Pokémon the Movie 2000

Pokémon: The Movie 2000
File:Pok2000.jpg The promotional image used for the poster and DVD cover
Directed by	Michael Haigney Kunihiko Yuyama
Written by	Takeshi Shudo
Produced by	Yukako Matsusako Takemoto Mori Choji Yoshikawa
Starring	Veronica Taylor Rachael Lillis Ted Lewis Ikue Ōtani Addie Blaustein Stuart Zagnit Kayzie Rogers Dan Green
Distributed by	4Kids Entertainment (United States), Warner Bros. (United States, in association with 4Kids) Toho
Release dates	Japanese (Domestic): July 17, 1999 North America: July 21, 2000
Running time	102 min
Countries	Japan United States Canada
Languages	Japanese, English

Pokémon: The Movie 2000 (劇場版ポケットモンスター 幻のポケモン ルギア爆誕, Gekijōban Poketto Monsutā Maboroshi no Pokemon Rugia Bakutan, lit. Pocket Monsters the Movie: The Phantom Pokémon, Lugia's Explosive Birth; officially Pocket Monsters Revelation - Lugia in Japan) is the second Pokémon feature-length film, complementing the Orange Islands saga of the series and featuring several new Pokémon, including Lugia and Slowking. This is the only Pokémon movie to date that does not include one of the main characters, Brock, who temporarily left during the season on which the movie is based. However, he does make a cameo appearance in the movie trying to protect the Pokémon in Professor Ivy's lab.

It was released in movie theaters Japan on July 17, 1999. The English version, produced by 4Kids Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. (on behalf of Kids' WB) in association with Nintendo Co. Ltd., was later released in the United States on July 21, 2000.

The movie earned less at the box office than its predecessor, Pokémon: The First Movie, despite increased promotion and better critical reception, which made up for this minor loss.

Pokémon: The Movie 2000 has two parts: the feature presentation and a 20-minute short.

Synopsis

Pikachu's Rescue Adventure

As with before, the faces of the main human characters are unseen. When Togepi falls down a dark hole, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Marill, Venonat, and Psyduck give chase and find themselves in a giant tree that once was Pikachu’s old home. With help from Pikachu’s friend, Elekid, the Pokémon find Togepi but she has been mistaken for an Exeggcute egg. The Pokémon head off into the depths of the tree to find the missing egg, meeting a trio of dancing Bellossom along the way. A deadly storm hits the area and Pikachu and his friends try to protect the Exeggcute egg from being blown away. The tree Pokémon lend a hand and Snorlax saves everyone with his great strength. The storm fades when a Dragonair appears and calms the storm and a Chansey appears, revealing she had the missing egg all along. The eggs are reunited. Exeggcute suddenly evolves into Exeggutor with the assistance of a Leaf Stone. Pikachu and his friends say farewell to Elekid and the others and head back to their trainer. Meanwhile, Meowth tries to find his way to a campsite but ends up getting caught in Pikachu’s mishaps and gives up. There are two errors in the part when the Bellossom trio dance, the Poliwhirl says "Poliwrath" instead of "Poliwhirl"

The Power of One

Disturb not the harmony of Fire, Ice, or Lightning, lest these Titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they clash.
Though the water's Great Guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone its song will fail. Thus the Earth shall turn to ash.
O, Chosen One, into thine hands bring together all three. Their treasures combined, tame the beast of the sea.

This is an introduction to the legendary three birds, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, around which the plot revolves, introducing the theme of a delicate balance between the forces of nature (a common theme throughout the Pokémon series), embodied by the very Pokémon who represent them. The idea of the legend is that should the balance of power between these three birds be destroyed, chaos would ensue, prompting the "Great Guardian" Lugia to rise from the depths of the sea to attempt to end the senseless destruction, yet only with the help of a "Chosen One" destined to save the world.

A Pokémon Collector, Lawrence III, wishes to capture the three legendary birds and follow the legend's tale. This is all part of his plan to capture the Beast of the Sea, Lugia. Using a futuristic aircraft, he captures Moltres from Fire Island to start the prophecy's tale. Sure enough as predicted, the world's climate and weather begin to go awry, alerting the attention of many Pokémon and humans, including Professor Oak. Out in the Orange Islands, Ash Ketchum, Misty, Tracey and their Pokémon are caught in a seastorm and they, along with the owner of the boat they are on, Maren, are washed ashore onto Shamuti Island, the centerpiece of the Orange Islands. Here, they are welcomed by the festive islanders who are celebrating the legend. On woman, Carol, is old friends with Maren and was the former Festival Maiden. Now the role has been passed down to her younger sister, Melody, who takes a liking to Ash. Ash is declared the Chosen One for the festival and is given the rather suicidal task of traveling to the islands of the birds and collecting three glass balls that represent the elements, before bringing them back to the island's shrine where Melody will play a song on a special instrument to end the task. Pikachu, who is rather edgy, heads out to Fire Island, Ash and Maren following.

They get caught in the seastorm again and crash on Fire Island. Ash and Pikachu locate the fire-based sphere but Team Rocket show up to cause trouble. Misty, Tracey and Melody appear unexpectedly in Melody's aerodynamic boat, Melody feeling responsible for sending Ash off. However, Zapdos suddenly appears and after communicating with Pikachu through lightning claiming the island as its own, it is captured by Lawrence III. Ash, his friends and Team Rocket are all captured too accidentally. Inside, they free Moltres and Zapdos but the two birds end up fighting each other and cause the aircraft to crashland on Lightning Island. Ash gains the lightning-based sphere during the escape from the birds. The group escape in Melody's boat, but it is carried to Shamuti by a typhoon, which is revealed to be Lugia. Slowking, guardian of the Shamuti shrine instructs Ash to place the spheres into the shrine. However, Ash is instructed by Lugia to go to Ice Island to retrieve Articuno's sphere. Ash is revealed to be the actual Chosen One as foretold in the legend, but confidence from his friends and Pokémon sends him off to the island. Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charizard try to help Ash get across the frozen ocean but the legendary birds thwart their attempts. Team Rocket race in on a speedboat made from a dingy and a helicopter motor used from a crashed helicopter containing Professor Oak, Professor Ivy, Ash's mother and news crew. Ash, Pikachu and Team Rocket race through Ice Island's undergrowth to the shrine where they collect the last sphere. The legendary birds show up and fight again, Articuno knocked unconscious.

Ash, Pikachu and Team Rocket escape on Lugia but the extra weight is slowing Lugia down, so Team Rocket nobly sacrifice themselves to save the world, surviving the fall into the ocean below. Lawrence III attempts to capture Lugia but the legendary bird uses an Aeroblast to obliterate his aircraft before tumbling into the ocean, defeated. Misty heads out into the ocean to save Ash and Pikachu, bringing them back to shore. Ash, Pikachu, Misty and Tracey head up to the shrine where Ash places the last sphere. Melody plays the song, reviving Lugia from the depths as well as the legendary birds. The weather clears up and Lugia offers Ash and Pikachu a ride in the sky. All eyes present watch as a giant underwater current rises from the ocean like a sea dragon and follows Lugia around, tamed by the bird. The current vanishes back into the sea and the legendary depart to their islands. Ash's mother appears and reveals to Ash that she misses him everyday and asks him to save the world a little closer to home. Some time later, Team Rocket make it to Shamuti where Slowking and they break the fourth wall to reveal that the audience know they helped save the world.

Cast

Character	Japanese seiyū	English voice actor
Satoshi (Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town)	Rica Matsumoto	Veronica Taylor
Pikachu	Ikue Ōtani	Ikue Ōtani
Kasumi (Misty)	Mayumi Iizuka	Rachael Lillis
Kenji (Tracey)	Tomokazu Seki	Ed Paul
Mariru (Marill)	Mika Kanai	Kayzie Rogers
Musashi (Jessie of Team Rocket)	Megumi Hayashibara	Rachael Lillis
Kojirō (James of Team Rocket)	Shinichirō Miki	Eric Stuart
Nyarth (Meowth)	Inuko Inuyama	Addie Blaustein
Jirarudan (Lawrence the Third)	Takeshi Kaga	Neil Stewart
Furūra (Melody)	Akiko Hiramatsu	Amy Birnbaum
Ship Captain (Maren)	Kotono Mitsuishi
Elder	Chikao Ōtsuka	Phillip Bartlett
Ōkido-Hakase (Professor Oak)	Unshou Ishizuka	Stan Hart
Narrator	Unshou Ishizuka	Ken Gates
Hanako (Delia)	Masami Toyoshima	Veronica Taylor
Uchikido-Hakase (Professor Ivy)	Keiko Han	Kayzie Rogers
Yadoking (Slowking)	Masatoshi Hamada	Nathan Price

Soundtrack

Donna Summer sings the ending song of the movie, also titled “The Power of One”. “Weird Al” Yankovic also provided an original song, “Polkamon”, which played during the ending credits. The last song played during the credits was “Flying Without Wings” by Westlife. Italian singer Laura Pausini sings the ballad The extra mile, written, among others, by Australian singer Tina Arena.

Featured Pokémon

There are many Pokémon in the movie, though most only have cameo appearances. These are the most notable:

• Articuno - the legendary ice Pokémon, Ash must go to Ice Island and retrieve the Ice Orb. Articuno was the only legendary bird in this movie not captured or controlled by Lawrence III.
• Zapdos - the legendary electric Pokémon, Ash must go to Lightning Island to retrieve the Thunder Orb. In the movie, Pikachu talks to Zapdos through Thundershock attacks.
• Moltres - the legendary fire Pokémon, Ash must go to Fire Island to retrieve the Fire Orb. Moltres’s first appearance was in the Pokémon animated TV series.
• Lugia - the legendary Pokémon that awakens because the three legendary bird Pokémon go into a rage and attempt to destroy one another. Like most Pokémon, Lugia cannot speak, but it can, like Mewtwo, speak telepathically with the humans. In the movie, Lugia helps Ash retrieve the three element stones.
• Slowking - the second split evolution of Slowpoke. The Slowking in the movie is one of the few Pokémon that can speak English, and it constantly warns others not to disrupt the harmony of fire, ice and lightning.
• Elekid - the pre-evolved form of Electabuzz that helps Pikachu and his pals find Togepi. He is only in the Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure animated short.
• Ledyba - A swarm of Ledyba are seen carrying Pikachu and the other Pokémon at the beginning of the animated short.

Release

When Pokémon: The Movie 2000 was released, select movie theaters would dispense exclusive cards. The first week, the card was a replica of the Ancient Mew card that featured in the movie. The consecutive weeks were random between the legendary birds. (In Japan, one of the promotional cards was a special edition of Slowking/Yadoking as drawn by the voice actor who portrayed him, famed comedian - and infamously bad artist - Masatoshi Hamada.)

During the Japanese release, the first run of Ancient Mew had ‘Nintendo’ spelled as ‘Nintedo’. This was corrected for future runs (and the US release) of the card.

Box Office

The film was a box office hit, but it didn't do as well as the original film. It made $43,758,684 at the domestic box office and $90,190,586 as the foreign box office. The film made $133,949,270 at the end of its box office run. Plugged In said that "the plot is as tiresome as it was in the first movie. But the violence is tamed somewhat, so the positive messages shine a bit more brightly".

Ratings

• USA:G
• Canada:G
• Japan:U
• UK:PG
• Australia:G

Soundtrack

Untitled

Untitled

The soundtrack was released alongside the film in 2000 by Atlantic Records and includes many songs by popular artists, such as "Weird Al" Yankovic and The B-52's. The orchestral score to the film was also released on a separate CD, Pokémon The Movie 2000 Original Motion Picture Score, but this CD still features "The Legend Comes to Life", which was the final song played by Melody.

The title track to the movie was remixed by Jonathan Peters and Tommy Musto. Pokémon The Movie 2000 Original Motion Picture Score is the orchestral soundtrack to the movie. The CD was originally released in some countries in Europe (the United Kingdom not included) in 2000. It wasn't until 2004 that American fans got their chance to own the music, when it became available for download on iTunes.

Track listing

1. "The Power of One" (Donna Summer) – 3:49
2. "Dreams" (Alysha) – 4:04
3. "They Don't Understand" (Dream Street) – 2:58
4. "Wonderland" (Angela Vía) – 3:52
5. "With All Your Heart" (Plus One) – 3:40
6. "The Extra Mile" (Laura Pausini) – 4:05
7. "Flying Without Wings" (Westlife) – 3:35
8. "Pokémon World" (Youngstown featuring Nobody's Angel) – 3:48
9. "Blah, Blah, Blah" (Devotion 2 Music) – 2:34
10. "Polkamon" ("Weird Al" Yankovic) – 2:03
11. "The Chosen One" (The B-52's) – 3:24
12. "One Heart" (O-Town) – 3:59
13. "One" (Denisse Lara) – 4:13
14. "Comin' to the Rescue" (O-Town) – 1:45
15. "Dance of the Bellossom" (score from Pikachu's Rescue Adventure) – 1:04
16. "The Legend Comes to Life" (score from The Power of One) – 4:15

External links

• Official website
• Pokémon: The Movie 2000 at IMDb
• Dogasu's Backpack's English/Japanese comparison of Pokémon: The Movie 2000