I too still remember the horror that was "Hey, You Pikachu!"... but I am still going to be looking into this game. "Hey You Pikachu!" was a great concept, but horribly, horribly executed in both graphics and gameplay. Pokemon Channel looks like it will be more than yelling at Pikachu to pick up a stupid apple for half an hour.
As a side note, does anybody think it's odd that neither of the upcoming Pokemon GC games aren't cel-shaded? I mean, with a popular cartoon series still on the air I would think that would be an obvious choice.