Before I begin, I should mention I'm going off the English dub of this film, because that's what I have. Yes, it's by 4Kids, but my experience with Yu-Gi-Oh! has shown that I have a very high tolerance for that company's rubbish. Oh, and there are spoilers ahead.
2
You've paid for your ticket, you've got your dustbin of popcorn and rain barrel-sized cup of your favourite soft drink (with a straw; I always get two straws, actually), and you've suffered through all the adverts and trailers for other films you're just not interested in. You came here to see Pokémon, darn it!
The screen goes black, and a spotlight appears on the right. Then everyone's favourite overrated yellow rodent appears, and it's time for the special mini-film very kindly included in this feature.
Pikachu's Vacation
We find the heroes (I'll call them heroes from now on) arriving at a pokémon resort, and all the hero pokémon come out for a jolly smiling stroll to some really quite cool music. Everyone's going at the same pace, regardless of size, so that makes things a bit easier for the animators to coordinate.
Then the larger and less popular pokémon run off, including the normally amphibious Goldeen - she seems to be more capable on land than her introduction in episode 2 (if you can remember way back then), where she flopped about uselessly in front of the once-capable Team Rocket (they were stealing pokémon from the Poké Centre, if you remember). How often has Goldeen been used, anyway? But I digress.
Yes, right. We're left with Pikachu and the cute populars (Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Psyduck, Togepi). Togepi starts to cry, and Pikachu shows (debuts?) his talent of pulling silly faces, to no avail. After a quick failure at getting the baby an apple, there's a slightly trippy interlude.
These interludes are interesting. Psychedelic backgrounds, and pokémon just doing... things. The first one is of Bellsprout doing the twist.
What's this now? New pokémon! We weren't expecting this! It's Snubbull and Marril. Can you believe we've just been shown Pikablu, legitimately, right there on the big screen? Neither can I. They're having a laugh with friends Cubone and Raichu.
Their laughter upsets Togepi, and a rivalry breaks out when Pikachu goes to politely ask them to shut it. I reckon the hero team could have taken them, particularly considering Pikachu's ability to damage Ground pokémon (i.e. Cubone, which is weak to the other hero pokémon anyway).
Now this is why I don't like kids. They wander off across narrow log bridges, which start rolling down mountains into streams. But Togepi survived unharmed, so that makes it alright. Somehow.
As Pikachu returns to the group (having suffered from the log thing), Snubbull and Squirtle are having a breathing-in contest, apparently. One thing leads to another, and we have ourselves a swimming competition. Cut to the swimming pool.
There's a lot of pokémon having a bathe, including a Farfetch'd, I noticed. Makes sense, I suppose, since it is a duck.
An Electrode starts things off with a bang (if you'll excuse the cliché) and survives its own self-destruction (or explosion, I don't know which move it used). Obviously it survives. Why wouldn't it?
Y'know, I would've claimed that whole swimming competition null and void, since there was interference from both a Starmie and a Goldeen.
Another interlude, this time involving Exeggutor and Oddish. They look kinda related, although that's probably because they're both Plants. Most Grass pokémon have leaves growing out of somewhere.
Pikachu and Raichu have a running competition now, which takes them over water and up a waterfall. There was a cameo for our favourite Jigglypuff too (as it was promptly jumped on by the electric duo). Team Rocket seems to be around too (because they're following the twerps), but they don't get much of an introduction since the sparking rodents run right past them.
...And over Charizard's tail. This conveniently sets up the second half of the plot, as the angered Charizard Gusts them off a cliff (there's always a Snorlax to act as trampoline when you need one, though), and then flies itself head first into a pipe in one of the play areas. That pipe doesn't look big enough for most pokémon, so why's it there in the first place?
Obviously the way to fix this is to get everyone pulling on a rope tied to Charizard's leg. But Charizard's still stronger than them, so it fails. Seriously, a Charizard can jerk its leg harder than an Onix can pull it? And will the addition of a few more small pokémon tugging make any difference? Well, it obviously does. Even Cubone decided to help out, despite being the lonely pokémon (remember those friends it has, though?). You can almost taste the friendship speech.
Meowth gets another brief appearance, lighting a bomb (where does he hide it?) because the rescue below was interrupting his nap, but is promptly landed on by Charizard, who barely notices the explosion which otherwise creates a sizeable crater.
It seems pokémon enjoy staring into the sunset just as much as everyone else (personally, I don't mind either way). One final handshake, and everyone leaves as friends. Aww.
Now, the film.
Pokémon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back
That title "Mewtwo Strikes Back" always seems like it would be a sequel to something, doesn't it? That's probably just because everyone's seen Star Wars, though.
This film has what is clearly the best opening sequence ever, and it lasts a whole 10 minutes. Mewtwo is the best pokémon ever. I love his voice too; it's not stereotypically gruff and villain-ey.
Mewtwo's first lines - "Where am I? This is not the same..." - would have made more sense if the real first part of the film hadn't been cut out. Fortunately, it was recycled into the short special "The Birth of Mewtwo", so you can still watch it to make more sense of that line. In brief, in addition to Mewtwo there used to be clones of Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle, as well as Dr Fuji's daughter, and they were all in telepathic communication with each other and existed in an imaginary landscape. Mewtwo enjoyed it, but then the others all died. This imaginary world was the "before" that the lab "is not the same" as. So now you know.
Ancient Egyptian Mew! And he shoots laser beams later on (of a sort). How could this possibly be anything except win?
Mewtwo starts destroying the lab, and confronts Dr Fuji (the head scientist there - I don't think his name was ever mentioned in the film, but that's what it is). Mewtwo subduing the flames as he approached the scientist looked great. "We dreamed of creating the world's strongest pokémon... and we succeeded." The irony!
He isn't shown to be killed on-screen, but it's the closest (and the first) Pokémon has ever gotten to a human death.
Next we have Cyber Mewtwo, who looks possibly even cooler than naked Mewtwo. He's sent out to battle to train, and to help Team Rocket capture Tauros (dunno why they want Tauros, though). Amongst Mewtwo's opponents is no other than Gary Oak, eager for a cameo. His footage came from the anime series (episode 63). Mewtwo seems to do little more than levitate his opponents; it's easy to beat up your opponents when they're just floating helplessly in mid-air. Although having said that, he also thrashed an Alakazam (a cool pokémon) and a Magneton (by forcing its electric attack back on itself), so Mewtwo does have some decent powers.
Giovanni's place explodes, which is an event seen in the anime (episode 65). It's interesting to note that the film was premiered in Japan between episodes 53 and 54, but can't take place until after episode 65. Bit of a time warp there.
Mewtwo flies back to New Island, and calls in the decorators. End of the awesome opening sequence. Time for the opening credits, and for that we need the heroes. Let's go tag along with them for a while.
The opening song is a nice remix of the series theme, and it starts the trend of playing a remix over a pokémon battle involving Ash to signify the proper start of the film (after all the foreshadowing of the opening sequences, that is).
Donphan! We get a new pokémon even in the main film. It also uses a new move: Rollout. For some reason I always thought Donphan was huge, although watching it again here I see it's certainly smaller than its trainer. I'm not sure why I thought that, really. And speaking of its trainer, that's a Team Aqua logo on his bandanna (except it's a red bandanna, which isn't Team Aqua's colour). It's probably just a coincidence, or if you want to really stretch it, it's a sign that the two teams were originally one before a difference in ideals split the team into two. If you wanted to stretch it, that is.
Squirtle vs Machamp, and one absurdly powerful Bubble (Bubblebeam?) attack knocks the four-armed fighter right out. Ash is just killing the challenger, which is acceptable since he's a bit character who never shows up again. If he did show up later in the film, their strengths probably would have been equal. Pikachu takes out the rest of the challenger's pokémon (including a Golem, ahem), and the challenger disappears from the world.
Team Rocket shows up, and they're hungry. Jessie offers to cook, but Meowth says her cooking nearly killed him the last time. Very unusually for an anime girl, Jessie doesn't then start killing Meowth for insulting her culinary skills.
A Fearow spy cam and a Dragonite messenger (at the very least). Mewtwo's been busy. Now he gets started on those CG clouds and turns them into a full-blown CG storm. This scene lasts a bit longer than I would have liked it to - yes, we get that you're causing the storm, now go away and let the plot happen!
Don't the heroes own any coats?
That's an interesting accent the harbour master has. I'm no expert, but I'd say something like Swedish? She tells an interesting story about a legendary storm, which doesn't do much other than set up the plot twist at the end (pokémon tears bring people back to life). It's also a bit of a leap to suddenly mention it just because it just started raining.
That missing Nurse Joy "sure looks familiar", says Brock. No kidding.
Everyone sets off. Hang on, Vikings? Minnesota? Team Rocket's disguises are pretty good this time; I could only tell it was them from the Meowth figurehead. The Minnesota thing was, as everyone knows, a reference to the Minnesota Vikings (an American football team), and is a gag in the English dub only.
It amazes me how long everyone can hold their breath. Was Guybrush Threepwood a relative? Still, Team Rocket must be pretty good trainers, since Weezing managed to get them all the way to New Island (and it floats in water, so it can't swim underneath all the nasty weather above). Jessie's Arbok has been shown to be a good swimmer too, but not here (episode 61, actually).
Hypnotised Joy greets the heroes, and is immediately recognised. It's kinda refreshing to see that little "mystery" being solved so quickly, and probably only happened because people might have forgotten about the missing Nurse Joy sub-plot (I know I did).
Mew has a little play on one of the windmills, which honestly doesn't seem like much fun. Mew can fly, teleport and transform, and is easily amused by a windmill? This scene was meant to show that Mew is a happy innocent little thing, thus being the exact opposite of Mewtwo.
The heroes meet the other trainers, and Team Rocket sneaks in through a drain, proving once again that Team Rocket is actually very capable when it doesn't really matter.
Ash asks, "how did you get in?" to a trainer stroking a Pidgeot. The heroes really are one egg short of an Exeggcute, aren't they? Everyone else's pokémon are also introduced, so they don't come as a surprise later. Note the Blastoise and Venusaur, they'll be important later on.
Enter Mewtwo.
Team Rocket find the cloning machine and the fully evolved clone starters. Jessie manages to sit on the start button, and Meowth gets sampled. That's a quick bit of cloning there. Mewtwo did a fine job rebuilding that machine. Then there's a bit more plot from the hidden recording on the cloning machine.
Mewtwo has now firmly established himself as the villain - saying that "humans and pokémon can never be friends" is all it seems to take. Looks like the game's on. Send in the clones. (That gag is used later on, but I thought up that line before I got to that part so it's original. Deal with it.)
The originals quickly lose to the clones, although Charizard takes the longest to beat up (probably because it's owned by the main character and because two Charizards fighting looks cool).
I could make a joke about Mewtwo's big black balls and him smacking them into the pokémon, but I won't. That's just crude, and I'd like to think I'm better than that. But I bet the next time you watch that scene you'll remember the joke I didn't make and have a smirk. That's entirely your fault, you filthy-minded person, you.
Mewtwo captures the fully evolved starters, even though he already has clones of them (and more powerful clones at that). All the other pokémon get stolen quickly, and eventually so do Ash's (only Psyduck and Vulpix are captured off Misty and Brock, actually). Pikachu does a lot of running, but gets caught anyway. That's really a rather pointless helical staircase, by the way. Actually, it has no steps, so it's not so much as staircase as a slide. And if you'll notice, it doesn't quite reach all the way to the ground - it's attached to the ceiling. Utterly pointless.
Who's That Pokémon? It's not Alakazam, and it's not Sandshrew (it's Scyther and Sandslash), but the mistake was left in the dub for hardcore fans to enjoy. There's a rescue of the originals, but the clones have already come out (through blowing up the floor of the arena - you'd think there was a door or something). It seems about time for a grand entrance to some inappropriate military-style drumming music.
Ash goes for a frontal assault on Mewtwo from 20 metres away, which is possible the second or third worst attack strategy I've ever seen. Predictably, Ash gets sent flying, and there's no Snorlax trampoline to save him.
There's one of Mew's pink bubbles, though. Mew finally shows up in front of everyone, and is promptly attacked by Mewtwo's Shadow Balls (another Gen 2 move; no, I wasn't going to say anything about balls, stop thinking about them). The fight gets started.
Fighting is bad, kiddies. Pokémon battles are good, though; let's not kill this franchise just yet. Only Pikachu chooses not to fight - everyone else gets stuck in (even Ash's other pokémon, the supposed good guys). Actually, that's not true: the Meowths don't fight either. Their dubbed conversation is full of "thou shalt not judge others because of their species or colour or origin", whereas in their original conversation clone Meowth suddenly changes topic and starts saying how lovely the Moon looks, and real Meowth says it's rather tasteless to be talking about that when everyone's fighting to the death. Gotta lever in those morals wherever you can, of course.
Ash makes his way to the arena floor, and no one knows how to stop the fighting. Wait, did Brock just say "death"? Doesn't 4Kids consider that a bad word?
This is completely unrelated, but I just discovered it. The first voice actress for Ash (the most well-known voice) also voices Ms. Dorothy from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
Ash charges into the battle, and gets "knocked unconscious" (read: killed) by the blasts from Mew and Mewtwo. Fortunately (or not, depending on whether you actually like Ash) it's not a permanent death, otherwise it would have been censored. Pikachu tries some shock therapy, but it doesn't work. As he does, Misty says, "please, no". This line was originally "Pikachu..." spoken sorrowfully, which I think would have been much better. During 4Kids translation (which actually is pretty much "write our own story" rather than any actual translation), one alternative for this line was allegedly, "my bike...".
Tears all round, Ash is revived, Mewtwo realises the error of his ways. There's some more equality nonsense, and Mewtwo and the clones leave. Memories are erased, in the grandest of clichés, and time seems to have been reversed a bit too, since Nurse Joy apparently never went missing in the first place.
It stops raining, which is apparently a miracle. Ash glimpses Mew, and the film ends. Make note of the disclaimer saying that all characters and events in the film are fictitious, because I know how easily it could have been real. But seriously, that's smegging obvious.
There's a quick after-credits scene of Mew flying towards some mountains. Nothing special.
2
This film obviously suffered by the hand of 4Kids. The "fighting is wrong" moral was crammed down our throats so hard it hurts to sit down. Several lines would have been better had they been the original lines, and Mewtwo's motive was changed completely.
Mewtwo was created by science and not by God, and he felt that this made him not fit in with the world. His efforts throughout the film, therefore, were his attempt at proving that he should be alive, and at the end he flies off with his clones to find somewhere where they could just live away from anyone else. This was altered by 4Kids such that Mewtwo wanted to take over the world (instead of just prove himself to it) so that clones could take over.
But ignoring all that, it's still the first Pokémon film. It even came with some trading cards (I got Electabuzz and Dragonite, because the first time I went to see it they were sold out, but still gave me a card anyway). Being the first Pokémon film practically defines it as the best one (although the Deoxys and Lucario ones were still pretty good too).
My rating? Nah, I won't give it one. It's impossible to define a film just by a number. You won't be getting any numbers from me.
