The Pokemon Moviethon: Rating Vintage Pokemon Movies From Worst To Best – Part One

Like millions of other Pokemon fans out there, the Pokemon movies were a huge part of my initial love for the franchise and I have very fond memories of excitedly rushing to the cinema or video shop (I’m really starting to show my age now…) to see Ash, Pikachu and the gang head out on their latest big-screen adventure. As it’s been a while since I last watched some of these films, I thought it might be fun to watch the vintage Pokemon movies in order, add up what I considered to be the pros and cons of each one and see which one came out on top!

In terms of “vintage” Pokemon movies, I’ll be rating the first 7 films (including Mewtwo Returns, I’m aware this isn’t technically considered as one of the movies but it was a feature-length release and it does come under the era bracket of films I’m looking at, plus it’s got Brock’s classic “I’ll use my trusty frying pan as drying pan!” line in it, and you can’t really dismiss something that iconic) featuring Pokemon from the first, second and third generation, from Pokemon: The First Movie to Jirachi: Wish Maker. I know some collectors consider the fourth generation to be vintage, which of course is fine, but as I personally tend to aim the majority of my Pokemon collection to consist primarily of Gen I/II/III merchandise I thought I’d stick with this particular format. 

I’ll be writing out a list of “Plus Points” and “Minus Points” (or should that be “Plusle and Minun” Points?) that I noted down whilst I was watching each of the movies, after which each movie will be given an overall rating (i.e, “4 Pokeballs out of 5”). I should probably also mention here that this is meant to just be a lighthearted bit of fun and the views stated are purely my own, so if I say something disparaging about a character or scene you particularly like (I might as well apologise in advance to any fans of Tracey Sketchit now actually… Sorry Tracey fans), please don’t take it to heart, and feel free to let me know which of the movies is your favourite/least favourite!

And now without further ado, let’s get overly opinionated about a bunch of kids films!

The Worst:

7. Pokemon 4Ever

Plus Points:

• Intro voiceover from Brock, makes a cool change
• Awesome intro music AND we get to see lots of different Pokemon in their natural habitat
• I’m loving the vast range of Pokemon we’ve seen so far
• Aww what a nice photo of the Pokemon Hunter and his Houndoom. They look like good friends
• Dark Balls = OG Shadow Pokemon, which is pretty cool
• EVIL TYRANITAR!

• Well It wouldn’t be a Pokemon movie without a very “of its era” title card 
• Brock’s funny annoyed face
• Ooh a new version of the original theme tune, I like it
• Even Crobat is like “FFS Ash”
• SUICUNE!!!
• Team Rocket’s pedal hanglider
• Another Pokemon movie with a flying boat, I must say this one is a bit cooler than the one in Pokemon 2000
• Could Arborville have been the inspiration for Fortree City in Gen III? Or vice versa?
• The old lady’s Hoothoot cane
• Aww a little Nidoran couple
• The forest scenery is very pretty
• Ash goes from helping Sammy to squaring up to him in about 0.5 seconds, typical Ash. I would put this as a minus point but it made me chuckle and if I had to look at Sammy’s hair up close I’d be pretty angry too
• Stantler’s voice actor sounds like an old man who’s had a hard life, it made me laugh though, thanks for the giggle old man Stantler
• Cute little Pikachu perched on Ash’s hat. I wish I had a small friendly creature I could carry around on my head or shoulders. I’ve tried it with my cats but it didn’t go well, too many claws…
• FURRETT!!!
• I absolutely love seeing all the wild Pokemon together 
• Team Rocket’s synchronised posing
• Eric Stuart does another fantastic job voicing James, he’s bloody hilarious “THEY’RE ALWAYS LUCKYYYYYY!”
• Tyranitar going full Kaiju
• “Pokemon get to go naked” Thank you for that bizzare but wonderful line Meowth, yes, I suppose you are naked…
• Scizor and Sneasel make a cool duo
• And so do Bayleef and Charmeleon
• It’s nice to see a Charmeleon on screen who isn’t a complete arsehole actually. Sammy’s Charmeleon seems like quite a reasonable fellow. But, if Sammy has a Charmeleon, and Sammy is a young Professor Oak, what happened to his Charmeleon? Did he evolve into a Charizard? DID HE DIE OF OLD AGE? NOOOOOOO!

• Ursaring and Teddiursa give me “Don’t talk to me or my son ever again” vibes haha
• Stantler and Furrett guiding the gang through the forest. It’s nice to see that as well as being two of my favourites they’ve also got initiative and seem very responsible. Well done lads
• I do just adore Gen II Pokemon though, they’re awesome
• All the forest Pokemon gathering to watch Sammy basically give Celebi a bath, they’re very easily entertained bless them
• It’s pretty cool to see all the wild water Pokemon
• Team Rocket’s peach getting stolen by a Pidgeotto haha
• A nice nod to Sam inventing the Pokedex in the future
• I do think some of the parallels between Ash and Sam are quite cool too
• Seeing all the Metapod evolve into Butterfree is really beautiful, I love how sparkly they are
• Aww and a nice moment between Ash and Sam while they’re in the tree watching the Butterfree
• Pidgey to the rescue!
• All the wild Pokemon coming to help Celebi
• “Celebi’s building a nasty nest!” I adore Eric Stuart as James, honestly watching these movies again really makes me miss the old cast so badly, they were the best
• Suicune’s here to kick some Iron Mask Marauder ass!
• Celebi’s grass monster thingy looks a bit like Zekrom from Gen V, mixed together with Scyther, could this have been inspiration for Zekrom maybe? (Probably not to be honest but it’s a thought)
• “I’m still alive” Well we’d have never have guessed, thanks for telling us Brock, it’s a good job I like you, you loveable dumbass
• Ash, Sam and Pikachu riding Suicune
• Onix full-on galactic punting Tyranitar into the water
• Mmmmm that Celebi looks crispy

• Suicune is the real hero of this movie and doesn’t get enough credit. She should have gotten her own movie actually and ditched the stupid magical onion (by the way I know I keep referring to certain Pokemon as “he/she”, that’s just how I’ve always thought of them in my head, if you don’t think of them like that then that’s fine, it’s just how I’ve always imagined them personally)
• Suicune also has really great hair and is the cover mascot for my favourite Pokemon game. I love Suicune 
• Ash trying to feed berries to a dead onion haha
• Suicune going “Awoooooooo”
• The multiple celebi reveal is quite cool, I think this is the first time in a Pokemon movie where we’ve had multiple legendary Pokemon of the same species
• The music when Celebi was being brought back to life made me laugh, it’s a very pretty but it’s just funny because you know, magic onion
• Aaaaaaand Celebi is alive again. That’s good, I guess…
• Sam and Ash saying goodbye is pretty sad to be honest, even Misty is crying
• Professor Oak casually dropping the Sammy Oak reveal
• Aww Team Rocket are reunited, oh wait no, Tyranitar has decided to drown them. Oh dear…

Minus Points: 

• We’re several movies and seasons of the TV series into the franchise at this point Brock, I’m not sure we really need to recap the story so far
• The Celebi/Houndoom/Scyther chase animation is cool at first but does seem to get a bit jolty as it goes on
• Sammy Oak’s hair. It looks like a a Pidgey sat on his head and died

• Random exposition woman
• “It’s a loaf of bread” well duh it’s not a bloody submarine is it love
• Why can’t Scyther cut through those vines?
• Does everyone in this movie communicate solely through exposition?
• That horrific faux cockney accent. Sounds worse than Geri Halliwell when she got cast as Jason Statham’s mum in Crank: High Voltage
• Both you and Pikachu would have died horrific deaths if you’d been pulled under that boat Ash, you should feel bad about that
• “Was that a Pokemon?” No Ash it’s a donkey…
• Horny Brock strikes again. Can somebody find this man a lady friend already, honestly
• I do think that they missed a trick by not setting the movie in Azalea Town/Ilex Forest with the whole Celebi theme

• The whole time travel thing is a cool idea but it does open up a heap of potential plot holes
• The animation on those vines has not aged well at all
• Calm down Celebi you silly onion
• “I’ve twisted my knee” oh FFS you’re fine Misty just walk it off
• Don’t punch Bayleef in the face Scizor!
• The Iron Mask Marauder’s mask looks a bit silly. And his name is a bit of a mouthful, I mean just try saying “Iron Mask Marauder” five time fast and you’ll see what I mean
• This film does repeat the “magic water solves all problems” trope from Mewtwo Returns, which is a bit lazy writing-wise
• “The lake water brought Celebi back to life!” erm I’m not entirely sure he was dead in the first place Brock
• Ash/Sam your clothes are going to take ages to dry out, especially those jeans of yours Ash
• Ash and Sam get to fly, Misty gets her knee fixed but Celebi totally ignores poor old Brock, what a douche! You could have at least magicked him up a girlfriend Celebi, or I dunno, a new frying pan or something
• You’re going to get the runs eating those berries guys
• Some of the audio mixing when it comes to the voice acting in the movie is way off, at times it’s barely audible
• That bread is 40 years old Ash I probably wouldn’t start munching on that if I was you
• Meowth saying “Celebi” sounds like “Celery”
• The Iron Mask Marauder is literally trying to break Ash’s fingers
• NO DON’T HURT STANTLER AND FURRETT!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!
• Out of all the Pokemon movies that I’ve re-watched recently the CGI animation in Pokemon 4Ever has definitely been some of the worst, it doesn’t help that a lot of the action sequences towards the end of the film seem to be overly-reliant on it
• The hand-drawn animation is still good throughout the movie however, but the CGI really is so distractingly bad and annoying at some points it really takes your attention away from the better parts of the animation
• Suicune sounds like she’s in dire need of a strepsil

• Ash don’t just leave Jessie! Don’t you remember when Team Rocket helped you in Pokemon 2000? 
• Poor Suicune, Ash and Sam just ditched her too
• I must say that apart from the music in the intro this movie is a bit lacking soundtrack/score-wise
• I know I should be sad about Celebi but I’m just not, he’s probably one of my least favourite Johto Pokemon. I think it’s because he looks like an onion, and I’m not supposed to eat onions (thanks IBS) so whenever I see him onscreen I feel irrationally annoyed.
• Oh for the love of God The Iron Mask Marauder is back, just take the stupid onion and leave
• I missed the part where The Iron Mask Marauder is defeated because my DVD froze, oh well at least he’s gone
• Suicune leaves and they’re just like “oh yeah bye”
• Ugh Tracey go away, you’re not Brock and you never will be

The Overall Verdict:

Pokemon 4Ever was the first of the Pokemon movies (apart from Mewtwo Returns, which yes I am going to count as a movie) that wasn’t released cinematically in the UK, which is a shame, as despite this particular film’s flaws it was always a pleasure to go and see a new Pokemon movie when I was a kid, and as a fan of Suicune, it does annoy me that her moment in the spotlight got sidelined (and overshadowed by that silly onion Celebi…). As for the film itself though, whilst it did have some nice moments I personally think this is the weakest of the Pokemon movies, as the abundance of badly-aged CGI animation is really grating at times and makes the film look a lot more dated than it actually is and the plot seems to recycle a lot of ideas from Mewtwo Returns. Coupled with audio mixing that is noticeably shoddy at times and the whole movie seems quite hastily thrown together, and although it includes some sweet moments between the characters and the voice acting is still fantastic, the grandeur and spectacle of The First Movie, Pokemon 2000 and Pokemon 3 are sadly missing.

All in all, if you are planning a Poke-movie marathon then this one is probably worth throwing in there, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend starting with this movie as it is certainly my least favourite of the bunch, which is something I didn’t actually realise until this most re-watch. As I said before, there are some nice ideas in there (though I’m not even going to dare diving into the whole can of worms that Sammy/Professor Oak’s time travel shenanigans opens up, I mean does that mean the Professor knew that he’d already met Ash before Ash started his journey? Did he know Ash’s mum would have a son before Ash was even born? Oh God I’m not going any further into this..) but the end product is a bit of a messy jumble. If you’re intrigued, check it out and see what you think of it, but if you want a dose of Poke-Movie goodness, there are plenty of better options, as we’ll find further on!

Overall Rating: 1.5 crispy onions out of 5

6. Pokemon: Mewtwo Returns

Plus Points:

• Nice throwback to the first movie straight from the off, a good recap without being too long-winded
• “Soon I encountered my nemesis”, which is kind of funny when you consider his “nemesis” is just a cute little Mew
• It’s nice that they eventually remembered Giovanni’s part in Mewtwo’s story
• It’s good to see the whole clone Pokemon gang together
• Ooh a new version of the First Movie title card
• And here we have the real star of this movie! BROCK’S TRUSTY FRYING PAN!

• Random Bob Dylan reference from Team Rocket, didn’t know they were fans
• Mewtwo rescued the people on the bus, aww that was nice of him
• Clone Pikachu and Clone Meowth have the cutest little voices
• That tea looks nice
• Yay it’s the score from the First Movie again!
• Misty’s face when she sees the Kakuna/Beedrill haha
• Brock’s overly enthusiastic pointing at the mountain. I guess he just remembered that in another life (or the games at least) he was a rock-type gym leader
• A very pretty shot of butterfree in front of the moon
• Meowth’s slow motion jump during Team Rocket’s entrance
• “GOOOOOOOO ELECTRICITY ABSORBING WIRE!!!”
• Wow they really pimped out the Meowth hot air balloon
• Jessie’s crush on Cullen is funny, I don’t know why but her line delivery here reminds me of Mary from Coronation Street

• The animation is very clean and smooth in this movie
• Pikachu throwing shade at Team Rocket
• Clone Pikachu’s angry little voice, aww
• Another Team Rocket fourth wall break. I like that they’ve kept this as a staple throughout all the movies so far
• Clone Dewgong! Look at his silly little smiley face
• I just want to give poor little clone Pikachu a hug, poor fella looks so sad
• Random but pretty montage of the earth
• I shouldn’t have doubted Luna’s canoe making skills, that was pretty impressive actually
• I love how much of a devious sod Meowth is haha
• Wigglytuff is just happy to be here
• Another shot featuring smiley derpy Dewgong. I’d happily watch a film just about him, living his Dewgong life, doing Dewgong things
• Simple but very pretty and effective background art at the spring
• AWWWWW BABY RHYHORN AND NIDOQUEEN!! THEY’RE SO TINY!!

• Meowth trying to protect clone Meowth is very sweet
• “You look well” I like how the first thing Giovanni says to Mewtwo is the same thing you’d say to your line manager who’s just come back from a week in Lanzarote.
• Persian always looks cheerful
• Team Rocket literally have rockets now (well jetpacks technically but meh)
• And hang gliders too for some reason. Team Hang Glider doesn’t really have the same ring to it though does it?
• Aww I do quite like good guy Mewtwo
• And the Pika/Meowth tag team
• “FRIENDS, TO THE ISLAND!”
• Come on Mewtwo, save baby Nidoqueen!
• Mewtwo’s little scrunchy angry face
• Ledian swarm!
• Vapreon going “Awooooo”
• Bug Pokemon invasion
• I hope that Scyther goes and lops Dominio’s head off
• Jessie and James getting one over stupid Domino, haha screw you Domino
• The unintentional hilarity that is Mewtwo getting electrocuted, sorry Mewtwo but it was quite funny
• Ash helping while Mewtwo’s looking like he’s had a few too many to drink
• Ash yeeting Mewtwo into the water hahahahaha
• Oh hi Mew!
• You tell him Mewtwo, kick his big orange-suited arse!
• The baby Pokemon are so adorable
• Mewtwo is having a change of heart! Hooray!
• Persian doing one heck of a lick
• Everyone stayed friends, oh good.
• Pikachu hot air balloon!
• And Luna found love too! Good times all round!
• Mewtwo going all Obi-Wan Kenobi on Ash
• Mewtwo’s Superman pose at the end of the movie

Minus Points: 

• Mewtwo having one his many “I’m not like other girls” (or other Pokemon) moments
• Ash, Misty, please top with the “wonder” puns, they’re not even good puns
• Ash how did you not see the bus drive off right in front of you
• I wish Brock and Misty would calm down about this water
• I bet the other clone Pokemon are getting really bored of Mewtwo’s constant existential crisis

• “We hate to bother you – but we’re inviting ourselves into your house”
• Brock stop hitting on Domino
• The fact that Domino is called Domino. I was going to say whoever picked that monicker for her must have been a fan of the Keira Knightley movie of the same name, but apparently that film didn’t come out until 2005, so I guess not
• Shut up Domino
• That rock didn’t crush Domino. Shame. God I really hate her and I’m not even entirely sure why
• Why did Luna think abseiling was a good idea again
• Domino is an undercover Team Rocket member. Totally didn’t see that coming… *cough*
• How did Giovanni not cut his hand to ribbons crushing that glass?
• “The Black Tulip” She’s like the Pokemon world equivalent of Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way

• Now I love all things Pikachu-related as much as the next Pokemon fan, but I wouldn’t call Pikachu Vs Pikachu “The Pokemon match of the year” Jessie
• Mewtwo do you really need to be this emo all the time?
• Jessie complaining about being an outcast despite the fact she was the one who chose to be a career criminal
• How the hell are you going to build a canoe that quickly Luna?
• As cute as she is, shouldn’t baby Nidoqueen be a Nidoran?
• Oh no my favourite boy derpy Dewgong is hurt!
• LEAVE THOSE BABY POKEMON ALONE DOMINO YOU BITCH!!!
• Ugh I hate her so much, she is the absolute worst
• Stop shooting the Pikas Dominio!
• Noooo Mewtwo don’t go into the light!
• Poor Mewtwo
• What’s the point of the arm restraints if everyone can still use their arms?
• Jesus, how big is that jail cell!? They’ve even chucked a Gyarados in there!

• Aww poor Persian, don’t be mean to the kitty Giovanni
• Ash running into things like an idiot, as per usual
• Sod off Giovanni
• I hate to break it to you Meowth but I’m not entirely sure you’ve even got a nose…
• It’s a shame they ditched the cute end-credit animations that they normally have at the end of the other movies

The Overall Verdict:

Mewtwo Returns is a nice little addition to the Pokemon Movie roster (or it would be if people actually considered it to be a Pokemon Movie) and it’s particularly worth a watch if you’re a big fan of the First Movie. It’s pretty cool to have a direct sequel to one of the existing movies and I kind of wish they’d tried this idea again with some of the other films, maybe a follow-up to what Molly did after the events of Pokemon 3, or some more adventures with Melody from Pokemon 2000? The film does lack some of the energy found in the other movies and clearly didn’t have anywhere near as much budget behind it, some elements of it (Domino I’m looking at you) can get pretty tiresome but there are nice moments between the Pokemon themselves and it’s always good to see some familiar faces from the First Movie again (Especially derpy Clone Dewgong of course).

Here in the UK Mewtwo Returns was released as part of a VHS box set with a copy of “The Great Race” from the Pokemon Indigo League’s first season VHS run (why they picked this particular video to pair Mewtwo Returns with I have no idea, maybe they just had a lot of surplus copies of The Great Race or something) and copies of the VHS are still readily available online, though if you’d prefer a DVD copy then good luck trying to find one! I think this movie not being as readily available on modern formats as some of the other Pokemon films is one of the reasons it has be undeservedly overlooked, but if you do fancy digging out your old VHS player (or streaming the movie online, though personally I much prefer a physical format) then get to it and give Mewtwo Returns a bit of love!

Overall Rating: 2 Team Rocket Helicopters out of 5

5. Pokemon 2000

Plus Points:

• Lugia’s Song is a very pretty and very memorable theme
• Cool underwater shot of Lugia
• Some nice camera angles on the opening shot of the gang
• This very early 00’s version of Pokemon World is a banger
• Lots of Magikarp, that’s nice
• Pikachu’s cute little suspicious face
• Team Rocket referencing similarities to the last film, maybe I should have asked them to write this
• Oh hi there Delia! I like Ash’s mum, she deserves more screen time
• Pretty snow
• Professor Oak being carried away by Diglett

• The Shamuti Islanders outfits remind me of Princess Mononoke, which came out a few years before this. I wonder if they took a bit of inspiration from it?
• Ominous looking Pikachu
• Somewhere in the Pokemon World there’s always  a festival going on, they’re very jolly folk
• Lugia’s Song being played on the ocarina is really beautiful, definitely one of the most iconic pieces of music from Pokemon in my opinion
• I love the random talking Slowking. No idea why he’s there but he’s great 
• We should all just listen to Pikachu, he’s the only one with any sense
• Team Rocket breaking the fourth wall
• Team Rocket giving relationship advice, bless them
• Zapdos’s voice actor being unintentionally hilarious “AHHHH” “AHHHHHHHH”
• Meowth translating for Pikachu/Zapdos
• I love how egotistical Zapdos is haha. Shine on you crazy thunder chicken

• Oooooh Lugia is on his way!
• The little Ekans swimming along with all the water type Pokemon. I believe in you Ekans, you go Ekans!
• I really like the shots of all the Pokemon travelling
• Cute little Raichu stood on a boat, aww
• A nice heartfelt moment from Delilah
• “I could use pants”
• Oh hi Charizard/Squirtle/Bulbasaur
• Zapdos going “AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH” cracks me up everytime
• Articuno has a lovely sparkly tail
• Oooh legendary bird fight
• “I’d hate to get hit by… their droppings”, to be fair I’d imagine a Zapdos poo would be pretty big
• Team Rocket’s faces when they find the lifeboat
• Slowking is back again, not sure why, but there he is, doing his thing
• HERE COMES LUGIA!
• AND WHAT AN ENTRANCE!
• Lugia’s cute little dorsal fins, aww
• A satisfyingly large group of Pokemon, just what I like to see
• “Right now I wish my mom had named me Bob instead of Ash”. Bob Ketchum sounds like a truck driver from the midwest United States.
• Oh good Lugia is getting better
• “THE SONG HAS RESTORED MY STRENGTH” The quote that launched a thousand memes

• Lugia’s voice is so silly haha
• Ash’s self-doubt it quite realistic, I kind of like the fact he’s come down a peg or two now
• Team Rocket deciding to be good guys!
• Team Rocket and Ash working together
• Cool lifeboat in a tunnel scene
• Ash riding Lugia is awesome. I wish I had a Lugia
• Yay the awesome score is back again
• Aww a nice heartfelt moment from Misty
• Misty’s swimming skills coming in useful 
• Togepi sitting on Slowking’s head

• The crystalised shrine looks really cool
• Iconic Lugia’s Song scene
• Lugia is back and he’s ready to kick ass!
• I love the way Lugia sits down so Ash can sit on his back, reminds me of my cat Liz. Not that I’ve ever ridden her while she flew across the ocean (like many cats she does unfortunately fall quite short when it comes to her aviational abilities)
• More great shots of Ash on Lugia
• Lugia’s voice is so funny, it just kills me haha
• Aww a nice reunion between Ash and his mum
• I really do like Ash and Delia’s relationship, it’s very sweet

• An in-universe reference to Pokemon cards
• Slowking breaking the fourth wall
• The way that James says “That’s good! That’s bad!”
• Some nice scenes for the closing credits, complete with a power ballad
• And then there’s Weird Al Yankovic’s “Polkamon”! I hope they feature that song in the Weird Al biopic with Daniel Radcliffe (they probably won’t though…)

Minus Points:

• I wish we got some more background on Lawrence III besides him being “a collector”, I mean technically most of the people we know in the Pokemon universe are collectors… I’m a Pokemon collector, doesn’t mean I’m going to shoot a giant mythical bird out of the sky and keep it in some sort of weird cage made out of hula hoops though does it?
• I don’t think Lawrence III is ever referred to by name in the movie actually, which is a bit weird when you think about it…
• Also why does he have a Sistine Chapel-esque painting on his ceiling?

• The CGI on his spaceship/weird flying propeller house thing has aged like sour Moomoo Milk too
• Poor Moltres
• Urgh Tracey’s here instead of Brock
• Oh look, another storm, we definitely didn’t have enough of that in the last movie…
• “The Chosen One”… How original
• BUT WHY DID SHE HAVE KRABBYS? I guess I’ll never know… Actually, I’m not entirely sure that I want to know…
• Tracey sitting there with his big derpy mouth open, like a doofus
• Ash has been The Chosen One for barely 5 minutes and it’s already gone to his head
• “This storm’s bad” Ugh what is it with you people and storms?
• “You talking about me?” Nobody is talking about you Tracey, you’re like the Pokemon franchise’s equivalent to Booster in Jingle All The Way 

• Lawrence III looks like he’d be more at home in Yu-Gi-Oh than Pokemon
• “I come from a water Pokemon Gym” No need to flex Misty
• Poor Karen, she just wanted a nice cup of tea
• Ah, and here we have one of those flying boats I’ve heard so much about
• God Lawrence III is such a smug twat
• Lawrence III talking to himself, weirdo
• “The way you talk it’s like Pokemon are just things to collect” erm Misty you’re in a franchise with the tagline “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” you know…
• But why did Lawrence III let Ash and Co. out of that cage?
• Bloody hell Lawrence there’s no need to shoot Articuno with an ACTUAL CANNON you nutter
• Stop attacking Lugia you silly birds! He’s here to help!
• Shut up Professor Ivy nobody asked you
• Where has Charizard gone?
• Moltres and Zapdos kicking Articuno when he’s already down, bit bloody mean if you ask me
• Ash failing to notice that Team Rocket are inches from death
• Team Rocket’s erm… suicide pact?

• Oh Lawrence III will you please sod off
• “I have failed” Well yeah, i suppose you have Lugia
• Westlife’s “Flying Without Wings” is on the closing credits too, which would be fine apart from the fact that every Pokemon we’ve seen fly in this movie most definitely HAS wings

The Overall Verdict?

While this movie does have some great moments (most notably Lugia’s entrance and the climatic Lugia’s Song sequence) I couldn’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed when rewatching this film. I think part of this was Lawrence III being such a weak antagonist, especially in comparison to other Pokemon movie villains, as we get barely any background or character development with him at all. The film is certainly very aesthetically pleasing and the animation is consistently good throughout, but despite this I still found some of the action scenes to be quite forgettable, especially in comparison to those in Pokemon: The First Movie. 

Pokemon 2000 is worth a watch, especially if (like me) your favourite generation of Pokemon is Gen II, as it is fun to see the first batch of new Pokemon since the original 150 (or 151 if we’re counting Mew) finding their way onto the big screen, but if you’re expecting an experience to rival that of the first movie you may be a little disappointed. Still though, Lugia makes his debut in it, and he’s awesome (though I do which the production team had gone with the initial concept Takeshi Shudo had to make Lugia a female, maternal Pokemon as this could have opened up opportunities to make entirely new and probably more memorable plot points in the film) so be sure to check it out if you haven’t seen it before.

Overall Rating: 2.5 ocarinas out of 5

So that’s all for now folks! I’ll be back very soon to reveal which vintage Pokemon movies made the top four, including my all-time favourite! In the meantime, why don’t you dig out the older movies and have yourself a little rewatch? It’s a lot of fun to view the films (some of which I haven’t seen in several years) with a fresh outlook and although I may poke fun at some parts of the movies, it really has deepened my appreciation for certain aspects such as the cel animation and the voice acting. But anyway, until next time!

Written By Emily Carney