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    Mini-Movie 1

    Episode Stats:

    Japanese Mini-Movie 1:  "Pikachu no Natsuyasumi" ("Pikachu's Summer Vacation")
    American Mini-Movie 1:  "Pikachu's Vacation"
    Japanese Air Date:  July 18th, 1998
    American Air Date:  November 10th, 1999

    Satoshi-tachi leave all of their pokemon at a Pokemon Park to have a day off.  Satoshi's pokemon are having fun, but are having trouble keeping Togepi from crying.  When a group of four pokmeon-Buru, Mairiru, Kara-Kara, and Raichu-disrupt the baby pokemon, Satoshi's pokemon start getting angry.  There are several competitions, including a water race, which the Mairiru wins.  Then Pikachu, who's been refereeing the whole time, steps in and challenges Raichu.  As they're running (presumably to test each other's endurance), they anger a Lizardon.  In its rage, the lizard pokemon gets its head stuck in a pipe, and it takes the effort of all the pokemon in the park to free it.  United by their trials, the pokemon become friends.  At the end of the day, Pikachu and its friends all say their goodbyes and return to Satoshi, Kasumi, and Takeshi.

    Thoughts
    This is the first of the mini-movies that 4Kids dubbed.  It was shown in theatres right before the main attraction, "Mewtwo Strikes Back."  I believe, but I'm not sure, that when the movie aired in Japan, the mini-movie was shown after the main attraction and not before.  But I'm not entirely sure.  No biggie.

    Music Edit
    For the first time in a Pokemon dub, the entire soundtrack has been changed.  In the TV series, most of the original Japanese music was kept in the same place with only American music appearing occasionally to cover up silence.  In this mini-movie, all the music was changed.  It's a shame, because this movie has some of the cutest, happiest music you'll ever hear in Pokemon.  To their credit, 4Kids' soundtrack doesn't sound too bad, outside the vocal songs, but of course the Japanese music would've been preferred.  The only major qualms I have with the music is that sometimes it sounds a bit too Looney Tunes-ish.  That's probably no accident, since guess who had a hand in dubbing this--the WB!

    Paint Edit
    As Ash is saying "Yeah!  The pokémon love it!", you can see a sign with the American "Pokémon" logo on it.  Originally, the sign said "Pokemon something-or-other" in Japanese. 

    Paint Edit
    During the opening sequence, the Japanese logo dances along with the music.  In the American version, the word "Pikachu" dances a bit, but "Vacation" doesn't move very much.  Nothing big, really.

    Music Edit
    And of course, the opening song was changed.  The Japanese opening song is Summer Vacation Fan Club, but the American one is called Vacation by Vitamin C.  In the Japanese opening, the still shots of the pokemon that pop up toward the end of the song pop up to the beat of the music.  But since the beat of the song was changed in the dub, the animation didn't match the song rhythm, so the dubbers added a camera shutter noise as each picture popped up. 

    Paint Edit
    Another shot of the Pokemon sign right after the opening song, but it's bigger this time. 

    Dialogue Edit
    Here's my number one gripe with this short--they changed the narrator!  In the Japanese version, the narrator was a nice-sounding young woman who was very caring.  She would constantly ask the pokemon to please stop fighting and cheers with the pokemon when they succeed.  In the dub, we get the Pokédex narrating.  Automatically the short loses a LOT of its charm, as the kind motherly voice is replaced by a souless machine.  It doesn't help that the Pokédex prattles on and on throughout the short and is given such dialogue as "Pokédex activating!"  I guess 4Kids' decided that it'd be "cooler" to have a machine narrate rather than a young woman.

    Side Note
    Y'know what?  I REALLY hate hate hate hate hate Buru's dubbed voice!  Sorry, I just had to get that out.

    Dialogue Edit
    Here's an example of some of the narrator's different dialogue:

    Japanese:  And I'm paraphrasing here, "Make sure you do your warm-up excercises before swimming so you won't get hurt!"

    American:  "It is not uncommon for Pokemon to challenge each other in contests of speed."

       
    Kinda loses its charm, doesn't it?

    Music Edit
    We get an insert song during the race, Catch Me if You Can by Angela Via.  The thing is, there was no insert song in the Japanese original.  This isn't as bad as what was added to the main feature, but it's still unneeded. 

    Dialogue Edit
    I'm sorry I'm going on and on about this, but another major change occured with the narrator's dialogue-this time, it's right after Lizardon's been freed.

    Japanese:  And I'm paraphrasing here, "Good job everyone!  Though the power of one pokemon is small, you are stronger when you work together."

    American:  "Preliminary analysis-Pokemon by nature are friendly creatures and prefer cooperation to confrontation."

       
    The Japanese narrator ties the whole story together with a nice moral.  The American one simply makes a pointless observation.  With as much heat 4Kids gets about Pokemon's supposed negative effects on children, you'd think they would jump at the chance to milk the existing moral for all it's worth.

    Paint Edit
    When the pokemon leave the park, you can see the sign one more time.  And one more time, the Japanese was covered up by the American "Pokémon" logo.

    Music Edit
    The American version just kind of ends, with no credits or anything.  All of the "Pikachu's Vacation" credits are shown at the end of the main feature.  In the Japanese version, "Pikachu's Summer Vacation" had its own ending credits, showing various drawings of pokemon by various fan artists as the song Pika Pika-massai-chu plays in the background.  I suppose 4Kids didn't want to confuse people with ending credits because they were afraid people would think that the movie was over, leave the theatre, and complain to everyone that they paid $7 for a 22-minute movie.  When I saw the dub in the theatres, a lot of the adults thought the movie was over and were about to leave.  And this is WITHOUT the ending credits!  Luckily, the children knew better and told them that the main feature's to come.  Just goes to show you the intelligence of parents in this country...
     
     

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