Pokémon: The First Movie (1999) review | Two Dudes Watch Cartoons podcast #60

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0:51 [Music] welcome back to another episode of two dudes oh you're gonna go yeah let me go do it real quick uh welcome back to another episode of two dudes watch cartoons my name is Evan and Alex is currently uh not in his chair because he's turning off his AC and he's coming back right now and I'm still going on the intro my name is Evan wow and my name is Alex and I'm back and today did you tell him anything oh you know this is okay Vamps for a little bit

1:37 okay today we're covering a classic this is something near and dear to my heart I'm a big old Pokemon fan we're covering Pokemon the first movie Mewtwo Strikes Back now my first question out of the gate for you Evan is it not so cocky to call it your movie Pokemon the first movie like you're calling it I'm gonna have a few calling your shot um that's not even my concern my concern is that it's so confusing whether I do I look up Pokemon in the first movie which is how you'll find it if you're looking for it on streaming services to locate the right one you want to look up Pokemon the first movie but then the subtitle has another subheader one which

2:24 is Mewtwo Strikes Back there's a title card that does not say the first movie within the movie and it says Mewtwo Strikes Back which then also makes me think then it almost alludes to a first strike when it makes me think of another 90s movie Jackie Chan's First Strike where they make like so like this was very confusing to me now and I imagine it was at the Times listen I think in America it was called Pokemon the first movie I think in Japan it was called Pokemon Mewtwo Strikes Back okay because if you think about it and one of the things we're going to discuss here shortly is the Japanese and the American one are different in the American one he's not really striking back too much like he's really the instigator more than anything

3:10 yeah so they were like we can't call it that it's just called Pokemon the first movie um it kind of gives me uh uh The Empire Strikes Back was Empire Strikes Back the first Star Wars movie no it's a new home okay that's that's what throws me off you know Star Wars and Pokemon you're completing the series too no because of the strikes back I think it's the second one it implies yeah that there was first that's right anyways yeah no no I get what you're saying I get what you're saying I get what you're saying um okay so first off Evan I I've been playing collecting Pokemon since the ripe age of like four or five what is

3:55 what is your relationship to the franchise so this movie came out in 1998. yeah I want to say the Pokemon itself hit the US in 96 or 97 it was when I was about first grade which would make sense if you were in kindergarten I remember collecting slash stealing Japanese Pokemon cards from a kid on my bus before us ones American ones came out um so yeah I I I will say it's the first game I played was red I believe the first version I I owned um and I played probably through the DS one that had Lucario Diamond and Pearl

4:41 yeah I haven't haven't Revisited it I haven't Revisited very fond memories in my heart uh nearest good this is better than I thought if I'm being honest I did I didn't even know you had that much history with it I knew you had a little history I have played every single Pokemon game I've watched the anime sporadically throughout the years sure um yeah I'm just all in on Pokemon so for me you know you want to know how near and dear right here in my desk yeah what do you got I think it wasn't as ready as you thought it was it wasn't readily as available as you thought it's a Mewtwo card from back in the day oh look at that what's the thing what's the [ __ ] they do I don't know yeah when they pull it out of the booster packs

5:26 that is what they do oh my God so a couple years ago before this might have been pre-pandemic but uh yeah I remember Pokemon cards were getting hot again I was like uh collectible items like ones you can invest in I bought this shiny Lugia card whoa for too much money and I planned to resell it and haven't gotten around to it well I think you're actually in luck because the Pokemon drawing card phases not died down by any means so yeah I think uh it has not like that wasn't a spike by any means yeah it's a whole thing though where you have to get them graded and I looked it up and the the Primo grading service in itself costs hundreds of dollars to do so it's all a money

6:14 [ __ ] grub yep and you know who's to thank for the Revival of Pokemon cards being cool YouTube I don't know who Logan Paul it's so annoying I know I know it was so annoying it's like I hate him but I love Pokemon so I uh I occasionally like when I'm bored or and near one will buy just a random pack of Pokemon cards and I'll just pull I'll sniff them you know I'll get that good high off those cards and then uh I just keep them or like uh like I I keep the cool ones sometimes I don't have one near me like you you had yours readily available okay but I have I have a like a Gengar statue that sometimes is in the back it's not there right now I got a Pokemon Blue little Cube which if you can see I that

7:00 was my first video game and I've just never looked back I've been playing every Pokemon game my mom says Pokemon helped me learn how to read like that's how young I was when I was playing so yeah I to me like this this was I'm not even trying to exaggerate like this was the Blockbuster event of my like like life as a kid like okay it was massive it was huge Evan it was high in marketing McDonald's kids meals everything they were on Pop-Tarts it's hard to explain yeah the craze that Pokemon was back then if you just weren't there he it was everywhere like even my mom could probably name you 10 different Pokemon and she's never touched the the

7:47 thing in her life just like 10 gently through me and my brother I guarantee she could name like you know five Pokemon off the top of her head yeah remember this uh with the movie premiere they would give out yep Mew yeah Pokemon cards that were glossy oh Evan you want to know you thought it would have value but it didn't understand marketing and promotions back then it was essentially worthless but as a kid you were like this is my most valuable possession Evan I had three I feel like I saw the movie multiple times in theaters and then I don't know how I obtained the third one but I remember like in my sleeve of cards I had boom boom boom in the top I was like I got the three [ __ ] confused probably the cool I think it was around the time when

8:33 this movie came out was the McDonald's Happy Meal which was like a shiny Pokeball that opened up and had a little gold it had a tiny Pokeball that literally felt at the time like what you would imagine a Pokeball oh that that's the other thing like Pokemon like I just want to hold a Pokeball is that so hard like is that so I know they sell them and make them like like realistic ones but it's not gonna open up and shoot a red laser out of it and it's not the same yeah imagine the whole of Twitter there's only one trending hashtag and and it's the whole world essentially yeah there's only one sorry we're coming hot off the tales of of Beanie Babies that those are the entire hot collect nice

9:19 you're crazy bones all that random [ __ ] I remember crazy uh pogs and [ __ ] okay but yes it's in that like so it was a video game first turned into a card game eventually adapted into an anime now most the time when you get like an anime that's based off of like a game of sorts like they're trying to like sell you something it can be so so now the Pokemon anime throughout the years has ebbed and flowed but I I think anyone who's a Pokemon fan would agree that the start is was its peak like it it's it captured lightning in a bottle it was because I I it's like a never-ending cycle like the

10:05 show made you want to get more cards and play the games and the games made you want to watch the show it was it was an endless feedback that they were prying on children's love of collecting things they told you there's 151 of them and they were like you gotta get them all and I was like [ __ ] yeah Pokemon pokedex book oh the first 150. loved it loved it loved it but so yeah this movie came out and I was like oh my God like I don't like it was it was time I don't know how to describe it it was so it was it was an event before events um and quick impression movie holds up [ __ ] hell yeah I I had a great time watching it and well I also think and

10:51 and while we've touched on it a little I watched a new version I I got you know 10 minutes of pre-movie that I've never seen before watching the Japanese one it was in English but it's the Japanese cut but um I had such a great time re-watching this I thought it held up very well in my opinion I mean it's not perfect by any means you can tell there's some parts of it that the people making the TV show weren't involved with the movie but very nitpicky stuff the overall Vibe of the movie was you know very pleasant in my opinion I enjoyed re-watching it so according to Wikipedia at least it is considered a a box office success worldwide It's gotta be uh topped the

11:37 charts on its opening weekend grossed 172 million at the worldwide box office sold 10 million home video units in the US Home Videos yeah those were popular too and I mean 172 million it for 30 years ago is is a considerable amount yeah it's doing the superhero number franchises with inflation so um with the with the with the um I lost my train of thought oh the the TV show in the movie like obviously it's the same characters and everything but what I liked about the movie is you really could like it's not ruining any plot points in the TV show it's not spoiling

12:23 anything really Ash doesn't even really go through like his full lineup of Pokemon he doesn't you know what I mean so he could be at any point in his journey I really enjoyed how eight which is probably something I would complain about most anime movies nowadays like oh it had no connection to anything but for some reason I was like this is just a slice of that [ __ ] feeling of watching Pokemon as a kid again bottle that up let me drink it I I am curious uh I I do feel like Pokemon in the early 90s is sort of on the early side of anime becoming a huge thing in the U.S I think you're yeah yeah I think Germany was like the first wave Dragon Ball but then is getting a whole generation of kids watching anime

13:10 there's times I don't even classify it as anime like I I have it it's a Saturday morning cartoon it was this yes you're sure it was a Saturday morning cartoon it's so different to me but it is Anime and it's got all the classic anime tropes Brock is is a little bit of a perv which is so anime like horny he's a little too horny he has although it is one of my favorite funny lines of the thing it said right at the beginning they get the uh you know it's like the Obi-Wan uh Princess Leia message and he goes wow she's small but she's cute like what what are you talking about dude um from uh from uh programming Executives standpoint anime probably seemed like a

13:58 never-ending wealthy it's like 100 episodes of Seasons [ __ ] sucking me up you're so right they're like what do you wait how many episodes do you already have we just gotta get if English voice is over them yeah we can do that we can do that oh you're so either they're like it's already made yeah oh you're so right that's so funny it was because it is especially in those early days of anime the the seasons are so long like compared to American television yeah what was uh what's like the most recent um Pokemon you've watched and played because yeah you've oh I mean I play all the time actually I I like I'm I'm I was most recently replaying

14:43 um Sapphire which is a great game one of my favorites in my opinion so on the Game Boy Advance I got an old Game Boy Advance that I just sit around and play sometimes um but I recently I so I have been out of the Pokemon anime I've like occasionally put it on like when I take naps sometimes so most recently who um Netflix owns the American distribution rights to Pokemon so the new episodes of Pokemon come through Netflix of all places um so I will occasionally cycle through the new ones they were pretty boring me maybe it's just because I'm an adult now but so um I tuned back in most recently I was watching it in Japanese for the first time ever when Ash hit the World Tournament here and uh it was the best

15:29 of the best tournament uh players and he finally you know he he did it he became the Pokemon right yeah yeah so I got some complaints about it well we're talking about it let's talk about it so I am glad he won you know from the very beginning it was I wanna be the very best like no one ever was dude and he did that he ended on that note which was so good but so before the tournament started they're like going through Ash's history of all his best Pokemon like Charizard shows up they're like Snorlax is here again oh his Greninja from when he did yeah oh oh all these great what but free sadly did not make an appear was people were pissed I thought Butterfree was

16:16 gonna show up with his wife I don't know and kids like that would have been pretty great but they're going through Ash's Hall of Fame and he doesn't use any of them in the final tournament he just uses the Pokemon he caught most recently and it actually was a big pet peeve of mine I was pissed why show us them why are you teeing this up if I'm not gonna see them battle again yeah sounds like a very uh like a Disney empty MC remember these guys yeah it was like they were cameos and it was like oh sick are they gonna be in the final fight and they're like no they were just cameos it's the Multiverse events yeah so I um like I said I've been in and out of the Pokemon anime but I uh I

17:02 was faithful to it for way longer than I should have been as a child I kept watching it in secret what's the isn't there like an open world Pokemon with like the motorcycle one yeah that's the most recent game yeah I was I was playing that I beat that but so I I'm a classic replayer I really like the old games it's one of the things the new so we're talking about oranges while we're here the new Pokemon has a different animation style and it's just not the same it doesn't hit the same as that gold the 2D I want the old 2D and I feel the same way about the games at some point in the games I think like generation five or six they turned all the Pokemon into 3D models and I missed their old 2D Sprites that they used to have they were iconic 3DS yeah yeah it

17:49 was somewhere in that era but the 3D ones that are lackluster in my opinion the lose a lot of flavor on some of the Pokemon come on sure um now you you hummed a little bit of it earlier but we gotta touch on the greatest theme song of all time it's probably one of the most well-known I think even people who haven't watched the show could sing you most if not all the theme song like on perfect par it's so iconic how did you feel so in this movie obviously there's maybe a scene or two beforehand you know there's a little bit of an intro uh to the movie hip-hop one it's like the r b ooh he's

18:36 kind of into it I yeah I was gonna say I did not hate it I think normally I don't know maybe I'm just really coming at this with rose-colored glasses because I do think nine times out of ten I'd be like it was cheesy just give me the real one but I liked it I really liked it I was singing along with it I was like yeah and the fight was fun I'm totally I was in I was totally in this one had an interesting soundtrack there's a song later yes I know exactly what you're talking about when the song at the end of the movie starts playing I was like I was like is this my phone I was like what is this is this a match at all um well so I mean we can talk a little bit about it about it uh you said you

19:22 watched the the Extended Cut and yeah I had to go looking for the extra scene so I just ran this off Amazon this Pokemon the first movie it didn't even include the animated short that I know I saw in theaters which was called Pikachu's vacation which it's 20 minutes long it's insane it's not short and it's a whole Adventure it's just them going it so they get uh a couple of the Pokemon get dropped off at Pokemon daycare while Ash and Brock and Missy goes do something and it's just you know they're uh competing with the other Pokemon at the daycare and it's 20 minutes long it's a classic rival non-verbal Antics so what I love about this and they do it in the movie is they are

20:08 slowly introducing that there's more than 151 yes yeah Togepi he's the first one in the TV show that shows up in this movie they're like here's Merrell here's snub snuff snubble uh and then in the and then they show Don van and it's like well as a kid you're like what's going on you're like trying to count you're like I'm at 159 now speaking of vacation you just got back from like a vacation did you not I did yeah how was it it was amazing probably the best vacation I've ever been on in my life went through Spain Barcelona Madrid and ended in Portugal Lisbon and uh just did things in each City went to Art Museums went on a boat tour with dolphins was was amazing it

20:55 was like I was in my own Pokemon Adventure if I'm being honest traveling the countryside Pokemon go no work is that yeah people still do that Evan not only do people still do that people are still obsessed with it it has a huge cult following still and to be fair the game's gotten a lot better like there's more you can do now besides just walking around and catching Pokemon like when we were into it um there are I know people in my life that have never picked up Pokemon until Pokemon go and now they're like faithful Pokemon fans it's really weird that's incredible and it's a huge Money Maker for them this Pokemon is who's spending money all Evan Evan the mobile gaming Market

21:41 is a huge Money Maker this was 2016 2017. Pokemon go find something new to do just kidding uh if you love Pokemon go I'm happy for you yeah we actually get into it I'd start walking around more that was one thing I was in Europe I was like I need to walk more because I was walking everywhere and I was like yeah so they're also uh healthy and can live forever and smoke cigarettes and I was about to say how do they all smoke cigarettes every single person there was smoking cigarettes and they all looked so cool and healthy and thin yeah I didn't um before we dig into the movie though yeah tell me about this Extended Cut I

22:26 mean I did go I did go back and find it to watch it but it is here's what's the sick part is I haven't visited this movie in a number of years like like a long time maybe in college I watched it at some point randomly with someone you know drunk High whatever I knew instantly that I had never seen any of this before like I texted you right away and I was like something's wrong but I was like I don't know why I thought I was watching a different movie I don't know but so it starts off with the people that are experimenting on Mewtwo with them trouncing through the jungle trying to find a very um you know like Jurassic Park style they're trying to find the DNA of Mew to create the Clone there's a narration of like why they're doing it

23:11 and Mew is really cutely following them but staying out of sight the whole time my favorite trait of Mew so I loved watching that and it's this beautiful jungle scene and we see all these different Pokemon and the narration is like Giovanni has hired us to do this but he's like but that's not my goal like it gives this whole subplot to the guy who's a professor who is cloning you about how he's trying to bring his daughter back Amber who is her name and so there's this whole part where Mewtwo psychically connects with Amber and three dark it's dark Evan yes this is what I'm saying I was shook by this so I I'm saying I bet you there's a lot of people who have never even heard or known anything about this like myself but so then the three of the Amber the

24:00 three starter Pokemon which are clones indicated by their drawings and Mewtwo baby Mewtwo I think it's important to note it's a small Mewtwo it's really cute they go on this psychic Adventure through town and they are connecting and they learn about each other and eventually like they just start dying because the Clones aren't viable that the you know they're they're testing them they're not great at this yet so slow the the starter clones start dying and they're like oh no we're losing them but Mewtwo's the strongest one of them all that's kind of his whole gig but so Amber then is like slowly dying and Mewtwo starts crying and he doesn't understand what's going on you know these are his first interactions shaping him as a being as a thing a person identity and real life what is it what

24:46 is like he's like what is this what sci-fi [ __ ] so existential he's asking all the big questions and then he's crying and the girl was like my mom used to tell me that Pokemon tears contain life which [ __ ] explains the end of the movie and for years 30 years as soon as she said that line I was like why would anyone think to cut this out and so I I've read an article where American execs looked at the movie and said we can't have kids sympathize with Mewtwo he's the villain so they cut it so they wow they cut it and the movie starts with just just Mewtwo having a rage out of his machine

25:34 flying off no explanation you know they it adds so much context to the movie it's unbelievable and I was really moved it was really it's a really great scene it's intense yeah I recommend if you're a fan of the movie just going and checking it out I think you can find it on YouTube it's like 10 11 minutes long it was uncut story of Mewtwo's origin is what you can search it's great it was so I love it added so much to the movie in my opinion it made me finally sympathize with Mewtwo like we should and yeah what was also [ __ ] up is like Muse known this whole thing's been going on since the jump he's been watching just kind of watching I don't understand mew's game and this is why they did it is they didn't want people

26:20 being like hmm about their villain and hero oh it was just a benevolent Force yeah I think that's what they're going for is he doesn't intervene unless he really like has to but so that's the opening and then we get to the original movie he they're they're coming up on there's a picnic and Ashley's like I'm starving I haven't eaten since breakfast one thing I I will say is the movie's hilarious objectively there's so many funny lines throughout the whole movie and it doesn't matter if it's like an intense moment a down moment they will throw the goofiest [ __ ] at you do you do you have any lines that you stick out to you just off the top of your head I got a couple if you don't remember no I was kind of half watching while I was working but I did want to say uh about the extended Cuts oh oh

27:08 yeah okay the Amber clone is called Amber two oh [ __ ] up Amber two Squirtle two Charmander two it gave me Full Metal Alchemist Vibes oh is it one of the first it's one of the first couple episodes where Nina yeah yep the dog clone [ __ ] yeah I just recently it's pretty dark it's dark dude it's so it but um they thought I'm American audiences couldn't handle it so they cut it here's the thing I I still don't think it worked because I have a like the the American executive's decision oh oh of not wanting us to sympathize with me too because you do by the end and I have I I have like this vague recollection of like me too is pretty [ __ ] bad yes by

27:54 the end of this movie oh yeah like even if it's like a seven-year-old um so they did a bad job of that I think well that's because that is in the state is 98. so they yeah then it goes into the the movie we all know and love and saw in theaters uh YouTube's [ __ ] robot armor suit so [ __ ] cool when he's taking on all the when Giovanni has him just being a gym leader unbeatable uh it is it's really fun to watch because we get a clip of Gary his rival sending in two Pokemon against him and Mewtwo just [ __ ] tanks them I is like just as any anime fan you love a character when you're like man they're overpowered what how

28:40 are they gonna how they gonna do this you know what I mean and that is Mewtwo yeah yeah what the [ __ ] was Giovanni's accent did you notice yeah it is it's like a half committing to an English accent but not really I can I I remember as a kid thinking he had an accent but you're right it's like not really it's very very skately there and maybe it's just because I'm 30 now but he just does not sound menacing whatsoever he sounded scary Evan's like I could beat up Giovanni I really think I think yeah but so yeah he's with Giovanni and then he [ __ ] bounces from there when he realizes Giovanni's just using him the

29:25 one thing Giovanni did like such a heel turn he was like we could be partners and then like a couple months later he's like no you work for me you idiot whoa dude obviously that's not what you sold him on like really bad business tactics one thing that maybe it's a minor critique of movie I think the media jumped from the Mewtwo intro sequence to there's the picnic scene and then essentially the mysterious best trainer in the world is like the very next scene summoning all these trainers like okay I know that's whatsoever um so you know if if I had a note as a Warner Brothers executive maybe you like

30:12 maybe spread those scenes out maybe you cut the scene ready I think we fixed it right here the scene of Mewtwo fleeing Giovanni you leave for a flashback so you think in the middle of the movie so you think it's Giovanni and then you realize it's actually been Mewtwo this whole time and he's like I betrayed that idiot that dweeb that's great I'm gonna cut the movie that way and make it yeah I think it'll be so much better you got to include the intro because the interest is yeah but I see what you're pitching um but I love once again so they get the invite I love this Dragonite I feel like I did not like the Pokemon Dragonite until this messenger boy one shows up and he's just like like he's great oh this you know what

31:00 good time let's let's do this now Evan on record what is your favorite Pokemon favorite Pokemon poof um I don't know do you have one off off yeah I got a two I usually bounce between but I'll I'll stick to one for the podcast because I asked the question okay my favorite is Gengar I love Gengar I got a little statue of him over here yes Snorlax is also tied for my favorite I love Snorlax also interesting okay I don't if I'm trying to think what's coming first thing that comes to mind like boom favorite Pokemon uh probably something it might be me too me too is [ __ ] bad that's great

31:45 that's a great answer I take that playing here you like YouTube oh he is fun in Smash do you like Mewtwo more than Mew yeah because you never get to use Mew for anything oh I love Mew that's kind of the Mystique of Mew I've only had one in a game ever and you have to catch it via like cheating so it's like I think me too because probably because of these movies he's like such a compelling character he's got a backstory he's got motivations he's got this deep contemplation of what what life is tensions and birth and also they've really milked this one storyline because there's Mewtwo Strikes Back uh the 98 you know movie that was awesome Netflix redid it there's a 3D eyes version and

32:32 also this is essentially the plot of detective Pikachu like you know granted they sub out Ash for foreign and I'm sure they'll they'll hit it again sometime soon but it's a great storyline so yeah um Mewtwo invites all the best trainers to an island but then also creates a storm to be like only the best of the best can come also so the the movie starts with him fighting maybe another trainer the Don with the guy with the Don fan and even in Pikachu's vacation we have ashes Charizard back if I remember correctly at some point Ash parted ways with Charizard Charizard stays in the midst of the valley of

33:20 Charizards do his thing what's great about Charizard and we get hints of it in this movie is Ash is not high enough of a trainer to actually control Charizard Charizard's unruly and we'll do whatever it wants and it kind of makes a really fun Dynamic and I honestly think it's like why I love Charizard I think I would have only liked Charizard instead of loving Charizard if uh we didn't get this rendition of him who's always like not doing what Ash says would you say the Netflix series has continues those sorts of characterizations for other Pokemon outside of Pikachu or not yeah because there was like Squirtle yeah Squirtles the Squirtle Squad so when they're like cheering up toke people I

34:05 loved Squirtle tries like to make the funny face and it looks scary and Bulbasaur's like the caretaker like it was in the show so yeah I would say in the newer anime they still give characteristics to most of the team not all of the team usually will get like like he had a Gengar and a Dragonite this last one they had big they had big personalities really knew what they were like okay um random thought uh maybe design wise Infernape is probably my favorite oh come on oh Infernape is one of the one of the better fire starters too I really liked it okay that's a good one I'll take that I will take that pick

34:51 um okay so we're circling back to my funny line though Team Rocket shows up they do their typical Team Rocket thing they're in disguises and they're like we'll get you over to the the place and they were like wow I didn't know that there was Vikings in this part of the world and they're like yeah Ash goes yeah they're normally in Minnesota that is comedy gold oh yeah like is that maybe one of the few like few one-liners just randomly thrown in there yeah I I remember the show ever doing any sort of reference comedy like that no never any reference comedy off guard but sometimes when they when a joke doesn't always have the like a solid translation to

35:38 English sometimes the translators will just have fun with it and those yeah Yu-Gi-Oh is one that I I notice will often do it because they oftentimes aren't showing their mouth either so they're like we could say whatever we want right now sometimes yeah oh I've been watching was there ever movies I'm sure there's a couple movies yeah yeah yeah yeah well we can do that but so Yu-Gi-Oh would always the the the voice actors would just be like cracking jokes or bits off the line but so I lost it when Ashley was like yeah they're usually in Minnesota because like well I probably didn't understand that joke at all as a kid like way over my over my head in the cuts the extended scene there was the the Clone versions of the starters yeah question for you you're

36:24 playing you know you plug in Pokemon Blue I'm plugging in Pokemon Red yeah who are you going with it's so tough It's so tough I'll give you my answer it it's it's divided but I have a definitive answer Squirtle was the first ever Pokemon I picked it's the first ever Pokemon I had as a kid I'm obsessed with Squirtle and uh Blastoise like love them that being said over the years as I've grown up Charmander Charmeleon Charizard are pretty badass I think if I'm starting it up right now if I'm starting especially Pokemon blew up I'm going with Squirtle I go I go with my roots what about you um I I think I would lean Squirtle yeah

37:10 yeah Squirtle squatter and unfortunately it's both I don't the worst of the original Three in my opinion the worst I don't hate Bulbasaur but of the three he gets lost like I do love a little solar beam I love the moment uh Bulbasaur gets thrown up flat you know thrown up high enough that we see the sun in the shot and then he shoots the solar beans that was like in Man of Steel when yeah art gets blasted into outer space or no maybe it's uh yeah it's great it is totally I feel like the anime will oftentimes make me like Pokemon more than I do just from the games Ash's Bulbasaur I love a lot more than

37:56 just a regular old Bulbasaur yes I agree so we agree on starters we uh we've gone through favorites oh last okay last one if you were a gym leader what type of Pokemon do you think you would you would uh specialize in what was that guy's name Lieutenant Lieutenant Serge yeah he was a lightning type trainer he was just the coolest guy of anyone else when I was younger all right you're gonna be a lieutenant surge I got you electricity is good I I gotta go with Ghost type I think that leans because I love Gengar yeah ghost yeah yeah yeah they're always they're always fun and tricky and and good so um okay okay we got that out of the way uh back to the movie you can't think okay let's uh they get to the island I mean they get to the island and very quickly

38:43 they realize something is amiss like Brock's I don't even know what to call it his his radar was like you're the cute girl I saw in the poster like he's always like which it's so funny because the joke is all nurse Joys look the same so when he looks at the the PO the missing poster he's like hmm looks familiar which it's like it's a joke to be like oh he looks like all the other nurse Joys but he's referring to the one girl he saw in the holographic message earlier it's it's pretty it's good huge it's pretty good like before as as far as anime pervs go Brock is one of the funnier ones and he's one of the more polite ones honestly yeah when

39:29 so a storm whips up and when Mewtwo you know Mewtwo is the one we don't know it's mew two who don't know plot wise oh [ __ ] oh your camera just went dark Mewtwo took Mewtwo struck back we got two struck back I forgot I have I have this new camera what happened hand signal so I can turn my camera no I think I'm supposed to be able to this is uh so we're gonna have to record a new ad because I'm no longer using whatever the other one was it the Lumina I I have purchased I don't know if the drawing one works hmm

40:14 thank you uh um anyways when Mewtwo is he's like swish like he's like it looks like he's swishing wine essentially yeah but he's making the waves go and menacing they do a good job all right let's see if this one works are you seeing that on your screen yes yes this is we always have a plug go watch our YouTube Evan just give himself a mustache he just gave himself a drawn on mustache I can't make this up I can't make this up go watch our YouTube And subscribe turn that off so I don't do that again that really menacing as a villain and they set it up so cool I wish they would have saved the [ __ ] flashback before you wish yeah they yeah yeah they uh

41:01 it's like to test the strongest trainer so like one flies one gets on his Gyarados once again Gyarados is just a Pokemon I like as soon as I see him in the anime I'm like I love that [ __ ] that was like he's so [ __ ] cool I was like this guy is so menacing just a staring at Gyarados in the face would terrify you so the writing and Ash and Misty and Brock are like our Pokemon aren't strong enough to do that I feel like you weren't supposed to make it to the island then I'm gonna be honest like oh addressed to me [Music] I do are Jesse and James in you know

41:48 still current in the in the newer seasons of the show they're still right here I mean they're they're gonna retire with Ash there's there's some new episodes out and they're not in the new ones but yeah they uh they said their final uh send-off uh on um yeah when when Ash took off they were with him the whole time what was this Team Rockets what blasting Team Rockets blasting off again okay uh classic that happened like every single episode we got it in the movie uh they it's so funny to me because they're like quote-unquote villains but we follow them as if they're protagonists and they're so bad at their job that they never feel like a threat they get Ash to the island they helped Ash you're right like what is their purpose like I don't

42:36 understand what they're like comedic relief I don't know yeah Meowth is pretty funny Meowth is like this cooking took last time you cooked took down eight of my nine lives laughs I butchered it but it was pretty good yeah yeah was that in the movie or just no yeah you said that in the movie I feel like the movie I mean the movie itself must be pretty short without Pikachu's vacation without the Extended Cut it's like 80 in Wikipedia 75 minutes in and out in and out apparently loved that they were like oh it's over thank God laughs that's that's like a bonus to me dude I agree more time it saves people

43:22 were complaining on on Instagram that we were bitching about The Little Mermaid time we were just Pro shorter movies it's not that we were has nothing efficiency yeah get your plot in and out although I will say I do think the first 10 minutes are necessary I I I will never look at the movie the same literally for the ending scene because the ending scene was just mumbo jumbo magic until we now know the description like it's so contextualizing so we we show up and Mewtwo's like I'm the best Pokemon trainer in the world and I'll prove it and so he like gets out his clothes the veil is lifted very abrupt that's what I'm saying but I do love that they're all like

44:10 there's only a second of like you're a Pokemon like they really just kind of roll with it after they like there's no like this is crazy that if Pokemon's talking and attacking us and invited us here yeah so he challenges all of the the Pokemon trainers and of course they use the same poke what you see he's throwing in a Charizard let the Blastoise girl go what the [ __ ] are you guys doing you're supposed to be Pokemon Masters here idiots yeah I love the design though of the starter ones with the of the Clones they have all those things on them and I think the biggest missed opportunity is not giving every single one of the Clones their own like design because they were the only three clones that had those designs I thought they were sick it was all three of the the final

44:57 evolution final evolution starters yeah and they looked so badass they should have done trading cards of those those are a zillion bucks these missed operations pretty sweet speaking of trading cards do you remember the the Pokemon Trading Card video game hell yeah I do my Uncle Jimmy played that thing religiously it's yeah yeah dude it was so fun though it was a blast the trading card based on a game videos classic gaming company they're just like we're gonna make us and and I've played so many of the spin-offs Pokemon Ranger Pokemon pinball like in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon I I'll eat it up any I'm

45:43 obsessed I really am I this is my time to let it shine so the Clone stuff is really it's compelling though for this movie that is like it's real deep critically bombed but was the box office success we'll get to that in a little bit it needs to be its own topic of discussion because we can't just throw it in there uh but it's it's super compelling stuff Honestly by the time me too flies off at the end Having learned this lesson this time around watching and I was like this is like essentially the uh one division like Vision 2.0 storyline yeah it's like I'm off to explore the meaning of life it's so good it's it because it's a very clear especially with the beginning

46:30 how someone got the way they were what they were doing and them learning a lesson very clearly and distinctly and like the whole thing is very existential like if I'm a copy that's his big thing he never says clone he always says like copy like it's like a derogatory term and so he's like he's like if I'm just some copy like what does that make me like what is life like if I was brought into this world just as an experiment it's very like what is my purpose like why do why do I exist five-year-olds should not be grappling with these theories in all honesty Mewtwo in this movie is [ __ ] Magneto yeah I can see it he's off to go he's trying to make krakowa or whatever

47:16 wait I I can't believe we missed it the island is just called New Island it's like the most original name they're like what do we call this new island she's calling New Island a lot of these names thinking back Lieutenant surge Brock The Rock Brock Rock mystery leader like Mist water which of the trio is your favorite character what like a little Annoying um so Misty I guess this is your favorite what was Misty's backstory she was like the youngest of seven or some [ __ ] the youngest I think she has two older sisters they run the gym they're like beauty queens and and their whole thing in the beginning was Ash stole her

48:02 bike to get away from all the Pharaoh and then it got electrocuted and destroyed so the whole beginning of the series is her just being like I'm not gonna leave you alone till you buy me a new bike and then they become the best of friends that's the thing we see Ho-Oh early on in the series the first ever new Pokemon they announced was in the first episode of the show they were like teasing with that 152. mind you we were six yeah or seven or five six or seven at the time yeah a shared universe [Laughter] or two superhero brained out wow there's more Pokemon out there than even the professor knows about like what yeah

48:47 and that was like when so it was like ho ho and then Togepi and it was like what the [ __ ] this isn't in the Pokedex what do you mean like it was amazing so um we uh back to the movie though Mewtwo wins his battles and he goes by default that means I get all of your Pokemon never in the agreement he uses these balls that just this were those master balls I mean you know they're like new balls that you never see them in any other media this is an example of if it was the the TV show people making it I bet these are just master balls but these guys were like but I will say this ball flying around scene catching all the Pokemon it's maybe my favorite scene in the movie I really like this

49:33 it's fair it's like the it's the action sequence set piece that leads into uh sort of the final confrontation and we get Ash so reckless with his own physical well-being at one point he jumps off the spider the top off the Spire I thought he was I swear when he jumps off there was not water oh my God well the visual gags are on today ladies and gentlemen evidence zoomed in yeah that's how you turn on the camera tracking or the face tracking so anyways this is why I gotta record a new ad it's because I'm no longer using the Luna

50:19 great great camera but the opal C1 is a lot of fun you can do weird [ __ ] like that um I gotta turn that one that was hilarious Evan and I are wannabe movie critics we're also wannabe chefs we're all doing more cooking at home now if you want to elevate your home cooking you need nice tools to do it Louie kitchenware will get you there they have beautiful stainless steel pans non-stick bakeware nice all the stuff you need save high quality materials constructed to last made in the United States founded in Detroit moving into my condo we got hand-me-downs so this new Louis kitchenware has been great and we love the discount we want to share that with our listeners you can use code two dudes as two dudes Louis kitchenware.com and

51:06 that'll give me 10 off anything on the site check out our Lake and bio [Music] Ash jumps off a [ __ ] spire and I swear when he jumps there is definitely not water no the water was there the whole time I was like oh this dude just killed himself he does he like no regard for his well-being he's like so this is my question is we've saw the lengths he was willing to go to as P for Pikachu how how would you feel if you were any other Pokemon on Ash's team I know yeah every other he says I'm not gonna let you get away with Pikachu Pikachu from

51:52 me after all of his other brothers his entire party has been stolen at this point it's crazy um it is sort of a nice touch meta story wise that the the the resolution lies in the relationship between Ash and Pikachu was it Pikachu's tear that yeah Pokemon well it was first Pikachus but then all the other Pokemon joined in then they all give him help him make a Spirit Bomb to bring in actions yeah that's what happened because the Pokemon's tears have life as Amber II told us which you know would have been great to know before it would have been great so again I was watching this half watching this while I was working I had to rewind the last bit because you were like how'd that happen

52:38 yeah what's going on here type an email real quick and then rewind it again second time through after I didn't know figure out what was going on it's like whatever no there's no explanation so but so uh in the so he catches all their Pokemon he clones them very fast gets the Clones out and then precedes the final battle where every Pokemon takes on its own clone in a fight to the death which we don't see too often in Pokemon yes and and uh this is part of the soundtrack thing that I wanted to bring up it cuts to this weird like acoustic guitar song it's like brother brother oh my God it was so out of place it

53:23 really took me um such a [ __ ] hilarious creative choice this is 1998 a movie for uh my brother six-year-olds no it was like yeah it was like I don't want to feel like we are the world songs in it yeah oh that is so funny because I literally was like what is this so I thought it was not yeah part of the movie I thought it was something separate because it was like in a weird time too like it's hard to describe it's a peak of the action and then like right after that too it sort of just goes right into like Pokemon battle music again or not battle music but it's like intense film score interest interest I would

54:09 who decided this so but then this battle one thing I love about this is all the Clones are fighting each other not a single one of them are using like flamethrower thunderbolter oh ice beeps [ __ ] girl oh let's just grappling each other and smacking each other the Pikachu slap battle is so it's it's like in retrospect I was like moved to tears as a child but watching it now this is pretty funny I just Googled Pokemon the first movie soundtrack uh okay it's gonna run through some names on here uh for you Aaron Carter no no Tina Aguilera what I don't know if this is a famous person but it

54:54 seems familiar Billy Piper and sync 98 Degrees What vitamin C as we go on we remember uh let's see what else we got that's a crazy soundtrack but Pokemon's always had this kind of like they're making songs with like Katy Perry and post Malone now Britney Spears Bewitched I can't think of the bewitched song but I know yeah it's escaping me is it at the end maybe I don't know um I think it's the end credit song what the [ __ ] yeah that's a pretty star-studded musical stacked this is like like I said though they they have people making songs that are unrelated to Pokemon but they just have like a Pokemon cover on them now and

55:39 they're like you gotta put Pikachu in your music video um but so yeah they're they're fighting each other to the death Ash is like no oh there's a funny scene when Ash comes up with all the Clones out of the smog and he's like I'm gonna take you on myself and he just goes and tries to punch Mewtwo like dog what you can't even punch a Metapod what are you thinking right now he gets [ __ ] caught in the middle the blast between Mew and Mewtwo it turns I love Stone I love the visuals is that what you're about to say yeah but I love well this of the psychic bed yeah also oh okay the the amount of like childhood

56:25 fulfillment of seeing um Mewtwo's [ __ ] psychic while realized in Super Smash Bros melee it's a valuable thing you were like so [ __ ] you're like this is the only reason I played Mewtwo is to throw these balls yeah not a great character to play a little bit nerfed but but so fun for that reason alone I forgot he turned to stone as well he turned to stone I love when they're both in their psychic balls and they're just clashing with each other it looks great those final battles you know the clone Pokemon aren't doing anything important but the the psychic battle is Top Notch the final battle though he turns to Stone and like you said it comes back to like Mewtwo can't comprehend that a trainer he's like you've enslaved these

57:12 Pokemon they're they're not you're they're not your friends YouTube can't comprehend but you know what I was just making fun of Ash's punch earlier it part of that was like wow he's not just sending the Pokemon at me he's like willing to take me on himself to try to save the Pokemon and like I said if they're all so moved by Pikachu and and uh Ash's relationship that uh it moves them all to tears C'est La Vie is the bewitched song I think that's their big hit wow um an Irish girl group but anyways final battle as far as it goes 10 out of 10. I thought it was perfect I loved it um not that I've seen the like this anime series or the original you know

57:59 like the 90s Seasons or episodes of it in a while but it is very evident looking watching this movie like that the jump in like quality and sort of like cinematography of the movie yeah yeah is is a little more fleshed out and there's more thought and put into it and I love that about like you get that with the Digimon movie like seeing that jump as a kid is so cool to see it elevated like that I agree like at the time this was the best you know Pokemon battle we've ever seen there's probably better ones now but like you like at the time this was this was Peak um and you know we're not done yet but they follow it up with another Banger of a movie I almost thought we should do a double header I was like oh it's cover it Pokemon 2000 was [ __ ] sweet what

58:46 are with these names Pokemon the first movie Pokemon 2000 like super confusing gives you no frame of reference well maybe that's the point is that it implies no beginning or like no time no no no other than I mean two thousand is Dave you can just sort of watch one you don't have to watch them subconsciously yes okay okay I mean there's sort of plot elements that you need to know but you don't need to know yeah I got you okay so at the end here the reason this battle is so great is because of the stakes and then at the end Mewtwo it's really great he was like he asked you a question Mew goes ew and he goes I see now that the this is It's just so funny because he goes into this

59:32 like model he goes after Mew just goes because I see now that the circumstances of one's birth don't actually equate it it is what you do with the gift of life that gives you meaning and it was like whoa you got all that from what he said that a little bit it's literally the conversation between vision and vision 2.0 yeah okay yeah I can see it I see the a pitch I mean we've pretty much wrapped up I guess the movie oh oh the movie ends with Mewtwo [ __ ] MIB Men In Black memory wiping all of them I this was interesting to me because I feel like this is such a a way to be like um this hey uh this this never happened in the TV show like you know what I mean

1:00:18 like oh they don't even remember it so hit me as hard as Spider-Man no way home he remembered it was classic though because I don't remember the memory wipe as a kid but he was like it's probably best you have no mem recollection of these events and I was like whoa dude he wiped their memory but this just shows you let's I want to run through real quick Mewtwo's Powers he's got telepathy telekinesis memory wiping mind control CL cloning if you include technology like he's he's pretty Unstoppable if he chooses to be that's why ah power of anime you take an Unstoppable Foe and you have to win them over with the power of friendship

1:01:05 I love it yes God damn it yeah that's summed up 90 of your anime anyone who's trying to watch anime excuse me yeah don't need the you know the anime the weebs yeah [Music] let's should we wrap up no thoughts on the movie and then we got to talk about the reception of this movie and then maybe we'll look at letter I think yeah yeah okay is a little more recent or uh the conversation is more current go first my final thoughts Pokemon as a franchise has somehow been able to maintain 25 years of of relevancy which is just absolutely incredible but I think if you

1:01:52 go back and look at their their early stuff it makes sense because like we both have said here this movie holds up and now this is not something I'm watching you know every year where I'm like I gotta do my annual first Pokemon movie watch but like I had a good time watching this I had fond memories love just seeing the depictions of Pokemon the old art style really brought me back I I enjoyed every bit of watching this movie and I absolutely love that I got to see this secret scene after however many years of of knowing this movie um great if you if you're just listening to this go give it a re-watch I didn't but some people would probably be able to find it illegally online but I wouldn't know for sure I rented it on

1:02:38 Amazon Prime yes but you want to get a lot good good you want the beginning cut it's so good true true uh what would you give it out of five stars on your own personal order boxed mostly Nostalgia based but I'm gonna give it a four out of five I'll take it hell yeah yeah I want to give it a five out of five but like it's not a perfect movie by any means there's there's a lot that is not great with it yes I would agree with that statement it's not a perfect movie you know there are plot structure or construction wise things could have pasted or whatever 75 minutes it's kind of like I had this it kind of just felt like a long episode and maybe that's because I didn't have the 20 minute animated short there are

1:03:24 things where looking at some of the the early of the time reception makes sense if our parents going in to watch this random movie about a TV show that my kids been [ __ ] bugging me about I I get where they're coming from but there's a lot of it still seems unfair but uh that said the central conflict is still compelling to me it is like I said it's like the end of one division it's like X-Men it's Mewtwo is just trying to protect his own people and fighting for his own being in his own uh existence in the world existence yeah yeah um I I would give it and yeah I would give it a four out of five probably also

1:04:09 you know shaded through Nostalgia the filter of nostalgia but it's my ranking on rewatch yeah yeah start your own goddamn podcast um no it's it is a lot of fun like at no point did I feel bored by this movie at all it's so fun to revisit I almost watched it two days in a row because we were supposed to do this podcast yesterday yeah it's great Mewtwo is a compelling character like forget it just Pokemon is is a compelling character I I think it is extremely well written and I think you add that beginning 10 minutes and it becomes all time it becomes like an all-time character yeah and I think I think this story The

1:04:57 Residents that's me being too generous but like the story has legs or this this plot has legs because they've redone it three times they know their words there you know it's like a good sci-fi-ish story uh so what would you do five stars for me I'm gonna ask you a hard question here sure what would you do if you found out you were a clone and there was like an actual Evan lien out there this is the the central conflict of Ben Reilly a character we were uh talking about on the spider-verse podcast I don't know maybe maybe do you try to get to know the original 11 or do you just like I would for sure be stalking the [ __ ] out of myself

1:05:42 you don't think well if you're the Clone you imagine the other one would know I I actually I actually think if I had gone 30 years just had my birthday if I've gone 30 years without knowing this I think I just try to [ __ ] ignore it and never go see the dude whatever I'm too curious you'd be too curious Facebook stock him a little that's how it starts you're much better than me is he funnier than me yeah that's an interesting dilemma yeah I'll leave you I'll leave you and the audience with that what's your first move probably Facebook stock you find out their name Facebook for sure so foreign

1:06:35 we kind of we threw this movie out as a suggestion to each other just as something sort of innocuous to watch um low stakes because it's you know 25 years old uh and then I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes and I was like okay we have to do this as it stands uh the the critic and granted this is from 91 reviews uh and I'm sure a lot of those are dated and and there's some like wonkiness with it but the Tomato Meter score Pokemon the first movie from 91 reviews is 16 can't that like that might be the lowest score I've ever of a movie I think it was the Seth Rogen Santa thing I think that was the lowest

1:07:22 one we'd ever covered before this has to take the cake that's yeah I don't understand mathematically like that means a lot of people were giving it zeros I feel like probably also there's this weird thing so I don't know it doesn't show you like individually no I know but like this is not a zero it's not if you go click into the the reviews you can like see all reviews of the critics and a lot of them are rotten um it shows you the original scores a lot of these are from 2019 so I'm curious if like there's a big website update that like pulled in Old reviews or if some people were reviewing it years later yeah I get what you mean but why would they be reviewing it in 2019 I don't know uh oh unless maybe they well maybe that's when the Netflix one

1:08:09 came out but why would they be reviewing this one this is why I think it's um um uh they're pulled in from whatever old old Publications this one top critic Paul Tatar I'm calling you out by name for cnn.com oh because there's no way this was written in 2019. let me just read a few Pokemon the first movie is a dose of extremely low budget Japan animation excuse me Paul tatara what the [ __ ] I'm not laughing at the phrase just to make it clear it's you're you're right there's no way that was written in 2019. profoundly erased yeah there's no but in a veiled 1990s kind of way it's not even available the jump animation yeah you're

1:08:55 kidding yeah yeah yeah um wow we're only more proficiently executed would rival Scooby Doo as the most deciding work of art in the 20th century which upon reflection the 2000 oh I guess this Scooby-Doo is critically acclaimed I'm gonna look up Paul stop Evan's got beef now um 16 to me though is like so unreasonable I don't understand how you watch this movie and you go this is a one out of 10 star or this is a zero out of 10 Stars it is not low budget ah God our well then this begs the question are we just genuinely fully blinded by Nostalgia like is it a bad movie and we

1:09:40 just are not actually seeing that is Paul Wright just kidding okay let me read you another one this one this one says original score one out of four so not even the same skill Henderson this is dated 2006. if you're over 10 years old I have four words for you C Princess Mononoke instead while I like that sentiment I feel like there is this thing where I don't know maybe I think the conversation of film critique back in the day was probably much more narrow and there are there wasn't an open forum for two Schmucks like us to be talking about it on a podcast but it's even reflected so the the the community score for Pokemon the

1:10:27 first movie is 71 percent I'll take that at least that's like 50 000 plus ratings so [ __ ] suck it Paul I'm watching you oh yeah uh did you did you see any good letterbox reviews uh I haven't looked but you said you had the first one three out of three and a half Stars Mewtwo ends racism it's an allegory for racism oh three and a half stars did that dumbass Ash just try to punch Mewtwo LMAO this feels accurate this person rates it two and a half and my Pokemon fan no did I still find this movie kind of cute yes my brother urged me to watch it and so I did yeah I feel I'm like I'm missing the

1:11:14 hype here I feel like that's probably the sentiment behind I mean outside of paltatara 16 that reviewers of the 90s late 90s were uh were feeling I agree uh I think even if you were young and not into Pokemon this would be a great introduction someone rated it five stars much better than the Godfather [Laughter] but here's the thing if I had if I came home every day from work and saw my kid watching some dumbass TV show over and over and then like I like tagged along or like took them to see this movie I'd be like okay there's something kind of stimulating about this storyline

1:12:00 is super stimulating it's a strategy game it's a turn-based strategy game and I like you add the game to it all and people don't understand like you know Pokemon is is not uh for the weak-minded a lot of tactics behind it someone is rated four stars a lot like Fight Club if you think about it does it for Hot Box I feel like we know you never say we never say the name we never say it it is it's good for the letterbox segment news uh we've had a lot of news to catch up on what what's your first pick hit me I got the latest

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