20th Pokemon Film Confirmed: New Adaption of First Season?

[Gold Guy]

The twentieth Pokemon film was announced in Japan this morning. Most people were expecting the first Sun & Moon movie, but fans got something a bit different.

It turns out that to celebrate the anime's 20th anniversary, the upcoming film will seemingly be a new adaption of the original Pokemon season, complete with Ash's original costume.

The film will even be called Pokemon: I Choose You (which was apparently the name of the first ever episode in Japan). It opens in Japan on July 15.

EDIT: Teaser trailer.


I like how the teaser is also using the original theme song. When this gets dubbed, they better use the original dub theme as well.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

Not only was that the best season Pokemon ever had, it was the busiest. You actually got gym leader fights within five episodes of each other. How will they cram Ash oversleeping, meeting Misty and Brock, surviving the sinking of the St Anne, facing the unstoppable powers of Sabrina, getting beat up repeatedly by a Mankey AND discovering Togepi in one movie?

Methinks a lot will be cut out. I bet we don't even get James with boobs.

 

[zoombie]

Just don't cut our Sabrina, her arc was my favorite, it was so creepy yet hilarious at the same time.

 

[Frontier]

I was definitely not expecting them to remake the first season of Pokemon for a movie, though it's a fitting way to celebrate the anime's 20th anniversary, and seeing the original generation/season covered in the high quality animation of the modern movies should be pretty awesome .

And given how big a departure Sun and Moon is for the franchise, revisiting the series' roots feels particularly poignant .

It'll be nice seeing Misty, Brock, and Ash's original outfit again .

I am curious to see how much they'll cover and how much they might change/stay faithful to from the original series. Will we breeze through the Gyms/events like in Generations? Will the fights in the Gyms be changed to some degree? Will we see Ash catch each of his original team, and Charmander becoming Charizard? Will we see the original League play out the same way (and see Ritchie) ?

I also wonder if there's stuff from the later games that they'll include in the movie?

 

[AnotherRandomGuy]

I...huh. Certainly wasn't expecting that out of a Pokemon movie, I wonder what this could imply for the Sun and Moon, maybe the Ultra Beasts really will be part of an arc for the series.

 

[TnAdct1]

Not only was that the best season Pokemon ever had, it was the busiest. You actually got gym leader fights within five episodes of each other. How will they cram Ash oversleeping, meeting Misty and Brock, surviving the sinking of the St Anne, facing the unstoppable powers of Sabrina, getting beat up repeatedly by a Mankey AND discovering Togepi in one movie?

Methinks a lot will be cut out. I bet we don't even get James with boobs.

Given how I've been working on a project that celebrates the 20th anniversary of Pokemon myself, I wouldn't be surprised if a number of elements are either cut or condensed.

 

[AnotherRandomGuy]

Given how I've been working on a project that celebrates the 20th anniversary of Pokemon myself, I wouldn't be surprised if a number of elements are either cut or condensed.

That's how most retelling of arc movies work, Dragon Ball had a movie that more or less wanted to retell the series and only got to the Red Ribbon army and even then only so much of it.

 

[Light Lucario]

Not only was that the best season Pokemon ever had, it was the busiest. You actually got gym leader fights within five episodes of each other. How will they cram Ash oversleeping, meeting Misty and Brock, surviving the sinking of the St Anne, facing the unstoppable powers of Sabrina, getting beat up repeatedly by a Mankey AND discovering Togepi in one movie?

Methinks a lot will be cut out. I bet we don't even get James with boobs.

Personally, I prefer how they handle the pacing now. Sure, there was a lot going on in that first season. There were cases of Ash capturing two Pokemon and evolving one within one episode and going through the Gyms at a break neck pace, all of which would be unheard of now, but that did make the battle quality suffer quite a bit. There are only a couple of battles during Kanto that I think still hold up well enough. Plus, we actually get more time focused on other characters than we ever did back during the original series and Pokemon generally have more distinct personalities too.

I...huh. Certainly wasn't expecting that out of a Pokemon movie, I wonder what this could imply for the Sun and Moon, maybe the Ultra Beasts really will be part of an arc for the series.

I'm pretty sure that they will given the role they have in the games. The Legendary Pokemon are also tied into the storyline more so than usual, so I am kind of glad that they didn't have something like Solgaleo and Lunala fighting each other because reasons.

Anyway, I was not expecting this news either. It certainly is a surprise. However, I should point out that we don't know if this is a retelling of the entire first season yet. That could quite possibly be the case, but we don't know that for sure right now. The only confirmed details we have are the title, the release date, the teaser trailer and the movie poster. We probably won't know more about it for another couple of months, but that's what we know for sure right now.

I am kind of mixed on this to be honest. On one hand, it's a pretty cool concept that helps to celebrate the anime's own 20th anniversary, as well as provide some way for kids to learn more about the original series. It's not really a necessity to watch the original series or pretty much any of the previous series to understand the currently airing series, but it's still nice for kids to learn more about how Ash started his journey. It also could be a refreshing way to use the movies since the last couple of series worth of movies have been rather hit or miss for me. It also makes sense from a financial point of view because nostalgia train and nostalgia sells.

On the other hand, I was kind of looking forward to seeing the new cast and the Alola setting in a movie with a movie budget. Even though the majority of the movies come down to Ash saving the day anyway, I still like seeing what Ash and his new friends do in different environments with bigger scales than what the show normally does. I'm also probably a bit overwhelmed with Kanto after Sun/Moon showed a lot of Kanto favoritism. That made sense given the franchise's 20th anniversary, but when we get stuff like the Nugget Bridge Gang done nearly word for word, it gets a bit much for me. Again it makes sense to do that with the anime too for its anniversary, but that thought does linger a bit.

I do want to see what they can do with this concept, even though I imagine that they'll have to cut out a lot if they actually do cover the first season within a movie, but a part of me hopes that the movies won't just become retellings of older adventures at the same time.

 

[Dudley]

Definitely wasn't expecting a movie going back to the first season, but it's actually cool. I was kind of hoping that when whenever a live-action movie would've been made it would tell a condense version of at least the first three episodes or so. Maybe that's what'll happen here. Ash and Pikachu first meet, they don't get along, and then they learn to bond as they face wild Pokemon, Team Rocket, and the first gym.


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[CyberCubed]

Its already confirmed to be an alternate universe/take, so its most likely not going to cover the events from the Kanto season exactly, although they'll probably use a few of them. What I'm curious about is if this will just be about the first few eps of Kanto, they can only realistically cover up to Brock's Gym in an hour and a half movie...or if this is going to be a huge montage that covers the entire Kanto journey, similar to how Origins did where they skip everything in them middle.

Either way I'm also surprised this is taking the place of a Sun/Moon film. Guess the S/M anime will only have 2 movies then, and the first one not till 2018. Guess they can't make a movie with the school setting or would rather feature the legends in the show. All the S/M characters get screwed out of a movie though.

Its hard to believe this movie will be Misty's first appearance in the anime since....2005/2006 when she made her final appearances in AG. Its kind of funny when you realize its been over a decade since Misty even appeared in a single episode, and now this movie could likely feature her and Brock, two characters irrelevant to the anime for years. Its already been 6 years since DP ended even, Brock's also been gone a while now.

The writers tend to be avoiding old characters lately so this is surprising. Iris didn't get a cameo in XY, May wasn't brought back for ORAS advertising, and Brock never re-appeared after DP outside a Cilan special. So I guess it will be a treat for "old fans" who are now nearly 30 year old adults, given how old we all are now.

 

[Light Lucario]

Its already confirmed to be an alternate universe/take, so its most likely not going to cover the events from the Kanto season exactly, although they'll probably use a few of them. What I'm curious about is if this will just be about the first few eps of Kanto, they can only realistically cover up to Brock's Gym in an hour and a half movie...or if this is going to be a huge montage that covers the entire Kanto journey, similar to how Origins did where they skip everything in them middle.

I don't know if it's confirmed per say. It seems pretty likely given the difference in Ash's hat and the narration during the trailer, but I don't know if that's the same thing as being a confirmation. I doubt that they'll cover the entire Kanto journey in one movie. That would involve skipping probably way too much to make the story work.

Either way I'm also surprised this is taking the place of a Sun/Moon film. Guess the S/M anime will only have 2 movies then, and the first one not till 2018. Guess they can't make a movie with the school setting or would rather feature the legends in the show. All the S/M characters get screwed out of a movie though.

They aren't going to have Ash be in school forever you know. Ash already said he'd take part of the Island Trials in the second episode, which involves traveling to different islands. I think he goes for the first trial sometime next month. While going to a school is part of the requirement for the Island Trials in the games, I'd be pretty surprised if he's still at the school by next summer when this movie is going to be out. Like any main series Pokemon game, there is a lot of traveling involved and they can't just have Ash going out a bit only to head back to Professor Kukui's place in time for supper. SM cannot take place entirely at the school for its entire run for multiple reasons, so I doubt that was a factor.

I honestly hope that they do feature the Legendary Pokemon It would work better with their roles in the games and at this point, it is kind of boring to have the two Legendary Pokemon start out fighting each other in the newest movie. I don't know if this necessarily means we won't see the SM characters in the movie. Maybe they could have something like the two versions of Ash encountering each other somehow or more likely just cut to the main series' universe at some point to see them. We don't know if this movie is just going to be about retelling Ash's Kanto journey or if it does connect back to the SM series just yet, so I wouldn't write it off completely.

The writers tend to be avoiding old characters lately so this is surprising. Iris didn't get a cameo in XY, May wasn't brought back for ORAS advertising, and Brock never re-appeared after DP outside a Cilan special. So I guess it will be a treat for "old fans" who are now nearly 30 year old adults, given how old we all are now.

To be fair, there wasn't much of a reason for Iris to appear in XY. Most of the reasons people have suggested always sounded like a stretch or that it would just force her into the storyline. She really wouldn't click well with the characters, unless they went with the whole instant friendship route, and going to Kalos really wouldn't benefit her goal. Same thing with Brock. While I would have liked to see him, it would have felt random for him to suddenly show up in Kalos. I am still disappointed that they didn't bring back May though since that could have worked when they were promoting OR/AS and I could have seen her getting along with Serena. Not to mention it could have made Serena's reason for leaving the group less random if she knew about Contests ahead of time.

This is the anime's 20th anniversary, so they would want to have a treat for old fans, but I don't know if that's entirely the reason behind it either. A lot of series in Japan have jumped on the nostalgia train full of money, but something like a retelling of Ash's first journey would have a benefit for the kids as well. The target audience wasn't even alive when the original series began and it has been quite a long time since the anime explained how Ash and Pikachu became friends. This could allow the target audience to learn more about Ash and the original series, even if it is in an alternate universe, so there's a benefit in that as well.

 

[Checkerboard]

In a way I like it and think it makes sense. But at the same time I must ask: another reboot? This trend is getting ridiculous - generally speaking.

 

[Light Lucario]

In a way I like it and think it makes sense. But at the same time I must ask: another reboot? This trend is getting ridiculous - generally speaking.

There are quite a few anime in Japan that are embracing the nostalgia train quite a bit in particular too. I think it helps that this is just an anniversary special and it's a movie rather than somehow starting the anime series from the ground up. At least that way, the SM series can continue to do its own thing without being affected by the movie, assuming that it is going to be just a retelling of Ash's Kanto journey.

 

[CyberCubed]

Its too bad Ash's story couldn't have ended with XY, so a reboot movie would have made sense. I also think the SM anime would have received less backlash if it used the male boy from the games as the new protagonist rather than regressing Ash back to his goofy self again after how serious he was in XY.

One of the reasons this movie might be good is Ho-oh could finally get some proper showcasing in the anime for the first time. Hard to believe after all these years and even after HGSS came out they still couldn't feature it properly like all other legends. Makes you wonder why they even kept ignoring it when there's nothing special about it anymore.

As for Misty/Brock, I guess this movie will be the closest thing to an original trio reunion the anime will ever do, assuming they're even in the movie. At this point in the main anime its rather obvious neither Misty nor Brock will ever appear in the episodes again.

 

[Light Lucario]

Its too bad Ash's story couldn't have ended with XY, so a reboot movie would have made sense. I also think the SM anime would have received less backlash if it used the male boy from the games as the new protagonist rather than regressing Ash back to his goofy self again after how serious he was in XY.

I don't think that Ash's story ending with XY would have made a reboot movie make more sense. The idea still makes plenty of sense simply due to the anime's own 20th anniversary next year. Ash's story didn't need an ending in order for them to retell his beginning journey.

As for the SM series, it received backlash when it was first announced and a lot of people were jumping to conclusions based on little to no information, but it seems pretty well received now. I don't look into episode review threads on other sites, but the series seems to have fairly positive results at least since it premiered. I've only see the first two episodes, but those were really good and it made the backlash to the series seem even more nonsensical to me. They haven't even bothered to give the playable characters official names, so there was no way that they'd replace Ash with the male trainer for the new series.

I'm also not sure if I'd call Ash being more goofy as a sign of regression. He was more serious during XY, but there were complaints on how he was more bland/boring because of that. I don't think I agree with that, but I could see where they were coming from at least. Being more goofy helps to make him stand out and probably more appealing to the target audience. If they went as far as they did in BW, then maybe that would be different, but Ash still seems like a pretty competent trainer to me. He wouldn't have been able to pull off a powerful Z-Move in the second episode if he had significantly regressed as a trainer, which is what nearly everyone was worried about when the poster was first revealed. But the newest video preview showed him going into his first Grand Trial, so being more goofy doesn't seem like a regression.

One of the reasons this movie might be good is Ho-oh could finally get some proper showcasing in the anime for the first time. Hard to believe after all these years and even after HGSS came out they still couldn't feature it properly like all other legends. Makes you wonder why they even kept ignoring it when there's nothing special about it anymore.

As for Misty/Brock, I guess this movie will be the closest thing to an original trio reunion the anime will ever do, assuming they're even in the movie. At this point in the main anime its rather obvious neither Misty nor Brock will ever appear in the episodes again.

It's possible that they didn't want to showcase Ho-Oh before because there wasn't much of a story to tell. It was just a Legendary Pokemon for Ash to see to make him more special. If the movie is a retelling of the original series to some extent, then Misty and Brock would show up. They can't really do something like a movie reboot without including the whole main cast, especially when Ash really isn't interesting enough to carry a movie on his own.

 

[Vegard Aune]

To be fair, there wasn't much of a reason for Iris to appear in XY. Most of the reasons people have suggested always sounded like a stretch or that it would just force her into the storyline. She really wouldn't click well with the characters, unless they went with the whole instant friendship route, and going to Kalos really wouldn't benefit her goal. Same thing with Brock. While I would have liked to see him, it would have felt random for him to suddenly show up in Kalos. I am still disappointed that they didn't bring back May though since that could have worked when they were promoting OR/AS and I could have seen her getting along with Serena. Not to mention it could have made Serena's reason for leaving the group less random if she knew about Contests ahead of time.

Also, it should be noted that while Iris never made an appearance in XY, Cilan did. Granted it was in the very last episode after Ash had already left the region, but it doesn't really make sense to me to claim that the anime never acknowledges older characters anymore when we had a Cilan and Clemont teamup-episode just a couple of months ago.

So anyway, this could be interesting. I mean, while I do watch the anime these days I haven't really cared that much to check out the movies and the movies I have seen haven't been particularly impressive, (I think about the only moment in any Pokémon movie that really stands out to me is the ending to the Lugia-movie... and nostalgia probably plays a big part in that) but I might just have to give this one a look. I mean sure, it'll almost certainly be heavily compressed and/or end without Ash even making it to the League, but still, getting a remake of the original series I watched as a kid, with movie-quality animation? When even the TV-series itself has improved dramatically over the years and is actually one of the better animated things I'm watching these days (not to mention easily the best-looking long-running show I'm watching)? Sign me up.

 

[Light Lucario]

Also, it should be noted that while Iris never made an appearance in XY, Cilan did. Granted it was in the very last episode after Ash had already left the region, but it doesn't really make sense to me to claim that the anime never acknowledges older characters anymore when we had a Cilan and Clemont teamup-episode just a couple of months ago.

Oh yeah. I completely forgot about that team-up episode. Cilan appearing fairly recently does make that claim seem rather odd. XY also featured Steven Stone, the Hoenn Champion who Ash did meet during AG. Granted, they never made reference to that meeting, most likely because they wanted to make up for making Steven more like a glorified one shot character rather than the Champion and they wanted to have a bit more OR/AS promo too, but they haven't been ignoring older characters. The references have been downplayed quite a bit since BW, but they do acknowledge older characters from time to time. And with Cilan, his appearance made much more sense than Iris's most likely would have. I could buy that Cilan would just randomly show up in Kalos. He seemed interested in just traveling for fun by the end of BW, as the writers clearly didn't care about his goal anymore, and he would click more with Clemont and Bonnie than I think Iris would have with Serena.

So anyway, this could be interesting. I mean, while I do watch the anime these days I haven't really cared that much to check out the movies and the movies I have seen haven't been particularly impressive, (I think about the only moment in any Pokémon movie that really stands out to me is the ending to the Lugia-movie... and nostalgia probably plays a big part in that) but I might just have to give this one a look. I mean sure, it'll almost certainly be heavily compressed and/or end without Ash even making it to the League, but still, getting a remake of the original series I watched as a kid, with movie-quality animation? When even the TV-series itself has improved dramatically over the years and is actually one of the better animated things I'm watching these days (not to mention easily the best-looking long-running show I'm watching)? Sign me up.

I have heard people speculating that this could be the start of a series of movies retelling Ash's Kanto journey, akin to the EVA movies in that regard. There is way too much of Kanto for them to cover in one movie, so if they are going in that redirection, having another movie or two would help with that. I don't know if I'd want to see a series of Kanto retelling movies, but it would help to make the movies stand out more and possibly do better financially.

 

[Gold Guy]

We have our first official look at Ash's design, and it's very faithful to the original. The hat has been modified a bit, but IMO, it still looks pretty snazzy.

 

[Light Lucario]

He has a bit of the soft round head as he does in SM and a slightly different hat, but he still looks pretty similar to his original design.

 

[Frontier]

Man, it's been so long since we've seen Ash in his original design, that it's awesome to see him finally back in it. It still holds up pretty well as a look .

Kinda miss the old logo on the hat though...