There have been an incredible 19 Pokémon movies since the original one, Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back, was released in 1999. There’s soon about to be a 20th, and it pays tribute to the original season of the anime TV series by going back to Ash’s origin story. This time, though, things are a bit different, and everything isn’t quite how we remember it (via Polygon).
Its title is a direct homage to the very first episode of Pokémon: While that episode is titled “Pokémon – I Choose You!,” the film is dubbed (translated from Japanese) Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You! As it appears in the trailer above, the film does stay very close to the TV series: Ash sees a Ho-oh, he gets an uncooperative Pikachu that won’t go into its Pokéball, and they eventually bond. It looks like that’s about where the similarity ends, though, since the movie includes Pokémon that didn’t even exist in the first generation of the anime and games.
The trailer is gen. 1-heavy until out of nowhere, a Piplup is just hanging out, and we get a look at Marshadow, a brand new legendary Pokémon that was only revealed a few days ago. Also, don’t expect to see much of Brock and Misty, because this time, Ash is joined by a new pair of traveling buddies, Souji and Makoto.
The biggest question we have is when is the English dub going to get an American release? There’s no word on that front yet, but we do know the Japanese film is set for a July 15 release. Do you prefer watching anime in its original Japanese, or would you rather wait for the English version to come out? Sound off on Twitter and let us know what you’re thinking.
Featured image: The Pokémon Company
