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An expansive library of Pokemon Movies [22]

Henry Atkins
Feb 14, 2018
3 min read

The world of Pokemon is full of fantastic beasts and adorable animals in every shape, size, species and ability known to man! Within this amazing planet is also a plethora of theatrical movies based off the anime based off the video game. Over the years I've noticed a change in these movies which I wish to talk about.

[Released in 2017 and based primarily on the seventh generation of Pokemon, Sun and Moon in 2016 although based in Kanto of Gen 1]

How? How did they bounce back so well?

Although the same usual problems occur, skewed canonicity and what-not, it does better than all of the movies. I'm not kidding. Excluding MewTwo it has something that none of the other movies had.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!

Changes in design aside they changed a few story elements as well as improved Ash as a person more than the 20 years he's been on screen has.

The story starts like the first episode of Pokemon starts. Ash watching TV, dreaming about his first Pokemon and then eventually getting Pikachu. One difference being that Gary isn't Ash's rival although he is seen picking Squirtle.

A few more changes are just small ones that set this movie aside from the original episode such as the uninvolvement of Brock and Misty.

The movie (disregarding Misty) keeps to Ask's origin up until Ho-Oh. Oh yeah!

HO-OH HAS A MOVIE NOW!

It's never happened before. For some reason Ho-Oh has never had a movie or had any explanation for being in the first episode.

Now Ho-Oh has exactly the same story in the games as in the movies (excluding a bit about good and bad hearts and Ho-Oh now appears on a mountain rather than a Johto tower). To battle with a legendary Pokemon.

This serves as Ash's objective apart from being a Pokemon master which, for once, puts in his own words that it isn't just being the best Pokemon trainer but being friends with every Pokemon along the way.

So, to recap, Ash is a youthful trainer with large ambitions. A basic headstrong character kinda like Luke Skywalker who began wanting to go on adventures.

Ash's rival is no longer Gary (as aforementioned) and now the trainer who abandoned Charmander. This trainer is, Cross, is similar to Ash in his goals but believes that strength is everything rather than the friendship and trust trainers and their Pokemon share. Much like the shows morals but ultimately this is all the drive to Ash's character and his development.

Ash loses to Cross in a battle using Charmeleon and after hearing Cross's ideology he starts thinking about how Pikachu would have won that fight and starts pushing his friends away because of how he doesn't realise that in order to improve you have to lose. He forgets about the stuff the show is all about.

Of course no Pokemon movie is complete without another obligatory tradition of advertising for yet another Pokemon event offering a legendary.

Marshadow offers a form of story pushing as it gives Ash a dream about a world without Pokemon (Yes, this happens. It's exceptionally weird) to remind him of the bonds between Pokemon completing his change in character evolution and eventually becoming an unintentional final boss. It doesn't interact with the main characters much until the end keeping well out of the way of the main plot which was for the best. I'm just glad they didn't give it a squeaky voice and a cheeky personality.

The ending has a tiny twist (which most people would have found out by now) but something that's already happened in the first movie which I won't bother restraining myself on is that Ash dies.

After this movie ends there is a collection of different establishing shots of different but familiar places.

From the other movies.

This means-

A Canon EXISTS!

All this time I thought they were all completely disconnected! Although I do still believe that if we're counting the previous 4 movies which I'd rather forget exist.

As this is the final issue to this review series I'll top it off with the best Pokemon movies that I'd recommend Pokemon fans to watch. This isn't best to least but it is the best of the bunch:

Pokemon: The First Movie (1998)
Pokemon the Movie: 2000 (1999)
Pokemon the Movie 3: Spell of the Unknown (2000)
Pokemon: MewTwo Returns (2000)
Pokemon 4Ever (2001)
Pokemon Heroes (2002)
Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys (2004)
Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (2005)
Pokemon: I Choose You! (2017)