Did you know that the original Pokémon movie is still the highest grossing anime movie in the US? No matter how many critically acclaimed Studio Ghibli movies come out, there`s no denying the power of Pikachu and the Pocket Monsters.But the original Pokémon movie, or Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back, didn`t get anywhere near the critical praise that other anime movies have received outside Japan. Western critics called the movie an obvious attempt at selling toys, and called out the movie`s contradictory anti-violence message that goes against the very point of the anime and games.Yet in Japan, Pokémon: The First Movie was better received critically. While the complex philosophical themes were criticized for being too difficult to understand for children, the film`s exploration of cloning and genetic modification was praised, according to Joseph Tobin`s book, `Pikachu`s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon.`Before Detective Pikachu is unleashed in theaters and makes us all party like its 1999, let`s put on our tiny detective hats and see what the hell happened to the original Pokémon movie and solve the twisty mystery of why the Japanese version is much, much better.Twisty IndeedThe basic plot is that Ash and his friends are invited to a mysterious lair on a remote island to meet the world`s greatest Pokémon trainer, who is organizing a private tournament with the best trainers around. When they arrive, they realize the trainer is actually a powerful psychic Pokémon named Mewtwo, who has created an army of clones and plans to take over the world and kill everyone. Except this last bit is completely different in the Japanese version, and Mewtwo`s motivation is actually a lot more developed.You see, when Pokémon: The First Movie was released in Japan in 1998 it was accompanied by an audio drama that aired on Japanese radio before the movie, and was added as an animated prologue to the movie`s TV broadcast later on. It was called The Birth o ...
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