The Original Trilogy Of Pokémon Films Aren't Great, But I Love Them

0:00 i really wanted to start my series of videos reviewing all the modern series of doctor who but i didn't want to deal with all the inevitable copyright stuff that will come with covering a bbc show so i'm doing a pokemon video instead because no one has ever had any issues with nintendo and copyright i'm sure there will be fun times with this video getting classified as only suitable for children too we do so love this platform i am one of those pokemon fans who buys the pokemon game semi-religiously while also complaining about how bad many of them are i did skip ultra sun and ultra moon but apart from that i've got a version of every game in the series my favorites are heart gold and platinum and i am cautiously optimistic for the sinnoh remakes but while i do like a lot of pokemon from generation 4 the original 151 have such a great look and conciseness to them that i will always hold a soft spot for them in my heart yes even you seal that being said i was

0:46 born after the pokemania of the 90s the games were still popular in my primary school but nowhere near like how much they gripped kids back then that space was reserved for loom bands and god knows what else no in my lifetime the biggest thing to happen was probably pokemon go in 2016. i'm not sure what the consensus in the community is around pokemon go but i thought it was nice how much it brought people together over that summer i'm glad a lot of people are still enjoying it but as i said the first 151 are still favorites of mine and i think someone really hit the nail on the head when they said it was due to kenzugi mori's distinctive watercolor style that made the first generation so special he still does official artwork for pokemon but especially how rounded the designs have become is a real barrier for myself for many and don't get me wrong pokemon is primarily for kids and the fact that it is the biggest multimedia franchise in the world means they're probably doing something right but those

1:31 original designs gave the series initially a much more tangible feeling like its bug catching origins rather than the kind of fantastical world the series has become also the amount of secrets and mysteries that came from both the internet still being in its infancy and the sometimes obtuse elements implemented into the game led to endless fun theorizing during the early generations yes it's incredibly annoying that now you can't complete the pokedexes in basically any of the old games without cheating to get event items shield was actually the first game where i completed the entire pokedex legitimately but the rumors and secrets around how to get certain pokemon were always part of the fun we even had this unofficial pokemon world magazine over here in the uk which later had to be renamed pocket world for obvious legal reasons that would report on all the rumors and give dubious advice which unintentionally added to the baseless speculation in some cases i just found out when researching for this video that

2:18 the final issue was published in 2015 so pull one out for pocket world thanks for the memories guys perhaps gritty isn't the word because that comes with the connotations that pokemon should be being murdered in battles or something but pokemon media set in a realistic world has always been something i've wanted i actually enjoyed detective pikachu quite a bit it was very predictable but it had some standout moments and some good lighting so for a video game movie that's not so bad and while it isn't realistic or particularly gritty the original series of the pokemon anime with ash misty and brock does have some rough elements that actually work to its benefit with no less than seven episodes of the indigo league series being banned or censored for one reason or another it was obviously a series that was a bit more risque than what gets there today and this is not to say we should air television shows that give kids seizures although you can't even put guns in a kid's show anymore but that the edges hadn't been quite rounded off at this point to the extremely safe and

3:03 predictable formulas both the games and anime follow strictly today i watched the anime on occasion as a kid but it was really these first three movies i rewatched over and over i had the first one on vhs the second on a weird double sided dvd and watched a third at a friend's house i picked up the blu-ray collection in part to make this video but i was a bit disappointed that it didn't have any special features or even the little pikachu shorts that my other versions had nevertheless i will be discussing the context and all the additional shorts when i talk about the three films now hopefully the title has suitably prepared you but yeah i'm re-watching these they're not all that great like in terms of how they're put together there's some strange moments and some are more engaging than others for kids and adults but as the title also suggests i still love them so rest assured i will be giving them the benefit of the doubt but we'll criticize them when i

3:49 think it is deserved but that's enough weaving around the main event let's begin pokemon the first movie mewtwo strikes back as it is called in english-speaking nations was teased in the first series of the anime specifically in episode 63 the battle of the badge episode 64 its mr mime time and episode 67 showdown at the pokey coral these indigo league episodes were originally meant to act as the film's prologue explaining how mewtwo was created as a weapon for teen rocket however when the infamous episode 38 electric soldier porygon aired in japan and caused seizures for children across the country the show was put on hiatus for four months this meant that those three episodes foreshadowing mewti's appearance had to

4:35 be moved to after the film's debut therefore the film was given a 10 minute prologue in order to explain mewtwo's origin including reworking the footage that was in the anime this prologue is then lightly edited in the english version and this is where things get complicated the birth of mewtwo later renamed in the west is the uncut story of mewtwo's origin was an additional 10 minute prologue story focusing on muted's relationship as a newly created clone with the clone of dr fuji's daughter amber known as amber ii i think it's a shame that this isn't put together in one neat package officially as of yet but nevertheless the short is worth watching before the rest of the film we will talk about the change in messaging between the english dub and the original japanese which as many know is far superior but this small section gives a lot more character to mewtwo and helps us understand its motivations also it's a great example of those rough

5:20 edges that the earlier episodes had we will learn more about the writer of the first three films takeshi shido later on but let's just say he's not the kind of person you typically expect to be writing a show aimed at children but he brings a real maturity to the story even in this prequel amber two is an attempt by dr fuji to bring back his dead daughter his obsession with trying to bring her back through science even eventually causes his wife to leave him mewtwo and amber two talk about their creation but eventually amber two has to go as her consciousness fades leaving mewtwo as the only clone to survive the process so far this origin story might be a little heavy for children but by no means scary or unacceptable and leads to one of the most interesting origins for a legendary pokemon rather than them just being gods from another dimension or whatever the hell x and y had going on in addition there is also another short that would become a tradition for the trilogy going

6:07 forward a pikachu short that would play before the film to help it reach that feature-length status in this case pikachu's vacation i think that all three shorts are quite sweet and i like that they are all framed as being what the pokemon get up to when they're away from their trainers this one benefits from being narrated by the pokedex known as dexter in the anime from these incredible transition animations which i'm using throughout the video to break up sections i swear this is what plays in my brain on repeat 90 of the time i also like the rivalry between pikachu and raichu in the short and all the slapstick antics culminating in all the pokemon working to pull charizard out of a hole where has gotten his head trapped all is resolved in the end and i can imagine a lot of kids finding it very funny and entertaining all right that's all the pre-movie content out of the way now let's get on to the main event

6:57 [Music] we've already talked enough about various prologues but when you just sit down and watch the opening it's so good it's dark mysterious and whatever version you have you are left without a doubt that muta is the most powerful pokemon seen in the anime thus far we dreamed of creating the world's strongest pokemon and we succeeded giovanni is also wonderfully manipulative and is just enough in the english dub for you to see where mewtwo is coming from when it escapes and destroys team rocket's base in rage over humans trying to control it we then join ash misty and brock as they are preparing to have a bite to eat when they are interrupted by a challenger ash is always up for a battle and takes him on as the titles play i adore this little sequence the music the animation the whole thing is very

7:44 charming i watch this on vhs so i always thought that the sections where it switches to a view from a camera which mewtwo was spying on them with was like an issue with the recording or something it's funny the justifications you come up with as a kid but no mewtwo is definitely keeping tabs and sends postman dragonite out to invite ash and the gang to a mysterious event where they can challenge a great pokemon master which they accept enthusiastically before dragonite can make it back however team rocket stops the dragonite with pan power and find out about the event to make sure only the best of the best can make it to the island mewtwo whips up a vicious storm the ferry to the island is cancelled but many of the toughest trains want to brave the storm despite the pokemon center being shut down due to a missing nurse joy none of our team have a pokemon that can easily take them all the way to the island but luckily some helpful vikings offer them a lift i didn't know vikings still existed they

8:30 mostly live in minnesota the vikings are soon revealed to be none other than team rocket in disguise they soon lose control of the ship however but luckily misty stario manages to get them to safety on the island they find a woman who seems to have been hypnotized which they quickly deduced as the missing nurse joy nothing can be done just yet to break her out of her trance however so they head in to meet this mysterious pokemon master team rocket also make it safely to the island and all of them are being watched by mew from afar the gang is briefly introduced to the other trainers that made it all with much more powerful pokemon and impressive teams than theirs before the star attraction mewtwo shows up and declares that it is the pokemon master and that it is all-powerful any trainer that seeks to challenge that statement is dealt with swiftly meanwhile team rocket has gone deeper into the castle and stumbles across muti's revamped cloning facility copies of venusaur

9:17 blastoise and charizard awaken and make their way to join mewtwo mewtwo wants to prove the superiority of its advanced clones so ash and two other trainers take on the clones head to head the trainer's nicknames for blastoise and venusaur shell shocker and brute route are so good especially with venusaur being my favorite pokemon i always name mine after it unfortunately having clever nicknames does not translate over to fighting ability and the trainers are all steamrolled by the clones mewtwo declares that it will take the pokemon as its prize and an army of evil pokeballs descend almost all of the pokemon are captured and cloned the originals and the clones then fight each other which is supposed to be sad and on some level it definitely is although the film doesn't help itself without the nostalgia goggles it is really really cheesy i was prepared for trouble but not for this the message of anti-violence has always been a sticking point for the pokemon

10:03 series they had a good crack at it in generation five but it just makes no sense in this film a company with one the few songs that is far too preachy for me to be able to withstand also they chose meowth of all characters to deliver some of the most important lines that convey the message of the film for some reason maybe if we started looking at what's the same instead of always looking at what's different well who knows despite this the film is consistently engaging and the fighting is brutal not just lasers and explosions for the most part this starts to happen a bit in movie 3 and just plagues the films going forward but for now it never loses interest in moving the plot forward ash tries to bring an end to the fighting by putting himself between mew and mewtwo's psychic blast is petrified as a result luckily through the collective power of pokemon tears he is brought back mewtwo concludes i see now that the circumstances of one's birth are

10:49 irrelevant it is what you do with the gift of life before it pisses off wiping everyone's memories of the event ash misty and brock are therefore left to return to their adventure this is my second favorite film in the trilogy despite some big flaws in the story department and the animation not being the greatest no matter what i think it is still far and away the one most fondly remembered by pokemon fans and those who just liked pokemon when they were kids for good reason many of the criticisms that i and others have leveled at the film could have been resolved by simply having a better adaptation of what was in the japanese original the topic deserves a video in itself and i'm completely willing to be proved wrong because it happened so frequently that it inevitably must have some reason

11:35 behind it but when has studio meddling ever work now being an artist and i do make art thank you very much of course i think that art shouldn't be meddled with especially by big corporations but from a business perspective too no one is ever like hmm i'm glad the studio stepped in and made this movie better otherwise i would never have seen it either way when localizing it warner brothers felt that the film needed a clear distinction between the good guys and the bad guys so cut muti's origin story down which was made with the western release in mind and painted it more as a villainous character the original themes of ethics and existentialism were far far more interesting with it being unclear as to whether mew or mewtwo were correct instead of mew simply floating around with that little catchy theme they're making up their mind not simply to defend our protagonists but come to the darker conclusion that all

12:21 genetically altered pokemon are evil ash then has to step in between the two in order to stop them fighting to the death this sacrifice makes mew and mewtwo actually reconsider their positions and realize that all life is precious now i can see where the executives are coming from only if you just have a complete lack of faith in the kids watching the film and are also just not interested in the film having any longevity or being able to stand up to basic criticism maybe the impact of previous darker or more mature animated films like the original transformers film were weighing on their minds but still having deeper themes and ideas is no way comparable to mass robot murder but apart from that i do agree that the animation on this film is not the greatest it feels like they didn't put much more effort into the animation of this film than they did the typical episode of the anime that being said lamentation of the 3d visuals in all films while not that impressive by today's standards add some

13:07 cool moments i disagree with any strong criticisms of the voice acting however the sound mixing isn't always the greatest but the original cast is as zealous and fun as always story and animation issues aside this film was a big success grossing over 172 million dollars worldwide as well as shifting 10 million home video sales meaning my vhs copy probably ain't worth there was a lot of merchandise and promotional material including some cards at the depicted moments from the movie of which i have one for some reason this all added to the pile of pre-existing pokemon merchandise that was everywhere at the time however the soundtrack stood out as something unique to all the films with half the songs having seared themselves deep into my brain i have a soft spot for early 2000s pop music and these hit the spot i'm not going to play any here for copyright reasons but the songs vacation and catch me if you can from the pikachu's vacation short are lots of fun

13:53 i've already expressed my dislike for brother my brother which plays during the big emotional moment of the film but the real standout for me is the rendition of the pokemon theme by billy crawford maybe it's sacrilege but paired with the great opening battle sequence this for me is the quintessential version of the pokemon theme even over the original english version but that's just personal taste now this could be a whole other section in itself but i've already been discussing the first film and all its extra content in far more detail than i will the other two films but there is a sequel to the story told in the film in the form of mewtwo returns a feature-length episode of the pokemon anime released on dvd in the us on december 4th 2001. i could easily go into as much detail with this one as any of the other films in the trilogy but i want to focus on what's at hand so i'm only going to give a quick summary of it i would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first film though as it is a great companion piece after the events of the first film

14:39 mewtwo travels to western johto in order to find a place for all the clone pokemon to live away from humans and settles in mount cuena near purity canyon however giovanni is determined to repossess mewtwo and is planning an assault on the mountain with ash misty and brock finding themselves in the middle of this once again also this is where the iconic drying plan scene comes from so it's worth it just for that hey i know i'll use my trusty frying pan as a drying pan the film actually carries over a lot more of the themes and ideas from the japanese original it is almost more enjoyable from a story perspective than the first film as a result mewtwo is more compassionate and simply wants to keep the clone pokemon safe the film proceeds as is common with pokemon fighting and usual antics but wraps up mewtwo's story very satisfyingly after team rocket are defeated mewtwo wants to wipe everyone's memories once again however meowth misty

15:25 and brock step in to argue that all creatures are entitled to know their identity and where they came from and that forgetting it doesn't change it thus mewtwo changes its mind and only erases the memories of team rocket the story of this film is everything the first movie should have been and also has some fun moments thrown in throughout a discussion of all the extra content for the first film unfortunately cannot be complete without discussing mewtwo strikes back evolution the full cgi remake of the first film released on february 27 2020 on netflix here in the uk after having been previously teased during the credits of one of the latest pokemon movies pokemon the movie the power of us it was released and then the world just kind of moved on i don't think it necessarily plays a huge part in the trend of films becoming increasingly homogenized safe and endlessly remade and reproduced it kind of exists in its own little strange

16:11 curiosity for the most part but that almost means it has even less of a reason to exist with much of people's enjoyment of the first film being nostalgia based losing the original voice actors and music and updating it with rather sterile rcg models just makes it an uninspired remake at best and pointless at worst the only people that would choose to watch this pokemon film specifically probably won't enjoy it nevertheless a lot of people have nostalgia for the first pokemon film and enjoy it and i am one of those people despite the criticisms is still a fun time and it is a nice start to our trilogy pokemon the movie 2000 the power of one wasn't teased as explicitly as the first movie in the anime but still fits in as a side story somewhere

16:57 after episode 105 charizard chills as ash and friends travel through the orange islands we don't have any convoluted prologue kerfuffle this time but we do have two fun shorts the first one is exclusive to the japanese release but has been translated known as sloking's day it follows the talking sloking that we will meet in the film and is a cute little romp through his daily routine it's not particularly important to the film and has a very japanese call and response structure so it's not surprising it wasn't a priority to bring it over we also get another pikachu centric short in the form of pikachu's rescue adventure where the group of pokemon must retrieve togepi safely the animation in this one is fun with an almost picture book style at times the transitions aren't quite as fun as last time but we do get a sweet blossom song blossom is such an underrated pokemon i love the whole logis line togepi getting mistaken for an execute is fun and snorlax coming to save the day at

17:42 the end overall makes this another nice little short introductory piece but once again it's time to move on to the main event [Music] now i mentioned that the first film was my second favorite well the second is number one for me so i'll be singing the praises of this film and its best moments quite a bit but i'll make sure to point out the moments where it falls flat because it is by no means perfect that being said we are immediately introduced to launch the third also known as the collector on a mission to collect articuno multitracing zapdos in order to flush out his prize lugia he first pilots his big 3d model ship to fire ireland and captures multrace we join ash misty and this time tracy on their trek through the orange islands as this was during the brief period where brock was written out of the anime due to fears his depiction would be seen as

18:28 offensive by western audiences we get another great little opening sequence of ash and the crew letting their pokemon play for a bit all the while team rocket pilot their magikarp ship keeping tabs nearby however a storm is gathering and not just in the orange islands as we catch up with ash's mum her mr mime and professor rope i am a firm believer that ash's mum and oak definitely have a thing going on so it's nice to see them in a scene together especially as they are very quickly rudely interrupted by a swarm of digletts and other pokemon all mysteriously heading somewhere ash and friends eventually make it to shamudi island where the locals are in the middle of the chosen one festival we are introduced to the character melody who quickly takes a liking to ash and seems to make it her mission to make misty jealous and teaser about her fondness for him well then i guess you must be his girlfriend gross melody performs lugia's song at the chosen one banquet later that evening

19:14 and informs ash that he must collect an orb from fire ice and lightning island and bring them back to the shrine as part of his responsibilities as the so-called chosen one ash is immediately on the case despite melody warning him it may not be safe while misty ops to stay behind in order to try and prove she will not bend to ash's every whim tracy on the other hand just seems like he ain't got much going on behind those dead eyes of his i wonder if he even knows he's on this adventure the storm only gets worse however and melody misty and tracy quickly decide that they must take a ship out to assist ash complete with more teasing from melody you sure are sensitive about somebody who's not your boyfriend he's not my boyfriend he's a boy and he's a friend but he's not a boyfriend you talking about me eventually ash melody and the crew team rocket and lawrence the third all end up on fire island team rocket are standouts in this film the writing for them is so great when

20:00 you get involved with the opposite sex you're only asking for trouble yes and that's the kind of trouble i stay out of ash grabs the orb but zapdos is on the scene as it claims fire island for itself now that mult trace has been captured and the gang is about to go the same way as they are all scooped up by the collector and brought aboard his ship the gang is forced to work with team rocket in order to escape and we get some more great moments well if things are going to start to get ugly we might as well try wheezing they eventually do escape with zapdos and moltres making a rather large hole in the side of the ship causing it to crash land on lightning island and ash to be able to quickly snag the second orb the gang make a brief stop at slow kings island who has been seen throughout the first half of the film watching events he also tells astro prophecy which has previously been mentioned by lawrence zapdos and moltres are fighting up above and now even articuno has gotten in on the action

20:46 lugia therefore rises up from the sea to try and quell the fighting the gang deduces that the prophecy means that it is up to ash as the chosen one to assist lugia and bring peace so he must head out to get the final orb from ice island and so with a little help from the bumbling team rocket he manages to get it unfortunately the collector is still knocking about and tries to trap lugia throwing ash off his back it's misty to the rescue however with the line that melted a million pokey shippers hearts and dash is never really alone cause he's got me ash takes the last treasure to the shrine a melody plays lugia's song causing lugia to be given enough power to quell the fighting once and for all ash is reunited with his mom and professor oak and lugia says one last goodbye before the film draws to a close with team rocket finally getting the recognition they deserve lots of people saw what you did out there and all of them

21:32 are watching you right now for me this is the most consistently enjoyable well-written impressively animated coherent heartfelt and funny pokemon film in the trilogy it's one that i can watch again just as a film and not have to look over its flaws too much although the story of the second film as a whole is serviceable once again it was changed from the much more interesting philosophical themes of codependence that was in the japanese original the japanese version still had the prophecy and ash still played a large role in it however he is simply the only exceptional pokemon trainer around at the time to collect the treasures you really don't find that in a lot of western stories there's always that the protagonist is inherently special rather than someone who can rise to the challenge in addition lugia was originally intended to be more maternal with a female voice actress but that was changed and by the time the creator of lugia was informed it was too late to

22:18 change it now this is where things get really interesting there are a handful of provocatively titled videos on youtube about the tragic story behind the original writer of the pokemon anime as well as some actually quite sweet tribute videos from 10 odd years ago but i think did you know gaming has already done the most respectful and thoroughly researched video going into the whole story which i will link down below which is really worth a watch takeshi sudo one of the chief writers of the original anime series and scriptwriter for all three of the first pokemon films is responsible for most of the interesting philosophical themes the original version of these films tackle as well as famously the creation of lugia after the success of the first movie takeshi was given even more creative freedom with the second which allowed him to come up with lugia which he initially thought would be a pokemon exclusive to the second movie while it's clear for many there were dollars in their eyes throughout the whole process for takeshi he really put a huge amount of heart and soul into them i mentioned

23:04 before how he wasn't exactly the person you would expect to write these films and as the did you know gaming video delves into more he was a chronic alcoholic who also utilized tranquilizers when writing the second film it's easy to see why he was upset with how they changed the presentation of the character and eventually put luger in the second generation of games we will conclude takeshi's story when talking about the third film but his contribution to what makes these films so enjoyable and soulful can't be understated but all that being said despite overlooking the message of the film the english dub did give us great lines like i could use pants as well as well right now i wish my mom had named me bob instead of ash and of course right now i feel more like the frozen one the power of one was a financial success like the first one and was better reviewed which isn't surprising as it is much more solid all round than its

23:50 predecessor unlike the early days of the anime the pokemon team had managed to avoid too many issues this time around the film once again had its fair share of merchandise with it having another run of movie trading cards and a soundtrack of more cheesy pop tunes i really enjoy coming to the rescue from the opening short and it's quite the time capsule to have weird outdoor poke rap in pokemon but once again the film's opening theme pokemon world steals the show and is the cactus song on there but returning to the film itself the power of one has the best humor most fun character moments a story that carried over relatively well from the original japanese version although not perfectly and a cleaner visual style the story is a little less intriguing than that of the first but it is still more engaging than what we will come to see in the third film and keeps moving with interesting plot set pieces rather than consisting of too many moments where pokemon are just shooting beams of energy at each other for these reasons it is my favorite of the trilogy

24:40 [Music] pokemon 3 the movie spell of the unknown entei occurs between episode 155 the forest grumps and episode 165 hassle in the castle of the johto league champion series again we don't really have any prologue troubles as the story is contained well within the film itself but we do have a charming pikachu short where in this case pikachu and pichu is no less enjoyable than the other two once again the pokemon are left to their own devices and get up to mischief some particular highlights are getting to see what the underbelly of a pokemon city is like with a vicious hound or a graffiti artist smeargle the pokemon once again working together to rebuild their junk house and their long-suffering meowth it is endlessly fascinating to me to see how pokemon exist within their environment and this provides a nice little look into that along with being a cute little adventure

25:25 for younger viewers but with all that out of the way let's have a look at the third and final entry in the original pokemon trilogy the third film begins with molly hale a young girl being read a book about the legendary pokemon entei by her father dr spencer hale they seem to have a good relationship but spencer is called to come and have a look at the breakthrough they've made while studying the pokemon unknown he arrives at the site and is sucks into another dimension by the unknown spencer's assistant tells the hail mentions butler the bad news which molly overhears she takes the unknown titles and forms him into words summoning the unknown which seal her in the room by covering the mansion and surrounding area in a sheet of tough ice she is distraught over the loss of her father so the unknown looked to the book

26:11 her father was reading with her to fulfill her wish and bring entei through to molly's reality which she calls papa nearby the restored team of ash misty and brock are journeying through johto when similar to the first movie they're challenged to a battle which acts as the opening credits sequence after the battle they head on to greenfield where some news reporters are already covering the strange events in spontaneous ice apparition this reaches professor oak at pallet town who is curious as dr spencer was a student of his he decides to go investigate along with ash's mom leaving tracy behind to manage his lab molly and entei are getting on well but molly also wants a mother and enter is happy to oblige to anything she wishes for when she meets up with ash misty and brock ash's mum quickly finds herself on the proverbial menu she's kidnapped by entei despite the gang's best efforts and hypnotized in order to take care of molly ash and the crew waste no time

26:57 making their way inside with team rocket hoping there might be something valuable inside the mansion not far behind they make their way deeper and deeper into the mansion with some fun and comedic moments i haven't seen this many strange letters since the last time i placed a personal ad molly makes herself look older thanks to entei in order to battle them as they get closer to the inner sanctum first she battles brock in a scenic field dreamscape whilst ash and misty continue to search for ash's mum brock is defeated and the dreamscape quickly shifts to be underwater where molly faces off against misty from here the final act gets a bit muddled as previously mentioned and evolves into a lot of fighting between various pokemon and entei or the unknown growing strength but it's still good and easy enough to follow for the most part they all come to realize however that they must work together in order to stop the unknown and entei informs molly that she need only believe and wish that he is

27:42 powerful enough to defeat the unknown in order to do it she believes and enters successful in stopping the unknown and restoring everything to the way it was molly's father and mother are brought back and she is of course happy to be with them ash misty and brock continue on their travels and once again team rocket closed out the film despite the fact they have more criticisms of the first movie than this one movie 3 is still my least favorite of the trilogy simply because it takes the least risks the first one falls short in many places but only because it was trying to tackle some very interesting ideas when the show was in its infancy the film still has the quality of writing that takeshi brings to them but it is the start of the decline that affected the rest of the pokemon films they're after as their plots became incredibly repetitive and their action in character is less interesting [Music] [Applause] [Music] the final story remained relatively

28:28 unchanged from the japanese version although there are some interesting facts about the earlier drafts of the film generation 2 was still a little while off while this film was in development and there were initially no new pokemon for this film to promote therefore takeshi shudo's first draft had a tyrannosaurus rex fossil being brought back to life and the dinosaur wreaking havoc across the kanto region it was going to ask the questions about what happened to the real animals in the pokemon universe however it was flat out rejected by the producers as being too risky takeshi drowned his sorrows and alcohol soon after he was given the design for entei and crafted the film we know today one actual difference between the japanese and english versions however is the scene where molly's father returns is moved from during the end credits to earlier in the run time of the film i haven't watched enough japanese films to know whether this is a cultural difference but this was done as four kids reasoned that western audiences don't usually stay to watch the credits and didn't want kids to think that molly

29:14 was left orphaned in the end i've noticed especially in anime they usually have extra animation and epilogue content during the credits such as in my favorite ghibli film kiki's delivery service i really enjoy the animation during the end credits of all three films especially the peaceful shots of the gang camping out and travelling i think it's slightly worrying when you remember that they're 10 years old going on these adventures alone but it's fiction where they can never really be hurt so it resembles more of a kind of stand by me situation and you can imagine them having adventures forever and in ash's case he seems to do just that but while his journey continues takeshi's would come to an end a decade after writing the third movie he continued to work on the pokemon anime until 2002 with a few projects thereafter but eventually the alcohol abuse caught up with him when he collapsed after suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage on october 28 2010 in a smoking room at jr west nara

29:59 station he was taken to hospital but died the next day at the age of 61. he was honoured in 2011 with a memorial exhibition at the tsugin army animation museum and he was also given a credit in the 2017 pokemon film pokemon the movie i choose you as he wrote the script for the first episode of the anime which serves as an inspiration for part of the film the soundtrack to this film is much the same as the others the nostalgia that fueled my appreciation of the others isn't as strong here as this is the one i've watched the least but the pokemon johto theme is still enjoyable and the rest worked suitably throughout the film and over the credits the film was a modest financial success didn't quite reach the highs of the first two there are two more films with the original crew of ash misty and brock pokemon forever celebi voice of the forest and pokemon heroes latios and latias the original voice cast would remain although misty was replaced with may in the anime so lilith was only primarily voicing jesse

30:46 up until the eighth film lucario and the mystery of mew and the pokemon company took over from four kids and recast the voice actors many people myself included want the original cast back even if it is just for a cameo but so far this has not happened despite characters such as misty and brock returning in recent series the third film was also the last one to be released internationally by warner brothers until pokemon detective pikachu in 2019 which conveniently brings us up to the present i've watched a few of the 15 odd pokemon films that have been released since and they've all been rather standard cookie cutter affairs of middling quality it just goes to show that the original films needed the mystery and takeshi's writing to make them stand out and play to the strengths of the pokemon series that less talented writers can easily miss i've talked for longer than even i expected about these films because they have hidden depth to them if you go looking but where they make mistakes is also interesting as well as just

31:31 appreciating them as fun little animated adventures i hope you've enjoyed this little retrospective until next time have a good one so then we're not bad that's good what if the boss finds out that's bad we'll start our own team that's good but we got no money that's bad