Last week we saw the premiere of the trailer for the upcoming 20th movie. Though it doesn’t mean we should be excited.
The new and second trailer for Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You! was unveil last week and the internet got excited. Everybody started to state that this will be a retelling of the first episode and some even began to claim that this will be the best Pokemon movie to be ever made.
Well, I am here to tell you that maybe you should calm down and just wait and see. After all, things may not appear what they seem.
Pokemon movies have been coming out for 20 years now and they have a long production time. Usually they feature some Pokemon from the latest games such as a Mythical Pokemon or a new Pokemon from the upcoming generation. They are basically part of the marketing machine that will simply promote the latest or upcoming games. Lastly, the trailers that we see in early part of the year rarely showcase anything that will be in the final cut of the movie.
Let talk about the early production trailers before we talk about the promotional part of the movie.
Most of the time, the early production trailers are just two minute commercials that are suppose the hype up the fans with fancy scenes and cool Pokemon. One of the most infamous Pokemon movie trailers included scenes of an “older Misty” with a young girl. This was used to promote the first movie. The final cut of this movie didn’t use any of these scenes but it did use a blue hair woman. Isn’t that misleading. This practice didn’t stop with the first movie and can even be found in the most recent early production trailers.
Lets look at a few trailers to see what I mean.
Pokemon the Movie XY: Diancie & The Cocoon Of Destruction
The trailer depicts an epic battle between Mega Scizor and Mega Absol that eventually leads up to a fight between Yveltal and Xerneas. Diancie who gets caught up in the middle of the two battling Legendaries looks forward to enter the fray.
Doesn’t that sounds and looks pretty awesome? Too bad none of that actually happens. If you actually watched the movie then you know that Mega Absol and Mega Scizor only appeared in the beginning of the movie and have no involvement with the plot. Even worst, Yveltal and Xerneas do not have this epic battle! If you went into watching this movie based on this trailer alone then I hope you were ready to be disappointed.
Pokemon the Movie XY: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages
An epic battle of the Legendaries? All in the daytime! Hoopa being the source of the madness with it eventually becoming evil? Arceus even shows up too!
That does sound pretty awesome!
To be honest, I do not remember too many changes from the trailer to what made the final cut. They did deliver on their promise of Legendaries battling out but it all happen at night. I also pretty sure Hoopa didn’t transform into Unbound like it did in the trailer. It was more like a forced transformation.
Pokemon the Movie XY&Z: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel
Ash facing down Volcanion? Mega Pokemon attacking Pikachu and friends in the air? A peaceful day in a mechanical city gone wrong? Team Rocket finds Magearna? Magearna going evil and causing a mechanical city to creating havoc? Sounds like an intense movie!
This movie was pretty intense though Magearna didn’t exactly go evil. The peaceful day in the city never really happened. After all, the reasons why Ash and friends were there was because Volcanion had dragged Ash there in the first place. Also, the Rocket Trio never really find Magearna. Though, they did have a part in the movie but it never involved finding Magearna.
Pokemon the Movie 13: Zoroark: Master of Illusions
Lastly, we have one more trailer just to prove that this trait of misleading movie trailers isn’t just in the Generation 6 movies.
The only thing I want to say here is that no Evil Ash appeared in this movie. It sure did sounded cool when it was first revealed in the trailer.
The next point that I want to bring up about the Pokemon movies is the promotional push that they do almost every year. This promotional push doesn’t just involve simple TV commercials and new trailers. They also get the Pokemon TCG involve.
The Summer TCG set in Japan tends to release around June or July and most of the time the featured Pokemon of the set plays a role in the upcoming movie. Last year in June it was Fever Burst Fighter/Cruel Traitor (Steam Siege in US) that featured Volcanion and Shiny Mega Gardevoir. Both of these Pokemon were in the movie that came out the following month. In June 2015, Hoopa was the featured Pokemon for the Bandit Ring (Ancient Origins). Genesect was the featured Pokemon in Magalo Cannon TCG set (PlasmaBlast). This set was release in March which is way ahead of the actual movie that was release in July. Keldeo was featured in the July 2013 set which was released only a few days before his movie, Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice. The same for Victini in 2012, Arceus in 2009 and Shaymin and Giratina in 2008.
And guess who will be the featured Pokemon for this summer’s TCG set? Ho-oh and Necrozma. Both of these Pokemon will be gracing the TCG packs in Japan for Did You See the Fighting Rainbow? and Light-Consuming Darkness.
We already know that Ho-oh will be playing a part in the new movie. After all, it appeared in the first episode of the anime. If this movie really going to be a retelling of the first episode then Ho-oh needs to be in the movie. So it makes sense that Ho-oh will be used in the marketing of the movie though the TCG.
Necrozma? We have not seen anything indicating that Necrozma will be in the movie but I bet that as we get closer to the release of the Summer TCG sets that we will see a movie trailer involving Necrozma. By that time we should start seeing trailers featuring more about what is actually in the movie. Perhaps Necrozma will be the main threat of the movie. Maybe that is how Alola will be featured in the movie.
Here are my thoughts based on the TCG and this being the 20th anniversary of the anime. I believe that Ho-oh and the movie scenes reenacting the first episode of the anime is an attempt to use nostalgia to draw in older fans. Meanwhile, Necrozma is being used to draw in the younger and newer Pokemon fans. After all, most kids in Japan may not be familiar with the Kanto season of the anime or Ash’s ties to Ho-oh. Though they may know about Necrozma and want to see what it will do in the movie.
I could go further back to show you how many times the TCG was used to promote the movie for that year. The Pokemon franchise is a marketing machine when they want to promote something hard and they will use the TCG, video game and anime to push something. They know what will get fans excited and the public interested in Pokemon. After all, they had an amazing 2016 and they will surely use some of that momentum in 2017 to push their 20th Pokemon movie.
I am not saying that this year’s Pokemon movie is going to be bad or a complete lie. Sometimes, the early trailers do give a decent idea of what the movie will be about like in the case for the Magearna and Hoopa movies. Other times, they are complete lies as you saw with the Diancie and Zoroark movie. This year’s movie may end up being enjoyable but I doubt it will be a complete retelling of the early Kanto saga. Especially if the TCG is any indication of that. If they are then the Pokemon movies may just turn a new leaf but old habit do die hard.
Either way, I am going to enjoy this year’s movie when it eventually does comes out and will take all these early trailers with a grain of salt.
If you want more information about previous movie trailers and posters then check out Dogasu’s Backpack.
