure, this movie was the first legitimate musical rendition of a Pretty Cure adventure. Again, it also was the first movie following the crossover concept of three recent Precure teams showcased, though a vast number of the then nigh to forty girls did make cameo appearances. It was the first movie to utilize a mass united Pretty Cure attack involving all the legendary warriors.
3) Pretty Cure All Stars GoGo Dream Live The five-minute short which explored the concept of the three established teams discovering each other (there are other cures other than us?) and combining forces to thwart evil. It would set the groundwork for all thirteen Pretty Cure movies which would follow.
4) This XD3 movie. Rational coming.
5) Pretty Cure All Stars: Spring Carnival♪ The last significant effort to offer the maximum amount of whack and attack for all the Precures from Max Heart to Princess Precure. Also, it is the only movie of this series which did not use the fabled Miracle Lights.
As for the XD-New Stage series, it represents the best of the classical approach to offering entertainment. They were highly structured, extremely formulaic. There is something to this, other than a flaw, a precursor to predictability. Madeline L’Engle in A Wrinkle in Time made this point about the sonnet. Highly structured in number of lines and type of rhythm. But beyond this, there is an unlimited possibility for the beauty and relevance the poem that would be created could offer. That was the charm of the six XD-New Stage productions. The most recent Precure team would be featured as they would introduce the new team. The collected transformation devices would reflect the latest technological/girlie craze and attendant fairies would integrate their skills as old cures meet the new cures, encounter the array of baddies from episodes gone by, come to the edge of defeat, and snatch the victory away from the super-transmogrified evil essence which just had to transform into the scariest form you could imagine. The miracle lights flash forth, and bodda bang, bodda boom, the girls end with a dance routine.
For your information, I would rank (IMHO) the six movies in this early run in this order: XD3, XD1, NS3, NS1, NS2, XD2. Feel free to differ.
But XD3 had the highest level of a hard-and-fast action. The All Star Precure from Max Heart to Suite Precure meet up with an All-Star collection of foes from Max Heart to Suite Precure. And the villains have a foolproof plan. Separate the Precure, particularly those who must transform while holding hands. The girls, scattered to the various realms they are fighting to preserve, find that the teams they could form would be adequate to the task. This was the feature of the XD movies, teamwork, while the New Stage emphasized friendship. It was the strength of these themes that drove all these seasons of Pretty Cure and would be a bastion for the continued success of the franchise.
With the coming of the need to de-clutter a cast of well over fifty girls into a manageable whole, the crossover concept was an unfortunate remedy. But there were good results with the approach (e.g. Pretty Cure Dream Stars!), but also lackluster (e.g. Pretty Cure Miracle Universe). For the future, I am sure Toei will continue the crossover of three recent Pretty Cure series for the ease of integrating all the characters. For a true All-Star movie to return, it would have to be an anniversary year. Bring on the big 20! But with the covid-hiatus hitting Healin’ Good Precure (ironic, isn’t it?), here’s hopes that the momentum of the series is not lost or forced to shorten … or worse.
I did say something about the BIG 20, didn’t I?
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