Pokemon Movie 01: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu (Pokémon: The First Movie)

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Gekijouban Pocket Monsters: Mewtwo Strikes Back, Pokémon Movie 1, Pokémon: The Origin of Mewtwo, Pokémon: The First Movie Kanzenban, Pokémon: The First Movie Complete Version

Japanese: ポケットモンスターミュウツーの逆襲

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 18, 1998

Producers: TV Tokyo, Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Imagica, Studio Jack

Licensors: 4Kids Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures

Studios: OLM

Source: Game

Genres: Action, Adventure, Award Winning, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

Demographic: Kids

Duration: 1 hr. 25 min.

Rating: PG - Children

Statistics

Score: 7.64¹ (scored by 172,718 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1264²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #876

Members: 254,754

Favorites: 394

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Synopsis

Using the fossil of the Legendary Pokémon Mew, Team Rocket has created the first successful Pokémon clone. Named Mewtwo, the man-made Pokémon quickly becomes upset with the circumstances of its creation and goes on a rampage. It is soon approached by Sakaki, the leader of Team Rocket, and is manipulated into committing evil acts.

Repulsed by the tricks of mankind and the cruelties it has suffered, Mewtwo isolates itself from everyone and plots against humans whilst trying to discover its true purpose in life. Disguising as the world's strongest Pokémon trainer, Mewtwo draws in the region's most powerful trainers who want to fight the new, mysterious opponent. With the fate of the world at stake, renowned trainers Satoshi, Takeshi, and Kasumi must battle against Mewtwo and defeat it before it brings about the downfall of humanity.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The Origin of Mewtwo was originally not included with the theater release but every subsequent release has included it, so this entry includes it as well in its runtime.

Pokemon Movie 01: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu won the Feature Film Award in the 3rd Animation Kobe Awards in 1998.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Pokémon: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu
Parent story:	Pokemon
Sequel:	Pokemon: Mewtwo! Ware wa Koko ni Ari
Other:	Pokemon: Pikachu no Natsuyasumi
Alternative version:	Pokemon Movie 22: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu Evolution

More staff

Staff

Yoshikawa, Chouji

Producer

Yuyama, Kunihiko

Director, Storyboard

Mima, Masafumi

Sound Director

Haigney, Michael

Script, ADR Director

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Opening Theme

"Mezase Pokemon Master '98" by Rica Matsumoto

Edit

Ending Theme

''Kaze to Issho ni'' by Sachiko Kobayashi

More reviews

Reviews

Sep 20, 2010

ryuutora

Recommended

This was my favorite movie as a child, and it always made me sad to watch it every time, so watching it again having gone through the self-discovery of adolescence made me realize why it was so impacting.

The reason why Ash is always able to win is because he's friends with his Pokémon. The whole series is an allegory on how you're supposed to treat your fellow man, using the relationship between Pokémon and their trainers as a parallel for the relationship between human beings.

Mewtwo's hatred for mankind stems from their lack of compassion - he was basically used. He was given life, and then ... treated as less-than-life - a tool to be used for human purposes, rather than a living being with a living will and a purpose. He has no purpose of his own, he didn't know he was, so he lashed out against all of humanity, and against the Pokémon he felt were being used by their masters.

Mew is his foil, as Mew is everything that Mewtwo is, minus the hatred. Mew loves mankind because he knows that they're just another form of life on the planet. He eliminates the antipathy between humans and Pokémon by realizing that they're all the same. Pokémon and their trainers can be friends, but can also walk their own paths, just like all humans in real life.

Mewtwo makes his own purpose in life the destruction of life itself, but realizes that isn't the way things are supposed to be. The reality of friendship "slaps him in the face" as he sees all the Pokémon weeping over the petrification of a human being who only wanted to protect his friends.

Pikachu is the Pokémon embodiment of friendship. The relationship between Ash and Pikachu is the entire central theme of Pokémon: friendship prevails over selfishness. Pikachu's will is so similar to that of Ash's that he refuses to fight the other Pikachu (essentially, refuses to fight another living being to prove to the other Pikachu that the fighting is pointless - even Meowth, who's supposed to be one of the "bad guys" knows better than to fight like that), even as it continues to slap him over and over again.

The most saddening part of the movie as a child was when Pikachu just kept taking the hits without retaliating. As an adult, I understand why that was so heartbreaking: Because that's the way many people in the world are, just fighting each other to prove that their purpose means anything, instead of just banding together in friendship.

We've been so deadened as a society that we think that that is "cheesy," and "children's material." No. Fuck that - I've been through the ringer in life, and I can still come back around and see the value in a story like this. It's a parallel to life, and I believe the creators would be very sad to know that audiences are taking it with a grain of salt instead of realizing the true message behind their work (instead of just writing it off as "kiddie stuff").

I know that many adults don't want to hear it, but "kiddie stuff" is codeword for "things that are important in life, but I don't want to think about them anymore." You have to think about them. "This is life," as Nurse Joy herself puts it.

Also, the dub did dumb down some of the deeper parts of the message for American consumption, but that's America's own damned fault for thinking that our children can't handle being exposed to a little bit of truth for an hour and 15 minutes of their lives.
If you're an adult, and you find yourself calling this movie "stupid," you should try looking beyond the medium and look to the message. You could find that you're a bitter Mewtwo, and two stubborn and hurt to see it. The human condition.

Don't be a Mewtwo. Mew :3

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Apr 5, 2012

Chaotic_beauty

Recommended

I've watched the Japanese version of the movie and that's my main impetus for this review. Most of us watched either the 4kids version as kids or a localization based on the English version. I have a bone to pick with that. I don't want to make this into a 4kids hate article, but they fucked up.

4kids have cut out 15 minutes of the movie, removed part of Mewtwo's monologue simply because he mentioned 'God' and distorted the message movie was trying to give. Mewtwo also wasn't portrayed as the spawn of Satan in the original version, but a misguided villain. He was given motives ...

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Jun 11, 2008

kiriska

Recommended

This was a movie that broke the box office records for an animated feature at the time. Of course, records have come a long way since then, but this was still a fun movie.

STORY - As a kids' movie for a kids' show, the themes in Mewtwo Strikes Back are actually quite impressive. The morality of cloning and genetic modification/enhancement is a very real debate that ripples through the scientific community now and again, and it's interesting to see that idea translated into a Pokemon movie. Thus, as far as its target audience goes, the core plot of this First Movie is definitely doing something ... uncommon. The arrangement of the story around this central theme is a little more normal as it retains many typical elements from the anime series.

CHARACTERS - Let's skip over the normal cast of the series because I'm going to assume you already know there isn't a lot going on there. Now, Mewtwo is a fun character -- his monologue presented at the beginning of the movie and the constant destruction he finds himself in is a great way to start the foundations of his character. His feelings are very logical and easy to understand while offering possibilities beyond what's obvious. His repeated question of "What is my purpose?" highlights the deepest theme of the movie well, and I find it very exciting that the rest of the movie is based around the fact that he creates a purpose for himself, since no one else is able to provide him with one. If you take a step back and go through Mewtwo's train of thought, it's really not that riveting or different from what you would expect, but when you remember again that this is a movie directed towards a younger audience, I think the philosophical and moral implications of those kinds of questions and actions is very potent, thus making for a great movie character.

Mew and Mewtwo's clones pretty much make up the rest of the movie-exclusive characters. The simplicity of Mew was a great foil to the complexity of Mewtwo, though I still wonder if they could have been more clear about Mew's intentions because certainly she had some. The rest of the clones were rather generic, bending easily to the whims of the movie's message with no real personality of their own. That's perfectly forgivable though; after all, kids' movies need morals.

ARTSTYLE & ANIMATION - Honestly, there wasn't much notably different from a normal Pokemon episode. Maybe things were animated a bit more smoothly, but other than that, just average.

MUSIC - I'm actually rather fond of most of the music in this movie. It was great that they used the full version of the normal TV introduction (whether in English or Japanese). There are some pretty epic tracks played during Mewtwo's reign of terror, and many of the movie's other background tracks are reminiscent of melodies also found in the series. Mew's innocent little theme also comes to mind as a pretty fun and memorable tune.

VOICE ACTING - I've seen this movie in English, Japanese, Cantonese, and Mandarin. I'll just talk about the first two though, lol. The English dub... well, I'm sure you already have your own opinions about Ash and the gang, but I liked Mewtwo's voice. It suited him very well. And so did Mew's! But I guess that really isn't that impressive. I liked the Japanese better mostly because I like the main cast better. Especially memorable is the opening scene with Ash and his friends, during which he's challenged to a random Pokemon battle. The Japanese version offers some brilliant Engrish that just can't be rivaled: "OH MY GODDDDDD!!!"

OVERALL - Pokemon the First Movie is my favorite Pokemon movie (keeping in mind I've only seen the first three). Sure, it's definitely a film aimed for the younger audience, but even for an older audience, as long as you can bring yourself to swallow some of the corny bits, I think it retains a lot of merits. Cloning and genetics is always an interesting subject, anyway.

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Pokemon Movie 01: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu

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Pokemon Movie 01: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu

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