Top Ten Standalone Pretty Cure Movies
Here's another Pretty Cure-related list, this time about the standalone movies of each season (except the first, which didn't actually have a movie). This is a list that will talk about which Pretty Cure movies were the best over all of them, in terms of plot, interesting characters, etc. This will NOT be a list involving the Pretty Cure All Stars movies, as that was already covered in another list, but the standalone movies in this case referring to the particular Pretty Cure teams of a given season. I'll be using the most English name I can for each of these movies. Remember, no All Stars movies, however these movies have on occasion featured a team of Cures from a previous season, so they can still count.Star Twinkle Pretty Cure is not the best season out there, but it has by far the single best movie in my eyes. It's an incredibly wholesome movie where the two main girls, Lala and Hikaru, find an unidentified mysterious animal that came from a star drop that landed on Cure Milky one time.
This Star Drop grows and develops, forming a bond with both Hikaru and Lala. They end up going on a fun adventure together in more ways than one, teleporting around locations. The bond closes out exceptionally with a serene song.
It takes a while for the villains to make their appearance. Here, the villains are some random space hunters, but they are after UMA (what the girls named the alien), who becomes unstable and tries to destroy everything. You know that bond they shared? The Cures come together to make sure UMA, the Star Drop, calms down, and it's entirely wholesome. The Star Drop then becomes a wonderful planet by the end, which is a great way to end this awesome movie.
For the first season of the Yes! PreCure 5 team, they end up with the girliest premise, visiting a princess-themed amusement park with the best dresses while the fairies in human form get their princely clothes on. However, this isn't the main event of the movie.
What we have is the first instance of evil Pretty Cures, which is what ranks this high. The idea of evil Pretty Cures ends up becoming central to later seasons, and here, each Cure is pitted against their evil counterpart in mirror dimensions in incredibly difficult battles. Shadow, the main villain, seems to have the helm to himself to get all of the Pinkies for the Dream Collet for his own power but is thwarted by the Cures. This included Dark Cure Dream at some point, who was convinced by Cure Dream in their battle. Though Dark Cure Dream does not manage to live through it, she becomes a notable case of a villain turning good.
The first of two movies involving the Max Heart team may actually be the most developed movie overall. We have a neat little kingdom to explore after some fighting fairies challenge the Cures. These fighting fairies are some of the most interesting characters in any given movie.
The Dark Witch is still one of the most formidable foes in a Pretty Cure setting, being incredibly strong, cunning, and nearly killing both Cures and fairies alike. I gotta hand it to the fairies, though. Notably, the odd one out, Square, ends up being a much better character in the end despite his originally emo look. It also gives way to a nice trend of super form designs, and the original golden designs for Black, White, and Luminous are truly standouts.
DokiDoki PreCure is a season that has had many polarizing opinions, but its movie is easily one of the better ones. While the focus is again mostly on Mana, it explores an interesting part of her past - a dog that has unfortunately passed away but was reborn as a mysterious seer with a clarinet.
Of course, said clarinet hypnotizes the humanoid dog, abducts people, and makes them continuously relive good memories. The Cures get this treatment but find out about it and escape. Marshmallow (the dog's name) ends up battling Cure Heart, but as she receives a bloody attack, she proves to him that she's never forgotten about him. He joins forces with the Cures to defeat the clarinet.
It's also a sacrificial play by the spirit of the dog, and the spirit of the lost grandmother has also guided the Cures along. What prevents this from being #2 in my book is that Cure Ace's entrance into the movie came out of nowhere, and the Engage mode to Cure Heart was pretty strange. But hey, I like the movie, and I liked the wedding dress and the humor in the fake wedding scene.
This movie was completely over the top. The season that dealt with lots of sweets making just had to include a movie about an accomplished pastry chef, Jean Pierre, Cure Parfait's main mentor, who is corrupted by an actually evil fairy that wants to create the perfect sweet and essentially be absorbed by it.
The same sweet is also what turns the entire city of Paris into a candy land. So ridiculous, and the enemy also turns the Cures into different animal costume archetypes atypical of their own. Yet they do what's right to get out of it, with the help of the Maho Girls team, who have an interesting cameo here too.
Yet another movie that went over the top in just about everything, and yet another movie that dealt with sweet treats, once again in a kingdom full of them. Here, the main villain brainwashes the rulers of the kingdom and wants the sweets all to himself.
In this movie, we get to see the first instance of a villain from the season in it (this being Bunbee) and the first instance of the special treatment that the pink Cure gets, instead of giving all the Cures a specialized form. Here, we get Shining Cure Dream, who runs an epic swordfight against the villain Mushiban. He gets redeemed but doesn't live after it. Later movies would do the same thing by making the lead pink Cure the main focus and giving her the best super form, a point of contention for the fanbase.
Many fairies are often fan favorites, and viewers often wanted them to be Cures. Mofurun is no exception and is one of the best fairies franchise-wide. This movie makes Mofurun lucky enough to be granted a wish from the Wishing Stone until a black bear named Dark Matter ruins the whole festival and kidnaps Mofurun.
The Cures do what they can to get her back, and the main connection between Mirai and Mofurun allows Mofurun to assume a powerful Cure form. This is truly amazing for Mofurun to have, but it does end up short-lived due to a sacrificial play that ultimately makes her a normal teddy bear by taking Dark Matter's attack. Kumata, the bear that has Dark Matter in his body, manages to become good here and revives Mofurun. Together with the other Cures, they defeat Dark Matter.
The interesting thing about the Toy Kingdom in Fresh Pretty Cure's movie is that it showed up during the season itself, as Chiffon/Infinity was roaming around. In any case, this movie takes place primarily here, as Toymajin, a sentient toy who wants forgotten toys to be remembered, takes them all.
In the process, the Cures get to do multiple strange minigames as they navigate the Toy Kingdom for clues to Toymajin's main whereabouts. Central to the plot is Usapyon, a forgotten rabbit toy of Love's. Cure Peach, of course, gets the special Angel form as she battles Toymajin's ultimate form. This time, the scenario ends differently as she successfully convinces Toymajin that kids really do care about all their toys, making him the first movie villain to be truly redeemed in the end.
You'd think that two movies for one season would make things worse for at least one movie. Well, both movies actually weren't bad. They definitely went with the winter theme for this one, with the snow lodge the kids all go to as well as Frozen and Freezen, the two main villains who are obviously ice-themed.
The bird creature Hinata, who is based on the phoenix, is central to the plot, and the Cures do what they can to protect her from the freezing conditions the enemy tries to impose. The main highlight is, of course, how strong the duos are and how the villains try to fragment Cure Black and Cure White by turning them against each other.
While HeartCatch PreCure's movie is not on this list right now (I didn't care for it nearly as much), Tropical Rouge's main movie features them once again in a snowy environment, which is totally not what Manatsu expected with the climate. But it ends up being a kingdom of smiles, where the main princess, Sharon, is to be crowned the new queen in view of the visitors.
Yet this new queen wants more than just the crown. She wants everyone to stay here forever. The Tropical Rouge and HeartCatch Cures team up, discovering that the snow monsters regenerate. They find a way to Sharon's heart using the language of flowers and the ring that Cure La Mer received. Sharon may seem to be dying at this moment, but thanks to a song by Cure La Mer, this will be something for them to remember.