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OverdueEp 670 - Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back (Novelization), by Tracey West (Bonus Episode)
OverdueEp 670 - Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back (Novelization), by Tracey West (Bonus Episode)
Ep 670 - Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back (Novelization), by Tracey West (Bonus Episode)
Update: 2024-09-28
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We want to be the very best (podcasters)! The best (podcasters) there ever were! And our true test was to talk about the novelization of the first film in the most successful media franchise in the world: Pokémon.
To join us for future bonus recordings, head to patreon.com/overduepod.
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Transcript
00:00:00
This is a headgun podcast.
00:00:06
While Andrew and Craig believe the joy of discovery is crucial to enjoying any well-told
00:00:10
tale, they will not shy away from spoiling specific story beats when necessary.
00:00:16
Plus these are books you should have read by now.
00:00:44
Hey everybody welcome to overdue it's a podcast about the books you've been meaning
00:00:47
to read.
00:00:48
My name is Craig Pika Pika.
00:00:50
My name is Andrew.
00:00:52
Oh what other ones do you know I scored all is is is is Alica's am one probably I don't
00:01:06
know if he says it like that I don't know.
00:01:13
He has a has to say magic car but I don't know how he says it.
00:01:21
That's how he says it.
00:01:22
See here okay so when you said that I have a lot of latent Pokemon knowledge hey this
00:01:25
is our book podcast where one of us reads a book that the other one's never read before
00:01:30
and we tell everybody about it this week for this bonus stream hello everybody in the
00:01:35
audience we both read a book Pokemon the first movie Mewtwo strikes back the novelization
00:01:41
by Tracy West you asked me I mean you you said I have a lot of like ambient like latent
00:01:47
Pokemon knowledge and that is true but the thing I didn't want to say before recording
00:01:51
because it takes up precious minutes in the in the podcast that gets us closer to the
00:01:56
end is I didn't really mess with the anime at all at all like I watched some episodes of
00:02:02
it because my brother watched it and we had a bunch of episodes on VHS I think the VHS
00:02:08
tapes came like two or three to a tape sure and that was it and so you just have to make
00:02:15
room for like like five linear feet of stupid videotapes if you wanted like the entire season
00:02:23
of the interesting yeah so the first I watched that show when it came out the first run of
00:02:30
it in a September 8th to know of 1998 to November 27th of 1999 most of them were they started
00:02:39
in first runs indication and then moved to kids WB okay like in the middle of the first
00:02:45
great okay yeah I was watching it on kids WB I was like recording it on the VCR in my room
00:02:52
so I could watch it when I came home from school later you know like you do and I watched
00:03:00
probably most of whatever that first year of it was I think yeah like the ones I remember
00:03:05
are like Ash gets a butter butter free and he has to let it go there's a sand shrew episode
00:03:11
there's an episode where Pikachu is in a hospital bed go we go why don't they just put him
00:03:18
in the magic Pokemon healing machine I don't I don't know it was a weird episode I think it
00:03:23
was a socialized Pokemon medicine we don't need to put them in hospitals he like refused
00:03:29
to evolve in one episode like that was like a whole thing that's a big thing and Pikachu
00:03:33
always refuses to involve like evolve the he's just like the just like just like all of
00:03:38
us yeah he refuses to and I actually just like Pikachu do better and you have played like
00:03:45
all the squirrel the squirrel squad episodes very good squirrel squad is good but yeah like
00:03:51
the thing about this this anime this the the story line of Ash catch them and his Pikachu
00:03:58
and all of his pals like ran from that first run in 1998 until like last year when Ash finally
00:04:05
retired finally retired yeah it's a it's a so we're going to read this book is interesting
00:04:10
we like to do a movie novelization every once in a while we have a good time may I mentions
00:04:14
that Brock Ash's friend sexually harasses a woman in one episode that's like his and
00:04:19
then she says oh that way that's all the that is Brock's whole deal unfortunately but yeah
00:04:26
I watched the show in first came out I played the first game on Game Boy I had Pokemon Blue nice
00:04:33
I had I bought Pokemon yellow from a friend like furtively and I didn't want anybody to like know
00:04:38
that I was playing Pokemon I was really closeted in my Pokemon fan of for many years and I think in
00:04:44
college I started coming out yeah as many people too and I've been pretty public about it yeah in more recent
00:04:54
years yeah um but that's probably the last full Pokemon game I ever played I think um Pokemon
00:05:03
unite right like that that's what you switched late I played the Pokemon MOBA the Pokemon MOBA
00:05:09
it's pretty good I liked playing um the n64 battle stadium Pokemon stadium uh we had like two
00:05:18
as as a friend group we had like two distinct Pokemon go go eras yes yeah one when it came out
00:05:24
and then one during the pandemic when they added that stuff that made it way easier to play for your
00:05:29
um but I but I don't think I've ever seen any of the movies straight through and I certainly don't
00:05:36
have the history with the game franchise or the trading cards that you do so this is like an
00:05:42
interesting artifact of a book to read in like these books the book series by Tracy West we'll talk
00:05:49
about it we're very popular yeah the first one which sounds like it was very similar to the VHS
00:05:56
tapes like encompassed three or four episodes of the anime and was like a number like a bestseller
00:06:01
in the New York Times and I think she wrote some of the like the the ones that were more like
00:06:07
straight not even strategy guys which is like yes Pokemon universe guys like the media type yeah like
00:06:13
the world building stuff yeah but it's one of it is the biggest media franchise in the world so
00:06:20
for us to not have touched a a book of the universe seems odd until now yeah so we're yeah we're
00:06:29
here especially I mean Pokemon's been part of my life for a long time I bought Pokemon yellow from a
00:06:34
friend in junior high school I think and then when Henry peed in the potty the first time it was
00:06:43
because I had parked him on the the kid potty for like 45 minutes while I played Pokemon Violet
00:06:50
yes you just watched and I was like listen we're we're just gonna sit here until something comes out
00:06:55
and that's gonna that's gonna be what like establishes this link from and it works I mean thank
00:07:00
thank you Pokemon Violet I could say one could say that was also a Pokemon yellow mm-hmm
00:07:08
gross don't be gross do you want to tell me about the Pokemon franchise before we talk about
00:07:12
this book and it's author I mean pocket you pocket monsters pocket monsters it's a it's a
00:07:19
trans media phenomenon yeah Craig starting in the games were first starting in 1996 pocket
00:07:25
monsters red and pocket monsters green are released in Japan green kind of like a yeah in Japan
00:07:33
it was red and green in in the state in the states as they say it was red and blue as they say um
00:07:39
and it's yeah like there's a lot about these games that are that are kind of interesting
00:07:43
as just like artifacts like so they come out in 1996 which is many years after the original
00:07:49
Game Boy had come out but still a few years short of when like the Game Boy color yeah and the Game Boy
00:07:55
advance would come out and so it was like this this strange like rejuvenation of the Game Boy for
00:08:03
Nintendo like these these big RPGs that are like the deal with the games if you've never played
00:08:09
them as each like release gets two different versions the games are identical but they have slightly
00:08:15
different Pokemon in them in some spots and that's meant to it's now I'm adult with the disposable
00:08:25
income it's to encourage you to buy a second copy of the same game so that you can trade Pokemon
00:08:30
with yourself yep but when you're a kid it's supposed to encourage you to find a friend who got
00:08:35
the other version of the game you would trade the Pokemon that you couldn't get in your game and
00:08:41
that would help you catch all of the the ones that were there so yeah these games come out they
00:08:46
they become like sleeper hits in Japan they're translated into English and released in North America
00:08:54
it's it was 97 there was usually like a year lag time if you want to get now nowadays things get
00:09:01
released like simultaneously but I do have a distinct memories of when golden silver came out which
00:09:06
is the second game series that came out in Japan like 11 months before it didn't English and I
00:09:12
remember setting up a Game Boy emulator on the crappy computer in my bedroom so I could like a half
00:09:17
translated like fan Ron hack of the only thing I found on the origin of the franchise was that the
00:09:25
the one of the creators Satoshi Tijiri said you know as a kid he liked catching insects and other small
00:09:31
creatures in the ponds and fields around his town and then he like got into gaming and making games
00:09:37
and things like that and one of the other legend of Zelda series has a similar thing where it's
00:09:42
just like Miyamoto being like I like to go on yes it's like I was I was a like a loner a lonely Japanese
00:09:47
boy who likes to do things by myself but one of the other things games they were released in the states
00:09:53
in 98 okay one of the other things Tijiri like that's part of the legend of the games is that Tijiri saw
00:09:58
the the game link cable the game boy had that had predominantly only been used for just like versus
00:10:06
games like playing Tetris against someone yeah multiplayer Tetris and then you can get the the
00:10:11
weird like four-player one yes that only was supported by a couple games including that like three
00:10:16
did like that face Game Boy face shooter game face shooter you can't just
00:10:24
but he saw that link was like oh you could transfer baseball to face raiders no faceball 2000 I think
00:10:30
is the game I'm thinking face raiders face raiders is a different okay but the idea if again as
00:10:38
Andrew said if you haven't played this before you got these two different versions so you might
00:10:42
catch some Pokemon on your cartridge and then you might want to trade it to your friend
00:10:46
and then they could have that Pokemon and you could get some of their Pokemon revolutionary stuff
00:10:52
well in the put and the Pokemon would like if you traded a Pokemon like it would get boosted
00:10:57
experience on your game amazing it would it would retain the original trainer name of the person who
00:11:02
had given it to you which is kind of a cool yeah artifact and then there are some that only evolve
00:11:07
when you trade them so you would be like hey you want to trade my thing sure for your thing and then
00:11:12
we'll trade right back and we'll have the like the stronger versions of the of the Pokemon that we
00:11:16
had it was pretty cool unless you had unless you were really really mortified about liking Pokemon and
00:11:22
then it was less cool that you needed to find another person to trade with okay get how do we get
00:11:29
how do we get from here humble game boy game to a feature film worthy of a movie tie in novel Andrew
00:11:36
well so the the anime starts I mean it starts in Japan it's got that now it's got it was it aired
00:11:42
in Japan from 97 to 99 it's originally just aired as Pokemon but now it's got like a retro name
00:11:49
of Pokemon Indigo League to distinguish it from it from like the 20 different
00:11:53
serieses that that followed it and then this this movie is a like a movie tie-in off-shoot thing
00:12:01
of the anime sure so it comes out where's my I quote in the cloud notes tab it comes out as like
00:12:10
Pokemon fever is is peeking in in the US it's it's released in 1999 in the states it makes in the states
00:12:19
it makes 172.7 million dollars worldwide on a budget of five million dollars that's wild and then
00:12:27
tens and tens and tens of millions more on the home video market 58.8 million dollars for the
00:12:33
original VHS release by the end of the year 2000 and then by the year 2007 more than 100 million
00:12:40
home video units had been sold at that point that encompasses the DVD release too and so yet
00:12:47
the relationship that it has to the anime is kind of kind of strange like there are people who
00:12:53
try to insist like the movies don't like aren't canonical to the series well this one has a
00:12:59
funny way of handling that it is but it's most of the movies like up until up these movies get released
00:13:07
like there's a million of times a year yeah and it mostly it's it's a direct-to-video thing
00:13:13
in the in the states at least yeah yeah right but all the movies up to 2016's volcanic and the
00:13:21
mechanical marvel are considered to be canon to the anime so while 2017's Pokemon the movie
00:13:28
called and I choose you as a soft reboot of the ash catch-em story yes that establishes its own
00:13:34
continuity and that goes on in movies after that like a JJ Abrams Star Trek situation yes right
00:13:41
did you see the thing so I did was reading a little bit about when the film released in Japan
00:13:47
in 1998 and it was supposed to release so there's a couple episodes of the cartoon that are supposed
00:13:56
to like prime you for the arrival of Mewtwo yes I read them yeah okay so they're episodes of the anime
00:14:02
that were supposed to lead up to this movie but then there was an episode of the anime in Japan
00:14:10
that aired Denno sent you poragon yeah somewhat infamously sent hundreds of Japanese people to the
00:14:17
hospital with seizures because it had bright flashing light effects yep and so the show was taken off
00:14:25
the air like the entire anime was taken off the air for like months after this yes interrupted their
00:14:30
roll out of the so the show was in a different spot like kind of like in the chronology of the
00:14:37
cartoon yeah when the movie came out which is I think why when the movie was released and it's not
00:14:44
part of this book I don't think there's like extra Mewtwo content in at least one of the theatrical
00:14:50
releases to call yeah there's a there's a background on him a prologue thing yeah that is not in most
00:14:56
of the US releases like the the original US DVD release had a bunch of stuff including a surround
00:15:02
sound mix the prologue and a Pikachu's vacation the location that were part of the original Japanese
00:15:08
release and this US DVD release but not included in a bunch of the US DVD releases after this weird
00:15:15
she's kind of wild to me just like not just to have a surround sound mix and then to get rid of it
00:15:20
but this it was timed out pretty ingeniously in the in the US I think like it so it's happening
00:15:29
after the like almost simultaneously with the anime like finishing its initial run yep yep
00:15:36
there are a couple of Pokemon that appear like later in the anime and then also in this movie that are
00:15:41
technically not in the games until the sequel games come out and so you're kind of trying to build
00:15:47
anticipation for this next round of games that's just come out in Japan and it's gonna come out
00:15:53
in a year or so in the US so this movie opens at number one in the box office and it is the only
00:16:00
anime movie to open at number one in the US box office until 2021 when it was finally dethroned by
00:16:06
some demon slayer movie oh my god critics at the time mostly hated it reactions ranged from this
00:16:13
is for kids and has no value for adults to and I am paraphrasing here it's weird to try and put an
00:16:20
anti-violence message into this cock fighting movie I have a note essentially like that at the end
00:16:28
of my notes on this book which is kind of the crux of Pokemon when you really think about it sure
00:16:36
okay hit me with it which well no I will get to this specific story but like if you zoom out
00:16:41
we're talking about making our pets fight each other yeah yeah yeah so yeah yeah it's dog fighting
00:16:51
I want to be the very best with best that I roll like yes ad dog fighting you need to finish the
00:16:56
sentence but yeah so I mean Pokemon has always been super popular but it does fade from the like
00:17:04
the cultural mainstream after this so you do get two more theatrical releases in the US
00:17:09
Pokemon the movie 2000 best name second one and then Pokemon 3 colon the movie which is the third one
00:17:17
and I just think it's bold of them to pick completely different naming conventions for the three
00:17:22
different movies that they chose to release quick quick cyber and her which was the which was the
00:17:26
Garf movie that we saw what was it called the Garfield movie okay cool because I was in an Airbnb
00:17:32
this weekend with a DVD of Garfield the movie Garfield the movie is different yeah as we've established
00:17:37
I we can't pot we cannot make this about Garfield just checking I'm just checking we need to have more
00:17:42
of our podcast is not about Garfield at this point fair enough and yeah this movie lost mine notes
00:17:49
again but it got a digitally remastered like re-release in 2018 fully and then there was a complete 3D
00:17:58
well so that's a different one there's a digitally remastered version of the 2D cartoon released
00:18:04
in 2018 and then a fully 3D animated remake called Pokemon YouTube strikes back colon evolution
00:18:11
oh my god which was released in Japan in 2019 and then put out on Netflix worldwide in 2020
00:18:17
watch the trailer for it it looks like it adheres pretty close to the to the events of the
00:18:23
of the original movie because the like the the soft reboot Pokemon the movie I choose you
00:18:29
thing like Brock and Misty aren't even in it like it's it changes it's still Ash catch them in a
00:18:34
Pikachu but other than and there are a few other like small Pokemon arcs I think that that crop
00:18:41
up in it this is on me reading Bulba peak Bulba pd which is the Pokemon wiki of Bulba pd on Bulba garden
00:18:49
dot net yeah I've got multiple tabs from them open right now what I think that's probably yeah
00:18:55
that's all the canon of the Pokemon movies that I feel qualified to talk about it was it was it
00:18:59
it was like there was a Burger King tie-in that like resulted in a recall terrible because the
00:19:05
Pokemon like killed people like suffocated a kid yeah this is just it's the I guess the perils of being
00:19:12
the largest media franchise on earth is you are going to send people to hospital inevitably you're
00:19:18
gonna have a body count yeah for a reason or an terrible stuff but I do feel like it's had kind of a
00:19:24
a renaissance in the last few years just with like Pokemon go and then like the switch games that
00:19:32
like the switch was so big and you've got everybody our age that now has disposable income to spend on
00:19:39
Pokemon and now they have kids who are also in a Pokemon yeah so the collectively Pokemon sword and
00:19:45
shields are the sixth the selling game on the switch with 26.35 million copies and then Pokemon
00:19:52
Scarlet and Violet are right behind that with 25.29 million copies and once you account for the
00:19:57
fact that those games have been out for like three fewer years that's like zero drop off which is kind
00:20:02
of amazing yeah yeah yeah yeah even if you look at like Zelda Breath of the Wild versus Tears of
00:20:07
the Kingdom it goes from like 32 to 20 like that's that's more what you'd expect from a sequel but
00:20:12
yes Pokemon has this huge staying power that is well and everyone is like create yeah everyone could
00:20:17
be the first one for the next wave of kids right it's like sort of thing yeah all right well let's
00:20:23
talk about the author of this movie novelization Tracy West not the creator of the film or anything
00:20:31
like that but she was born in 1965 in New Jersey the Garden State per her website she was inspired to
00:20:43
be a children's author by visit by a children's author visiting her class one day in school you know
00:20:48
bring your bring your relative to work day work she started a middle school newspaper she stayed
00:20:54
working on school papers her whole academic career she went to Rutgers she worked in New York cities
00:21:01
like children publishing scene including time at plastic a couple other places yeah not
00:21:05
I was one of the cities in Pokemon Joho City what is it called yes Joho what am I thinking of
00:21:13
maybe thinking of the Jotorees yes I think the Kanto region is in red and blue and the Sunny Mace
00:21:22
and the beginning of her career includes a book called Great Uncle Dracula written under a pseudonym
00:21:30
why do we read that that's like a classic spooch overpix the book mom books a series called pixie
00:21:37
tricks for scholastic which unfortunately was can't like canceled after only a few books but it's
00:21:43
sound pretty cool kids tricking pixies her Bulba Pedia article claims that her first published novel
00:21:50
Andrew was written under the name Carolyn Kean who's Carolyn Kean yeah who is that Nancy Drew oh
00:22:01
that's funny so she I can only think of the guy who does the family circus cartoons for some reason
00:22:08
who name I think is Bill Kean yeah sure let me make sure that's real that could be real yes Bill Kean
00:22:15
good work did family circus and his son Jeff Kean that's continued the family business has been
00:22:21
shackled his desk continuing to do family circus comments family circus of their own no she
00:22:27
according to Bulba Pedia wrote the novel spies and lies in 1992 Nancy Drew slash hearty boys
00:22:35
crossover where all of the teens go undercover at the FBI okay seems like a bowl do they hook up like
00:22:45
what I don't know I don't I don't I haven't read it I don't have them crossover without
00:22:49
there being romantic interests her license which of the which of the hearty boys wins the heart
00:22:54
of Nancy Drew you know or does she you know go off on her own she doesn't have to get tied down by
00:23:01
one hearty boy no she doesn't have to I don't guess she's done work on licensed series that
00:23:06
include Pokemon SpongeBob Teen Titans Powerpuff Girls part of the Rainbow Magic series she has
00:23:14
original series include Pixie tricks the underdogs I just have some fun synopsies for these series
00:23:22
and the underdogs welcome to the town of Barksdale where the canine residents strive for perfection
00:23:29
every shopkeeper claims to sell the best biscuits or be the best groomer and at Barksdale academy
00:23:34
the pressure is on every year for one team of pups to be best in show wait so is this like a human
00:23:39
town where everybody was way too into their dogs or is it I am for more fake dogs I think it's
00:23:45
anthropomorphic dogs okay I like that better and then dragon masters is her longer running series
00:23:51
which has been around forever dragon masters fantasy series take place in a world where dragons
00:23:55
and magic are real if you're eight years old you can be chosen by the magical dragon stone to be
00:23:59
paired with a dragon and then you work together with your dragon to find each dragon's special powers
00:24:05
and go on adventures pretty fun stuff for some fourth wing yeah fourth wing little bit yeah fourth
00:24:12
one junior she lives in the in the cat skills she operates a mobile bookstore called the dragon wagon
00:24:18
which is really fun Andrew relevant to our interest she also wrote a a game book series called
00:24:29
Scream Shop okay which sounds kind of like a parallel give yourself goose bumps the descriptions say
00:24:38
that they are pick your path adventures pick your path adventures yes but I do you call your book
00:24:44
once the cnd from choose co hits I do need to tell you that the first book is called abracadanger
00:24:51
so pretty good stuff yeah that's pretty good in 2015 uh listen if you write books and you are not
00:25:03
up adding cool facts like this to your Wikipedia page or your agent isn't doing it I don't know
00:25:08
what to tell you in 2015 her novelization of the Dreamworks film penguins of Madagascar spin off
00:25:15
of the Madagascar series okay was nominated for a scribe award by the International Association of
00:25:23
Media tie in writers now Andrew I didn't know that this association existed no this is a good
00:25:29
association now and I would like to become affiliated with them all in on this association she also
00:25:36
won the 2009 award for the young adult category for her novelization of journey to the center of the
00:25:43
earth 3d this is their mission tie in writers and their work are often overlooked and underappreciated
00:25:50
for existing organizations like the mystery writers America signs pictures writers America etc
00:25:55
even though some of their most respected members work in the field tie ends represent a huge
00:25:59
percentage of the books published each year they are enormously successful and wildly widely
00:26:03
enjoyed by readers yet we have no organization that represents our unique business and professional
00:26:08
interests until now until the IAMTW the name itself is a declaration of pride in what we do I am a
00:26:15
tie in writer we say it with pride because we are very proud of what we do and the books we write
00:26:20
they were founded by two guys Max Allen Collins and Lee Goldberg Collins was the author of True Detective
00:26:28
and the original wrote a prediction graphic novel Goldberg wrote on like you know novels for diagnosis
00:26:34
murder and monk in addition to working on the shows themselves monk novels monk books
00:26:39
there's a lot of categories there's not more categories now than there used to be they've split
00:26:44
fiction into general and speculative where speculative is genre fiction okay sure but I do just
00:26:51
need to tell you about the first year of awards in 2007 for fiction published in 2006
00:26:58
best novel adapted went to Superman returns best novel original went to 30 days of night rumors of
00:27:04
the undead don't know what that is best novel adapted Andrew snakes on a plane wow by Christopher
00:27:14
oust and they gave a lifetime achievement award to the guy who wrote a bunch of murder she wrote
00:27:22
pretty good stuff sure I did out there no I love the it's out there too it did remind me that I
00:27:28
didn't talk about the accolades for the the Pokemon movie oh please don't be there was there was a
00:27:34
body the operated until 2015 called animation Kobe that existed to promote anime specifically
00:27:42
they held events from 1996 to 2015 and this did win a theatrical film award oh from
00:27:52
them and then there's another body that I believe continues no they were last award in 2006 so
00:28:00
this is a this is a default organization but the stinkers awards what nominated this movie for five
00:28:08
categories it was all it lost but was nominated in biggest disappointment films that didn't
00:28:15
live up to their hype it was nominated and lost for worst screen debut now this was all 151 of the
00:28:23
Pokemon that were nominated for this for this category okay and it also was nominated and lost
00:28:34
for worst screenplay for a film grossing more than one hundred million dollars using Hollywood math
00:28:38
it did win most unwelcome direct to video release which doesn't make any sense to me because it was
00:28:44
a theatrical release huh no it that was for the the episodes of the anime okay sure sure and then a
00:28:52
one worst achievement in animation which oh it's an honor just to be nominated oh my god yeah are
00:29:01
these just animations razzis is that what these are yeah film buffs and film critics devoted to
00:29:07
honoring the worst films of the year it's just a bunch of people it's just it's just a different
00:29:12
razzis like to hate stuff yeah so they're there and I'll send you please do I don't I don't I don't
00:29:19
have this loaded up to show everybody but there there's a little trophy that they hand out that's
00:29:23
just like a little toilet that's great great in like film negative oh wonderful there's a picture
00:29:29
of a Tom greens stinkers trophy for Freddie got fingered that is oh my god okay
00:29:37
yeah niche awards wonderful um so this was her fifth Pokemon book I think
00:29:46
fifth Pokemon book first Pokemon movie Tracy West yeah so she did the Pokemon novel for
00:29:52
I choose you which was basically the first three or four episodes of the show put into a novel
00:29:57
um and this drops you know not long after the film comes out um and it's just like
00:30:07
right there waiting for any kid who's like well my parents won't take me to the movies I guess I'll
00:30:12
buy this at the scholastic book fair instead or I saw the movie and my parents will not take me
00:30:18
back again yes also then and so they bought me this yes and it has uh 16 full colored photos from the
00:30:26
movie that I can use to kind of remember what it was like to watch the film all right well let's get
00:30:33
into it Andrew it's we've been talking a lot about Pokemon it's time to talk about this book it's time
00:30:37
to talk about this book uh so it does start with the cast of characters uh listing of the Pokemon types
00:30:43
I don't know if you found that useful well I'm really relevant to the first I need to tell you
00:30:47
that mine starts with Bryce Robinson 1999 to 2000 Bryce Colby Robinson on this book and he
00:30:59
docks Bryce Colby Robinson well he docks himself our mom docks him my get my selling his book I guess
00:31:06
I'm sure you know yeah um but yeah so there yes I do like the little dictionary that catches you
00:31:13
up on the characters and uh I don't know why they would bother to tell you about the Pokemon types
00:31:19
because the Pokemon anime is founded on a lie which is that Pikachu an electric type Pokemon could
00:31:26
be anything I was gonna ask ground I was gonna ask because there is a scene into electricity attacks
00:31:33
yes there's a scene in this book where he he knocks out a golem right like that would not happen
00:31:39
rock ground type not possible okay I mean not it's but not in the first generation games anyway like
00:31:44
in the later games there are some like items and like oh mitigating things that can make it like
00:31:50
technically possible but the Pikachu's not taking out a gone come on come on come on come on come on come
00:31:55
on come on but just to like let catch everybody up we've got ash catch him get it his name is catch him
00:32:00
he wants to get he wants to be the very best like no one ever was we've got his friend Brock who
00:32:05
used to run a Pokemon gym before he met ash and was like this 10 year old sounds cool I'm gonna travel
00:32:10
around with him and now he's unemployed and horny wandering around with the 10 year old we've got a
00:32:15
character named Giovanni who's in charge of team rocket they're the bad guys uh we've got we're
00:32:21
gonna meet Mew the legendary Pokemon we're gonna meet Mew to a clone of the legendary Pokemon he's
00:32:27
gonna strike back don't you know so could you Craig tell me what uh so Mew to is a clone of Mew yes
00:32:35
could you tell me what material from Mew was used by scientists to create Mew to I isn't it like
00:32:41
a eyebrow or a eyebrow hair eyebrow not an eyebrow hair it's Mew's eyebrow every synopsis of the film
00:32:53
that I could find said it was an eyelash and I've got to assume uh oh that it's some kind of a
00:32:58
weird loss and translation thing because an eyebrow doesn't make any sense not least because Mew does
00:33:04
not have any eyebrows Craig I've brought up a image of Mew oh please show everybody so it's kind of
00:33:10
you know you can see kind of like skull ridges that form like a brow yes but there's no but there's no
00:33:16
eyebrow yeah yeah there's no eyebrow now I have done also a an artist rendition of what Mew would
00:33:23
look like if you did have eyebrows that I welcome will just briefly flash up for everybody to
00:33:29
take the quick look at okay uh well that's a different Pokemon they didn't introduce that Pokemon
00:33:35
until later or is this Andrew is this so like you can in the games and this does come up in the book
00:33:42
you can name Pokemon you can yeah even though ash never does this ash never does it now other
00:33:48
other people in this book do it but ash never does it um so okay for the people listening at home
00:33:54
Andrew has shared a photo an actual photo of a Mew with eyebrows and glasses that he has named
00:34:02
Mew Gene Levy and it's I did draw the eyebrows first I think it's I've always said I don't know okay
00:34:10
I drew the eyebrows first and then realized that I drawn Eugene Levy eyebrows and added the glasses
00:34:16
that's just yes and baby is what that is I'm yes anding myself uh huh so yes they cloned Mew to
00:34:23
which we'll find we'll talk about from people in the chat or also like I don't see eyelashes either
00:34:28
I could more easily believe that that like a Mew has an eyelash that is just not part of the
00:34:34
well sort of broad like the the polish well I would assume that it would be like your hairs
00:34:42
of the eyebrow sure yes but I could more easily believe that uh an eyelash is a small detail
00:34:48
that could exist but just would not show up in this kind of the simplified style like because you
00:34:54
needed to design these characters pretty simple to get them to like oh good boy look look like anything
00:35:01
like a like a hundred pixel by hundred pixels square on a Game Boy there's a there's a bit in
00:35:06
this book where it mentions Mewtwo's fur and honestly after decades of smash brothers yeah I had
00:35:13
just never I had never thought about Mewtwo having fur I thought he was just a smooth psychic like
00:35:22
cat thing had no idea didn't even think that's about it I think that's a that's a pretty common
00:35:27
criticism of like latter day Pokemon character design actually is there like less distinctive now
00:35:33
oh yeah I don't think that that I don't think that out of the always true but I do think that
00:35:37
um there's just so many well and and in much the way that like a bunch of character designs from
00:35:43
the NES are like more recognizable and iconic because you just you had such a small grid to like
00:35:49
make something look like anything like the they're more they're simpler and they're easier to identify
00:35:56
because you just did not have space to add a bunch of like a weird spikes and stuff like they are
00:36:01
better now yeah so yeah or makes it more distinctive anyway yeah more memorable yes like I think of
00:36:07
the thing that Matt graining talks about where character like good cartoon character design should
00:36:12
all be recognizable in silhouette yeah yeah which is I think true or for the early Pokemon designs
00:36:18
and it is for more of the like latter day ones but anyway anyway yeah um so other on the first movie
00:36:23
the book if you strikes back any other people mentioned in this dictionary we've got misty a water
00:36:30
Pokemon specialist traveling around with Ash and Brock we've got Pikachu uh who is a Pikachu
00:36:36
called Pikachu who doesn't behave like normal Pokemon or not a typical Pokemon he doesn't like to
00:36:42
go in his Poke Ball he's not like other Pokemon he's a cool Pokemon Pokemon I say Pokemon I don't say
00:36:49
Pokemon I don't see yeah I know I probably Pokemon I think it's Pokemon I kind of split the
00:36:55
difference which is like Pokemon and Pokemon Pokemon and like I know I know I'm not saying it 100%
00:37:02
correct but we got one person in the patreon who was like I hope they don't say it Pokemon
00:37:06
that's why I'm I'm addressing it right now we're just getting this out in front 40 minutes into the
00:37:13
podcast we're not saying Pokemon on purpose team rocket our Pokemon thieves Jesse James I did not
00:37:20
thought about this book claims that they are teenagers yeah they're teenagers it was that clear from
00:37:25
the show I don't think it was I always thought they were adults chasing around the kids and they have
00:37:32
another human-ish Pokemon called Meowth who actually talks math can talk like Yago in the lab yeah do you
00:37:40
and then they they introduce the 15 types of Pokemon real quick and do you have any notes on this
00:37:45
all seems pretty uh above board except for the whole Pikachu thing yeah no it's a but it's a
00:37:50
above board they don't uh they don't talk about uh like specific strengths or weaknesses of each type
00:37:56
just you know later games added there are since the very first games they've added three new types to
00:38:02
help like balance some of them out when they got to OP oh steel yeah dark steel and fairy type
00:38:10
oh I forget I always forget about fairy type fairy type they added really late because over the
00:38:16
course of like four or five game generations the dragon type had gotten so overpowered that they
00:38:21
needed to create all types specifically to nerf sure the dragon what is up with normal type they're
00:38:26
called normal because they don't have any powers associated with elements like fire or water these
00:38:31
Pokemon are often the most unusual of all yeah I mean there's normal type just normal I don't know
00:38:40
who who it is professor oak I guess sitting around in this lab just defining what normal is for
00:38:45
Pokemon seems like there's a wide range of normal behaviors that's acceptable but
00:38:51
Andrew tell me about the mythical legend that opens up this book uh the mythical legend of what
00:38:57
of mu the ancient legend about the Pokemon crying oh yes so millions of years ago this is a quote
00:39:03
millions of years ago a deadly storm wiped out all but a few Pokemon the magical tears of those
00:39:08
Pokemon ranged out on the planet all life on earth was restored by those Pokemon tears
00:39:14
what that's it now it is millions of years later and a new very different life is about to be created
00:39:19
a new legend is about to be born okay can you tell me about the computer diary of professor John
00:39:24
Smith I'd be happy to tell you or at the at the Pokemon cloning laboratory on new island these
00:39:32
names are so kind I didn't do any like I didn't do any research into this but it did just strike
00:39:38
me as I was as I was reading about the movie and and the timeline and everything but this is at
00:39:43
this is like a few years after dolly the sheep I think like the world had clone fever in oh good
00:39:48
point mid late nineties good point good point yeah we were we're getting ready to clone everything
00:39:53
multiplicity was out you know great movie great flick um john smith they've they've found a cave
00:40:03
they found a fossilized eyebrow the cave tysofian asks how they could invent pocket monsters before
00:40:08
pockets were invent that's really good that's a good question and I don't know the answer
00:40:19
that I hadn't thought about it maybe this is just a universe where pockets were there are always
00:40:26
pockets for monsters to be in oh that's very funny yeah they're very excited to create a clone of
00:40:35
mu this is some real drastic park stuff like they they found a fossil of an old legendary creature
00:40:41
they're like what if we brought it back I bet what if we brought it's eyebrow back to make a clone out
00:40:46
of it and we've cleverly called it uh mu two like it's the second one ever and then mu two
00:40:52
awakes Andrew and what's his deal he's mad that all these scientists think he's an experiment they he
00:40:59
does not like it he's yeah and he blows up and he blows up the lab it's sort of a like a frankenstein
00:41:06
like the like frankenstein's monster situation a little bit yeah except frankenstein's monster
00:41:12
kind of sucks too though doesn't he well he also well I mean you two kind of sucks it's you know
00:41:17
but mutu is like very successful as a monster who like blows things up well yeah it takes a while
00:41:23
before frankenstein's monster like becomes a run as a man. mutu is a success on the terms of the people
00:41:29
who created correct okay sure yes where I think frankenstein's monster is kind of maybe not quite what
00:41:36
the doctor ordered wanted yeah yeah okay um but so yeah he blows up the pokemon cloning laboratory
00:41:44
yeah on your island Giovanni of team rocket shows up and says join my crew we can rule the world
00:41:52
and mutu is like hey here's here's an equal here's a human who wants to treat me as an equal i'll go with
00:41:56
him and unfortunately that is not the case uh he wants to control mutu like he wants to control all
00:42:03
pokemon yes and mutu says f that amount and this and this seems objectively worse than the scientists
00:42:10
who created him but because Giovanni is like an important story character he can't be blown up
00:42:15
yes correct home so yes you just kind of leave that's one thing that uh when people are talking about
00:42:21
the canonicity of these movies that's one thing that ballapedia notes is they are all from the point
00:42:28
of view of the overarching story where ash is like going from gym to gym and beating gym leaders
00:42:32
and getting badges and becoming pokemon league champion none of these movies have
00:42:37
things that move those stories forward at all like you don't you don't catch major Pokemon on these
00:42:43
movies you don't like evolve major Pokemon on these movies interesting you don't get new gym badges
00:42:49
like the i think the point is if you don't go and you see the movie and you just start watching
00:42:53
the next episode of the anime you have not like missed something crucial in my experience
00:42:57
renting dragon ball vhs's from the video store as a kid that it was a similar thing where it was
00:43:05
just like here's a random thing goku did one day with a saying will that everyone will forget
00:43:10
existed because the show has to go on and this show doesn't care about this book literally ends
00:43:16
with mutu being like man i'm really sorry about all the stuff that i did i'm gonna amnesia everybody
00:43:22
still i don't remember any of the stuff that happened yeah i'm gonna men in black your brain
00:43:26
and you won't remember it it's really wild um okay so mutu says no to jivani doesn't want to play
00:43:32
with him anymore um and then we jump to ash who i again forgot that he was 10 years old he's 10
00:43:40
years old he usually says humans may have created me but they will never enslaved me this is mutu's
00:43:44
motivation yes this is possibly the only copy of pokemon the first movie mutu strikes back the book
00:43:51
that has like highlighted notes in it which i i did that yeah the only thing that um that brice
00:43:59
Robinson highlighted were two letters of his name the b in the first word in the b in his last day
00:44:06
price um so yeah we got a little scene with ash and his friends brock and misty misty says some
00:44:15
pokemon trainer you are ash you haven't caught any new pokemon in weeks which gets to the core of
00:44:21
ash catch him tip for me is he's just like not very good at this i was also wondering right because his
00:44:28
two most infamous pokemon to me Pikachu and his big like surley charizard his big surley charizard
00:44:39
who doesn't listen to him because he evolved so he's just got all these pokemon that don't listen to him
00:44:46
because they don't respect him because he's nobody but but they happen to be like the most powerful
00:44:51
versions of those pokemon that ever existed but it's not but it's of like it is not because of ash
00:44:59
that they are like you're right which is the best thing about like Pikachu is such a strong
00:45:04
Pikachu that he completely disregards the rock paper scissors fighting system that the game is
00:45:09
founded he's a hack yeah pokemon Pikachu is a rom hack ash usually is game janey to hack him into the
00:45:16
game but no but some like doofus wanders up and is like hey ash catch him are you ash catch him let's fight
00:45:25
which is basically how the video games work yeah and most anime honestly and Pikachu defeats all of them
00:45:34
including a golem which is as Andrew said that's impossible how could that happen
00:45:38
so then they sat down and began to eat a feast of sandwiches and pokemon food direct quote
00:45:44
uh is this food made out of pokemon unclear do canonically pokemon are can be eaten is that true
00:45:53
yeah there are it's a little bit like the evidence for is toads toad from mario is his mushroom
00:46:01
hit part of his head or not but they're definitely scenes from the anime that have like a cook to
00:46:09
magic car in them oh yes yeah okay oh and they eat snow they eat slowpoke tails too but that
00:46:16
that's it makes it sound more like just like a yummy sugary like snack yeah like because the
00:46:23
tails can fall off without killing them if there was a pokemon ren fair you could get a slow poke
00:46:28
tail on a stick yes but i'm saying like if you can eat some of a pokemon and it's tasty then
00:46:36
there's got to be other tasty parts uh huh mute too has been scouting powerful pokemon trainers
00:46:44
and basically is running like a mortal combat where he's going to invite them all to a big fight
00:46:49
a big tournament and so like some was what is there like a pidgeot pidgeotto who's flying by taking
00:47:00
drone footage of them and then a dragonite comes by and delivers an obi on the obi comes by and
00:47:05
delivers the hologram message the of a chick who brock thinks is hot who invites them to his like
00:47:13
to a palace to fight the most powerful pokemon trainer who exists yes and ash is like
00:47:20
with all of his with all the confidence of a of a mediocre 10-year-old is like oh that sounds
00:47:25
like me all right i'll go um jack flex jack flex surprise asks are some pokemon not sentient i think
00:47:32
it's clear that some are more sentient than others because there are definitely some pokemon that
00:47:36
are like new to and can like communicate with with people in human english in human english there are
00:47:42
some pokemon that like created the earth yeah and then there's others of them are a large car
00:47:51
yeah or like a misty stupid sideucker whatever oh my god so stupid okay the sideuck in detective
00:47:57
pikachu looked very good though like we're out here to talk about the sake of pikachu but like that's
00:48:01
not ruled um holy bird the low seven says pokemon meshy which is a funny joke what does that mean
00:48:09
yes so do you have you seen the the things for that Netflix anime a delicious in dungeon where they
00:48:14
go into the dungeon and they kill all the monsters and then they eat the monsters so they don't know
00:48:20
i haven't watched it yet it's on my two watch list okay but that's what that's a reference
00:48:24
okay like good reference um so jack flex also says there's got to be some version of pescatarian
00:48:30
where you only eat the annoying one it's pescatarian is what it is
00:48:35
team rocket is creeping on them jesse james and m mouth but they don't really do much in this book
00:48:42
they're just around just kind of hanging out um which i think is going to happen in a movie where
00:48:49
there's a big bad that is not team rocket that's you're always going to shoehorn in the villain of
00:48:55
the weak people like scheme of the weak bat like i remember this from like the transport like no
00:49:02
the g i joh movie as a kid like sir pentor shows up and then like cobra commanders like kind of
00:49:08
sideline it's like a whole thing yeah i mean like the giovani's big like he's one big character trait
00:49:13
other than being like the mob boss of team rocket is to be like a missing and nobody knows who
00:49:17
who he is yeah he's like for decades the energy yeah except he's like he was around less than
00:49:23
doctor claw and so for these movies i think usually you have to have some kind of like misunderstood
00:49:29
youth and then like a new superpower from pokemon who nobody has ever seen before like one one or
00:49:36
the other or both of those things to be an antagonist yeah um mutu is excited about these people
00:49:43
coming to his fight his trap but he does make a big storm so that people can't just take a boat they
00:49:49
have to work for it yeah it's the worthiest trainers because yes because they have the best pokemon
00:49:56
which is what he wants and you wakes up at the bottom of the ocean just because no one did anything
00:50:06
just mu woke up in a bubble at the bottom of the ocean mace x machina tell me about the other trainers
00:50:14
Andrew do you have any thoughts on the other trainers that we meet like Fergus no I don't have any
00:50:18
thoughts on any of them except that they do nickname their pokemon yes um i forget shell shocker
00:50:25
is shell shocker is a blast toys and then there's brute root root yeah brute roots a good name
00:50:30
that is a great name for vena so do you do you name your pokemon when you play that game in pokemon go
00:50:38
yes and pokemon go you kind of have to because otherwise what are you doing right and regular pokemon
00:50:43
less less often okay okay i do i'd have to open my pokemon go to see all the cool funny to make
00:50:50
myself laugh at all the cool funny names you know the main the main one i remember is the charizard
00:50:54
that i called charry joe yeah okay when you're in the in the in the count in the switch game or whatever
00:51:02
do you typically only roll with one of each is there a reason to have more than one of each no i can
00:51:07
you catch more than one of each because they have like different status recent stuff and you're trying
00:51:10
to find the like up to the ones with like the best so pokemon's have a nature which boosts one stat
00:51:16
and lowers another stat so you want a nature that boosts the stat you want and lowers the stat you don't
00:51:20
care about uh and then they have like invisible oh my god they have well they so they have ivy values
00:51:29
are visible numbers that i think run from zero to 31 and you want to get the best possible ivies and
00:51:36
then ivies are something that you train oh sure well i get what what i was saying was like is there a
00:51:42
reason i know you're catching more than one to like get a good one but like once you have a good
00:51:49
you know flary on or whatever you're not gonna roll with multiple flaryons right you're not gonna
00:51:54
roll with one like i like i catch multiple ones so because i have i maintain a living pokedex which is
00:51:59
one version of each evolution of each pokemon so that when you transfer it to a new game like you have
00:52:07
all of the yeah all of the things in your pokedex i'm not just the the most evolved version of it living
00:52:14
pokedex makes it sound like something it does okay all right this is too this is too much to talk about
00:52:21
i have a personal no i'm proud of you because like i'm sure that you are representative of plenty of
00:52:25
people's experience with pokemon that's why i'm asking um holy bird 007 wants to go to smogon and
00:52:30
that's that's this is attacking this is a personal attack against me okay officer jenny is there
00:52:35
on the dock and says that they should not go on the boat because quote it's like the legendary storm
00:52:39
and ash goes what legendary storm and misty says don't you know anything she's talking about the
00:52:45
legend of the storm at the beginning of time and tracey west i've never liked to book more these lines
00:52:50
rule it's so silly everyone's making ashfield dumb mm-hmm he is dumb but it doesn't have a catchy name
00:52:57
you know it's like you think it would like the big bang even the legendary storm at the beginning
00:53:03
is time and then it would just be raining out and he'd be like man this is worse than the legendary storm
00:53:08
so a couple of the pokemon trainers take their pokemon and get out across the water
00:53:13
a boat of quote unquote Vikings appear to take our main characters they're just team rocket
00:53:20
in disguise don't you worry the boat capsizes and our heroes there was so while the team rockets does
00:53:26
say that they uh learned sailing on the amazon like the amazon the real world amber which implies
00:53:35
interesting things okay i was i was one of the cool things about the cannon page on bulbopedia
00:53:42
is it does talk about like each so certainly like the games have their own separate cannon and the
00:53:47
anime has its own separate cannon and then things like the trading card game have their own cannons too
00:53:53
but some of them are universes that has the trading card game but then pokemon are also real and then
00:53:58
some of them have universes where the trading card game is real but pokemon are not oh no which is like
00:54:04
our universe yeah anyway reality is fun to play with uh so once uh ash and company make it to the
00:54:14
island is when you do hit the sixteen full color photos from the movie so you do have kind of
00:54:20
mutu standing in his world of flame now reader beware these these photos do run the entire plot
00:54:27
of the book so you have to be careful read it before and after you know because you're going to
00:54:33
get to a scene of ash punching mutu and you're like what is going on yes so here's a photo of like
00:54:39
mutu's island palace yep so you've seen it uh okay then we get the stuff we that i don't want to
00:54:47
spoil yet okay but so yeah so mutu does not hide i thought he was going to hide behind some kind of
00:54:53
wizard of us type stuff he's like no i'm mutu i'm the most powerful thing that's ever been alive
00:54:57
i hate that you've enslaved pokemon and i hate the pokemon you've enslaved
00:55:02
and one of the trainers is like pokemon can't control pokemon like that's that's not allowed
00:55:07
yeah it's really like you know some you see tweets where people are like quote dunking someone for a
00:55:13
bad political take where that's like you're almost there yeah uh and a lot of these kids say things
00:55:19
where you're just like almost to abolishing the whole pokemon system there's what i think it's the
00:55:25
black and white games pokemon black and pokemon white where the bad guy is trying to liberate all the
00:55:35
pokemon uh oh and you have to convince him that pokemon only but this is the big this is how they
00:55:41
try to resolve the tension is everybody like the party line is pokemon love human so much that they
00:55:47
love being imprisoned in little balls as energy and you put them in your computer and then they
00:55:51
just live there but that's also because he loves ash so much he just wants to be out all this
00:56:01
that's true pokemon love this and you could not like this is it's important pokemon love this and
00:56:06
they don't want to any other way and they never would and any any person or pokemon who feels
00:56:11
otherwise just doesn't get it yet yep that's how it works um so while this guy is complaining
00:56:18
youtube youtube tosses him in the air and then the pokemon attack him gear dose tries a hyper beam blast
00:56:25
doesn't work and ash is all like shook that this like one of the strongest pokemon in the world
00:56:33
couldn't do anything to his gear dose one of the strongest pokemon in the world Andrew I mean he
00:56:37
has a four x weakness to electric type attacks because he's water and flying so you know if you've
00:56:44
that is one big pokemon that Pikachu actually could take out pretty easily yeah I see that
00:56:48
episode of the show just in terms of like stats he's he's powerful okay and he's um the magic
00:56:55
carpe to the useless magic carpe to like scary powerful gear dose evolution is the original games like
00:57:02
fun joke don't don't judge a book by its cover like a pokemon can love in anything uh so
00:57:09
Mewtwo has his plan team rocket come in through a side door discover cloning machines they mostly
00:57:15
just hide in the basement and Mewtwo doesn't seem to be aware of them no Mew follows the man
00:57:21
briefly muesa and out team rocket mouth gets cloned uh briefly Beth Harrison in the chat says
00:57:29
remember in Harry Potter when everyone thinks Hermione is weird because she gets upset about the
00:57:34
plate of house elves yeah weird remember that because house elves love to be enslaved they do thing
00:57:39
true and then give him a sock and they go away and they don't they don't know the it's really
00:57:44
important that they don't know any other way and they yeah because they don't want to the big fight
00:57:50
with the three evolved starters Venus are uh no Venus are blastoy's charizard yeah and they're
00:58:00
fighting clones yeah of a Venus are a blastoy's and a charizard and they can't win
00:58:07
they're too strong these clothes are too strong the clones are too strong much like Mewtwo is a
00:58:12
stronger clone of Mew these other clones are more strong than the original pokemon and Mewtwo's
00:58:18
plan is to capture all of these strong pokemon and make strong copies out of them because when he
00:58:23
makes the copies they don't have their weakness for loving humans in them they'll be so strong
00:58:27
that they don't yeah they don't want to love humans anymore um and Ash gets so upset he tries to punch
00:58:34
Mewtwo like an idiot the book says he throws a powerful punch and I call BS on that I don't think
00:58:42
this 10-year-old threw a powerful punch at Mewtwo that's the one thing that never really gets explored
00:58:47
in the in the pokemon games is so in every game you have like a starter town yeah and then you try
00:58:52
to set off on your little adventure and somebody comes out and is like man don't go into tall grass
00:58:56
don't go in there there's pokemon and there's wild pokemon in there you have to get it a pokemon
00:58:59
yourself first huh and it's become I mean mechanically it's because the games don't have like a human versus
00:59:07
pokemon battle mechanic where you can catch it but it does kind of imply that it's so like you
00:59:19
you are taking your life in your hands like wandering into the tall grass without a pokemon because
00:59:23
a pigeon will eat your face off and yet and yet pigeons will not work together they will only engage
00:59:29
your pokemon 1v1 I mean unless it's unless it's like a team battle yeah well sure yes very
00:59:35
enough but when you just get your starter you're not doing team battles right Ambrose says the
00:59:39
dolly the sheep could beat up all the other sheep and that was the inspiration for this
00:59:46
so mu appears has a little standoff with mu2 they're evenly matched um and the the issue is that if
00:59:55
the clones use their special attacks they're too strong but mu says it would be an even fight if
01:00:02
they only did fist cuffs because they love their human so much and so the clones and the regular
01:00:10
pokemon are just doing fisted cuffs with no special attacks and everybody's just getting really
01:00:15
tired because they're so evenly matched yes and Pikachu and mouth don't want to fight their copies
01:00:20
either yeah Pikachu specifically doesn't want to fight his copy and ash is like oh no I got to
01:00:24
go say Pikachu because Pikachu is just down there turning the other cheek in his butt kicked yes real
01:00:29
will you pen over here real quicker getting beat up and ash like runs to try and stop the fighting
01:00:36
between mu and mu2 and they both have like these energy waves yeah that come out of them at the
01:00:42
same time and ash gets hit by both of them and then ash catch him die he does die so right before this
01:00:49
happens we do get the lines I pulled about dog fighting in this universe where misty and nurse joy
01:00:57
both have a beat where they're like uh one of them says it doesn't matter which pokemon are better
01:01:03
or stronger they're all alive and then the other one says there won't be any winners in this battle
01:01:09
only losers all this proves is that fighting is wrong welcome to the pokemon your universe baby
01:01:15
yeah fighting is wrong except when everybody really likes it yep but no you're right which Pokemon
01:01:21
dude and don't worry about it then ash dies uh in the book in the movie he gets turned to petrified
01:01:30
he's petrified you have the image up Andrew yeah there's ash she gets he's dead he's stone
01:01:36
this is according to the gamer dot com the second of five times in the franchise like
01:01:41
at least in airing chronology okay that does ash gets the ash dies okay uh Ellis in the chat is saying
01:01:50
that uh there is a time canonically before this the ash dies all right well that's cool um yeah
01:01:58
it's very catch a ash catch him a 10 year old whose parents don't like ever wonder where he is
01:02:05
he's out here dying because of pokemon and peek at you tries to resuscitate him by
01:02:10
shock in the crap out of him it doesn't work now and then all of the pokemon start to cry they start
01:02:17
to cry about ash and the pokemon tears they turn into a tornado a tyrnado a tyrnado that flies on to ash
01:02:27
and resurrects him uh in the movie I did watch the scene there's not a tyrnado it's just a bunch of
01:02:33
sparkly stuff that flies out of the pokemon on the ashes still body tears Craig yeah um and then we
01:02:40
get a villain repent monologue from you to after watching all of this um a just this mean the battles
01:02:49
over ash asked he looked at mute to a singer a single silver tear fell from the pokemon's eye
01:02:56
mute faced mute to mute mute mute to hung its head i understand now it was the tears of the pokemon
01:03:04
they showed me that pokemon can create life and save lives not just destroy them i was wrong to
01:03:10
create pokemon just for the purpose of destroying others i see now that the circumstances of one's
01:03:16
birth are irrelevant it is what you do with that life that determines who you are
01:03:22
also says to ash until i met you i thought all humans were evil thank you for showing me that i was wrong
01:03:27
no problem ash said no problem mute and then he picks up all the clones and flies into the sky and ash
01:03:36
asks where they're going and he says we will find somewhere on this earth where we can live peacefully
01:03:41
and then he says as he looked down at the humans and their pokemon i will always remember what happened
01:03:48
here but it might be better if no one were to know about it i will use my psychic powers to erase
01:03:53
the memory of everyone here i will return them to the last place they were before they came to
01:03:57
the island they won't remember what happened and then the last chapter of the book is just like
01:04:03
why are we here yeah nobody remembers anything and then it and then the it ends ends with jessie and
01:04:12
james and meouth being like hey let's go get that peek at you let's go get that peek at you
01:04:18
time for the poke around we got to restore the status quo of the anime so that when people fire up
01:04:25
the anime again and nobody's talking about me too yeah and like this world ending like
01:04:29
pokemon and the miracle of the tears that revived ash catch him yes that nobody really has any
01:04:35
questions yes yes it is my understanding from limited skimming of bulb of media that the english
01:04:44
version of the film really toned down mutus like existential crisis yeah it made him more of a
01:04:52
straightforward bad guy because that's what they thought american audience they didn't think american
01:04:57
audiences could handle the complexity which is kind of in line with how a lot of localization
01:05:01
stuff that's like they just like dumbed down a lot of games in the transition from Japan to America
01:05:09
because they thought americans were too stupid and lazy and whatever and they're like too busy
01:05:12
and burgers and shooting guns in the air to get good a video game well let's let's you know I'll
01:05:18
have it both ways they might have been right yeah but also then it led to a bunch of folks being
01:05:24
like well this is baby nonsense and not because they didn't get a movie where the most powerful being
01:05:30
on in creation was like oh no what do I do how why am I here like he was just there to be evil
01:05:39
yeah just come to my island and fight over confirms that the japanese version is so much better
01:05:46
so like i'm wondering if I should go out and watch like the the remastered dubs subs no subs subs
01:05:53
yes sorry I mix it up I'm at subs not to disrespect the people who did the dubs for these characters
01:05:58
for many many years no in in in in this house where we are subs not dubs I just didn't get I did get
01:06:05
a little twinge I watched you know the ash death sequence and the pika cry the pika chew crying sequence
01:06:13
and like pika chew saying pika pika still works like I'm not even saying like I'm not saying I was
01:06:22
moved to tears rain I'm just saying like that little yellow guy going pika can a moat pika pika it's pretty
01:06:30
compelling it's sure it is a compelling creation that they have that they just like zeroed in on this
01:06:37
character on this pokemon who's not even one of the starter pokemon in the original games right
01:06:42
unless you count yellow well yeah but that only came after the show right yeah that's what I'm saying
01:06:47
like they they they they were smart they picked a cool but kind of like underrated pokemon to make
01:06:55
the main character right sure that he's overrated now because everybody's like likes him because he's
01:07:01
like famous but that is a great lead to the peak if you can can beat ground type pokemon
01:07:07
liars any other poke when he beats Brock he like turns on the sprinkler system in the gym and
01:07:14
electrocutes the water which is a level of just like environmental awareness like not in the like
01:07:23
the the eco friendly sense but in the like being aware of things in your environment that you can
01:07:28
you like yeah pika chews always just looking around gyms for like bright red barrels that he can tap
01:07:34
and blow up so he can defeat the other pokemon like that's the only way he manages to do he's not
01:07:39
the strongest he's just the cleverest he's just smartest yeah he's the only one that understands cover
01:07:43
me out has always confused me less said about me out the better I just don't know I surely and maybe
01:07:52
maybe they're I think there are a couple of people in the chat would probably know surely there's
01:07:55
got to be some in can an explanation for why math can talk and other pokemon don't talk people in
01:08:01
our chat have the floor if they can explain this succinctly they're welcome to try yeah I'm not I
01:08:08
can't pull up another ball of pd my IP address can't hit that site again today top level Andrew as a
01:08:14
poke fan how is your read what did you think about this book and this story you know I found it a
01:08:21
fine little novel to read any flaws I have with it are probably flaws I would have with the movie also
01:08:28
like issue issues not full issue yeah yeah issues you have with flaws no I mean mostly mostly I was
01:08:34
struck and this happens a lot with novelizations is just like you hit the weird little things like the
01:08:39
weird turns of phrase that is either like I think the eyebrow eyelash thing I'd still suspect is
01:08:46
like a trend some kind of translation error the like this is just like the legendary storm thing where
01:08:52
I can't tell if it's like inserted into the book to like make a scene make more sense or if it's
01:08:59
an actual line lifted from the movie and it's also that weird yeah movie but I just like those weird
01:09:06
things are the things that stick with me like sort of facts of of it being a film that's been turned
01:09:12
into a book sure and we'll share holy words explanation in just a second I will just like I will just
01:09:19
say that my my like take of it is like kind of my reaction every time I rented a like 80 minute
01:09:28
anime movie from the video store as a kid after watching like series at home was like that's all that
01:09:34
that's that's it like there is a kind of a slightness to this story that you can't have it break the
01:09:40
continuity no you can't break the continuity it's not like the it's not like the power Rangers movie
01:09:45
where the continuity of the TV show had to totally change to encompass the events the movie the fact
01:09:50
that they were they made a TV show out of like you know edited together footage and then all the
01:09:55
sudden had to make a coherent universe yeah for a movie okay read tell us what holy words explanation
01:10:02
is holy bird says that mouth trained himself to talk to flirt you got a crush on female mouth
01:10:09
whose trainer was super rich so he learned to speak human to impress her
01:10:12
which I like because it's like mouth learned to talk for the same reason that I would start playing
01:10:20
guitar and I totally was like what if this made girls look at me logically this means any Pokemon
01:10:25
with vocal cords could speak human holy bird says logically about it yeah think about it
01:10:32
they're just the ones who don't are just lazy I don't like charizard okay this was a fun read
01:10:41
I'm glad I got to read Bryce Robinson's copy I'm glad we got to talk about Pokemon I'm sure this
01:10:47
conversation like bounced around between uninteresting and inscrutable for most people that I don't know
01:10:53
people like it when we know stuff about things that are excited to share them usually listening to
01:10:57
somebody talk with enthusiasm about a thing that they're enthusiastic about is entertaining is level
01:11:04
but you've been in the last few years you've been like really into the card game was is that all new
01:11:10
or did you take a long break from the card game and then come back to it I this is another like my
01:11:16
brother had the cards okay and I and he just looked at them and I figured out how to put them in a deck
01:11:22
and play with him but the only person I had to play with is my little brother but I didn't want to talk
01:11:26
let's talk to anybody about highlight Pokemon yeah and then just for years and years and years after
01:11:30
that every once in a while I would think like what if I bought a pack of Pokemon cards what would happen
01:11:34
yep well what happened I could get a Pikachu and now I know yeah that what would happen is I have
01:11:41
like seven binders of Pokemon cards that I've put together in the space of less than one calendar year
01:11:49
correct it's it's only been since like last October that I said it's fun I'm enjoying it
01:11:56
there's a fun collectible elements there's a fun like gameplay element I pulled a really big
01:12:01
chase card from one of the last expansions and sold it on TCG player for like a bunch of money which
01:12:07
is fun that's great yeah that's what it's for everybody thinks it's really impressive and it's because I
01:12:12
don't tell them the amount of money that I've spent on Pokemon cards exactly yeah it's yeah don't share
01:12:18
that part no that's just for you yeah it's like the cards anyway thanks everyone for joining us
01:12:26
this book box has new patreon tier Pokemon card unboxings and don't do not tempt me I will go
01:12:33
I have ideas for for some slight patreon tweaks and maybe that could be part of it who knows
01:12:39
anyway thank you for listening and you're thanks for reading a Pokemon book with me I'm glad we
01:12:45
got to talk about mutu and the fact that he's furry which I didn't know before yes he's furry he was
01:12:51
made for he was made from an eyebrow yeah weird it's from the Bible right which Greek God is who's made
01:12:57
from the eyebrow of Zeus put like plucked from the eyebrows it's probably mutu that's what it is it's
01:13:02
mutu yeah he's in there um that's our show everyone if you have a favorite Pokemon that we didn't
01:13:08
talk about yet send us an email about it um overdue pod at gmail.com hit us up on social media with your
01:13:15
favorite uh screen crap screen grabs of ash dead in a Pokemon movie your cartoon Jason says thanks
01:13:25
this fandom still baffles me but happy to watch others who enjoy it yeah which is like a best case
01:13:30
that's right Jason tell folks about the show send us uh to send them to us on social media where we're
01:13:38
mostly uh just posting through it right what's on blue ski blue ski and instagram at overdue pod our theme
01:13:44
song is composed by nick laranjas andro folks do want to find out more about the show where do they
01:13:48
go overdue podcast.com is our internet website we have the schedule of the books that we are
01:13:54
going to read uh and we also have the archives of the entire show you can go back through um Craig you
01:14:01
want to tell him our September schedule is because we have it I don't remember if we've said it on
01:14:05
the show yet we have for one episode but I can I can fill in the month and this will come out in a
01:14:10
little bit for other folks. Yes, fill in the month the people are here just tell them death of
01:14:14
even ilietch by leotostoy starts out the month of September the penalty ad by market outward is
01:14:20
coming up next the prime of misjean brody by myriel spark then a clockwork orange by anthony merges
01:14:26
and then the english patient by michael and dacha that'll close out the month of september stay
01:14:32
tuned for more information on what we're doing next on our patreon long read series and all that good
01:14:38
stuff patreon.com slash overdue pod everybody's in the audience knows already but if you're not in
01:14:43
the audience you could be you can also support the show financially uh bias books uh
01:14:50
send our kids to school into to daycare um bias equipment just the things that the show could not
01:14:56
happen if we were doing those things from y'all so yes it's it's because of you that we did this
01:15:03
thanks for joining us people in the chat thanks for explaining me out to us and all the you know
01:15:08
enjoying the pokemon enjoyment um that's it Andrew get us out of here all right everybody thank
01:15:14
you so much for listening and until we hit you next time here's one here's one thing you can catch
01:15:20
the happiness try try to try try to do it
01:15:32
[Music]
01:15:55
that was a headgun podcast
