Pikachu Did WHAT?!
Pokemon: I Choose You! is meant to be a love letter to the classic series, to recap the charm, excitement and humor many of us felt as we saw Ash and Pikachu set out into the Kanto Region for the first time in the hopes of becoming a Pokemon Master. Throw in a splash of gorgeous looking animation and the fact this movie steps away from the currently airing anime, and you have a success story in the making.
How could they possibly screw something like that up?
Well according to an article on Polygon, its all down to one cringeworthy moment. One that breaks the unwritten rule of the franchise.
Fair warning, there are SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Pokémon anime has hardly adhered to the rules of the original games. But Pokémon: I Choose You!, the cartoon’s 20th anniversary movie that’s screening nationwide this week, goes a step further, ending with a moment so bizarre that my entire theater howled in disbelief.
In the Pokémon cartoons, only one Pokémon regularly speaks in a language humans can understand: Meowth, which taught itself how to communicate to impress another Meowth, as one does. This unique trait is one of the things that makes Meowth unique in the Pokémon world; the only other Pokémon we’ve heard speaking with humans are legendaries (and that weird Slowking in Pokémon 2000).
Pokémon: I Choose You! throws this out for one climactic scene that’s way more disconcerting than anything else. The movie goes through familiar paces of Ash and Pikachu teaming up, Ash making some new friends, Ash becoming a “chosen hero†for some reason and Ash entering a battle he wasn’t at all prepared for. At the end of said battle, Ash — in an effort to protect a battered Pikachu — takes a hit from a bunch of possessed, enraged Pokémon and … dies.
Just before he dies (seriously), Ash has a vision of Pikachu, his best friend. In this vision, Pikachu talks. And not in its little Pikachu language; it talks to Ash using human speech.
It’s extremely weird and, frankly, uncomfortable to see. Everyone in the audience with me gasped, shouted or cursed at the screen. Because if there’s anything we thought we could trust about the ever-changing Pokémon cartoons, it’s this:
Pikachu.
Does.
Not.
Talk.
Well, that’s a kick to the childhood.
You can check out the trailer for Pokemon: The Choose You! below.