Get Played - Get Anime'd: Welcome to Get Anime'd!

Episode Date: June 29, 2022

Welcome to Get Anime'd! Heather, Nick and Matt talk about their varying levels of anime fandom and to conclude PokéMay they talk about Pokémon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back! On the next episode: The gang starts their journey into Neon Genesis Evangelion! New episodes of Get Anime'd drop first on Patreon.com/getplayed and then a month later on Stitcher Premium.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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To get new episodes as they drop, join us at patreon.com slash getplayed or get them a month later on Citra Premium. Enjoy! Thank you. Welcome to Get Animated, the anime watch-along podcast with the hosts of Get Played. I'm self-proclaimed anime expert, Heather Ann Campbell. I'm anime casual fan, Nick Weiger. And I would say I'm anime noob, Matt. Hello, everyone. So this is our first episode of the show. And the first thing I want to ask you guys is a little bit of baseline here, Because I looked up my anime list. Oh, I see.

No matter how much this means to me, it's still you guys. You can also call us on. Baby, I hear the blues are carlins or salads and scrambled eggs. I've been stressed out about this for 48 hours. Ladies and gentlemen, flee from the red hot chili peppers. What? Oh. Basist.

I get it. Kind of get a little funk on it. Great book. I like this book a lot. I haven't read it. He wrote it and narrates it. Yeah, I should check it out. I'm not even going to look at my notes. Emphatically sorry, Heather. Very sorry. I'm going to get a little funk on it. Great book. I like this book a lot. I haven't read it. He wrote it and narrates it. Yeah, I should check it out. I'm not even going to look at my notes.

Emphatically sorry, Heather. Very sorry. I'm not. No, it's fine. I'm just not even like, what's the point? What's the point of prepping? I said the word baseline, and for about 30 seconds, I wanted to die. So.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I was just relaying that around the year 2013, I stopped updating my anime list, but I looked it up today. And as of 2013, I had watched 234 series of anime. Wow. That's a lot.

That's a substantial amount. Would say that that during that time you watched little else or did you watch like other content as well well so since well i want to i want to talk i guess i've got a question for everyone which is how were you introduced to anime and i'll go first, which is that there's a blockbuster near my house that had a Japanimation section. Oh, yeah. When I was a kid and being a young, a young queer person in the closet and scared to death that people would know that I was gay. I saw an anime called Project Eiko, which was about three girls in love. And I was like, nobody will know

that I'm watching a show that's about being queer if it's couched in this insane alien animation style. And that was the very first anime that I ever rented was Project Eiko. i showed it to my friend in high school and uh she was like what the fuck is this what is this and i'm like i know it's so crazy right so it's so weird we can stop watching it um but even though my entryway was sort of like my own secret identity, the next many years of my life, I've watched anime basically one episode every morning with coffee ever since. Wow. Really?

I didn't know that about you. Yeah. Every morning. You rise and grind and watch anime? Yeah. Like immediate, like you're just like right away, you're i'm gonna put on an anime yeah so like for the last year every day i've been watching one episode of gundam because i wanted to catch up on gundam having you know everybody knows what gundam is it's a big the big, big properties. It's like one of the Star Wars of anime.

Yeah. But it is a daunting task to take on Gundam because there are so many shows. It's basically been on air since 1977 or 79, whatever it is. But I wanted to see it.

So I have been going in universe chronological order one episode a day since the beginning of 2021 roughly wow um and that's been what i've watched this year what percentage of the series are you in like how far have you gone i mean like i've watched okay the shows that I've watched are Gundam The Origins, Mobile Suit Gundam, which is the original show, Mobile Suit 08 MS Team, Stardust Memory, MS Igloo, Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt. Oh, man, there's one other one. So I've watched seven series. Okay, and how many episodes per

series? That's something I'm not familiar with. Well, it varies. So like in theory, an old full season was 52 episodes. Okay. Was like a full year of anime. But then they sort of truncated those things and it dropped down to like 26 episodes per series,

which is what our first show is. It's 26 episodes. Lately, they've been doing limited series, so it'll be 13 episodes per season. As sort of universally, all content is being squeezed of every single cent. Right. So I don't know what the writers unions rules are in Japan, but I imagine that like you pay everybody less.

Probably non-existent. Yeah. Oh, well, okay. Well, yeah. I guess Nick knows. No, I'm just guessing. The labor conditions are not the best there and, you know, certainly in video games and I'd assume in animation. Yeah, that's wild.

I know you're an intense anime fan and a very knowledgeable one, but I guess I just didn't realize specifically that that's how rigorous you were, that it was like a daily ritual for you. Yeah. It's, um, and that, I, I, I guess I would have to modify that and say that daily ritual didn't really start robustly until like 2002 or 2003 because, um,

that was when I started being able to download anime. Like I would exhaust the collection at any nearby rental store and then be like waiting patiently for something else to come out. Or with some shows, I would buy the tapes as they were released and then the DVDs as they were released. But it wasn't until LimeWire or any of that shit came out that I was able to like stream anime. I would also, I'd go to conventions.

This is nuts. In 1999, I went to a Los Angeles comic book convention and people just had boxes, like cardboard boxes of fan subs. And you would buy an entire series for like 50 bucks. Wow. And so the way that I watched all of the different Sailor Moon shows is I kept going to this comic book convention every month. And I'd get an unmarked cardboard box full of cassettes and then watch them one by one. box full of cassettes and then watch them one by one. That reminds me of the old days of pre,

you know, everyone had broadband PC gaming and, you know, and where a lot of demos and shareware games were not distributed, were distributed physically. So I remember going to like shows, they were like gun shows, but for PCs. So we go to, I go to computer shows with my dad and they just have like, you know, whatever. That's like where I got Wolfenstein 3D. Like I bought like three and a half inch discs in cash from like some vendor who'd like, you know, set up a booth in Orange County. Yeah, it was a weird, interesting time.

The very first anime expo I went to was 1997 and my parents dropped me off. Wow. And it was in the basement of a hotel out here. Like, it was, like, near the airport. What? Your parents were, like, embarrassed, like, don't let other parents see us dropping you off at an anime convention. Showed up in disguise.

I was easily, I mean, like, i was easily the youngest person there also that's wild because like nobody nobody cared about this stuff yet so it was a bunch of like dudes in their 20s a few women no cosplayers that i can remember um and i still have my little pin because I was like, oh, man, this pin says anime on it. Yeah. And that by itself was huge. I was like, this word, I've seen it on a piece of material now. Yeah. You're like, this is huge.

Yeah. Anime is so common. And I think a lot of it, honestly, a lot of its penetration in the U.S. is because of Adult Swim. Like, it's just syndicated shows airing there, and that's people being introduced to them that way. But to go to your question, my introduction to anime largely corresponded with getting a DVD player, which was – for the first time, I of had like you were you were mentioning that video stores would have a a an anime section and so like i got introduced it was a thing i was interested in because i was like like hey i like video games i bet i'll like anime um and uh and so i just started renting slash collecting you know anime in the this was this would have been like you know, anime in the, this was, this would have been like, you know, very late nineties, early two thousands. So a lot of my introductions was, was series and films of that era. You know,

your ghost in the shells, uh, paprika metropolis, uh, series, series wise, cowboy bebop, which I know is, is like the, it's like saying you like cowboy bebop in, in, in terms of anime is like saying you like Metallica in terms of metal. It metal it's like yes it's like a baseline that everyone likes but also it's like as played by cliff burton r.i.p um and the and uh but but like there's a reason it's like it's so popular and mainstream is because it's very good and it's very accessible and it's a great entry point. So like, yeah, I continue to adore Cowboy Bebop. And and I'd say like I just sort of I like Miyazaki a lot. Again, same sort of thing, same sort of tier of just like a very the most like, hey, fucking Disney promoted Miyazaki in North America. So, you know, it's that mainstream, that accessible.

But it's good and I enjoy it. So I would say that like, you know, it's a thing that I'll watch anime. I'm certainly not someone who's like constantly consuming series and is very, very like up to speed on absolutely every development but like i like the stuff it looks cool and it's uh hey sometimes it's got some fan service which we'll talk about what in the anime sense the anime kind of fan service yeah yeah yeah no we we understood what you meant. I didn't, but now I do.

I don't mean like Thor's hammer showing up in the Punisher. I mean like... Thor's hammer showing up in the... Yeah. What? The term used to mean something else. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

Cool. How about you, Matt? I took a cheeky little sip there, Nick Weiger. I saw that. I sure did. For me, I guess I've, I mean, I've decidedly seen the least amount of anime between the three of us.

That's, I would say that's for sure. I, because even up until like a few years ago maybe i wouldn't have thought i'd seen any anime i would have said i'd seen zero um but i did watch um i mean obviously i watched pokemon right that was but like that that's gonna be my question for you the two the two animes that i watched had real life things i could do right so like i watched pokemon so i collected the pokemon cards i like got like toys and stuff and like i played the video games of course and then the other one that i watched was yugioh and i watched yugioh i loved yugioh

uh i would like get the cards and then like try to discern the like the rules and like play with my brother's like actual like yugioh card games and stuff i wanted the they had a toy version of like that thing that they put on their like wrist that has the cards on it that's like a it like holds the cards uh and i wanted that so bad but uh i think my mom's sort of like rightly decided that that was just like a bridge too far for me uh because i would probably warn it everywhere like every single day um because i was also like these guys are like the coolest people i've ever seen uh they they look so cool um but i also then have a memory of and maybe we can decide if this is an anime or not but i want i i have a memory of watching uh little nemo adventures in slumberland

that's a japanese animated movie i would say that that's anime right um i watched that yeah i think that was a that was a japanese production yeah i watched that when i was a kid and i just remember being like so like wow he goes places on his bed i would love to do that also uh that seems great uh and i would go see like the i think i saw the first three pokemon movies in the theater like open like opening day i was like so excited to go see those movies um but that's like that's basically where it stops i have no like and it's weird because i i grew up sort of like knowing about it like i knew about dragon ball z uh when i was a kid like friends of mine were like obsessed with dragon ball z but i

just i don't think i had the channel like i didn't have cable when i was a kid so i was like well i'll just never see this um and then i remember like in middle school and high school like naruto became like a big thing um and then also that's when i met what's that i love that naruto yeah maybe maybe maybe we'll watch it but, I've known as I've tried, I've gotten recommendations from our friend Zig and Ify Wadiwe is one of my oldest friends and I can't believe I've never watched anime with him being my friend.

I probably would have watched a different kind because he's my friend. The horny kind is what I'm saying. Some with some fan service. Yeah, okay. Yes, I would watch fan service anime if he would have'll learn pretty pretty quickly apodaca that all anime is pretty horny that's what i get i sort of now looking back on what i know about like banned episodes of pokemon in in in the u.s uh that makes sense to me um but i was like, I loved, I've watched Pokemon recently.

I think maybe even like a year ago, I watched all of, like not a year ago. I'm saying that in pre-pandemic terms. Like a couple of years ago, I watched all of the first series of the Pokemon series and loved it. It had a great time watching it. Yeah, Pokemon's a straight up anime and it's really good. of the Pokemon series and loved it. It had a great time watching it. Yeah. Pokemon's a straight up anime and it's really good. And it's, um,

what do they call those? A power, a level, a power level leveling up anime. There's some term for it that I can't think of. It's like Dragon Ball is that way. Pokemon's that way. You just like progressively, slowly,

Naruto, slowly getting powers and getting powers and getting powers. The last Pokemon anime content that I saw was the big fight where Ash almost won a gym. And it was so well animated. It was so gorgeous. And it was just a TV episode. And people were like, he got so close to winning a gym.

And that show started in the 90s. Yeah. He hasn't won a gym? Won? I would love to watch new ones. I have not seen anything new from that series in so long. Maybe it'd be wild to jump in now. But obviously, I have a soft spot for all things Pokemon in my long. Maybe it'd be wild to jump in now, but obviously I have a

soft spot for all things Pokemon in my heart. I did watch that Star Wars anime on Disney+, actually, now that I'm thinking about it. Visions? Star Wars Visions. Yeah, I thought Star Wars Visions is pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty great. It's pretty great. I mean, what, Nick? I was gonna

talk about Little Nemo real quick because I looked it up. And this was a Japanese production, but there was a lot of Western crew involved. Oh. So, yeah. So, it's actually like it looks like a pretty tortured sort of story in terms of how this thing came to life. But it was produced out of Tokyo with this guy, Yutaka Fujioka. came to life, but it was produced out of Tokyo with this guy, Yutaka Fujioka.

And he got a bunch of involved Gary Kurtz as producer. Ray Bradbury at one point was writing the screenplay. Eventually, Chris Columbus ends up co-writing the screenplay. Wow. The Sherman brothers, the famous Disney composers, did the music for it. It's kind of like a weird like sort of super group collaboration yeah the traveling wheelbarrows of animated films over here yeah and then there was an nes game too

which heather's talked about yeah i i wish i would have known about that i also didn't have uh the nes but i would have like there's something about this movie because it came out like the year before I was born. So it must have been on like Christ, like a home video release of something else. I was like, and here's another movie you can watch something. And me being like, well, I need to watch whatever. I've never seen this. I've seen all these other tapes. Let's let's rent.

Can we rent Little Nemo and watching it that way? I'm realizing going back to your initial question, Heather, that honestly, probably the first anime I saw. Well, the first anime I saw would have been Speed Racer, but not realizing it was anime, you know, watching the English dub of that and being played on American TV. And also like as a kid, just like thinking like that looks weird or that looks different just because it was stylized in a way different than western animation yeah having that response but liking it yeah i i i was not at um exposed to anime on television like there was no point that i i mean unless you count like the opening of ninja turtles or the opening of thundercats, which are both like anime productions, I think. Yeah, no, my first jump in was a full-blown anime parody film, which I didn't know.

I just thought that was what anime was. I was like, this is fucking crazy. Everybody in this school has a robot. What a wild way of telling a story. And instead it was a joke on other anime having these tropes. But yeah. It's like if your first science fiction film was Spaceballs. I mean, yeah, yeah, for sure. I was fortunate enough when Princess Mononoke came out in movie theaters to have been an anime fan long enough to go see it in the theater. And there was a big cardboard cutout of the Roger Ebert article where he expressed that it was like a different kind of storytelling than Western storytelling.

And looking back on that, I'm like, that was just regular hero's journey. But it was the first time I saw anime in a movie theater and it was like, holy shit, this is a change of my life right here. This is incredible. Yeah. Heather, I also saw Princess Mononoke in theaters. I have a Princess Mononoke Japanese poster on my wall, as you can see on my camera. And the it was I am I'm realizing it was the same thing for me. It was like the like a like a celebrity english dub which became the new way to like present these sort of big budget anime it was just like or or theatrical at least that was disney's approach they were like we'll get these we'll get billy crud up uh to be the lead in this you know we'll we'll staff this with a bunch of celebrities so i i

had fondness for the dub until i watched the subtitled version and was like, oh, this is cool. And I guess I'm curious, like, are you an absolutist when it comes to subtitles? Well, I did see Princess Mononoke dubbed because I think that was the only way it was theatrically released. And the first time I saw Kiki's Delivery Service, same thing. I saw the dub with Kirsten Dunst and Phil Hartman. Rest in peace. Yes, RIP. But other than that, from the beginning, was a subtitle person.

Right. Because I was also super into Hong Kong cinema back then in the 90s. And so a lot of those films were not dubbed. They were just subtitled. So I feel like I leaned on that experience a lot when first getting into anime. And I don't know if it's well known that the VHS tapes of subtitled versions of anime

were $10 more expensive than the dubbed versions. So if you wanted to watch Evangelion or Cowboy Bebop or any of those on VHS and you wanted the subtitled version, you had to pay more money, which that's fucked. Yeah. Like, because I know that that money's not going to those actors.

Like there's, I'm with you, Nick. I don't think that the, that extra coin was like, oh, we've got to pay the that the, that extra coin was like, Oh, we've got to pay the Japanese voice actors guild. No.

Um, so, or maybe I'm wrong and people will reach out over Twitter and tell me with swear words, um, which is fine. I don't mind it. Uh,

but yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm a militant subtitle person. And when I watched Star Wars Visions, changed watch this as I use all of my power. Like, like, like it's like not a natural cadence to things. Uh, whereas, you know, in a, in a subtitled version, you'd watch it. It's, it's the right pace.

It makes sense. It's the right pace. It makes sense. Is the, the only, you know, I'm pretty much with you. Like, I like to watch with subtitles. Although I think Miyazaki himself had a quote that was like, he's fine with dubbing because all anime is dubbed. All animation is dubbed. Like, that's just like the nature of it.

That guy is so grim. Oh, he's a fucking psycho. Yeah, that's just like the nature of it. That guy is so grim. Oh, he's a fucking psycho. Yeah, I love it. One of the most negative people on Earth. Yeah. Here's this incredible film about kids discovering a giant panda in the woods

and then let's interview the creator. I think humanity is going to end and I think that this film is about the darkness and the incompatibility between people. Oh, do you think you'll make more? I wish I wouldn't.

The format is a net negative on human being. It's a mistake. Anime is a mistake. It's like if Werner Herzog created Rescue Rangers. It's like a Werner Herzog created rescue Rangers. So you mentioned Neon Genesis Evangelion, which I know is your favorite of all time and which is new to me and new to Matt. And it's what we're starting with. And why is that going to be our entry point for this particular show in your in your opinion well

look uh i think if you want and you know what i'm just there's gonna be so many fucking people who make fun of me for this shit i don't care i don't i'm i'm an adult it shouldn't matter i should be fine i think that there there's tons of anime that is artistic, like that validates the format, not the genre. Anime is not a genre. It's a format that elevate the format to the level of artistic expression, introspection, like art, right? introspection, like art, right? But I think that Eva splits the line between here's a thing that is marketable and recognizable, and it's about big robots and kids. And like, it takes all of these tropes that were present in anime previous to Evangelion and smashes it up against an attempt to elevate the medium and the storytelling in anime.

And it does it so abruptly and it does it so completely that it's 2021. And when Eva came out on Netflix, there were tons and tons of fucking new articles written about it. Like, it is a piece of work that the more you watch it, the more it gives. I watched it with Mary, because also I watch Eva every year once through. And I watched it with Mary, and she was like, oh my God, this is incredible, this is crazy.

And then a year later, I was like, hey, I'm gonna watch Eva again, do you wanna watch it with me? And she was like, sure. And she sat on the couch for the first two episodes and was like, whoa, this is different when you know what it's about. Like it is, it gives so much more when you're familiar with it. Whereas

the first time you watch it, it's off-putting and, and, and, and fast and hard to digest. It's like a punk album, uh, you know, in a world full of rock and roll, you're like, whoa, this is aggressive and it's moving quicker than I expected. And the language is different and the pacing is different. Um. So that's why I would recommend also, cause I just, I can't fucking wait. I mean, like you, you're either, it's either going to end up, you'll either be at the end. You'll be like, well, I'm not your friend anymore. And we're going to stop doing this show. Cause this is, was a horrible experience or we'll have this common touchstone of a thing that

matters so much to me that I still have from the nineties, my end of Evangelion poster up in my office. You might call it a touchstone. I'd call it a baseline. Don't, but don't, don't, don't,

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don't, don't, It's got some fan service. Hey, so since we're coming off of PokéMay, and we're discussing all things Pokémon, we thought this was a natural entry point here for the pod. We're going to talk about the Pokémon anime, specifically Pokémon, the first movie mewtwo strikes back which released

originally in 1998 and what and then really in japan released in north america in 1999 and i'd never seen this movie in its entirety before wow i i saw it in the theater and i i'm assuming apodaca did too. Yeah. I was there. I was there. Uh, I got the cards. I'm pretty sure I, I like,

I know for sure. I saw it once. I can't remember if I saw it more than one time. Cause I remember having multiples of the cards, like getting a bunch, but I also, and I'm like, Oh,

I had brothers. Like, so we all got a card when we went. Um, so, you know, it's possible that I just absorbed, uh, their, like their

part of the collection at some point uh you had cards and you were like brother my brother we yeah that was it was crazy because like when we were in the theater everyone in uh the theater who was a brother linked arms and started singing it along together that That's amazing. Yeah. What a moment. Yeah, it was awesome. Our eyes like rolled back. It was like, yeah, we are all activated by the brother song. And everybody who's not a brother sat there in shame. That would have been me.

And then we booed them for hours afterwards. I saw this movie as a young person, but too old to be there by myself. Right. Right? Does that track? Like, I was, you know, I wasn't like an old woman or anything, but like, I was not, I was the oldest person in my screening, for sure. Who wasn't a parent. Yeah. And like older than, than you are now.

I am older. I am a, was older in 1999 than I am now. Uh, but it also was at a time when, so like you couldn't really, you couldn't really tell people in the nineties I'm in anime, you know,

like it wouldn't have made any fucking sense. So me being like, guys, does anybody want to come see Pokemon? And like my group of, you know, teenage female friends being like, the fuck? No. Fucking stop talking to that.

Like whatever it was that they said. These were your friends. These were your friends. Mean girls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I went by myself, not unlike I did to Sonic the movie, part one, and sat with kids and nothing was more joyful than like the fucking, you know, Pikachu shows up on screen and the whole room cheered like star wars like it was it was it was their star wars or the beatles or the beatles is that george harrison mate that's me george George. Beatles fans talk like the Beatles.

So the yeah, I did not see this in theaters, but this would have been the same year as the Phantom Menace. Speaking of Star Wars. Yeah. That same sort of rapturous reception. But for a different, you know, a different movie at the time, a bigger IP has been surpassed by Pokemon globally. time a bigger ip has been surpassed by pokemon globally i what i will say is i had a memory as i was watching this of around this time i went to because i would have been in college by then that's how fucking old i am uh and i i remember with that that around the same time i went to see spike and mike's sick and twisted festival of Festival of Animation. Either of you remember that? Yes.

It used to be like this traveling show that had a bunch of like cartoon shorts back before the internet. And it would be just like – or before internet video was omnipresent. And so it would be like, oh, wow, you can see a cartoon character take a shit and jack off. Like this is edgy. Yeah, you were the only person in line. I was always there. I hope they show the jack off one. Anyway, so we were watching these these sick and twisted i was at the sick and twisted festival animation and the first thing they show like the cold open of it is a live action

piece that is two dudes in the desert um and there's a bunch of Pokemon, like stuffed Pokemon on a firing range. Oh, no. And these guys just open up with like high-powered assault rifles. They're just shooting. They're just blasting away Pokemon. And the crowd is like, yeah, we love this. Because that era would have been like Pokemon is kiddie shit. Yes.

And we hate that. What we were saying earlier, Heather, of like, yeah, there were maybe anime fans on the fringes. But it was hardly a thing. People were still saying Japanimation. It wasn't like this is as widely known in the zeitgeist as it is these days. And so even thinking of Pokemon as an anime, it wasn't thought that way. It was thought of like this is a kid's cartoon for that stupid kid's trend. And so I wouldn't have seen this movie.

Even as open-minded of an adult as i was towards animation it just like it would not have occurred to me that's something that i was thinking about revisiting it because i hadn't seen it since i was a kid um and uh like just thinking about how anime movies are typically released now like they're not like sort of widely released like uh as far as i know like i know they have them like through like fathom events or something like oh come see this movie this dragon ball z movie and limited engagement uh at this movie theater or something but that is true and false there have been some mine they're never released like marvel movies and i don't mean to be like actually yeah but actually uh like i think that the um most recent my hero academia movies the demon slayer movies like there are yeah sort of like kaisen it felt like yeah a big release

yeah they're not huge but they're not minor releases either there are there is still stuff like bell like that was a theater yeah that was a minor release but uh but the the the sort of like shonen jump style big loud wide popular anime are are getting they're getting some some marketing and they're getting some like they were on billboards here in la i don't know i don't know if they were on billboards elsewhere. Yeah. That must be like me not having ingested much of the genre. So I just like tune it out. Like it's not on my radar at all. I'm like, oh, this is well, I've never even heard of this. It's it's still but it's still marketed as a like it's not like you're seeing, you know, the trailers before a major studio release necessarily. It's like you kind of have to

be in the know of these are coming out. The exception is that the Miyazaki canon does feel like since Spirited Away, those have all gotten pretty decent sized releases. Right up until The Wind Rises when they were like ooh, this one's got like a complicated sort of

relationship with Japan in World War II and the nature of creativity. We maybe pull back on this. Yeah. relationship with Japan in World War II and the nature of creativity, we maybe pull back on this. Yeah. Or maybe let's do what they did with Pokemon, the first movie, and rewrite it extensively for English release. Completely change its message

for an American audience. So I watched this in theaters as a young person and watched it then. And then I watched about in theaters as a young person and watched it then. And then I watched about half of it, or maybe like 45 minutes of it in English. And I was like, fuck, I wonder what it's like to watch this with the original subtitles and the original. And looked up an article on how different it was. And it turns out, and I forwarded you guys this article, it was extensively rewritten.

Yes. And restructured, rescored, new needle drops put in, new jokes. Some of those jokes, courtesy of Team Rocket, are excellent fucking jokes.

And I'll take them any day of the week. But, so I found a torrent of the original version and watched that instead from the beginning. And the main difference is Mewtwo's motivation and also the structure of what he wants to do, as well as what Mew wants to do. And it is, I mean, I can understand why if you were watching this as a Warner Brothers exec in the 90s, you'd be like, this fucking cat person is talking about the nature of existence for like 20 solid minutes at the beginning of this film. And at one point says, I took a screenshot and sent it to you guys.

At one point says to nobody i resent everything that led to my birth and this is like part of the most relatable shit i've ever heard so he was he was turned into more of a like his pathos was like dialed down and his villainy was dialed up and he was turned into just like a guy who wanted to like overthrow the world as opposed to a person, a cat, Pokemon thing, whatever the fuck he is, who was like, hey, so the natural order has been upended with the creation of artificial life. And I think that Pokemon and human beings should be subservient to clones because we are the first intelligently designed anything. And that's sort of like where all of the conflict comes from. In the American release, I think that was reduced to just like Pokemon shouldn't listen to people. Let's all fight. Yes.

Yes. Like, Pokemon shouldn't listen to people. Let's all fight. Yes. Yes. I have this article that you sent, and I can just read a little context. This is basically exactly what you said, but from the source's den of geek. The people at Warner also gave us some hassle over the script.

Masakazu wrote. Masakazu is the, Kubo Masakazu is the Pokemon movies producer. According to them, the Japanese original does not distinguish clearly enough between the good guys and the bad. Such a movie would not be successful in a multi-ethnic country like the United States, they insisted, because the viewers would not know who to identify with and who to cheer on. In other words, heroes and villains needed to be identified clearly. To this end, the Pokemon movie was extensively rewritten to cast Mewtwo as a more generic villain who wants to take over the planet. The original opening, a prologue originally intended to introduce Mewtwo's backstory

in the TV series but added to the Japanese film when the series was put on hiatus, was also dropped from the U.S. theatrical cut, possibly so the story could get to franchise heroes Ash and Pikachu more swiftly, even in the dubbed version, which is what I watched. And hey, I'm a subs over dubbed guy, but this is one where I felt in the dubbed version, which is what I watched. And hey, I'm a subs over dubbed guy, but this is one where I felt like the dubbed version was what everyone remembered from their childhood. So I was okay watching it. But even in that version,

it's still like a good 10 minutes before we get to Ash and Pikachu. We still have a lot of time. So the thought that there was an additional prologue and that people would have been sitting in the theater for like 30 full minutes, like just watching this tortured genetic experiment, like deal with an existential crisis. I hate life and being alive. Yeah.

Me being like eight or nine years old in the theater, like being like, what the fuck is this? Why is this sad? But also there would have been so so many edgy eight or nine year olds who were like i hate that too yeah oh that's what i hate yeah yeah i'm you too me just crying like why is he so sad uh i remember seeing this yet in the theater uh and my mom took us and we were just hyped as shit of course because like it was any anything new pokemon was awesome um and i remember i distinctly remember my mom being like very upset while we were watching the movie and she's only made us ever leave a movie theater once ever uh

and she learned never to do it again because we had like the biggest or i have two brothers i have well i have three brothers, but I had two brothers at that time, and we all lost our minds when we left the movie theater to see Good Burger. She could not sit through Good Burger for another second.

That's so funny that that's the movie. And she was like, we're getting the fuck out of here. She's like, no, I'm done. But it wasn't like a movie with like, oh, this has an adult theme or something. It's just like, I just don't like this. She just could not take it for another second and it wasn't it wasn't in her mind it wasn't worth staying there longer than it was for us to be having like the biggest tantrum

of our lives uh and so i know she wanted to leave during pokemon because the thing that comes on before the movie actually starts is a 20-minute long, basically silent Pikachu adventure where there's no English in it. It's just all Pokemon speech. Pikachu's Vacation. Yeah. Yeah, this is a little short, that screen beforehand. Not in the, if you just rent this from, you know,

I rented this from the iTunes store. Yeah. And it's not included so so i i watched this on vimeo via link you you found matt yeah and yeah pikachu's vacation is i don't know man it's kind of trippy it was kind of intense right it is a little bit really out there it's a little but it does have those little transitions that are kind of like you know it's it's just uh it it it's just a a bunch that are kind of like, you know, it's, it's just, uh, it, it,

it, it's just a, a, a bunch of Pokemon just like, like dancing across the frame with like, kind of like a psychedelic at background, but they're like static though too. So like they're not moving,

but the back, it's almost like you're on a dark ride at Disneyland, but you're watching a video, right? It feels you're watching like a brief screensaver of like, you know, like a bunch of Mankey's just like, you know,

just, just it's still in space while an animated background goes behind them and that's just transitioning between two semi-related vignettes involving pokemon yes friends and i know that that's like friends rather uh my mom uh my mom really wanted to leave like during that i know it because she was like if this is going to be the rest of this i can't take it but then when people started talking she she got on board and the thing is my mom does like some pokemon because they're cute like they're cute there's some easy ones to get uh to get on board with but she was like i i don't know about this guys we got to get out of here but but luckily stuck it out and i got to see this cinematic marvel in the theaters. Can I say, just as a tip of my own hat here,

that I've been doing Ash as muscle memory, I think, since the 90s. And so this was the first time I'd heard his voice again for many, many years. And I was shocked at how good my sound-alike is. It's really, it's, wait a minute. It's spot on. That's you?

Yeah, that's been you? Come on, guys. I never drop kayfabe. I'll never do it. We're still idiots behind the paywall. Yeah. Deal with it. Like I was, while I was watching,

I was just doing the lines back at I was, while I was watching, I was just doing the lines back at the screen because I was like, hey, Pikachu, let's go fight that guy. And I was like, that's pretty, that's pretty much the same sound. It's, yes. It's an iconic voice. Like it's like, it's very, very,

it's like on the level of like, like Bart Simpson sort of, or like any of the Simpsons really, they all have such distinct voices that you're like, oh yeah, this is good. This is like, I don't know, it really sticks out. Brock could be anybody. No disrespect.

Bart Simpson and I are friends. We 69'd. Whoa. Children. We've seen Bart's dick. We have seen Bart's dick. We've seen bart's dick we've seen bart's dick in the simpsons movie was hoping for that with from ash in this movie but didn't deliver no hot but that's just a convention yeah that's just a convention of a big screen adaptation you have to look at

the manga to see ash's hog uh i'm not joking um that sounded like a joke and it's not. But this movie... Okay. Yeah. So again, I watched the Japanese version. So it's a little bit more palatable because the big orchestral score is there. The battle theme is the battle theme from the game, but symphonic.

You know, ba-ba-bum, ba-ba-bum. I was like, yay, okay, great. Movie was not as bad as I was expecting. Interesting. I was like, you know, I'm not like, I won't watch this again again. But it's not terrible. Yeah. And I was entertained from moment to moment moving forward,

mostly because of Team Rocket, which, holy fuck, they are great. And Meowth is great. I think he's called Nyamth, which is the same. Nyamth is like meow. Yeah. It's just nyamth which is the same yeah it's like meow yeah nyamth uh also shocked at how close the ash voice in japanese is to the ash voice in english like wow they both have that that that sort of sound yeah um and the other thing oh ash is named satoshi which i knew a long time ago and didn't really like it never really occurred to me again. And the creator of Bitcoin is Satoshi.

And I was like, is that a fucking Pokemon reference? Like, did some nerd make Bitcoin and name it and name himself his pseudonym after Pokemon? I mean, I don't know. I don't know how common of a name Satoshi is. I also, Satoshi is a first name, not a surname. Satoshi Nakamoto, I always heard his, Nakamoto was the surname, I assume. Oh.

Yeah, I always assumed it too. Satoshi is the first name. That's what I thought too, yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't call anybody who invented Bitcoin a nerd. They're obviously a giga Chad. I mean, that's fascinating.

That's yeah, that is really interesting. So rewatching the English one, I had, you know, I had seen the, they did like a, a CG remake of it.

And they don't touch on all the points. Some of the stuff is left off in the remake. But I remember watching that and being like, this is art, you know, this is all right. It was kind of fun to see again. But seeing this version again, I was like, oh, like, and then, you know, obviously ours has been, I guess, changed so the dumb American audience

could ingest it. Sure. Multi-ethnic. Multi- a very ethnic multi-ethnic thank you uh multi-ethnic um audience in america can enjoy it um and i was saying to nick before we started recording there was like i don't know exactly when it happened in the in the movie but there was like a definite point where i was enjoying myself and then suddenly i was like wait a minute this is the most insane movie i've ever seen like it is definitely somewhere towards the end because like i mean the basic plot is not different enough from like a regular episode of the show it's a little more there's more stakes

i guess right because mewtwo is set on world domination he's teamed up with giovanni who you don't really see again afterward um like giovanni the uh leader of team rocket and um uh the viridian city gym leader uh in in the in the game um and he sort of like helps mewtwo uh like control and learn his powers with like a mecha suit, basically. And then after that is just gone. Like is just like, hey, let me just help you out with this real quick. So then you sort of understand that then like the rest of the movie is Giovanni's fault. Because I don't think he appears again, right?

He's not in the end being like, no. Well, I think Mewtwo overpowers him. Yes. Oh, that, right? He's not in the end being like, no. Well, I think U2 overpowers him, yes? Yeah. Oh, that is right. He makes this escape. In the Japanese version, he's like, Giovanni puts him in the armor, and he learns his powers, and he's like, so what am I supposed to use them for?

And he's like, well, you're a Pokemon. You're supposed to do what we tell you. you're subservient to me yeah and he's like no i i'm trying to figure out why i exist i don't have time for this yeah mary shelley's pokemon uh but then like i mean because then it's always it's just in the middle of ash's quest he gets this invitation oh let me just circle back once i'm just real excited to talk about this point there was a point in the movie i remember seeing the movie in the theater they show new pokemon in this thing that haven't been in the games it hadn't been in the cartoon yet i remember being a kid being like who the fuck is this this? This is awesome. A new Pokemon? Like, I'd never seen that before.

And so, like, the idea that the world of Pokemon was expanding beyond what I had already known of the 151 was very, very exciting. Do you remember any specifically which Pokemon? I remember, like, what's the, I think his name is Don, Donphan, that, like, rolling Pokemon in the beginning. Okay. He has, like like the tusks. I remember never seeing him before and being like, who is this? And then obviously there was a couple in the short too, like Meryl.

I don't think I had seen yet, hadn't made its anime debut yet. Is Growlithe, is he in a 151? He's in the original group, yeah, yeah. And he's a real good boy. He's really good. He's a good boy. Yeah, he's really good.

But I remember those two specifically being like, wow, how interesting, a new one. Because I remember when they introduced Togepi in the anime, he's not in the game. So I was like, did they just make this guy for the show? Obviously, he's in the plans for gold and silver and stuff. But it was just interesting how we were getting a taste of new guys. Before we move past that first scene,

one of the best changes from between the Japanese release and the American release is they replaced Squirtle's attack. He blows a bunch of bubbles at the other Pokemon and they made them fancy CG bubbles in the American release. But they're hand-drawn in the original. I was like, why would you budget that? Like, what difference does that make?

Come on. I bet you it was cooler in the Japanese one, too. No, it was effectively identical. This was, I mean, like era-wise, though. This is like in the waning days of 2D cell animation getting big theatrical releases, right? And this was before American studios. This was the age of shrek and the

age of of toy story one and two and this is you know i i think monsters inc was a year away this is when like cg was starting to dominate the uh the the the animated side the the family side of cinema and so yeah there was probably some push internally uh from the studio to be like we got to get some cg in there that's what's that's what's selling tickets i don't know we got to see this creaky door in cg it does feel a little incongruous it doesn't like sit in well and that's just with a with the you know with the the the hand-drawn stuff yeah but um it's it's uh boy what i i my assessment was and and I told the two of you that I watched this on the train. I was going up to the Central Coast for a wedding here in California, and I was on the train.

I thought for sure you were saying, I was going up to each person on the train, holding up my laptop and saying, what do you think of this? Look what I'm watching. Look what I'm watching. It's for a podcast. I'm Nick. Are we friends now? I can't find my wife. So I watched this on the train

and on an iPad and I honestly think that it was like the perfect level of entertainment for that scenario. Like it's like this is, it's not great cinema

no but i i found it like just like just charming enough and uh just enough pokemon fan service and just the thinnest of plots that i was not enough fan service no not enough fan service uh but but it was just it was just fine to like i was like this this is fun. This is a fun children's movie, and I get why people like this when it came out. The thing that, yeah. Wait, before. Go for it. I told you guys this, but I want to tell the audience this, that the needle drop in the first battle is, you know, the main series theme song, I want to be the very best, et cetera, et cetera, that's been playing in front of our podcast for the last month.

Yeah. The Japanese is a totally different needle drop. I don't know if it is the intro to their show. I haven't ever watched the original Japanese Pokemon, but the lyrics, the lyrics in the, in the Japanese version, it's like, I'm going to find, I'm going to catch every Pokemon there is. Every Pokemon everywhere. Fire, wind, thunder, air. I'll even check under girls' skirts. There might be Pokemon there. Ooh, a wild Wygr appear. Okay. In the one that we watched, the in the u.s version um uh in the western version there

the the theme song kicks in but it's like barely different than the it would have been so much better to me to have just like the one from the tv show in it because like it's not different enough it would be exciting to see that in a movie theater like wow i'm watching this in a movie theater um it's more cover version than remix and it made me think there was some sort of rights issue where they were just like well we have we have to pay this guy again if we use his version so let's just record a new one with that different i mean who fucking knows i'm sure everyone we didn't contract it for a movie um but the but yeah after that it's like yeah ash gets uh a letter from a dragonite which was very very fun uh and uh with his little his little messenger bag so cute um and he's being summoned to a mysterious island and uh there's like no way to get there uh the uh

it's like raining and the water is going crazy. And all these Pokemon trainers are like, fuck you to the police officer, Officer Jenny telling them like, you can't go, it's too dangerous. And they're all like, fuck that noise. I'm getting out there. And everybody just goes.

And then Team Rocket shows up and they're dressed as Vikings to try to lure Ash and the gang onto their boat and that sequence is really funny to me her her voice what what are their two names jesse and james jesse is yeah james is the boy jesse's voice is like perhaps you would like to get on boat little boy it's really really funny and then uh meowth is um like the the front of the boat like the mermaid that would be your head yeah the figurehead of the boat it's it's a that sequence because yeah yes they're the the island is there's there's a massive storm that's being caused by mewtwo

and uh we learn is being caused by mewtwo yeah and the other trainers are like fuck this i'm gonna i'll get on my water pokemon or i'll get on my you know flying flying type pokemon and i'll just get to the island myself uh and uh you know brock misty and ash don't have a way to to to get there or they're gonna try to maybe maybe commandeer squirtle uh but then yes the team rocket shows up as vikings meowth strapped to the front of the viking boat as the figurehead. And the three heroes just like are just like, sure, let's get on board. And it's a moment in the movie where everyone involved in this interaction is out of their mind. You thought this ruse would work where, OK, we're going to hey, we're going to be we'll pretend to be Vikings who can ably, in contemporary times, we're going to pretend to be Vikings who can ably pilot a vessel to a Viking boat to an island across a storm.

We have a Pokemon, so we're not going to dress him up as a Viking. We'll make him be the figurehead of the boat. And then it works. Then, like, three idiots are like, yeah, I'm on. Yeah, sure. I'll do this. Wow, the Vikings are back. Let's get in their boat. Yeah, it's like it doesn't have enough logic to even be like a sketch.

Like a complete nonsense. It's great, though. It's really, really funny. It's so funny. It just doesn't make sense. But I love it't make sense but but i love it i love it and then there's a joke in here though that just like it blowed it blew my mind watching it this time because ash goes uh like because i guess ash and or misty and brock sort of unpack the logic a little bit they're like i didn't know vikings were still around and then ash goes i think they all

live in minnesota like a reference to the football team and i was like so wait a minute the continental united states of america exists within the world of the kento region right and the nfl yeah and the nfl yes yeah sure and i was like great so they wouldn't even so pokemon are real that's not the name of the team. Like it wouldn't be like the Minnesota champs or something. Right. No, Vikings, still Vikings.

We still honor our, uh, our heritage. Um, but that they, they, you know, obviously it doesn't go great.

They all figure out that it's team rocket on the boat and then they like crash. And then it's a whole thing. And then they, then they get to the Island. There's so many times in the movie where Ash runs into team rocket and is like i don't i don't have time for you guys right now get away running gag yeah i'm glad you're here but we can't deal with this because there are they are you guys looking around this This shit's crazy, right?

There's also, breaking down the movie this way makes me realize that there's only like three moments in this film. Yes. There's not a lot in it. There's like, hey, you've been summoned

to an island. We gotta get to the island. And then we're on the island and Mewtwo's going to kill everybody. And that's the whole thing. Like there's no like B, there's nothing else. No,

it's really just three set pieces and that's it. And the, and, and you they're on that island for a long time. Yeah. Like the final, like 50 minutes of the film, basically.

It doesn't escalate from the island. It's not like, Oh, we battled here and Mewtwo's like, be gone. I'm going to the regular place and I'm going to destroy the city. Nothing else happens. They just go to the island and they face it there and that's it. Yeah. The world learns nothing of this event. It is, you know, the runtime is 70 minutes minutes like it's not very long there's not a

whole lot to it um that's why they had to add a 20 minute long short of uh pokemon noises but like yeah they get there and they're like hey this place is kind of weird right what's going on and me too's like sup uh and then like tells them that they're all fucked um and then they at some point they learn that uh he's cloning pokemon like he's cloning pokemon yeah yeah nurse joy is there nurse joy has been missing nurse joy has been brainwashed by mewtwo and mewtwo is like controlling her as as uh as a humanoid voice and also yeah there's the whole thing was like everyone has been invited to battle the the best pokemon trainer the world's best pokemon trainer who ends up being mewtwo and then there's an element of a pokemon can't be a pokemon trainer like they're like some of the human

trainers like mad about that yes but yes guys the clones exist mewtwo is cloning all the all the pokemon and it and like evolving them, right? Not evolving their next evolution, but improving them. They're better versions. Yeah, genetically modifying them. Genetically modified, yeah. Clones are stronger than regular Pokemon. What am I?

I hate being alive. I regret thought itself but then there's like like they're figuring out like uh like team rocket is he's in the lab somewhere and is like what are all these things in test tubes go and then something pulls on me out um like fur and then it instantly clones Meowth. There's like nothing happens and then there's a new Meowth basically. And

none of the people are happy about any of this. They're like, okay, we'll try to fight you. Ash takes a swing at Mewtwo at one point. Tries to punch Mewtwo himself because he doesn't want Pokemon to fight against this thing. And it's the most worthless thing

anyone has ever done. It is psychotic that he tried to punch Mewtwo. He saw everything that's happening up until that point. He's like, you know what? I'm going to fucking punch this thing. And Mewtwo's like, If you won't listen to Pokemon,

maybe listen to these two fists. If you won't listen to Pokemon, maybe listen to these two fists. We don't get in trouble for using clips from the movie in the podcast. It's I mean, like the whole the whole sequence with all the Pokemon being cloned, like, you know, like because the other trainers are there. They have their own their own Pokemon. And those are all, you know, being, you know, like like a wiggly tough is a blast toys you know a bunch of them are being are having a twin version of themselves it feels like pikachu is the one who is going to escape this fate but then he also gets cloned yeah and he's really scared we gotta go back we to go back real quick. Great joke present in both the English and Japanese versions is when Meowth gets grabbed to be cloned, the data comes up on a screen and it's all staticky.

And Team Rocket goes, who's that Pokemon? That's right. Yeah. It's Meowth. Yes. Also present. From the interstitial from the cartoon. Also present in the in the japanese version

um if that happened now i would love to see that clip with like the audio from like avengers endgame but yeah pikachu pikachu looks like he's to get away from this cloning mechanism and has the most desperate fight. Mewtwo takes all of these wicked Pokeballs. Yes. And he's capturing Pokemon so he can clone them. staircase trying to get away and Pikachu, uh, electric thundershocking each of these balls increasingly exhausted and desperately.

So it's the first, there's like three moments in this film where you're like, ah, fuck, I really feel something here. And for me, Pikachu running upstairs, terrified going, Pikachu!

Over and over again. And Ash desperately screaming, please don't hurt him! I'm like, oh my god! Oh no, no! Is there something really sad about seeing Pikachu's face anything but determined? Yeah. sad about seeing pikachu's face anything but determined yeah it's horrifying because at the end of the day he's just a little baby yeah like that's the thing i was noticing too about like i mean this sort of was like a thing on the show they i guess they never really comment on this but like ash doesn't really evolve his pokemon Like all of his Pokemon are basically starter level, except a select few like Charizard.

But like, I don't know what he thought he was going to try to do with a freaking squirtle and Bulbasaur at this tournament. You got to level up, buddy. You got to grind. What are you doing? Yeah.

There's evolved versions of the Pokemon that he has. Yeah. Like what, like that other trainers have, like another trainer just has a Venusaur, you know? So it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's it's it's it's interesting that he likes to to keep things in their original iteration. uh one of the things that happens is that you know there's the all these clones go for a big showdown at at at at mewtwo's behest we didn't mention also mew shows up at a certain point

yeah it's kind of just been kind of in the background just kind of making some mischief it's like when uh it's like in uh spider-man no way home uh when andrew garfield shows up they're like oh yeah yeah you're just sort of seeing you're sort of seeing you like like like as a presence. And then eventually we know that Mew is going to be involved in this somehow in a more concrete way. But but so so another moment that kind of makes you feel things is there's this big battle and they're all fighting each other. things is there's this big battle and they're all fighting each other and ash it's stepping ahead a little bit here but ash uh gets petrified he gets turned to stone yes that's right wait that comes that comes after you feel something when pikachu is slapping pikachu oh yeah yeah oh yeah that's also yeah it's like it's like a there's the moments. It's like a hardcore wrestling match. Pikachu desperately running up the stairs,

screaming Pikachu. Two. Pikachu fighting his clone, but he won't raise his hands. He won't do it. And the other Pikachu starts crying. And he's like, keeps slapping him in the face.

And they're just going, Pika. Pika. Yes. It's awful. And they realize they don't want to fight they don't want to fight they're all fighting and then he gets petrified and then he gets petrified and everyone's uh everyone's upset here's the thing is the is because we ultimately end up at a point where mewtwo realizes and i'm not sure how much of this is in the Japanese version. But in the American version, it's very much like, hey, this is wrong.

They shouldn't be fighting each other. There's a big song, the Brother, My Brother song, which we'll maybe play a little bit of, that plays while this moment is being had where they're just all realizing that what are we fighting for basically. But isn't that like kind of a refutation of the premise of all things pokemon if we're just saying like pokemon should not fight like isn't that just like well yeah like that's we're saying we're just saying this whole thing is depraved yeah that we're making pokemon fight at the behest of a Pokemaster and a Pokemon trainer who's aspiring to be a Pokemon master? It's like, if it's wrong for you two to do, why is it not wrong for any trainer to do? It is sort of like, okay, well then what are we doing here?

Like, you make this big point, yeah, and then it's bad? There's a difference. So I don't know if this is in, in the Jap, because this was beyond where I watched in the English version. So in the Japanese version, Mewtwo is like, they're like reg, like natural born Pokemon are better than clones. And Mewtwo's like, clones will always be more powerful. And it's like, well then let's have them fight. And one of the trainers is, maybe it's Ash, is like,

if they fight using their moves, then clones will always be more powerful. So they need to fight hand to hand, no moves. Yes. And Mewtwo's like, you're on. And so this realization isn't, it's more like Pokemon should use moves. Like when you watch them just be violent with each other

and like put hands on each other. Yeah. It's horrible. When they're using their moves it's okay yeah i like to see the bubbles i like to see the vibe don't want to see pikachu make a curled fist yeah fill up a sock with some fucking batteries there's also a part where meowth is talking to meowth and i don't know if this is in the original where he's like showing him his claws and he's like these look like they hurt and the other Meowth by the way Meowth the first Pokemon

not to throw fists like yeah the villain the villain's like what are we whoa whoa whoa what are we doing what are we doing he has a quote here let me see if I can find exactly what he says and then the other Meowth in the Japanese version looks up at the sky and it's like boy it looks like a beautiful moon tonight and meowth goes huh you're like a little philosopher aren't you and i'm like did any of this make it to the that is not in our version at all that the meowth does have the realization that he they shouldn't be. And then the clone Meowth is a regular Meowth and does not speak. Oh, it doesn't speak, but it does. It's like, it does its Meowth sound.

Like, meow, meow, meow. Maybe he does say something. I don't remember what he says. And then he's like, the moon, huh? And he looks up and he's like, you're right. It is going to be beautiful tonight. You're like a little philosopher. I like that he's from New York City.

Yeah, I love that. Here's some of the quotes for the Meowth quotes in this sequence from the dub. Meowth, maybe if we started looking at what's the same instead of looking at what's different. Well, who knows? And then he's got this more poetic version. We do have a lot in common. The same earth, the same air, the same sky. Maybe if we started looking at what's the same

instead of what's different. Well done, Meowth. And then that's sort of around the time when this little ditty kicks in. Yeah. This is, this sequence is just mournful orchestral score in the japanese version this song definitely rocks it's really good i definitely lost listen to it a couple times after watching the movie wow it's just so crazy in a movie for children. Yes.

This is like a four minute song plays in its entirety. While you're seeing like a Charizard, like strangle another Charizard. In the original, it's so much more grim because it's the same action, but it's just orchestral, like Hans Zimmer style, like mournful strings. Man. While the Pokemon attack each other. This is also the same, in the same like breath.

The original Mewtwo fight on the island is all church organs in the opening. That sounds so fucking awesome. It's fucking awesome. Man, I don't think our version's bad, but the ending, I wonder how the endings differ because basically Mew and Mewtwo come to an understanding.

Mewtwo is like, oh, what I'm doing is bad and I don't like what I've done now. This Mewtwo, full of regrets. And then basically stops everything. Also, all the Pokemon start to cry because Ash is frozen solid. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's petrified.

Pikachu's desperately trying to shock him back to life. Yes. Third feel moment of the movie. Pikachu! He's trying to revive him back to life. Yes. Yes. Third feel moment of the movie. Pikachu! He's trying to revive him. Yeah. Over and over again. He's petrified.

Can't bring him back. All the Pokemon start sobbing. Yes. Literally petrified, meaning turned to stone. Yes. Medusa style. Medusa style.

And yeah, the tears of the Pokemon return him to human form. And yeah, the tears of the Pokemon return him to human form. And so the whole sequence so moves Mewtwo, rather. Yeah. He's just like, ah, fuck. It's very funny to have an ending where the villain's just like, I made a mistake. I made a mistake.

Well, it's even funnier than that because it's not only that, it's then none of you will ever remember this and then basically resets time and puts them back at the dock for the tournament and nobody knows why they're there or how they got there or what's going on. Truly like a worthless... Basically, the movie is communicating to you,

you just wasted 90 minutes of your life because this didn't happen. Yeah. The, yeah, then, you know, and that's basically, like, that's it, right? Yeah. That's basically where we get out of it.

In the Japanese version, it's more like life is life and all forms of life are worth living is like the realization that happens. Like, because the conflict is whether clones or regular Pokemon should exist. And so like the idea that arrives from you two is, oh, life is life.

And go be free and fly away, clones. And they fly away. But that's it. There's no nothing. Who knows what they get up to. Yeah, who knows. But yeah, I just remember, I feel like at that point in the movie,

that probably set my mom over the edge for sure. So this didn't happen? I don't know. Heather, you talked about it on our text thread that the quality of animation for like, hey, here's a big budget or could be a big budget. Like this is a hit, you know, a hit anime and we're doing a theatrical release. Sometimes they really up the budget of these kinds of things. It doesn't really it still kind of looks like TV animation. Yeah, it's it's slightly better

yeah you know but yeah and if you watch the more recent because i've seen clips on youtube or like on twitter of like people being like holy shit ash got a gym badge finally you know it was going around a while ago and the animation in that clip which which is on television, 10 times better than the animation in this movie because just production value has increased across the board. Yes. So this looks worse than modern television Pokemon anime. Man. I just remember being a kid and being like, I can't believe I'm going to go see this thing that I see every Saturday morning in a movie theater.

That was an exciting prospect to me. I was like, I didn't know you could do that. I didn't know that was allowed. And seeing it now, seeing it, God, 20-something years later. 23 years later. 23 years later 23 years later jesus uh it is i had a lot of years since pokemon was has was released then you were old at the time of its release than any of us were right whoa yeah right i'm gonna freaking throw up you weren't nick you weren't 23 were you no no i wasn't no i would have been 19 when they just turned 19 with this game yeah yeah yeah man

we well it was a time it's really something it comes for us all and i i i enjoyed myself i i had a nice time watching it uh it did make me like a little nostalgia because like occasionally i'll throw on the um the pokemon anime like the original run of episodes that i remember watching as a kid just like as like a wind down thing because i i don't know if i like still enjoy them but it's just like nostalgic i'm like oh like this is so fun so cool to see this animation something that i used to really think about when I was a kid was like I wish they moved like this in the games like because like they do they do like moves and stuff I'm like Squirtle like jumps around up like in his battle like he's like doing flips and stuff and I'm like man I wish they did they sort of had a way to show that in uh the games and they still really don't

they kind of stand there and uh just kind of do an attack but like everybody every uh every pokemon even across types can have like similar looking attacks too uh whereas like in the anime they're like we'll just draw this looking him doing something and like he'll just do that and like that's an attack like you don't really know what you know the move is called or whatever like bubble beam or something uh but like in the it only has this like you see them i guess my point being they you see them do different stuff all the time in the anime and i always thought that was exciting yeah i mean i'll say watching this is not someone with with it with a lot of nostalgia for the pokemon you know the in its original run the pokemon anime slash you know the cartoon that was on and kids tv being a little too old for that i i did like

think this movie was was perfectly fine and i like, this completely accomplishes what you were saying, Matt, like, you know, thinking, thinking of, of, uh,

for me, I think of like the care bearer movie or a masters of the universe, which was a live action movie, but it was like, Oh, that's he man on the big screen. That was the sort of feeling I had in like the, the,

you know, the, the late eighties, early nineties. And so, yeah, 100% just in the, in that same sort of ballpark of like, this is, hey, this is just fine.

If you have nostalgia for this thing or some familiarity with this property, I think you'll have a good time watching Pokemon, the first movie. It has 16% on the tomato meter on Rotten Tomatoes. Well, that's also because I think if you were just like a film critic watching this in 1999, this is just completely inscrutable. Yeah, you could. Like, what the fuck is going on here? I have no idea.

They're giving you minimal context. It's not like sometimes it's like, oh, the X-Files movie, if anything, you know, the first one kind of explained things a little too much for people who weren't familiar with a TV show. You know, sometimes they'll do that. Not the case with this. They're just sort of like jump in here you go you're you're not getting any you're these these pokemon all just say their name except for meowth who speaks in full sentences with a with a a an accent for some reason yeah and you're not getting any any context for why any of this is happening and also also, who are these children in the field and what are they doing here?

What are their jobs? Alone? No adults? No school? They just hang out? And they'll just go across an ocean? Yeah. What a wild, wild movie. What a great time. Before we move on, I want to see if Roger Ebert reviewed this.

I'm going to guess this was a one-star Ebert if he reviewed it. Feels like a one-star. I used to love watching Ebert and Roper. Two stars. Wow, not bad. Here, should I read some? Here we go. There are times here on the movie beat

when I feel like I'm playing in over my head. This is one of those times. My assignment is to review Pokemon the first movie. I've done research. I have even played a Pokemon card game with a six-year-old Pokemon trainer named Emil. The rules of the game seem to bear a suspicious resemblance to war.

At the end of the game, Emil had all 52 cards. I do not know if this is because of his mastery as a trainer or because he stacked the deck. I do know we were not playing a real Pokemon game. Emil was pulling a fast one. Right, because that's not how you play Pokemon at all. No, no, no, no, no. Let's see. Here's the movie.

The plot. A scientist has found a way to genetically clone one of the Pokemons, parentheses, Pokemen, named Mew. His invention is named Mewtwo. Mewtwo then clones other Pokemons on his own.

Sort of a revolt of the Pokey. Each Pokemon has a different kind of power the hero ash catch him so-called because he wants to catch them all and have a complete set of pokemons ventures with his friends to the villain's island where he battle where battles take place between lots of different kinds of pokemons parentheses-me and their clones. This is such a funny relic of the past because, I mean, I guess there's just more information about what Pokemon is now, right? But this was still so new

that he was like, I don't know what the fuck this is. Right. The final paragraph. I can't recommend the film or work up much enthusiasm for it because there's no level at which it enriches a young viewer by encouraging thinking or observation. It's just a sound and light show linked to the marketing push for Pokemon in general. But I may have completely bypassed the point misinterpreted crucial Pokemon lore. This may disqualify me from ever being a Pokemon trainer. I guess I can live with that.

That's a fun. Yeah, he's I mean, hey, I was an Ebert fan. I know he was often critical of video games, but inarguably a champion of anime. Yeah. And part of what introduced me to to anime, you know, back when it was more of a of a niche thing here. In fact, I just searched real quick, and here's an essay written for that same year, October 7th, 1999, Japanese Animation Unleashes the Mind by Roger Ebert. you've come upon shelves of animated films from Japan. Anime is the Japanese word. Who rents these films? Someone must, Heather Ann Campbell, because even the smallest stores have a big selection.

But anime rarely surfaces on the big screen in the United States, and only a few titles like Akira and Ghost in the Shell have found bookings in Chicago. When US moviegoers think of animation, they have tunnel vision. They want a Disney movie or something that looks like Disney. And then he just goes on to talk about, you know,

films like Princess Mononoke, which was about to open at the time, about to get a theatrical release. Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service touches on a bunch of these movies only yesterday. So, yeah, I mean, hey, man, he definitely was a guy who helped popularize this genre that we're discussing in this version of the podcast in the States. Roger Ebert was a weeb. He was a weeb. He was a weeb. He was. I was fun.

I like talking about this movie with the two of you. Yeah. That was fun. I hope people like listening to it. What a hoot. So, hey, that was our episode zero, if you will, of Get Animated. This episode dropped on a Monday, the same day as Get Played. But moving forward, new episodes will release

every Wednesday, starting this Wednesday, as we start to talk about a series near and dear to your heart, Heather. I mean, it is where my heart was. We're going to be talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion as our first Get Animated

We Watch You Watch. There we go. Yeah, we're going to be talking through the whole series and we're going to be doing it two episodes of the anime per episode of the podcast. So we're going to go through it two episodes, two episodes of the anime per episode of the podcast. So we're going to go through it and then we'll eventually get to the movies.

So that'll be for the, the, the first few episodes of content of first good, good chunk of content, first few months of content. And then for anyone, Hey, maybe you're,

I don't know honestly how you would hear this without subscribing to the Patreon. Yes. But if for whatever reason you are hearing this and not on the Patreon, but you are on Stitcher Premium, these episodes will be on Stitcher Premium one month after they release on the Patreon. So that's another way you can get this.

However you want to listen, we don't really care, but you can subscribe on the Patreon or 30 days later on Stitcher Premium, you can listen to these Get Animated episodes there. So there you go. Every Wednesday, Neon Genesis, Evangelion, up first. You can listen to these Get Animated episodes there. So there you go. Every Wednesday, Neon Genesis, Evangelion, up first.

You guys got animated. Oh, nice, nice. Hell yeah, dude. I don't know.