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If you know me, you know that Pokemon has been a big part of my life. My cousin introduced it to me with his Gameboy back when I could barely read, and since then I've been hooked on it. Though the newer seasons of the anime haven't held my interest, the games are still a huge part of my life.
The older movies and TV series, however, were and still are my jam.
With Ash's era having come to an end in months past, I thought it was a great time to review the first movie.
"Pokemon: The First Movie" also released as "Pokemon: The First Movie -- Mewtwo Strikes Back" takes place during the first season of the anime during Ash's travels to compete in the Indigo League, and holds a lot of topics that were somewhat heavy for a children's audience.
Topics like cloning, genetic modification, senseless violence and differences in origin were among some key elements of this movie, resulting in some heavy choices to be made by Pokemon and trainers alike.
The film was unique considering it features three segments to split up the 75 minute run time, "Pikachu's Vacation," "The Uncut Story of Mewtwo's Origin" and "Mewtwo Strikes Back."
"Pikachu's Vacation" to this day is one of my favorite segments to come out of any Pokemon film, right alongside "Pikachu's Rescue Adventure." It's a light-hearted feature that shows Pikachu and the rest of the main team learning responsibility and cooperation during summer vacation.
The main cast, Ash Ketchum, Misty and Brock are spending a day at a theme park built for Pokemon. The main team (Pikachu, Togepi, Psyduck, Bulbasaur and Squirtle) find themselves confronted with a group of other Pokemon who bully them and compete against them.
Long story short, the segment ends with the two groups working together to rebuild the theme park and spend the rest of the day playing.
The next segment was much shorter, "The Uncut Story of Mewtwo's Origin" ran for only around 10 minutes, but included a lot of heavy backstory for the feature film that would follow; in just a short segment, the audience is blasted with a bunch of information about where Mewtwo came from.
Giovanni, the infamous leader of a group of villains named Team Rocket, hires a scientist, Dr. Fuji, with expertise in cloning to create a living weapon. Giovanni instructs Fuji to use a bit of DNA taken from a mythical Pokemon named Mew. Fuji does what he's told, but he also uses the Team Rocket-funded technology to resurrect his daughter, Amber.
The clone of Amber, Ambertwo, as well as a bunch of other cloned Pokemon, do not manage to stay sentient. The clones decompose and die, traumatizing Mewtwo. Fuji tranquilizes Mewtwo at the end of the short, and makes him forget his experiences with the other clones.
Now this throwback has already gotten pretty lengthy just explaining the shorts, so I'll give you a very condensed version of the full movie.
Mewtwo gets angry that the scientists only see him as a clone, so he blows up the island he was created on and plots revenge against both humans and Pokemon. To do this, he lures strong Pokemon trainers to the island for a competition and uses his cloned versions of Pokemon to defeat them. All of the Pokemon on the island start to battle their clones in a giant pit of destruction, minus Ash's Pikachu and Team Rocket's Meowth, who realize there's no point to fighting -- even Mewtwo fights Mew in this scene.
Ash -- dumb, lovable Ash -- decides that the best way to stop two extremely strong Pokemon from fighting is to jump in between them. That will work, right?
Wrong! He is caught in the blast between Mew and Mewtwo and turns into a statue. Pikachu and the other Pokemon cry over the loss of human life, and Ash is revived by the tears.
Mewtwo is moved by this and gives a very heartfelt speech on how people should be judged by their choices and not their origins.
And then, in my least favorite trope ever, Mewtwo erases everyone's memories so they don't have to live with the trauma. What was the point? Why go through all that growth just to delete it? Sheesh.
Despite the less-than-stellar ending, I loved this movie growing up. The soundtrack was awesome -- a couple of highlights being "Brother My Brother" by Blessid Union of Souls and "Don't Say You Love Me" by M2M.
I think this movie tackled some really heavy topics in a way that simplified it for kids, and they did a decent job at it! It keeps the fun nature of "Pokemon" at heart, with the underlying message of thinking for yourself.
"Pokemon: The First Movie" is rated G and can be found on Amazon Prime.
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Breanna Hanley is a reporter for The Express.