POCKET MONSTERS: MEWTWO NO GYAKUSHUU
MOVIE
Dubbed
SOURCE
VIDEO GAME
RELEASE
July 18, 1998
LENGTH
75 min
DESCRIPTION
A team of scientists use the DNA of a rare Pokemon, Mew, to create the world's strongest Pokemon, Mewtwo. Not wanting to be used as an experiment, Mewtwo uses its psychic powers in a violent rage to destroy the scientists who created it. Mewtwo then tries to learn how to focus his powers with the aid of Giovanni, the man who funded the scientists' operations, but discovers that it is being used again. So Mewtwo decides to find its own purpose in life, and carry out its revenge on humans by destroying life on earth by using a deadly storm. Ash Ketchum and a group of other Pokemon Trainers are summoned by Mewtwo to have a battle with it, but they soon discover that they're only being invited so Mewtwo can clone their Pokemon for it's own purposes. Ash then tries to find a way to stop Mewtwo's plot before it can be carried out.
(Source: Anime News Network)
CAST
Satoshi
Rica Matsumoto
Pikachu
Ikue Ootani
Takeshi
Yuuji Ueda
Kasumi
Mayumi Iizuka
Mewtwo
Shoutarou Morikubo
Mew
Kouichi Yamadera
Narrator
Unshou Ishizuka
Kojirou
Shinichirou Miki
Musashi
Megumi Hayashibara
Nyarth
Inuko Inuyama
Koduck
Rikako Aikawa
Lizardon
Shinichirou Miki
Shigeru Ookido
Zenigame
Rikako Aikawa
Joy
Ayako Shiraishi
Togepy
Satomi Koorogi
Kairyu
Mitsuru Ogata
Yukinari Ookido
Junsa
Chinami Nishimura
Sakaki
Hirotaka Suzuoki
Voyager
Sachiko Kobayashi
Fuji Hakase
Yousuke Akimoto
Sweet
Aiko Satou
Sorao
Tooru Furuya
Umio
Wataru Takagi
RELATED TO POCKET MONSTERS: MEWTWO NO GYAKUSHUU
REVIEWS
TheRealKyuubey
30/100Not the worst Pokemon movie by far, but that's not saying much.Continue on AniListHello there! Welcome to the world of adaptations! My name is Naru! This world is inhabited by creatures called Pokemon, who live in harmony with the humans who capture and train them! For some people, Pokemon are pets. Others use them for fights. For others, Pokemon are used for scientific testing, stored in suspended animation in large glass tubes while individuals far less ethically inclined than myself attempt to use them to perfect the art of cloning. This may not include you, an innocent and unassuming ten year old of indeterminate gender… Seriously, what are you, a boy or a girl? Anyway, one particular scientist wanted nothing more than to use cloning to bring back his deceased daughter… Because it worked so well for Shou Tucker… So they went on an expedition, found a fossil of the ancient Pokemon Mew, and while the artificial soul they created for little Amber may have faded away, after several failed experiments(which now exist in the wild as Dittos), they eventually succeeded in combining Mew’s DNA with that of a human’s to create a new Pokemon, the creatively named Mewtwo.
But the ability to think elaborately and ponder one’s own existence apparently does not bode well for the young lab subject, who doesn’t take his imprisonment and subjugation lying down. He blows the place up, kills everyone, and after some ill-advised soul searching with the leader of Team Rocket, he decides to strike out on his own and prove to the world that cloned Pokemon are not only superior to real Pokemon, but that they’re completely independent of their human captors! He does this by taking over an island close to a popular port, building a base, and perfecting the cloning technology that was used to create three friends he can no longer remember the existence of. He employs a Dragonite that he met… somehow… to send out fliers advertising an event for only the best and brightest pokemon trainers in the immediate area to attend! He creates a massive storm to separate the real challengers from the… Well, let’s not beat around the bush, corpses… But by mistake, he also winds up bringing in Ash Ketchum, a trainer from Pallet Town, and his friends along for the ride! Will their main-characterness get in the way of his perfect evil plan, or will Mewtwo become the real reason Ash never turns 11?
If you’ve ever seen the original Pokemon series, it would be fair to say that it was a low quality affair at best, and animation was one of the many things that you couldn’t really call it’s strong suit. It was passable enough during battle scenes and the few repeated animations, such as Ash’s trademarked hat turn, but for the most part, the production company Team Ota kept costs low, relying on the lacking standards of child viewers to keep the project simple and inexpensive… Or, that’s what I’m assuming they did, but they didn’t have that the rights to that excuse when they made Berserk. Yup, the Pokemon people animated Berserk. At it’s worst, the series was embarrassing to look at, particularly in the early years. Most of the budget clearly went to visual effects, like the lighting effects of Pokemon being captured, Pokemon evolving, and certain intense battle scenes. It wasn’t badly directed or anything, as it was more than serviceable enough for young viewers, speedlines and other tricks are used more or less effectively, and the motion that occurred on screen was never wasted. There were a few too many dialogue-heavy staticky scenes, and I can tell you from a recent rewatch that the animators did get noticeably lazy in the middle of the Kanto arc, but it was fine for what it was.
Having said that, this movie was exactly what the anime analogue of a long-running anime should be… A giant step up in budget and quality control. The movie goes to a lot of really dark places, so appropriately enough, there’s a darker palette at play, and a far more frequent use of shadows than even the spookiest of episodes. There are a few moments that look to have had as low a budget as the series, particularly with one of the earlier scenes of Ash, Misty and Brock stopping for a lunch break, but when it’s called for, the animation can get surprisingly fluid at times. There’s also quite a few shots incorporating CG, and yeah, they stick out like a sore thumb, but since the movie came out in 1999, we can give it a pass on that. It exercises a much better balance between the two styles than many of the newer movies, which use CG to such lavish degree that the standard animation has to suffer to compensate. It’s so effective over-all that with help from the soundtrack, certain scenes can feel unbelievably harrowing or at some points even creepy. For example, in the scene where Ash and his friends first arrive on New Island(yeah, they call it that), and are greeted by Mewtwo’s assistant, the atmosphere is so warying that you don’t know WHAT’s about to happen.
And speaking of the music… Well, it’s a bit bipolar. There are two sides to it, the soundtrack and the score, and they clash even more than the fighting Pokemon do. The score, for what it is, is great. It’s not your typical collection of Pokemon background instrumentals, albeit scaled up to better portray the higher stakes and more epic nature of the story. Even when listened to out of context, these tunes convey very clear emotion, so I don’t think I should have to tell you how effective it all is in context, whether you’re hearing it in the movie in real time or on it’s own terms on the extremely rare Score CD, and you have the actual events of the movie to pair it to. Quite a few of the tunes have an almost Danny Elfman-like quality to them, and I don’t mean in the bouncy Springfield-like kind of way… It’s more like what you’d hear from him in a Tim Burton project, with that sense of mystery and wonder guiding you through an otherwise bland and formulaic story. Some of my personal favorite tunes involve Birth of Mewtwo, which I believe only plays during the often-excluded origin story of the title character, the exciting track Freeing Charizard, and the bell-chorus/greek choir combo in Three on Three.
The Soundtrack, on the other hand… Woof. I’m going to start by saying that it’s not QUITE as dated as the soundtrack to the Digimon movie, but that’s mostly because the songs that actually got crowbarred into the movie are all from no-name artists who might as well have died in the nineties, for all the world would ever care. Seriously, I’ve met modern day Hanson followers who have no idea who M2M ever was. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true, I mean, Christina Aguilera and one of the Spice girls made it into the closing credits, which had four different songs jammed so tightly together that they actually kinda wound up bleeding into each other. I’ll admit that I’m a fan of the Billy Crawford version of the first Pokemon theme song, so sue me, it sounds awesome, and it was a fitting choice for the first real Pokemon battle Ash has in the movie, but it goes downhill from there. Artists like Brittney Spears and N’SYNC were lucky to get away with their dignity intact, somehow escaping with their least known songs being listed as “Inspired by” on the CD(Yeah, right, Soda Pop was based on the Dept. Store health drink, gimme a break), but perhaps nobody comes out as badly as Blessid Union of Souls, who’s track “Brother my Brother” has become synonymous with the film’s absolute worst moment.
And yes, it’s the American Pokemon release, done by 4Kids, so what are you really expecting me to say about the dub? I mean, I’ll give it this, as bad as it was, it’s considered The Glory Days now, especially when compared to the newer dubbing efforts. It’s bad, but then again, it was always bad, and there’s no real difference between this dub and the TV series dub. There’s still lame jokes and obvious rewrites, there’s still lines of dialogue that misidentify various Pokemon, such as calling Pidgeot Pidgeotto and Scyther Alakazam… No, I’m not making that up… But for a show that always ignored it’s own logic, these screw-ups are hardly anything new. The original cast is still present, with voice acting legends Veronica Taylor, Rachel Lillis and Eric Stuart voicing at least half a dozen roles together, and of course Ikue Ohtani’s still voicing Pikachu. Phillip Bartlett does an awesome job as Mewtwo, having also played the character in Pokemon Live, although he doesn’t appear to have any other anime roles to his name. So yeah, the writing and translating is your typical Pokemon fare(save for a dumb Viking joke that not even the series would stoop to), and the acting’s also predictably decent. It’s difficult to find the original sub track, but trust me, it’s worth the hunt.
When I was younger, the fact that there was a Pokemon movie coming out was a huge deal. The series and games had been huge for years, the card game was so lucrative that it drew accusations of basically being a form of childhood gambling, it was an even bigger trend than Pokemon Go is now, and I can personally attest that it was a major part of my childhood. Fuck childhood, it bled into my teen years, and I was straight up obsessed. It took over my life to such an extreme degree, and yet I never saw the first movie in theaters. Nope. I waited for it to come out on DVD, at which point I didn’t even buy it, I rented it. Why was this the case? How could such a forgiving, loyal pokefreak like myself give up the chance to see his favorite cartoon, western , eastern or otherwise on the big screen, and then not even bother securing a cpy for himself? I don’t know. I seriously don’t know. I have no recollection whatsoever about what it was that made me turn my nose up at the idea of seeing this movie in theaters. Did my parents refuse to pay theater costs to see something we could see for free on TV? No, because we saw the second movie in theaters.
Also, both movies gave out promo cards, and I distinctly remember having very low standards, so… What the Psyduck? I can only imagine that it was one of two things… Either I thought the trailers looked lame, which is entirely possible when you consider how I’ve spent most of my life taking trailers way too seriously, so I could have just looked at 4Kids’ advertisement campaign and said ‘no thank you.’ More likely, or perhaps even in conjunction with that issue, I might have gotten pissed off about how the title was a blatant rip-off of Empire Strikes Back. Like, ‘if this movie’s as lazy as it’s title, I don’t want any part of it.’ Either way, I eventually did watch it on DVD, rental of course, and to my great shock, yeah, I had no urge whatsoever to purchase it. I know it has a lot of nostalgic value to a lot of people, but there’s a good damn reason that it’s tied with 4Ever for lowest critical score on Rottentomatoes. Honestly, I think the first time I ever purchased a physical copy of it might have been the one I bought this week for reviewing purposes. Keep in mind, this came out around the time that I thought Tim Burton created the superior Planet of the Apes movie.
First of all, out of all the reviewers who’ve torn this movie to shreds(and there’ve been quite a few), I don’t think I’ve seen anybody call attention to just how badly executed the story is. Right off the bat, we’re told everything there is to know about the titular character and primary antagonist, Mewtwo. We’re told about his creation, his life with Giovanni, and depending what version you’re watching, we’re even shown a part of his past that he doesn’t remember. This was a terrible idea, because not only does it ruin the possible mystery of his character, it takes focus and screen time away from the actual main characters, who are introduced in what can only be described as the third(or fourth) intro portion of the first act. Had Mewtwo’s past been kept shrouded in mystery for the first half of the movie, and fed to us in snippets as each fact became relevant(IE, his history with Giovanni could have been glimpsed when Team Rocket heard their bosses name on a computer), it would have improved the film tenfold. Of course, going back to that example, his history with Giovanni was entirely pointless, aside from the connection it made to the series.
And speaking of the first act, I’d also like to call attention to the fact that this movie doesn’t even bother trying to follow the basic three-act structure. Any movie, regardless of audience, is supposed to have a distinctive beginning, middle, and end, with occasional artistic diversions made for the sake of deliberately changing the norm and challenging the viewer. There are directors who specialize in this, such as Quentin Tarrantino and Christopher Nolan, but even when it comes to their non-linear story-telling styles, the final product can still be broken down into three distinct acts. This is one of the major reasons you can’t approach screenwriting with the mindset of”This happens, then this happens, then this happens, then this happens,” and that’s what about seventy percent of this movie amounts to. The first thirty percent, which I GUESS you could call the first act, is just a long string of introductions to various elements of the story, only the fourth of which has anything to do with the actual protagonist. Not only is the villain’s backstory AND motus operandi revealed first, giving it a feel of heavier important, but Ash and Friends also take a back seat to an entire sequence who’s only purpose, as I mentioned before, is to connect the film to the series. Who are we supposed to be rooting for, again?
The second and third acts, if you can even call them that, bleed together into one long scene that takes place more or less in real time. I guess you could kind of separate the storm sequence and the introduction of the three other trainers who were able to make it to the island as a second act, but it’s a brief one that doesn’t leave much of an impression until Mewtwo once again hijacks the movie for the extended third act. Honestly, though, the single biggest flaw in the movie is just how hypocritical and non-sensical Mewtwo’s plans really are, and if the film had been paced and structured better, we wouldn’t have had so much time in between his appearances to THINK about how little sense it all makes. Smarter execution could have amplified the emotional weight of his story, especially if the two major tear-jerking moments of the film had been juxtaposed against each other, with one happening in real time and the other happening afterwards as a flashback, making the conclusion of Mewtwo’s character arc… Because trust me, he’s the only character in this stupid movie who HAS an arc… More effective on a more emotional level. Instead, the tragedy that ends this conflict just feels like a ridiculous ass-pull.
And yeah, I hear what you’re saying… It’s the first pokemon movie, obviously there were going to be some flaws. The writers likely weren’t used to translating the pacing and structure of a TV episode into the higher demand of a full length movie, and I’ll admit, that does play a huge factor in why this movie just doesn’t feel right. Their approach would improve greatly with future movies, even if said projects went downhill in many other areas, but this first movie is structured like an episode of the show… You do a brief introduction of where everyone is, usually with the assistance of a narrator, and then the plot is revealed, which takes up the rest of the episode. Or, in this case, the movie. This isn’t an entirely negative change, as the extended run time allows certain scenes to run way longer than the limits of TV would normally allow, making several action set pieces feel more intense, like Ash and friends struggling to survive the storm and reach new island, or an entire room full of Pokemon trying to either fight or flee from a hoard of Mewtwo’s flying Pokeballs, which can somehow capture other Pokeballs.
So yes, the idea of this movie being an extended episode of the series can be sort of a double edged sword, at least in these respects. But even having said that, the argument falls flat when you look at just how stupid this movie is, and how many obvious mistakes it makes. Sure, the series was never what I’d call well-written, but most of it’s dumbest aspects come from the characters themselves being fucking idiots, from Team Rocket’s frequent failures to our heroes not being able to recognize them, to Ash’s constant failures to capture almost any Pokemon he had the opportunity to catch. Oh, you don’t wanna trade your Tauros? You have fucking thirty of them! And go back to pick up Pidgeot! Sorry, irrelevant, but I’ve been sitting on those rants for a while. Anywho, the mistakes made in the movie are a lot more obvious and in some cases just impossible to explain. Some of them are even more inexplicable than the questions of how Mewtwo, a freaking Pokemon, was able to build or acquire a massively technologically advanced base without anyone noticing, how he has the ability to brainwash people and why doesn’t he just use this power to tell all the people in the world to stop being dicks, and so on and so forth. Seriously, imagine him mind-controlling Giovanni like that.
Back in the late nineties, the only thing more exciting to Pokemon fans than the upcoming movie was the soon-to-be released second generation of Pocket monsters. The movie, brilliantly enough, decided to capitalize on this by teasing us with three new critters, not including Togepi. The first two appeared in Pikachu’s vacation, an OVA that aired before the movie, but the one that was reserved for the movie was Donphan, which you would think means he would be a big deal… But no, he gets beaten faster than CM Punk in UFC. Great representation, there. After this, we go to the docks, where trainers want to brave the storm Mewtwo created to answer their invitations, and we get this strange, unnamed woman saying that the storm is some prophecy called The Winds of Water. This is of course not connected to anything, or ever referenced again. The main cast take a freaking canoe to cross the ocean in a storm that a giant ferry isn’t fit for, which is probably the only mistake that feels like it would happen in the show, and then the ending has the balls to tell us that fighting is wrong, and that pokemon aren’t meant to fight each other, in a movie based on a franchise that’s based entirely around the art of strategic combat. This is the textbook definition of having your cake and eating it too, and yeah, there’s a reason this is literally EVERYBODY’S biggest complaint about the film. I my opinion, though, it’s not even it’s worst problem.
Pokemon: The first movie is available stateside in a few different formats, and I’m not sure if there’s any way to buy a region 1 version of the original Japanese release, or even if there’s a version with the original Birth of Mewtwo scene attached to it. The old DVD releases have slightly more features than the better looking recent releases, and they can be found for much cheaper on Ebay than on amazon. It can also be found in a few different three-pack formats, included with the second and third movies, for an okay price. There are a ton of other entries in the franchise, including way too many seasons of the show, and over a dozen other movies, which I may or may not visit in the future.
When I bring up my issues with this movie in the company of other people, the most common defenses it gets aren’t the ones I mentioned earlier. The first one is the nostalgia argument, which… Okay, yeah, I kinda get that one. I liked Space Jam as much as the next child. You grew up with it, it’s important to you, so you’re forgiving of it. This actually leads into the other defense, that it’s a movie for kids. One day, little viewers who watch it now are going to have the same nostalgic reaction to it. Well, if all you’re looking for is something bright and colorful to keep your kids quiet for an hour and a half, this movie is fine. It’s innocent and inoffensive, and the fact that it’s moral is confused and hypocritical shouldn’t damage them seriously. But if that’s all you’re looking for, you wouldn’t be reading a review right now. The fact of the matter is that there ARE really good movies out there for children, movies that teach and enlighten while they entertain, and that don’t deserve to be lumped together with movies like this one just because they both reach the low standard of “It exists, and nothing offensive happens.” This movie may check those two boxes, but it’s also a soulless, lazy cash-grab that does nothing important for the franchise other than set up the far superior Mewtwo Returns, and even THAT’s just my opinion. Aside from that, it really doesn’t do anything to justify it’s own existence or continued relevance. I give Pokemon: The First Movie a 3/10.
TheAnimeBingeWatcher
75/100I don't know how it holds up, but it holds up. Those opening and ending sequences? Legendary.Continue on AniListDespite being a huge fan of Pokemon as a kid, I did not watch much of the Pokemon TV show. I watched all of Diamond and Pearl while it was airing, but that was it. I didn’t watch the original series, not Advanced Generation, and basically I fell off the entire franchise just a few episodes into Best Wishes. However, before that point, while I wasn’t keeping up with the TV show, I was absolutely keeping up with the movies. I saw every Pokemon movie up through Arceus and the Jewel of Life, and that was how I stayed up to date on what the current Pokemon status quo was. I don’t remember every detail from all those movies- it’s a lot of movies, after all- but I have fond memories of all of them. They were consistently my favorite part of Pokemon, moreso than the TV show, even moreso than the games. The Pokemon movies were Pokemon to me, and my memories of them are the standard upon which I judge the entire franchise.
But there’s no telling what will happen to those memories as I'm re-watching them. It’s been over a decade, after all, and I first watched them as a kid without much discerning taste. The Pokemon movies define my memories of the franchise, but are they gonna hold up upon revisitation? Will the epic tales they tell stand the test of time and prove themselves as enduring, worthwhile additions to this megolithic franchise? Or will they reveal themselves as little more than cheap cash grabs, pandering to the lowest common denominator in order to score a few more fistfuls of dollars from eager tykes and their parents’ open wallets? And am I even gonna be able to see them with fresh eyes when my nostalgia goggles are so tight around my experiences with them? There’s only one way to find out: re-watch them in tandem with watching the show and discover what they leave me with now that I'm 22 with a far more discerning critical eye. It’s gonna be a weird, wild experience, but I’ve never backed down from a challenge before, and I don’t intend to start now. So let’s dive right into the first Pokemon movie, conveniently titled Pokemon: The First Movie, to see where this grand tradition started, and see if it still holds up after all this time.
Mewtwo Strikes Back is one of those movies that pretty much everyone remembers watching as a kid. I won’t spoil anything major in case some of you reading it haven’t seen it yet, but it tells the tale of Mewtwo, the first ever Pokemon clone. He was cloned from the DNA of the legendary first Pokemon Mew, created as a lab experiment by Team Rocket to be the strongest Pokemon ever, capable of conquering anyone and anything with his psychic powers. But Team Rocket made an incalculable mistake in their quest to create the strongest Pokemon: they actually succeeded. Mewtwo is an unbeatable powerhouse who no one can control, and he’s none too happy at finding out that the purpose of his creation was to be a slave to humanity. He goes full Frankenstein’s Monster and rebels against his creators, setting off on his own with a heart full of rage and a burning desire to forge a new meaning for his existence, even if it means crushing the entire world under his unstoppable heel. Meanwhile, Ash and company are enjoying their adventures as always when an unexpected invitation embroils them in Mewtwo’s cataclysmic plans. Can they stop the mad Pokemon from destroying the world, or have the scars of his creation sunk in too deep to accept anything less than Armageddon?
Just by that description, I think you can get a sense of what made this movie leave such a lasting impact on the generation of kids who first experienced it. Pokemon has gone big in the past, but this is the first time the scope of its narrative has truly become massive. Mewtwo’s tale isn’t just another exciting romp or just another badass showdown; it’s a full-on epic tragedy, steeped in dark portent and an undercurrent of mythic awe that makes you feel like you’re watching a legend come to life before your eyes. The stage feels grander, the emotions rawer, the ultimate meaning far more ancient and everlasting. Mewtwo himself is a far more mature character than you might expect, driven to evil deeds not out of pettiness or inherent cruelty, but because of deep existential trauma that’s crippled his ability to grow as a sentient being. His entire purpose for existing in the first place was to be a tool for other’s to wield; he was born without meaning, and he projects that self-hatred onto the world around him as he rages against what he sees as the unchangeable evil of humans and Pokemon. In a lot of ways, I think Mewtwo Strikes Back was many of our first introductions to the idea that fiction would ask difficult questions of us. It could present us with villains who had to be stopped but demanded out sympathy all the same. It could present us with philosophical conundrums on the meaning of life, how we’re born versus who we choose to be. Sure, it’s not exactly Aristotle, but the epic scope and depth of the film’s ideas in contrast with its kid-friendly presentation make for the rare film that can ask make six-year-olds to step out of their comfort zones and face grander, less comfortable ideas than they might be used to.
Of course, if you remember anything from this film as an adult today, it’s sure to be the opening and ending sequences. The film’s middle stretch gets a little draggy as it puts all the pieces in place for the final showdown; there’s a lot of people and Pokemon involved, and even Team Rocket gets a b-story as they sneak around Mewtwo’s fortress to give the audience a tour of the inner machinery driving his plan. Also, this franchise has not yet lost its unfortunate affinity for cheesy 90s pop ballads in place of emotional heft. It still all looks very nice, as OLM flexes their movie budget to bring the Pokemon world to life like never before. The character animation on humans and Pokemon alike is fluid and satisfying, with plenty of nuanced little details that speak to their personalities. There’s an obvious effort to animate everyone in frame, not just the most important characters, background characters react to events in the foreground, Pokemon scuffle and play along the sidelines, and it goes a long way to selling the reality of this world. The cinematography gets an upgrade as well, with plenty of sweeping landscape shots that show off the well-realized background art and let you sink into the majesty of the environments. And good god, is it great seeing the Pokemon battles realized with the full potential of animation. The action is fast and furious, everyone’s pulling out a dozen different moves, and the impact of every blow rings across the screen. This is the first time the Pokemon fights have felt as organic and explosive as they deserve to, like we’re watching two sentient beings try to triumph over each other instead of just video game characters exchanging turn-based blows. It’s not exactly Ghibli, but it’s polished to a damn fine mirror shine all the same.
But that opening and ending. Sweet buttery Christ, that opening and ending. There’s a reason those two sequences have lingered in our collective cultural consciousness for upwards of two decades now; they are truly jaw-dropping. The prologue details Mewtwo’s creation, subjugation and liberation with the gravitas befitting a Shakesperian anti-hero; it pushes the franchise’s usual light-hearted good nature to the side in favor of pure mythic weight. And watching the evolution of Mewtwo’s consciousness as he becomes consumed by the darkness of his situation makes for one of the most gripping, awe-inspiring supervillain origin stories ever made. And a lot of credit needs to go to Mewtwo’s voice actor for pulling that off, because he sells the fuck out of this character’s tragic rage (honestly, the entire dub cast is in top form here). By the time he’s left his captors behind and sworn revenge on the world that’s wronged him, you’re left utterly spellbound; you just witnessed the birth of a vengeful god in a franchise about making cute plush critters battle each other. And without spoiling the ending, yeah, we all make fun of how cheesy and contrived that resolution is, but as it’s just letting that last battle play out, the weight and exhaustion and pain growing and growing and Pikachu taking a stand and Ash charging into the fray and the horrible wordless silence that settles in right before everything is set right again… Fuck, man. I’m not even ashamed to admit it still made me cry over a decade later. That’s the mark of something truly special; even though it’s a kid’s movie, it (mostly) lets its darkness be honest, uncompromising, and true.
So yeah, as amazed as I am to say it, Pokemon: The First Movie still holds up. It’s not perfect, and it does drag in the places between when it gets to really flex its more epic ideas, but your childhood self wasn’t wrong to find as much value in it as you did. It’s a shockingly resonant piece of epic fiction that pushes Pokemon to the next level and grounds it in something darker, grander, and more awe-inspiring than it’s even been capable of before. It’s a kid’s film through and through, but it’s the most colossal kid’s film I can possibly imagine that still appeals to such young sensibilities. Time and time again, Pokemon has proven itself to be more than just a money-printing machine; there’s a reason we keep coming back to these characters and their stories so many years later. And Mewtwo Strikes Back, while flawed, is proof that this franchise is capable of some truly incredible things.
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SCORE
- (3.7/5)
MORE INFO
Ended inJuly 18, 1998
Main Studio OLM
Favorited by 575 Users