Pokemon - The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back

Time for some Pokemon, and what better way to start off than with the first ever Pokemon movie. Released in 1998, Pokemon - The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes back follows the story of Mewtwo, a new psychic Pokemon cloned by humans using Mew's DNA. Unimpressed by simply being an experiment and in search of a new purpose, Mewtwo destroys the laboratory he was created in and is later picked up by Giovanni, but then discovers that Giovanni also intended to use it. Mewtwo then decides it will find its own purpose and intends to destroy humans.

We soon see the original trio of Ash, Misty and Brock, and a remix of the original opening as Ash has a Pokemon battle with a trainer who was looking for him. Good times, good times. I should watch the anime again. Anyway, the trio find themselves being invited to Mewtwo's "party", and have to find a way to get there as there is a storm that has caused the ferry trip to the island to be cancelled. Think of it as Mewtwo's way of testing out the trainers it invited to see who is worthy.

Mewtwo shows the trainers just how strong he is by defeating Gyarados, probably the strongest Pokemon there (forgive me if I'm wrong), before he reveals his intentions of creating a new world by bringing out three of its Pokemon clones to fight the other Pokemon (I like the starter Pokemon reference). It then finally meets Mew, the Pokemon it was cloned from. You can see how they are the two sides of the same coin in terms of they personality, as Mewtwo is the angry, "destroy the world" type whilst Mew is the innocent, "let's have fun" type. The two battle as the trainers watch on, and continue to do so as the original and cloned Pokemon fight. The track that plays is so fitting in this scene, and what the trainers and Meowth say is true in that situation, and I guess in real life too. The other Pokemon stop fighting due to being tired and weakened, but Mew and Mewtwo continue on. They land back in the stadium again, and deal a blow to one another just as Ash runs in the middle of it, causing an explosion. Ash turns into stone because of it, and Pikachu tries to revive him with thunderbolt without success. Pikachu and the other Pokemon begin to cry, their tears becoming sparkles travelling towards Ash. This is probably one of the saddest moments in anime, and in Pokemon. Now that the tears have reached Ash, a ray of light shines on him, and he returns to normal, much to everyone's relief and delight. This changes Mewtwo's thoughts on Pokemon and humans, saying "it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are." Mewtwo then takes away the clones and wipes everyone's memories and returns them to where they went for the ferry to New Island. The storm clears, and Ash sees Mew. Misty and Brock don't see it, and Ash recalls how he saw a legendary Pokemon when he started his journey. And we can't forget Team Rocket, who have ended up on a little island somewhere.

Pokemon - The First Movie has a very strong and entertaining story which focuses on the relationship between Pokemon and humans. It flows perfectly between the serious and comedy elements as we see Mewtwo at work with Ash and the other trainers, and Team Rocket trying to crash its "party" but instead finding Mewtwo's cloning room, revealing part of Mewtwo's true intentions (anyone else enjoy that "Who's that Pokemon?" feature reference?). It represents the fact that all Pokemon (whether born or artificially created) have a purpose in that universe and shouldn't simply be used by humans, as Mewtwo was, and form bonds with their trainers as we see in Ash and Pikachu when Pikachu is captured by one of Mewtwo's Pokeballs.

In terms of comparing this to the other Pokemon movies, I have yet to watch them which will hopefully be soon, but let me know what you guys think of them ^-^.

Fans who grew up with Pokemon since the beginning will agree when I say it brings back so many childhood memories, and I'm sure you guys also enjoyed the references the movie has to the games and anime. If you haven't seen this movie yet, what's stopping you?.