Pokémon the Movie 3

Pikachu and Pichu

Pokémon seen:  

Pikachu, Togepi, Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot, Pichu, Pineco, Geodude, 
Cyndaquil, Goldeen, Poliwhirl, Zubat, Staryu, Psyduck, Chikorita, Bulbasaur, 
Onix, Vulpix, Totodile, Noctowl, Hoppip, Murkrow, Meowth, Chinchou, Wooper, 
Gyarados, Houndour, Cubone, Smeargle, Magby, Igglybuff, Smoochum, Voltorb, 
Rattata, Bellsprout, Furret, Cleffa, Sunflora, Spinarak, Oddish, Shuckle, 
Hitmontop, Hoothoot, Diglett, Dugtrio

Story:  

The group are in the big city, and Pikachu spots two Pichu running around the 
rooftops, the group release all their Pokémon on the rooftop of a high 
building, and promise to return at six, the Pokémon are free to do what they 
want, apart from anything troublesome.  
Pikachu notices the Pichu, and gets closer to them by climbing across a 
flagpole, Murkrow attack and cruelly make it take a fall, but it makes it 
across by using a flock of Hoppip as platforms, the only problem is, he’s too 
far away to be heard and must find an alternate route back, meanwhile, Meowth 
is in the city cleaning windows for money.  
The Pichu brothers know the city and promise to help Pikachu to return to his 
friends.  
Their journey takes them to ground level and into town by bus, a fall into the 
river, and a crash landing on a Houndour, leading it to pursue them.  
The Pichu defend themselves but can’t help but shock themselves as well as the 
Dark Pokémon, Pikachu picks them up, and escapes the Houndour.  
They find themselves in a Pokémon playground built from junk, where the Pichu 
know the Pokémon here and the three enjoy themselves for a time.  
Sun sets and the resident Pokémon leave the playground, Pikachu worries about 
the time and wishes to leave, but the Houndour turns up, and chases it and the 
Pichu around the playground, destroying it as it goes.  
The Houndour becomes trapped in tyres but Pikachu and the Pichu decide to free 
it, it’s grateful and no longer wishes to pursue them, but their tampering has 
caused the playground structure to become unstable, it will fall apart.  
The four work to hold it all together until the Pichu call for the other 
Pokémon to return, working together, they manage to secure their playground 
and fix it before they lose their recreational place.  
Nightfall comes, and the playground is saved, Pikachu says goodbye to all the 
Pokémon, and rushes away with the Pichu Brothers to get back before Ash does, 
the Pichu Brothers help with one of the tyres from the playground to speed 
things up (and run over Meowth in the process).  
Pikachu makes it back in time and says goodbye to the Pichu Brothers, Ash and 
the others are done preparing a party celebrating the day Ash and Pikachu 
first met.  

My favourite Event:  

Probably Pikachu and the Pichu using Snorlax as a cushion and then the 
Houndour trying the same thing but missing as the Snorlax rolls to one side, 
and then back again, crushing it.  

Things I’d like to point out:  

There’s always one in these movies, either a wrongly named Pokémon, or worse, 
a Pokémon saying the name of something it isn’t.  
This time, it’s a Voltorb speaking in the voice and dialogue of an Electrode.  

I know the Pokémon playground is made up of unused parts and mechanisms, but 
surely playing inside a machine with working turning cogs is dangerous, one 
false move, and a Pokémon could get crushed in the gears.  

Ash simplifies a story everyone knows, telling of they day he and Ash first 
met and became friends, but let’s not forget how much of a selfish and unruly 
Pokémon Pikachu was back then, it was only after Ash defended it from Spearow 
that it threw all that away and permanently became a reliable Pokémon and 
friend to Ash.  

Spell of the Unown

Pokémon seen:  

Unown, Entei, Pikachu, Togepi, Aipom, Totodile, Granbull, Girafarig, 
Chikorita, Noctowl, Bulbasaur, Butterfree, Cyndaquil, Mankey, Quagsire, 
Meowth, Wobbuffet, Mr Mime, Charizard, Vulpix, Staryu, Zubat, Flaaffy, 
Teddiursa, Onix, Phanpy, Kingdra, Goldeen, Mantine, Butterfree, Magikarp

Story:  

Night at the mansion of Professor Spencer Hale, and he tells his daughter 
Molly about legendary Pokémon called Unown that he’s looking for, and Entei, 
who despite its ferocious look, Molly likes it, and compares it to her 
father.  
He receives an e-mail from a colleague called Schuyler about a hidden chamber 
linking to the Unown, and he must leave immediately.  
In the chamber, there are many hieroglyphics on the walls, Spencer finds 
several tiles and a group Unown mysteriously appear and vanish, and then 
transport Professor Hale to their world.  
Molly awakens to realise her father has not returned, and later searches his 
computer and discovers the tiles that Schuyler brought back.  
She notices the Unown hieroglyphs look like letters, and spells out the names 
of her parents and herself, her tears seemingly awaken the Unown, who rush to 
the mansion, the tiles are replaced by Unown, and their presence turns all 
landscape and buildings to crystal.  
Everyone else is sealed out, and Molly makes a wish for her father to return, 
the Unown grant her wish in a way, but due to the memory of her father once 
childishly pretending he was Entei, an Entei appears to her with the sole 
purpose of granting her wishes, and Molly believes that it is her father.  
The entire mansion is reshaped in a pair of crystal towers, and all of the 
staff are sealed outside, unable to do anything...  
Ash, Misty and Brock arrive in Greenfield, and meet a trainer called Lisa who 
wants a Pokémon Battle.  
Totodile beats Granbull, Girafarig beats Chikorita, with Noctowl Versus Aipom, 
Noctowl’s the victor, Butterfree defeats Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil wins over 
Mankey, and finally, Pikachu defeats Quagsire, but is forced to do so without 
electricity due it being part Ground-type.  
Lisa and the group have food together and she tells them about the Pokémon 
Centre in Greenfield and leads them to it, but they are shocked by the crystal 
growth that has spread far across the area and continues to expand.  
Police and news reporters film the event, and Mrs Ketchum in Pallet Town 
recognises the name Spencer Hale.  
Oak and Tracey also hear the news and learn of the Unown, Mrs Ketchum arrives 
and tells Oak she’s coming with him to Greenfield since she’s known Spencer 
for years.  
Meanwhile, the Unown’s presence continues to spread, and Oak soon arrives in 
Greenfield soon after with Mrs Ketchum and meet up with Ash and the others.  
Molly can see them on the news, and wishes to Entei for a mother, he soon 
appears before Ash and the group, brainwashes Mrs Ketchum, and runs away with 
her, Pikachu tries to hang on but is dumped, and Ash is stopped from chasing 
them across the crystal path.  
Mrs Ketchum awakens in the tower, and Molly strangely believes that she really 
is her mother.  
Oak comes to the conclusion that Entei is linked to the Unown, meanwhile, in 
the Charicific Valley, Ash’s Charizard notices the footage from Ash’s chase 
with Entei, and looks to the sky...  
A bulldozer attempts to break through the crystal, but when Molly orders it to 
leave, the Unown form sharp spikes that overthrow and overturn the bulldozer, 
and then transform it into crystal.  
The group receive an e-mail message from Molly, telling them she’s happy with 
her parents and that they should leave her alone.  
Ash approaches the tower regardless of warnings, but his friends opt to join 
him, Lisa lends Ash her Pokégear to keep in contact.  
The group wade through a stream (untransformed by the crystal) while Team 
Rocket float over, but they are brought crashing down by Entei, and find 
themselves in a surreal environment.  
Molly watches another report, and sees Ash and his friends infiltrating the 
tower with their Pokémon.  
Mrs Ketchum’s trance is broken when she sees Ash’s reckless climb, Molly is 
fascinated by Ash’s Pokémon and wishes to become a Pokémon Trainer, while Ash 
and the others enter and receive a call from Oak, telling them that the Unown 
can read the thoughts of life forms and create new realities by altering the 
world with thoughts and dreams, they have tapped into Molly’s imagination to 
create the crystal world and tower.  
The group emerge from a strange staircase to a field of dreams, while Team 
Rocket stumble into the tower and see the Unown.  
Molly doesn’t wish for Ash to be expelled, but wishes to become a trainer so 
she can battle him, Entei makes it so, while making it so that a second form 
of Molly ages in order to qualify for the age of a Pokémon Trainer.  
Molly confronts the group and is set on a battle, Brock figures out that the 
teenager is Molly, and stays behind to battle her while Ash and Misty are led 
to the staircase to find Ash’s mother.  
Molly’s Pokémon are stronger than normal Pokémon, her Flaaffy beats Zubat, her 
Teddiursa beats Vulpix, and Phanpy beats Onix hands down.  
Misty, Ash and Pikachu make it to the next area, while Mrs Ketchum comforts 
the real Molly without yet revealing she’s not her mother.  
The alternate part of Molly catches up with Misty in a beach area, and she 
stays behind to battle, Molly is impressed that Misty is so young and yet a 
Gym Leader, and changes to an age between adult and child.  
The battle is taken underwater, but everyone submerged can breathe under it, 
Goldeen loses to Kingdra, but Staryu fares a little better against Mantine.  
Ash reaches his mother, but Molly wakes, and she must tell the young girl the 
truth and convince her to leave this place.  
Molly doesn’t want to, and her anger and protests lead the Unown’s power to 
raise dangerous spikes into the room (just like an illustration in Molly’s 
book).  
Entei returns to prevent Ash from escaping with his mother, and his Pokémon 
fight a dangerous battle against the super powered Pokémon.  
Totodile and Cyndaquil are defeated, Molly’s sadness and protests continue 
when Ash accuses Entei of being nothing but a dreamed up illusion, and the 
spikes continue to grow everywhere.  
Pikachu fights Entei but it’s a losing battle, while Mrs Ketchum orders Molly 
to think about her real mother and father.  
Ash saves Pikachu from destruction but takes a deadly fall, luckily, Charizard 
appears and saves him, before taking over the task of battling Entei.  
It’s a better match-up, but futile, since because Molly doesn’t want Entei to 
fail, the Unown make it so by forming convenient spikes to help Entei but 
endanger Ash on Charizard.  
During the battle, Entei makes it clear that right or wrong are not factors, 
he will comply with whatever Molly wishes, he then defeats Charizard, and 
prepares to kill it.  
Molly orders him to stop, and wishes to put an end to the fighting, Ash’s 
friends remind Molly that she’s got the makings of a great trainer because she 
knows when to stop, and that she could make it as a real trainer if she 
returned to the real world.  
Molly wants things to be real again, and the crystal growth begins to recede, 
Entei prepares to leave since Molly would rather live in the real world.  
But the chaos starts again, as the Unown have lost control of their powers and 
must be stopped, Entei leads the group out of the bedroom to the lower area, 
while Entei seemingly stays behind.  
Oak and the others abandon the Pokémon Centre, as the crystal growth has now 
reached there.  
The Pokémon use their abilities to try and break through the Unown’s barrier, 
but it’s too strong to stop, Entei appears to help, and can win if Molly 
simply believes he can, she puts her faith in Entei, and therefore gives it 
the strength to succeed.  
The Unown’s spell is broken, and they return to where they came from, the 
crystal growth recedes entirely, and Entei leaves this world, while Molly’s 
father returns to it.  
Molly returns to the real world while everybody returns to the mansion to see 
her (including many policemen which forces Team Rocket to hide away in a tower 
until they leave).  

My favourite Quotes:  

Jessie:  “Greenfield’s just as I imagined it.  Beautiful fields of flowers 
that turn into a bizarre crystal wasteland that obliterates the entire-  Hey, 
what’s going on?”  

Mrs Ketchum (to Entei):  “What are you doing here?!”  
Entei:  “I have come, for you.”  
(Mrs Ketchum gasps)  
Entei:  “You... are... Mama!”  

James (referring to the Unown):  “I haven’t seen this many strange letters 
since the last time I placed a personal ad.”  

James:  “How can we breathe underwater?”  
Jessie:  “Go with the flow, sometimes it’s better not to ask questions.”  
Meowth:  “Hey Jessie, I got a question that’s better I shouldn’t ask:  Do ya 
think we’re gonna get a bigger part in the next movie?”  

When this takes place:  

Definitely after the episode “Fowl Play!” seeing as Ash has a Noctowl and 
Totodile (when I went to see this movie, both these Pokémon had not yet 
appeared in the series in the UK, so they obviously fell behind, but not 
nearly as much as the forth, fifth and following movies).  
But I would think it takes place before the group reach Goldenrod City, mainly 
because the Pokémon opening credits changes then, and these movies have a 
tradition of playing a remix of the current theme tune at the start of the 
movie.  

Things I’d like to point out:  

Spencer hesitates when he is about to tell how long he’s searched for the 
Unown, because in the English version, his wife disappeared some time ago 
while researching the Unown.  
Here’s a fun fact, in the Japanese version, there was no back story about 
Molly’s mother, but the writers had an unofficial one that they made up but 
didn’t explain in the story, because she was apparently institutionalised.  
Our version was best because if Molly knew her mother was sick, why would she 
wish for another?  

Unown are the first Pokémon to be computer generated, there may be more 
Pokémon animated in the same way sometime in the future, but they’ll never be 
able to take away the fact that the Unown were done this way first.  

Another fun fact about the different translations of the film, in the Japanese 
Version, Molly’s alternate name was actually spelt ‘Me’, which works kind of 
perfectly with our version since Molly uses the word ‘Me’ instead to describe 
herself while spelling it out with tiles.  
If it had been a different name, then parts of the scene would have had to be 
reanimated for the English Language Version.  

Ash naturally assumes Quagsire is a Water-type, I don’t blame him, even I 
thought so before learning it was a dual-type, Water and Ground.  
Usually Ground-types only ever got Rock as an addition, but the second set of 
games brings in some new Dual Ground-types.  

This is obvious and it’s been mentioned previously in episode guides, but the 
icons on Oak’s computer look like the elemental symbols of the Pokémon Trading 
Cards.  
What may have slipped past people though is the fact that Spencer’s research 
data on the Unown is slightly incorrect, because he spells the Unown’s names 
in the actual spelling of the word ‘Unknown’.  

It’s a shock how fast Oak and Delia make it to Greenfield from Pallet Town, 
it’s taken Ash and his group probably two or three months to get this far.  
This pretty much explains how Gary was able to get ahead of Ash back in Kanto; 
he cheated, and had girls drive him around instead of walking.  

Oak is surprised that Ash and his friends are here at this time, but Ash’s 
mother doesn’t seem particularly fazed at all, she gives a huge welcome to 
Pikachu, but as for Ash, the first thing she says (or more accurately mutters) 
to him is “Oh Hi Honey.”  
After the dramatic goodbye they had when he left, it’s surprising that she 
doesn’t run over to him immediately and have a tearful reunion.  
She tends to do this a lot in the current reunions we’ve seen.  

On the DVD commentary, it’s mentioned that there’s a concept (at least in the 
Pokémon Live stage show) that Giovanni is Ash’s dad, I feel the concept easily 
works in the cartoon since we’ve never seen Ash’s father, where he failed as a 
trainer he could have gone bad, and if you look at Giovanni, there are slight 
similarities between he and Ash.  

Entei certainly proves why the Legendary Dogs are so hard to catch in the 
games, its speed and agility are astounding, and makes it clear just how they 
are able to escape trainers and end up on the next town or continent within 
seconds.  

Liza and Lisa both appear in this movie, with Lisa being the new character on 
the scene (the trainer dressed with red with the strange hat rather than the 
green haired girl who runs the Charicific Valley).  
It’s almost lucky Liza’s name isn’t mentioned, as it might have mixed up 
newcomers to this movie by the similarity of their names.  

During the e-mail message in Greenfield, Oak’s eyebrows change from black to 
grey for the whole scene.  

When Lisa calls Ash on the Pokégear, the ringing is exactly the way it sounds 
in the games when somebody calls you on your Pokégear.  

For probably the first time, Brock’s hair is messed up because of the water; 
usually it just remains the same as it always has been.  

Molly has a tiny Flaaffy on her computer screen; I’m guessing it represents 
the mouse cursor.  

I can’t help but laugh when Teddiursa uses Dynamicpunch, some people won’t 
realise it, but that attack is probably the most powerful Fighting attack yet, 
though in the games there’s only a 50/50 chance of it landing a hit, however, 
if it does, it also induces confusion.  

Brock and Molly should have ended their battle on the second round, since it 
was a best of 3 battles rather than a 3-on-3 battle, Brock had already lost, 
but on the other hand, Brock needed to stall for time and Molly was enjoying 
her first Pokémon Battle.  

When I see the corridor between the field and the ocean, I can’t help but be 
reminded of a certain popular Role-Playing game series, the sort of background 
seen here is the kind of twisted surreal landscapes that are used in most 
games of the series, particularly the final levels before a massive showdown 
with the big villain.  

The drum and bass track that plays during Misty’s Pokémon Battle is one of my 
all time favourites, and personally one of my highlights of the movie is this 
battle because of the effects and the music.  
Up to now we’ve never had such a tune during battles, only songs from the 
games and some original ones that aren’t nearly as dramatic as this one, 
here’s hoping for more great music like this in the future movies.  

Mantine’s Pokéball sounds like the default Pokéball sound, which is an error 
considering every other one of Molly’s Pokémon has a different sound to them.  
Also, unlike other Mantine, it doesn’t have a Remoraid latched onto its wing.  

For once I can be happy that a move has been named correctly and used the 
right way, though Rapid Spin in the series tends to basically send the Pokémon 
into a spin, using it during an attack like Whirlpool rightly frees the user 
from any binding or trapping attacks.  

Charizard has come a long way, even though it ultimately loses, it has better 
flying capabilities, better stats, and in case anyone’s overlooked it, it can 
now fly with great skill even with Ash riding on its back.  

“And at what point did it seem smart to dash head first into a sphere of 
psychic energy?” I ask Ash, well it’s not like he hasn’t done it before, he 
does this every movie, but never succeeds in what he’s trying to stop, and 
never learns from it either.  

I know everyone usually exits the cinema, or presses stop on the end credits, 
but this time the end credits have a small epilogue, in which Molly’s father 
returns home to her, Charizard says its goodbyes and returns to the Charicific 
Valley, and Lisa takes a different route to Ash and his friends and they part 
ways.  
Finally, Molly actually gets a real Pokémon, in the form of Teddiursa, and her 
mother returns to her as well (in the English version, it’s from the Unown 
world, in the Japanese version, she returns from the institute).  

Cameos in Pokémon Journey:  

None, but that’s not to say the Unown and Entei won’t be turning up at some 
point.  

Pokémon:  The First Movie
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