‘Pokémon: I Choose You!’ delivers nostalgia and inaccurate scenes

Julia Maldonado|November 13, 2017

Ash receives a Rainbow Wing from legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh, which will help guide Ash’s journey to meet Ho-Oh

Beloved ’90s franchise Pokémon released “Pokémon: I Choose You!” for a limited release on Nov. 5 and 6. The film follows 10-year-old Ash Ketchum beginning his journey with his partner, Pikachu. After a fateful encounter with a flock of Spearow, Ash and Pikachu see the legendary phoenix Pokémon Ho-Oh. When Ho-Oh drops a Rainbow Wing, Ketchum vows to Pikachu they will encounter Ho-Oh again someday.

Although the film is loosely based on the first episode of Pokémon, there are plenty of references from other seasons and generations. Instead of Ketchum having his original partners and former gym leaders Misty and Brock, he travels along with new characters Verity and Sorrel, who travel with Pokémon from newer generations. Diehard Pokémon fans may be upset with the major change, but I found it to be a great way to weave more recent seasons of Pokémon together.

The film throws in some flashbacks from the first season of Pokémon with references from Charmander’s abusive backstory and eventual evolution into Charizard, and the episode Bye Bye Butterfree. Although Butterfree’s journey is one of the most recognizable episodes, it seemed to be a pointless subplot that had no real effect on the main storyline.

The lack of accurate type matchups was a minute issue in the film. Pikachu is an Electric-type, which doesn’t affect Ground-types. In one scene, Pikachu single-handedly shocks four Ground-type Pokémon. There are many cases of this throughout the movie but since they’re so easy to miss, it isn’t that big of a problem.

The most unsettling part of the movie was when Pikachu used human speech to talk to Ketchum. In the anime, Pikachu has never said anything other than “Pika-Pika” or “Pikachu,” so to hear actual human language was something out of the ordinary and quite inaccurate.

Pokémon: I Choose You! has a fantastic blend of old and new characters. There were plenty of references that any Pokémon fan would understand. However, it was the little mistakes and attention to detail that were bothersome, so, for this reason, I gave the film three stars.

Julia Maldonado can be reached at [email protected] or @julianewsblog on Twitter.