Plot: Some of Ash and Misty’s Pokemon are left alone on a beach, I can only assume because their Trainers are irresponsible. They go to a mansion and meet some Pokemon who live there. They decide to play Hide and Seek, but the game is interrupted by a psychotic lawnmower.
Breakdown: I only watched this short like once or twice before on my DVD because the disk messed up on the short for some reason. Every time I tried to play it afterward I’d get a stuttering effect. I really don’t remember this short very much…..except for the theme song. The theme song is yet another ear worm that 4Kids forged, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Before we start though….Pikachu’s Pikaboo? First of all, that is an awful pun. Just awful.
Second, I don’t think there’s any worse word you could’ve used to basically toddler-fy this series.
Third….they’re not playing peek-a-boo. I know the phrase is sometimes used in games with hiding, but peek-a-boo is technically an entirely different ‘game’ than what they’re playing, which is Hide and Seek. I don’t expect people playing Hide and Seek to pop out from where they’re hiding to yell ‘peek-a-boo!’
With that out of the way, let’s play Hide and Seek!
(For Dogasu’s comparison on this short, click here.)
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We start out at some unidentified beach where the gang’s Pokemon, at least some of them because screw the others, are playing in the water. Totodile, Bulbasaur, Bayleef, Cyndaquil and Pikachu are present from Ash’s team….no idea why Noctowl isn’t there. I can usually make up an excuse, but for once I have no clue.
From Misty’s team, Togepi and Psyduck are out because they’re always the ones who get let out despite the fact that they’re at a damn beach and Misty’s Pokemon would have the most fun there, but nope. Go to hell Staryu, Poliwhirl, Goldeen and maybe Corsola.
From Brock’s team…..Not a single one. FNice, guys. He usually at least chucks Vulpix into the mix, but nope.
Togepi nearly drowns itself because Togepi just likes putting its life in peril, but a passing Wailmer saves it and shoots it up to a passing Yanma who flies it back to the beach.
And no it’s never explained as to where Ash and the others are this time nor why they let their Pokemon roam without supervision again. I keep telling you, they’re turning these shorts into Rugrats.
The narrator finally realizes the short has started and we learn that there’s a nearby mansion with a beautiful garden near the beach. The owner, who is never seen (in fact no humans appear in this short at all, as per usual), has three Pokemon who guard it; a Larvitar, a Kecleon and a Granbull, with Larvitar acting as an anal retentive leader.
Pikachu and the others decide to trespass because why not, and while Granbull and Kecleon welcome them, Larvitar becomes annoyed by the group’s intrusion. Granbull calls the other Pokemon on the property, Sunflora, Azurill, Donphan, Sandshrew and Oddish to meet the group.
Pikachu tries to call Larvitar over to play, but he just snubs them and walks off. Granbull then suggests that they play Hide and Seek, Pikachu agrees and grabs a stick to select who will be ‘it’.
He throws it into the air as everyone stands in a circle. Gee I wonder if it’ll land on Pika—Yes, of course it lands on Pikachu. Why would it land on anyone else?
We get the aforementioned ear worm theme song “Everybody Hide, ‘Cause Pikachu’s Comin’” I found this song funny because of this one line. “But not just any place, you have to find a space that fits your color and your size!” I’m just imagining little kids singing or playing this song while playing Hide and Seek and looking for places to hide that match their skin color. I can imagine some awkward calls to other parents happening.
The Pokemon start hiding while Pikachu counts. Sunflora tries to find a field of flowers suitable to camouflage in. Kecleon basically cheats by using its camouflaging ability to hide in front of a bird bath. I know it leaves behind a little zig zag stripe so it’s not like it’s completely invisible, but that’s still cheating to me. Bulbasaur hides in the soil of a garden as a plant, and Oddish does the same. Cyndaquil tries to hide between two large pieces of furniture, but Granbull tries to get in too, prompting Cyndaquil to ditch the spot.
I always hated that in Hide and Seek. You find a great spot and then some asshole likes your idea so he tries to muscle in on your spot and forces you to go somewhere else. Pfft.
Azurill hides underwater in one of the bird baths, and we end on everyone else trying to hide before we finally get our title screen.
Pikachu finishes counting and goes off to find everyone, but Larvitar is not amused.
Cut to Meowth and Wobbuffet who have taken a job at the mansion doing landscaping work….uhh, okay. Why are so many people okay with hiring a talking Meowth to do menial chores? Their lawnmower breaks down, and Meowth takes that as a cue to stop working in the garden.
Back with Pikachu, he’s looking through the garden for the Pokemon and finds Sunflora acting as a regular flower.
Pikachu gets to a yellow brick wall and we see that Sandshrew was pretty clever in using its design to camouflage with the wall. Pikachu catches him anyway, though. Damn ability to see in three dimensions!
He reaches a fountain and spots a weird water spout coming out of the water. He dips his head underwater and sees that Totodile is using Water Gun to make it seem like it’s a spout in the fountain even though there are no other little spouts in the fountain. Pikachu shoves his hands on Totodile’s Water Gun, which is kinda dickish, and calls him out when he emerges.
We see Larvitar again who spots Donphan rolled up near a pile of tires (again, pretty clever) and when he spots Pikachu at the bottom of the hill, he rolls Donphan down to hit Pikachu….Wow, what an asshole. Pikachu gets out of the way and calls out Donphan, which sucks because he didn’t technically get found.
Narrator: “Now Pikachu’s going for a look inside the mansion!” Wow, thanks Narrator for telling us that thing that we will see happen in literally seconds. Are you just bored and looking for stuff to say at this point?
Pikachu looks around the mansion and spots Togepi on the couch, who only has a suitable hiding spot because, for some reason, the owner has incredibly tacky blankets or pillows that have the exact same color and design scheme as Togepi’s shell.
Next, they find Cyndaquil in the fireplace acting as a fire, which is also kinda clever.
Back with Larvitar, who is still salty from….I guess just not liking the other Pokemon or fun. He kicks a small rock angrily, and it bounces off Meowth and Wobbuffet’s lawnmower, which suddenly causes it not only start back up again, but also to go on an out of control rampage.
It actually seems to be sentient as it purposely pursues the Pokemon and changes direction when prompted by other Pokemon. Because that makes perfect sense. I get it, a plot consisting of nothing but Hide and Seek, even for one of the shorts, is pretty damn boring and hard to fill up 22 minutes, but really you couldn’t come up with some other huge crisis besides a randomly rampaging lawnmower?
The Pokemon all run away from the lawnmower, revealing Bulbasaur and Oddish underground while it causes havoc. I’m glad they got out of there, or this short would have a much higher content rating.
Bulbasaur tries to stop it with its Razor Leaf to no avail. Donphan tries to destroy it with Rollout but it doesn’t even dent it. Wow, where did the owner buy that thing? My dad’s lawnmower is usually defeated by damp soil.
Pikachu decides enough is enough and uses Thunderbolt on it, which actually seems to stop it for a bit, but then it starts back up again.
Oh, but it doesn’t just start back up again. It activates two hidden CHAINSAW ATTACHMENTS! What the unholy hell!? This was contrived enough as it was, but two chainsaws that pop out of the sides? How would that even be useful, let alone safe for landscaping? And why was this little turn of events even needed? Was the lawnmower not scary enough with the razor sharp blades underneath it? Did someone hire Leatherface to do landscaping work? Come on!
Totodile tries it hand at stopping it with Water Gun, but it doesn’t work. Cyndaquil tries stopping it with Flamethrower, but, get this, it continuously dodges Cyndaquil’s attacks on purpose and even manages to get behind him to get the edge. Yeah, sure. Crazy sentient lawnmower now knows basic battle strategies. I’ll believe anything at this point.
Cut back to Meowth and Wobbuffet who just got done sweeping the chimney when Pikachu and the others cross their path. Meowth and Wobbuffet are now being pursued by the lawnmower that can apparently hop across stone slabs now too.
They try to fight it with the little chimney brooms, because that’ll work right? However, the chainsaws destroy the brooms, and the lawnmower knocks both Meowth and Wobbuffet into the air and down the chimney of the mansion. In the process, I guess the lawnmower also breaks off the chainsaw attachments, making those additions even more pointless.
The lawnmower chases the group through a hedge maze for some time before Larvitar helps them out and kicks the lawnmower into one of the walls, supposedly stopping it from continuing its rampage…..uh, I’d try to disable it before walking aw–
The gang then walks away thinking that they’re safe, but then we see the lawnmower break through the hedges…..with BUZZ SAW ATTACHMENTS!
I mean, really what the hell!? At least chainsaws might be used for some landscaping, even if their existence on the lawnmower is incredibly inefficient and dangerous, but buzz saws aren’t used in landscaping! What purpose do those possibly have on that thing!? Next you’re going to tell me there’s a flamethrower and a BFG on it!
Also, am I the only one freaked out by the fact that we went from our main short issues being, in order, Charizard being stuck in a pipe, making it through a thunderstorm, Pikachu finding its way back to Ash to a murderous sentient lawnmower with chainsaw and buzz saw attachments? Especially on a short called Pikachu’s Pikaboo? Just seems like a B-movie horror plot is all.
They keep running from the lawnmower and try to hide up a tree, but the lawnmower just saws it down and keeps chasing after them. They reach the beach and trick the lawnmower into flying off a dock and into the water, seemingly stopping its rampage yet again.
Larvitar and Pikachu take a sigh of relief for a second but then realize that horror movie villains always come back from the dead. It rips the dock up with its saws and continues chasing them.
The other Pokemon gather some logs to make a track for the lawnmower to follow to lead it away from them, even though I don’t see how that would work considering that it sawed through a huge tree in less than two seconds and reduced a dock to toothpicks a second ago, but whatever. However, Psyduck trips and screws it up, causing it to continue the rampage.
Bayleef, who has been napping this whole time, comes into play by Vine Whipping the handle and throwing the lawnmower back into the track….Why Bulbasaur hasn’t done that this entire time is beyond me. Maybe it’s too light to control it.
They continue the track and lead it into some shed, shutting the door behind it. The shed bounces around in a terrible CGI effect that gives us a nice preview to the also awful CGI effects coming in our feature presentation. The bouncing suddenly stops. The door opens and reveals that the lawnmower is now basically destroyed…..…
Really?….That’s our climax? The ultimate weapon against that thing….was a shed? It was subject to Razor Leafs, Rollouts, Thunderbolts, Water Guns and being completely submerged in water with little to no issue….yet a track of small logs and a shed defeat Satan’s lawnmower?
The gang cleans up the yard, and Bayleef and Bulbasaur Razor Leaf a design of the Pichu Bros. into the hedges…..for…some….reason, and we see that Meowth and Wobbuffet finally made it out of the chimney.
Larvitar picks up the stick from earlier and wants to play Hide and Seek with them this time. They all agree and he throws the stick into the air. Since we see Pikachu actively trying to blow the leaf/indicator on the stick now and Larvitar’s not in the frame, it obviously lands on him this time and he smiles. They go off to hide again as the sun sets, and Ash and Misty never see their Pokemon again.
The End.
I should mention that this is the first time that the short has ever had its credits kept intact. In the other movies, the short’s credits were always put with the ending credits of the movie to keep people from thinking the short was the movie and had already ended. However, I suppose because this is the first movie that was released on DVD instead of VHS, the magic of DVDs granted them the ability to keep the credits with the short.
I have no clue if it remained this way in theaters because, to the best of my knowledge, it never showed in any theaters near me. This was the first Pokemon movie that I wasn’t able to see in theaters. I don’t have many theaters near me to begin with, but none of them ever showed 4ever and beyond to the best of my knowledge. Some people have told me that they still play Pokemon movies in theaters, but if that’s true I must just live in an area that never gets them.
Bottom Line: This short was boring. Cute, and sometimes made me smile with the way that the Pokemon hid themselves, but boring. And even with the INCREDIBLY INSANE AND CONTRIVED lawnmower chase scene, it was still boring mostly because the chase got really old and repetitive even with the craziness of that serial killer lawnmower.
In fact, it really just seems like that whole plot point was shoved in there because they realized Hide and Seek couldn’t fill even half the running time without getting boring. It’s worth one watch just because of how crazy the lawnmower is, but has really no rewatch value.
Recommended Audience: Keep away from children who have completely reasonable and healthy fears of sentient lawnmowers that have several saw attachments and a thirst for blood. But it’s okay for everyone else.
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The Anime Madhouse 
That time Pikachu encountered the Anti-Christ disguised as a lawnmower.
I kind of love how you’re getting more and more fed up with the blatant favortism in this franchise with each review, and with the episode reviews you’re still only halfway through season 1.
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Weird thing is, I never batted an eyelash at the favoritism when I watched it as a kid. Now it’s like not a single episode or movie can go by without someone shining a Pikachu shaped laser pointer into my retina.
I’m not worried, though. I’m sure I’ll find that the favoritism dies down as I move on through the series……What was that noise?….I feel like the universe just laughed at me…..Hm.
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