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Did you know that the original Pokémon movie is again the most profitable anime movie in the United States? No matter how critically acclaimed Studio Ghibli films are, you can not deny the power of Pikachu and Pocket Monsters.
But the original Pokémon movie, or Pokémon: the first film: Mewtwo Strikes Back, did not result in the critical praise that other cartoon films received outside of Japan. Western critics have called the film an obvious attempt to sell toys and have called for the film's anti-violence counter-narrative message that goes against the very purpose of anime and games.
Yet in Japan, Pokémon: the first film was better received by critics. While complex philosophical themes have been criticized for being too hard for children to understand, the film's exploration of cloning and genetic modification has been praised, according to Joseph Tobin's book, "The Adventure World of Pikachu: The rise and fall of Pokémon ".
Before detective Pikachu goes wild in theaters and party like 1999, let's take our tiny detective hats and see what happened to the original Pokémon movie and solve the sinuous mystery of why the Japanese version is much better.
Twisty Effect
The basic scenario is that Ash and his friends are invited to a mysterious hideout on an isolated island to meet the world's greatest Pokemon coach, who is hosting a private tournament with the world's best coaches. When they arrive, they realize that the coach is actually a powerful psychic Pokémon named Mewtwo, who has created an army of clones and who plans to conquer the world and kill everyone. Except that this last bit is completely different in the Japanese version, and the motivation of Mewtwo is actually much more developed.
You see, when Pokémon: the first movie was released in Japan in 1998, it was accompanied by an audio drama broadcast on Japanese radio before the film, and then added as a animated prologue to the film's television broadcast. This was called The Birth of Mewtwo. The ten-minute short film served as a prologue detailing the creation of Mewtwo. Although the short film was added to North America as a result of Mewtwo Returns, it is totally absent from the original film to which it belongs.
Read more: How the detective film Pikachu makes Pokemon work in the real world
He speaks of a group of scientists, led by Dr. Fuji, who found a fossilized sample of Mew's DNA, the mythical original Pokemon. They managed to clone Mew and improve it to create Mewtwo, the most powerful live Pokémon.
When Mewtwo regains consciousness, he uses his psychic powers to communicate with a cloned Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander who reside in the laboratory, as well as Ambertwo, the clone of consciousness of the deceased daughter of Dr. Fuji, and they all become friends . This happiness does not last long and the complications of the cloning process make Mewtwo's friends disappear like Thanos and die. We see the poor little Mewtwo witness the death of their only friends in the world and start crying. It's a being who does not know who he is and what he's supposed to do, two issues that carry his whole character into the movie. Traumatized by a smaller version of The Snappening, Mewtwo begins to activate his psychic powers, prompting scientists to stalemate for years.
(The short film also explains that Pokémon tears are special – because their tears are full of life, which explains how they can magically resurrect Ash when it turns into stone later in the movie.)
Then the movie begins. Mewtwo wakes up wondering who he is, where he is and why. When he does not get the answers he wants, Mewtwo explodes everyone.
This short prologue alone gives us a completely different Mewtwo, no longer a despot who wants to kill everyone, but a confused creature in the midst of an existential crisis.
In a series of blogs, Takeshi Shudo, editor of the original series of anime and first film, detailed his original plans for Pokémon: the first film. He wrote this prologue to make a film that not only entertained children, but mentally stimulated their parents with thorny questions of existentialism. The conflict of his film was born from Mewtwo's struggle to find meaning in his life. It is much less ambitious in the version of the film intended for Western audiences; in the original, there is no desire to annihilate the world and rule it. All that Mewtwo wants is to get answers to questions about his identity, his purpose, and most importantly, his value.
Mewtwo then decides that the best way to do it is to test his power. If Mewtwo is stronger than Pokemon's best coaches, or even Mew, is his life definitely worth it? If the army of Mewtwo clones can defeat Pokémon born in the natural state, then it must have a more valid reason to live than the originals, is not it? Although Mewtwo mentions that humans are not fit to rule the world, when asked, he mentions that Pokémon are not – he's just trying to find his place in the only way he's learned to make.
I'm Mewtwo, so I'm
The original version of Mewtwo is not just a manic and genocidal psychopath, but a villain with a depth and an arc. So, what has happened?
It turns out that Nintendo and 4Kids have arrived. The US official website of the film, dating from the 1990s, clearly states that "Pokémon: the first film was to be virtually redesigned for the American public". Nintendo, which owns all rights to Pokémon in America, turned to 4Kids Entertainment (which also located Yu-Gi-Oh! And One Piece in the US) to essentially "Americanize" the movie. 4Kids is infamous for heavily censoring purchased broadcasts, removing artifacts such as firearms, cigarettes, and religious symbols, and even changing Japanese food like rice balls for more recognizable American food like jelly donuts. In the year following the release of the film in the United States and Japan, Norman Grossfeld, of 4Kids, "has radically rewritten the script by incorporating new elements of the story," according to the site. They also re-branded the entire film with music that, according to Grossfeld, "better reflected what American children would respond to", which explains the strange inclusion of Christina Aguilera and M2M, as well excellent "Brother My Brother", who plays during the movie. final battle.
These changes did not please the authors and producers of the Japanese original. As writes in an essay quoted by Tobin in "The Global Adventure of Pikachu: The Climb and Fall of Pokemon", executive producer Masakazu Kubo wrote: "The people of Warner have entrusted us with problems of According to them, the original Japanese not enough distinction between good and bad. "According to Kubo, the distributor told him that viewers could not know who to identify and who to encourage. "In other words, the heroes and villains had to be clearly identified."
This is a perfectly reasonable concern. After all, the kids would not understand that Mewtwo was supposed to be the bad guy. He only kills a bunch of people at the beginning of the movie, fights Ash and turns him into stone. The movie is entitled "Mewtwo Strikes Back", but you know, kids are idiots! The only way to know that Mewtwo is the villain is to make him want to conquer the world and kill all human beings. Otherwise, the children might not identify with Ash, the main character of this very popular TV show on which the movie is based.
In the end, Grossfeld changed a little, including the opening narrative that speaks of the meaning of life, pop music, well-known gaffes, as a character calling a Pidgeot a Pidgeotto, and all that regards the apogee of the film.
After Mewtwo unveils his army of clones, Ash stupidly tries to hit the bad guy in the face, but he is fired before Mew arrives and saves Ash. Then, Mewtwo declares that he is more powerful than Mew and will prove him in combat, while psychically blocking the abilities of his army of clones so that she can fight the old way, with teeth. and nails instead of flamethrowers and water cannons.
Mew teams up with the original Pokémon to fight Mewtwo. Looking at the version of Grossfeld destined for the West, Mew can be seen as a messianic hero who defends Ash and the other Mewtwo's evil Pokémon and records them with an anti-violence message, claiming that "the demonstrations of strength do not prove nothing, heart. " Meanwhile, looking at the original Japanese version based on Takeshi Shudo's script, you see another face of the little Pokémon, Mew claiming that the originals are the only living creatures and that they do not lose the copies. Mew in this film goes so far as to say that he can not forgive the existence of a copy made by humans, so they fight – apparently until death.
As the heartbreaking struggle continues, we cut off the human characters witnessing the carnage, and here is where the most important and most dramatic change occurs. In the American dubbing, which was then translated in all Western countries, the characters realize that the violence is reprehensible and that Pokemon should absolutely never fight. It's a very strange message to have in a movie based on a franchise that talks only about the Pokemon fight.
Only this is not the message of Shudo's original script. Since Mewtwo wanted to find its place in the world and fighting was a way to show that the life of the clones was more valuable, the moment of realization of the human character involves talking about how the originals are still living creatures and therefore their life has value. When Ash is petrified and the tears of Pokémon bring him back, Mew and Mewtwo finally realize that all lives have a meaning, human or Pokémon, original or developed in the laboratory.
This message is more consistent with the mythology of the franchise, since the Pokémon do not really fight to death, they simply "fainted". It's a pity that 4Kids never understood the message and did everything possible to turn a complex and compelling film into a purely entertaining but silly children's movie. Takeshi Shudo may have had strange ideas – he wanted to end the anime by revealing that everything was in Ash's head, including a film about a Pikachu-like Spartacus-like revolution in which Pokémon's is rebelled against his coaches – deny that the Japanese version of Pokémon: the first film contains a much more appropriate message, even though he did not miss that killer pop soundtrack.
Read more: How detective Pikachu's directors have kept Pokemon's hardcore fans in mind
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