Pokémon Heroes: The Movie Camp Pikachu Pokémon seen: Pichu, Skarmory, Wynaut, Togepi, Pikachu, Totodile, Psyduck, Phanpy, Corsola, Cyndaquil, Butterfree, Caterpie, Skiploom, Sudowoodo, Wobbuffet, Meowth, Duskull, Volbeat Story: A steam engine trudges past some woods, on board the Pichu Brothers are riding back towards their home town but a Skarmory causes them to be hit by a water tower pipe, they are catapulted far into a Wynaut and land near Pikachu and a group of the usual fellow Pokémon. Pikachu introduces his old friends to his current ones, the Pichu Brothers explain their problem and Wynaut offers to lead them to the station. Meanwhile Meowth and Wobbuffet are hiking and searching for the station too, they soon roll all the way down a steep hill. The Pokémon play in the river near a small waterfall, and Totodile shoots some of the Pokémon up to the top so they can ride down it like a water slide and later at sunset they cast shadows on a rocky wall. At night, a Duskull appears and despite looking scary to one of the Pichu it’s Wynaut’s friend but that doesn’t stop it from scaring the other Pichu Brother before it decides to depart. It rains during the night and a Pokémon called Volbeat comes along, all the Pokémon follow its lead and shelter under large leaves until it shows them a water mill they can stay at. Wobbuffet and Meowth are caught in the rain and Duskull decides to scare them down a hill, they end up at the same water mill where the Pokémon are sleeping and Meowth accidentally causes the many gears and cogs to turn. Pikachu saves Wynaut from being crushed by a grinder but the Pokémon can’t prevent the wheels from rotating, Wynaut meets Wobbuffet and says it’ll stop this but its next move sends Totodile running on a huge wheel and sending it up a slope at the last moment. More activity causes Meowth and Wobbuffet to go flying and then wash back downstream into a waterwheel and up again, Pikachu and Volbeat find the lever and stop the water mill’s activity. After the remaining night’s rest the Pokémon wash up before they go to the station and Volbeat says his goodbyes. Meowth and Wobbuffet cling to a thieving Skarmory and rise to a great height while the Pokémon slide downhill towards the station on big leaves and run the rest of the way. The train is already leaving so the Pokémon jump onto a manual trolley and lever their way forward after many fellow Wynaut get it started with a group effort push. One of the Pichu Brothers makes it aboard but the train picks up speed before the other can do so, Cyndaquil’s flame gives an added boost but Psyduck accidentally hits a switch so the trolley takes a different set of tracks running alongside the train but ending in a bridge which takes a completely different route. Pichu is literally thrown from a great height towards the other train as the Pokémon reach the end of their line (and land in a haystack), Totodile’s water blasts Pichu the rest of the way to land on the train and the Skarmory drops Meowth and Wobbuffet into the coal truck. The Pichu Brothers wave goodbye with the hopes of seeing old and new friends alike again in the future. My favourite Event: The chasing the train scene on the trolley as a whole is probably the highlight of the movie. Things I’d like to point out: Luckily this mini-movie did feature on the UK release of the DVD unlike the mini-movie before it. Apparently Cyndaquil does have eyes in the scene when it’s hit by the berries although they seem too cartoony to be taken seriously as part of this passive Pokémon. This feature seems to prove that Totodile has it in for Cyndaquil, I can’t help noticing that when it carelessly sends mud flying at it and when it apparently accidentally hits it with berries (plus biting it while sleeping) coupled with its deliberate Water attack in the previous mini-movie, maybe Water and Fire Pokémon are just not meant to get along. The second Pichu Brother to be scared by Duskull takes it surprisingly well after finding out its brother put the ghost up to it. But when it scares the first Pichu its reaction to Duskull is simply adorable as it cowers and squeals in fear (hoping it will go away if it closes its eyes I guess). When the group wash up, Phanpy acts like a normal elephant and showers Togepi (who is on its back) with water, but being a Ground-type Pokémon couldn’t this potentially hurt Phanpy? Surely it wasn’t worth all that risk to catch the train if the Pichu Brothers could have just waited for the next one. They were on a train home at the start of the story so the second one suggests the train service runs at least once a day if not more. Since the mini-movies became independent of the feature films and gained their own credits, this is the first time there is animation accompanying them, the train-themed dance routine at the end is intriguing; keep an eye on Psyduck; unsurprisingly dancing a step behind the others most of the time and sometimes doing its own thing including shaking its tail at the screen while the other Pokémon face it and generally wave. Latios and Latias Pokémon seen: Qwilfish, Lanturn, Vaporeon, Starmie, Corsola, Totodile, Chinchou, Wailmer, Magikarp, Quagsire, Tentacool, Wartortle, Horsea, Seadra, Pidgey, Pikachu, Togepi, Azumarill, Mantine, Natu, Xatu, Latias, Latios, Aipom, Meowth, Yanma, Wobbuffet, Ariados, Espeon, Vulpix, Murkrow, Poliwag, Oddish, Butterfree, Wooper, Remoraid, Aerodactyl, Kabutops, Crobat, Politoed Story: Two sisters called Annie and Oakley read about a legend in a library late at night and steal the book, their car transforms into a jet and flies away, the two spies for Team Rocket have big plans for a powerful mechanism, an artefact called the Soul Dew and for two legendary Pokémon in the city of Alto Mare. Ash and Misty compete in a Water Race in Alto Mare in which trainers must ride on a circular board with one Water Pokémon pulling them along. Brock watches overhead while taking care of the usual Pokémon but Pikachu takes a fall and coincidentally lands on Ash as he passes by. Team Rocket are in the area stuffing their faces but are soon drenched with water from the nearby racers. The clear winners are Ash with Totodile, Misty and Corsola plus a third competitor called Ross with a Wailmer. Ash goes flying but a mysterious transparent Pokémon is there to break his fall, it secretly grabs Totodile and speeds across the course but its partner seemingly tries to stop this and drags Ash off the course and out of the race. It’s a close race but a photo finish shows that Misty is the winner, the second place competitor Ross congratulates her and offers to show her around Alto Mare. Ash comforts his Totodile and isn’t disappointed in losing while the mysterious Pokémon fly away. The group are shown around the great watery city; Ross explains the meaning of the symbols on Misty’s prize and two legendary Pokémon are depicted on towering statues, Latios and Latias, the guardians of Alto Mare. A strange robot spies on the town for the legendary Pokémon who can apparently take on any shape they desire, as Annie and Oakley chase after the one they find they splash the usual Team Rocket trio who recognise them as Rockets and want in on whatever they’re up to. Pikachu wishes to use the water fountain and a girl helps by turning it on, she inquisitively looks at Ash before leaving but as she turns the corner the two sisters use equipment to see her for what she truly is. They send their Espeon and Ariados after her who blast her with psychic energy and tie her up but Ash comes to her aid and tears her loose, Espeon attacks Ash who has Pikachu retaliate by shocking it, the sisters and then the Ariados as they make a run for it. The Pokémon chase after them down the alleyways of Alto Mare until they finally lose them and get back to where Ash started but the girl disappears when he turns his back. The sisters spy on Ash and notice Latias is no longer with him; the group visit the museum which has a couple of fossils of Pokémon that once terrorized Alto Mare and an artefact called the Defence Mechanism of Alto Mare. An old man called Lorenzo states a legend in which a trainer with an Aerodactyl and Kabutops did terrible things so a Latios brought water to Alto Mare to drown the evil Pokémon and the mechanism was built to defend the town but has never been used. Ash notices the girl from earlier wearing a beret and chases after her unknowing that the spy camera is tracing his every move. When Ash catches up the girl claims not to know him, Ash continues to chase her until he seemingly finds her again (without the beret), she runs and leads Ash to a strange dark tunnel which serves as a portal. Ash and Pikachu emerge in a secret garden with beautiful plantlife, structures and some wild Pokémon but they are quickly attacked by a swift and transparent Pokémon which soon reveals itself to be Latios. The girl comes to their aid and blocks it off, but another who looks exactly the same appears and questions Ash, before she has Latios attack again Lorenzo stops his granddaughter Bianca from doing so. The other girl wishes to play with Ash and reveals herself to be Latias while the Latios makes things right with Pikachu who it hurt in the earlier attack. Lorenzo explains that Latias can change her form and because they’re best friends she sometimes takes the form of Bianca. Ash continues to play around until Latios suddenly dives into the water and goes through the tunnels, Latias is able to project to the group what Latios is seeing with an ability named Sight-sharing. Lorenzo knew the first Latios who was this Latios and Latias’s father but it disappeared after using up all its power to bring water to the town to defeat the evils. The Soul Dew is said to contain the spirit of Latios and tiles on the floor explain how to use the Soul Dew to power the Defence Mechanism. The Soul Dew could potentially destroy the town so Ash promises to keep this area a secret, he sadly has to reject Latias’s offer to play some more to get back to his friends and unfortunately the sisters’ spy device has infiltrated the shrine. Ash stops off at Lorenzo’s workshop where he makes gondolas and Bianca escorts Ash back into town by boat, Ash inquires about the incident from earlier but figures it was Latias and not her. That night the duo sneak across the rooftops with Team Rocket struggling to keep up and botching it soon enough with Wobbuffet guaranteeing their literal downfall. Annie’s Espeon passes by the workshop and sends Lorenzo into unconsciousness, the two Legendary Pokémon are awakened in the shrine and Latios attacks the sisters immediately. The two attempt to cloak themselves but the sisters put on special glasses to see them and guide their Pokémon to attack, Latios is targeted first and soon trapped in a special morphing net, Latias is next but Latios leaps in the way of an attack, it has its health drained but still has the strength to leap in the way of another Pokénet while Latias is ordered to escape. The Soul Dew is removed from its place and Oakley uses a computer to scan the tiles and translate the text, there’s new information which states the Defence Mechanism will cause the water to recede and destroy the Soul Dew but the sisters simply don’t believe that will happen and figure this is a lie to prevent people like them from using it. Water appears to stop flowing into town and Bianca and Lorenzo soon arrive to see what has occurred and head to the museum. Latios is placed on a round altar and is raised into a sphere of rings which allows the machine to power up, Bianca and Lorenzo arrive but are swiftly attacked by Espeon and knocked out and the Soul Dew is put into place which activates the device. Latias finds the hotel where Ash is at and takes Bianca’s form, Ash introduces Latias to his friends and she soon decides to show her true form to them, meanwhile Bianca and Lorenzo are bound in webbing. Bianca pleads for Latios to wake up so Latias can see through its eyes; Oakley sits in the control seat while it does and Latias Sight-shares with the group. Oakley begins by resurrecting the evil Aerodactyl and Kabutops fossils to their living forms and sends them after Latias. As the vision ends Oakley locks down the city by creating impenetrable metal fences and shifting stone blocks to seal off pathways and balconies, Ash barely gets out of the hotel in time. Ash heads out with Pikachu and Latias on a gondola while Oakley continues to enjoy her newfound powers, before long Ash is attacked by Aerodactyl who swiftly makes a grab for Latias, Ash grabs hold and Pikachu shocks it briefly but it next uses Hyper Beam to decimate the boat. Latias quickly saves Ash from drowning and Pikachu has escaped the boat just fine, Ash has an idea to use one of the vehicles from the water race and Latias to get to the museum quickly. They are chased by Aerodactyl who is stopped by a narrow pathway while Misty and Brock unable to get far send their Pokémon out to assist Ash. Ash next encounters the Kabutops who is relentless in its chase and cannot be eluded, the Pokémon catch up and send it crashing into the water. Oakley doesn’t care about the danger she’ll bring to Alto Mare and goes power- crazy, using the machine to mould and control the water to stop and soon trap Ash in a strong tornado of shifting water in an attempt to drown him. Latias suddenly begins to emit a strong light to bring an end to this but collapses briefly, the control panel malfunctions and Oakley is trapped inside the large device which is uncontrollably spinning the control seat around in several directions. Pikachu easily deals with Annie and Espeon and assists in freeing Bianca and Lorenzo while Latias attempts to free Latios, Pikachu’s electricity lowers the sphere down but Ash’s efforts fail to free Latios who is becoming increasingly hurt by the surges, Latias jams up the spinning rings so the group can pull Latios out. The machine stops as soon as this is achieved and the others arrive and see to Ash but after checking on her sister Annie attempts to remove the Soul Dew which has turned black. Contact with it causes a surge which catapults Annie into the control seat as it begins rotating again while the water of Alto Mare goes surging out of the city. It’s soon apparent to the group that it’s about to return to its source but much too strong, high and fast that’ll it’ll destroy much of Alto Mare. Latios and Latias jet towards the huge tidal wave and use their powers to hit the surge of water and calm it to the point the water will return safely to the city, unfortunately Latios seems to use up its power in the process and fades away. Team Rocket are caught in the torrent and washed through the city while the lockdown fences and structures disappear and the two revived Pokémon return to their fossil forms, the sisters remain trapped in the control seat orb. The group goes out to sea to search for Latias and Latios but only Latias is retrieved and the group learn that Latios sacrificed itself just like its father for Alto Mare. The group Sight-share one last time as Latios seemingly ascends high above the earth, during the process the Soul Dew is recreated in Bianca’s hands and later placed back in the shrine. The group soon have to leave and bid farewell to Lorenzo but Bianca isn’t around to stay goodbye. A sketch is removed from her room with the beret left behind and a girl resembling her hurries to catch up with the group before they leave the port, she gives Ash a sketch of himself with Pikachu and kisses him, but was this Bianca... or Latias?... As the group leave, they glimpse the sight of three Pokémon in the sky, in some shape or form Latios and its father have seemingly returned and will continue to watch over Alto Mare. My favourite Quotes: Annie (to a mysterious girl): “Excuse me... I love that shirt, where’d you get it... Latias?...” Annie: “You Had to go for world domination. It wasn’t enough that we had the most beautiful valuable jewel in the entire universe. You had to be a control freak.” Oakley: “Hey, don’t knock it til’ you’ve tried it.” (After Latios’s sacrifice saves the entire city and returns things to normal) Bianca: “Thank you for saving our town Latios... Please... Stay with us forever...” (Ash has just been kissed by Bianca or Latias in Bianca’s form) Misty: “Wait a sec... Was that Bianca... or Latias?...” Brock: “I don’t know... But I am Extremely jealous!...” When this takes place: Definitely after “Outrageous Fortunes” what with Politoed and Corsola being here (plus Phanpy in the mini-movie). However it’s not clear whether or not it takes place before the Blackthorn City storylines or after (although it definitely happens before the Johto League competition). The Wynaut seen in the mini-movie may or may not be the one from “Why? Wynaut!” which doesn’t help deduct things since although it seems happy to see Wobbuffet (which could mean it knows it from the series), Wobbuffet would theoretically not feel the same way after the trouble it caused. Things I’d like to point out: Annie and Oakley’s name are derived like Jessie and James’s and Butch and Cassidy’s, in that Annie Oakley is a famous markswoman. This has got to be the shortest intro yet in a Pokémon movie considering the big epic events aren’t set in motion until the main movie itself; we’re talking around the two minute area. The first of many broken traditions begins here since the intro music isn’t remixed nor has added lyrics to the ones we hear in the series, just some cool guitar riffs. Alto Mare is clearly based on Italy from look of the city, the boats seen and the costume that Ross wears while giving the group a tour. Annie and Oakley’s Pokéballs aren’t like any that have been seen in the series or games since Oakley has a partly orange Pokéball and Annie’s is black with her red insignia on it. The CGI alleyway scenes look good except that the viewpoint looks like it’s coming from a Pokémon due to the worm’s-eye view, it’d be easy to say it’s Pikachu’s viewpoint but it’s behind Ash and Latias so they would be seen in the shot if that was the case. Although I’ve added Lorenzo’s name as soon as he is introduced, it takes a while before he is properly named (other than as Grandpa by Bianca), it takes Ash halfway through the movie to utter his name, and that’s the first time anyone refers to him at all, a little odd for a main character of the storyline. In this movie Psychic attack is used to put people to sleep, surely Hypnosis would be more appropriate and using Psychic attacks on people could potentially cause permanent brain damage? If the Defence Mechanism could be used to resurrect Aerodactyl and Kabutops, surely the people of the past shouldn’t have left the Pokémon’s fossils in the museum to make it easy for evil villains to bring them back and do their bidding just as their trainer did. How does Pikachu cut through the webbing with electricity without harming Bianca? It’s one thing when it uses its powers to remove fruits from trees and things but I don’t see the logic in that either. Okay, this has turned out to be a traditional thing, in (just about) every movie so far, Ash runs head first into things that should potentially kill him; he especially does this when it comes to highly advanced or magical forcefields. Are there any Water Pokémon that need water to survive? If there were any in Alto Mare then the brief lack of water would have been lethal to them. Misty never saw the old Soul Dew (at least not before it turned black) so how can she accurately comment on how the new one is as perfect as the original. There’s another broken tradition in that there aren’t really any original songs in the credits as well as the opening. The songs in the credits have been previously used in the series: “You and Me & Pokémon”, “Pikachu (I choose You)”, “The Time has Come” and “My Best Friends”, the first is sung and played differently but the others are taken straight from their corresponding series soundtrack. The only original track in the whole of the movie (excluding background scores) is a track dubbed “Secret Garden” which sounds very much like a Japanese song simply carried over from the original translation. Apart from the obvious revelation that there are three legendary Pokémon in the sky, other story aspects in the credits include Lorenzo and a construction crew around the Mechanism (I would hope he’s either taking it apart or building a replica which won’t work like the original as it’d be stupid to leave what happened here open to a future villain). There’s a newspaper article depicting Annie and Oakley’s arrest (in part by an Officer Jenny) and the pair in prison reading a book depicting Lawrence the Third (the ‘villain’ of Pokémon 2000), his flying fortress and either treasures he owns or other treasures in the world. Bianca is drawing a new sketch while in the shrine Latios is seemingly back along with the Legendary siblings’ father. And then we see the usual scenes of Ash and the group in various locations (which is always somehow moving in the beauty of the Pokémon World) but also Team Rocket struggling in their Magikarp Sub. Cameos in Pokémon Journey: Nothing is planned for Annie and Oakley but you never know... Pokémon: The First Movie Pokémon the Movie 2000 Pokémon the Movie 3 Pokémon 4Ever Back to the Movie and Mini-movie Guide Episode Guide Back to the Pokézone