Pokemon Shorties! (13) Pikachu’s Ice Adventure Review

Plot: Cute Pokemon being cute in snow.

Breakdown: The Writers of this short: “Hello everyone! Welcome to the “Make Twix Want to Turn Off the Short” speedrun challenge. Twix just turned on the short, and boy do we have a surprise for her. Now, we obviously couldn’t tip our hand immediately, that’d be way too easy, so we kinda had to spring this out of nowhere……Okay, so far just typical antics and being flung around – I love it. Now, my timer’s reading 2:53 in, which means she should be spotting–”

Twix: “Oh god, no way.”

“Oooh she saw Marill! We’re at the three minute mark.”

“Oh god, no. There is no way they’d do this to me again.”

“3:04! It’s time to shine!”

*Jigglypuff music starts*

“GODDAMN IT! YOU BASTARDS!”

“Ah! She paused it! 3:08 was our time! Speedrun complete! Wow, that was a nailbiter. Thanks for joining us! Make sure to like and subscribe to irritate Twix even more in the future.”

No, I am not kidding. For some reason, they decided to bring back Marillypuff for this short, and I did indeed immediately stop the short when it started singing. It took a lot of my patience to withstand that running joke in the previous short, and they have the gall to bring it back and do the same shtick again? It was almost insulting.

Thankfully, they at least thought better to make this a recurring joke throughout the entire short again, I guess even they have their limits on repetitiveness, so Marillypuff is only in the beginning of this short.

As for the rest of this short, though…..it’s bad. Harmless, but bad. I really don’t think they had a plan for this short at all. Like even a little. Which is impressive because most Pokemon shorts already are just simply “Cute Pokemon do *spin a wheel of activities*!”

The short starts out with the Pokemon playing at the beach, but then they’re flung off, because Pokemon short. They’re then frozen by a rogue gust of snowy wind from nowhere and wind up floating to some icy location. When they break free, the groups are separated. I really have to write up a Pokemon shorts bingo card someday.

Group one is Pikachu, Turtwig, Chimchar, Sudowoodo and Buizel. Group two is Piplup, Happiny, Buneary, Ambipom and Swinub. Group three is Meowth, Carnivine, Yanmega, Wobbuffet, Mime Jr. and Seviper. Then you have Pichirisu who ends up with Staravia, and Croagunk, who winds up by himself for a bit.

Group one, whom I nicknamed the Pika Squad, finds a Spheal and a Snorunt who have been separated from their mentor, a Snover. They’re also looking for a Solrock to help them melt some ice. It’s literally one sentence in which they mention that, by the way. I had no idea what they meant. What ice? Is some ice blocking a path or something?

Group two bitches, moans and is generally annoying. I nicknamed them Team Brat. While I still think May’s Squirtle and that Bonsly from Pikachu’s Ghost Carnival win the gold medal in annoyingness, this group takes a solid silver. Swinub is a baby, I guess, because all it does is cry and demand food. Happiny is also a baby who also cries, but less so than Swinub. Ambipom complains a lot, as does Buneary, but she comes with the added bonus of also whining that her beloved Pikachu isn’t there. She also complains that Piplup isn’t reliable when it’s literally the only one actually trying to accomplish anything.

Piplup’s not being annoying at all. He’s doing his best and winds up getting treated like crap. I felt bad for him.

Team Rocket’s Pokemon find Snover, who wants to find his pupils, Spheal and Snorunt. He tells them that the king of the Country of Ice will gladly feed them a feast if they assist him in finding them, so they agree.

When the Pika Squad finds the Solrock, the Spheal and Snorunt say this.

“Please use your power, and recover the country into her normal face. The continual unknown snowstorm will keep troubling us all.”

……..What continual snowstorm? It’s been clear the entire time they’ve been here. The only snow, in the air, that I’ve seen to this point was in the very beginning when that rogue gust of icy wind froze the Pokemon. They are in an icy tundra, but I just kinda figured it was a region that is currently experiencing winter right now, or it’s a climate that’s always snowy.

When they said this, I thought maybe this place wasn’t meant to be snowy. Like it’s summer or very nearby to the warm beach they were just enjoying at the start of the short.

But no.

Just as the name suggests, it’s literally a Country of Ice. Everything is meant to be frozen and covered in snow. There are also structures, such as a castle, made entirely of ice. As far as we’ve seen, the place is littered with nearly every Ice Type you can think of. It seems like a paradise for them. Why would snow storms, especially ones that don’t seem to exist, be a problem here?…….Why is a SOLROCK here? It’s a random Solrock behind a massive door on a literal pedestal. Is it there just to melt snow where there’s too much buildup around? How does it control the heat enough to not melt important ice structures? Because it completely melts away every speck of snow from the castle and other structures without damaging them at all – not even the tiny details.

Solrock’s snow-melting powers reveal the castle in the distance. All the groups head there and reunite only to be met with the angry king and queen of the Country of Ice – an Abomasnow and a Froslass.

They have been locked in a battle of snow and ice for however long. I guess this implies that the Pokemon were frozen by one of their ice blasts……How much range do those things have? They were on a warm beach before this.

They were fighting over some ice sculptures of theirs getting broken. It’s weird, too. The instant they point out the statues were the reason they were fighting, both of them realize they didn’t break them (they believed the other did, hence the fighting) but there was no reason to. It was literally; “Why are they fighting?” “Those statues got broke.” Both of them: “Wait, you mean you didn’t break my statues?!” What lead them to that conclusion, and why did they both instantly assume the other did it? Did they not talk at all about this before they started fighting each other? You two need couples counseling.

Also, you’re friggin’ ICE POKEMON. Just use Ice Beam on the statues and fix them! It would take thirty seconds! What is wrong with you two!?

Spheal and Snorunt admit to breaking the statues when they were playing. They say they would have admitted what happened immediately but…….but nothing. They never say why they didn’t do that. They also don’t explain why they were way the hell out there in the middle of nowhere so long after this happened, especially if they intended on confessing.

The sequence of events had to have been, they broke the statues, they all left for some reason, got split up somehow, their parents, or whoever they are to them, found out about the statues while they were gone, instantly assumed the other broke the statues, which is especially weird because they’re statues of themselves, never spoke a word in trying to logically figure out how this happened or do the most obvious thing in the world to fix the statues, started an Ice Type move fight over it, allowed the fight to get so intense that the land got covered in enough snow to hide the castle somehow, which implies they were buried alive before Solrock melted everything and then (enter events of short here).

So the gang fixes the damn statues by having, of all the Ice Pokemon here….the non-Ice Type, Buneary, Ice Beaming the statues to seal them up and having Turtwig slice up the rough spots with Razor Leaf to clean them up. Good as new. Just so we’re clear on this easy fix, even the aspect of smoothing out the surface would have been just as easily done without interference by Pikachu and the others because Abomasnow is part Grass Type and would know Razor Leaf….

Anyway, none of this matters because Croagunk snowboards in through the window and smashes the statues to tiny bits………

They head outside to carve new statues. When did these Pokemon become realist sculptors? I don’t know. Shut up. I say they’re new statues, but it’s moreso a Mount Rushmore type deal because they carve the likenesses of the entire royal family (?) into the side of an icy cliff. I do appreciate that literally every single Pokemon came together to help with this….except Croagunk because I guess he’s too much of an idiot.

They say that now that they have such nice statues, Abomasnow and Froslass will go back to loving each other. I’d say if you resort to subzero warfare and nearly kill each other and destroy your kingdom after getting upset over easily fixed ice statues when you had no reason to even believe the other broke them, you probably have deeper problems than that and, like I said, desperately need couples counseling.

…..Also, as I’ve been alluding to, what is the dynamic here? Snover, Snorunt and Spheal become part of the statue collection, implying they’re their kids or something, but only Snover would logically be one of their kids……….But…they can’t even have kids because they don’t share any egg groups. Are they all adopted? Are they even viewed as their kids? They don’t say Mom and Dad – they call them my king/queen. Who are they if they’re not their kids? It’s very confusing.

They thank Pikachu only, despite the fact that he didn’t do much. He did contribute to the final sculpture, but so did everyone. He also did the least, outside of Croagunk, in fixing the other statues. All he did was command Buneary and Turtwig when they knew what to do while everyone else held the pieces in place…..

The Pokemon all set off on an ice boat back to their beach to enjoy the rest of their vacation or whatever they’re doing during these shorts to be unsupervised for long periods of time. They surf, they sunbathe, they swim, they have fun. The end.

This has to be, without a doubt, the most poorly written nothing Pokemon short ever. I expect so little from these shorts, and somehow this one still managed to deeply disappoint me. Being fair, this was a short exclusive to flights on the Pokemon-themed ANA jumbo jets that they’ve had since basically the start of Pokemon. You can tell because they randomly and pointlessly add in a scene where one of these jets fly by and we’re forced to watch.

The previous short was also an ANA exclusive short that also included a shot of the plane, I just didn’t think to include that in my review for whatever reason. I was probably too preoccupied with everything else trying to bother me.

That being said, that doesn’t mean this short or the previous one (or the next one…) get passes just because they’re something for people to watch on a plane. Actually, I’d kinda expect a short exclusively made to be shown on a Pokemon-themed jumbo jet would be higher quality than normal. Think about it – you pay extra to go on these airplanes to say you flew on the Pokemon plane. You’d expect some high-quality extras like that. I know it costs a lot to animate shorts, but if you’re just going to spit out something without thought, why even bother spending the animation money?

The other Pokemon shorts, no matter their quality, tended to still make a good degree of sense. This one was just stupid from start to finish. It wasn’t enough to make me mad—okay, the Marillypuff thing made me briefly mad—nothing else made me mad, however. I was just confused and baffled by the writing choices that they seemed to make up as they went on. Hardly any writing decision made sense at all.

Why even start at the beach if you wanted to do an ice story? Them starting out in an icy location makes about as much sense as anywhere else they start out in during these shorts because we rarely ever get context as to why they’re in (location) completely alone for hours or even days.

Overall, I can’t say I recommend this short at all because it’s just not entertaining. Above all else, it was just confusing. It wasn’t even a ‘cute Pokemon being cute’ type of short. There’s really nothing here. Moving on.

…..I swear to god if Marillypuff is in the next short…

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Pokemon Extravaganza SHORTIES! – Pikachu’s Winter Vacation 2000: Winter Games

Plot: Satoshi, Kasumi and Takeshi leave their Pokemon at a rented cabin while they go shopping. The Pokemon then discover an ice skating rink and play on the ice.

Breakdown: In this short, Chikorita is a bitch. It’s mostly about Chikorita being a bitch while everyone else has fun. They try to include Chikorita in their fun, but Chikorita is too much of a bitch. After a lot of slapstick, Chikorita finally joins in on the fun while trying to sabotage Meowth on the ice. And they all bonded over bullying, hooray.

This is Chikorita laughing after nearly murdering Squirtle by dropping a huge icicle in front of his face….

Yup, that’s the short in nutshell, which is literally all that happens. I can’t even bring myself to do a breakdown of the story because I feel like it’d be repetitive.

It’s a weak story, the slapstick’s not funny half the time because most of it is caused by Chikorita being a bitch, Squirtle was kinda funny, but nothing really laugh-out-loud funny, and the animation is noticeably slightly better here. That’s about it.

Recommended Audience: Not even conceived yet+

Final Notes: I realize that this review is incredibly short, so have a treat! While I was looking for information on this short, I saw that someone uploaded the intro to the VHS on Youtube. Nummy nostalgia!

Pikachu’s Winter Vacation 2000: Stantler’s Little Helpers

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Pokemon Extravaganza SHORTIES – Pikachu’s Winter Vacation 1: Kanga Games

Plot: After having some fun in the cabin the night before, the Pokemon look outside to see a blanket of fresh snow covering the countryside. When they decide to play outside, Pikachu and Togepi bump into a Kangaskhan who wants her baby to play with them.

Breakdown: This is a really great short. I mean, obviously it’s not plot heavy or anything, but it’s pretty funny and cute for what it is. This is one of those rare times where we actually get to see a baby Kangaskhan out of its mother’s pouch, and it is just incredibly adorable even if it does have a moment where it’s just another ‘Togepi’ to take care of.

We get a couple of really funny moments, one of which involving Squirtle and Bulbasaur sledding that was just hilarious.

We do have one conflict to deal with in this short, but it’s just a rescue type deal.

I will say that Meowth’s incredibly small part was pretty pointless, like it almost always is. It was a tiny bit funny, but I could’ve done without it. I also liked the very ending where Ash and co. return and all the Pokemon cuddle up with them and hide in their jackets like the baby Kangaskhan. That was cute.

We have an ending theme specifically for this episode, and it’s….alright. I don’t see what the lyrics have to do with Christmas or winter, but it’s there and it’s fine.

Other than that, I have one final note – Remember how I mentioned in my episode reviews that Kangaskhan’s dub voice is kinda awful? It’s especially noticeable here. Kangaskhan’s adult form sounds really rough and the baby is fairly annoying. Considering the entire short is centered around baby Kangaskhan, this is a bit of an issue. Not a large one, but an issue nonetheless.

Recommended Audience: E for everyone!

Pikachu’s Winter Vacation 2000: Winter Games

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Pokemon Extravaganza SHORTIES – Pikachu’s Winter Vacation 1: Christmas Night

Plot: Pikachu, Togepi, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Vulpix are left in charge of protecting the cabin while Ash, Misty and Brock go off to get a Christmas cake. The Pokemon nearly destroy the cool Christmas decorations, but they band together to fix what they can before Ash and the others return.

Breakdown: It’s well beyond Christmas, but winter is sticking around for a while, so I thought I’d take a break out to review all four of the Pikachu’s Winter Vacation shorties this winter. Gather around the fireplace and let’s hear the story of the first Pokemon Christmas special, Christmas Night.

Ash and the others, never showing their faces as per short ‘rules,’ have rented a cabin for Christmas, because they have that kind of money somehow and God forbid they go home for Christmas. Misty and Brock berate Ash for neglecting to get a cake so they leave Pikachu in charge of the place while they all leave to go get one.

I don’t know why their Pokemon aren’t going with them as they seem to take their Pokemon everywhere, nor do I know why all three of them are needed to go get a cake, but, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again until I’m proven otherwise, the shorts just seem to make the group into the parents from Rugrats in these shorts.

I will step back here a bit and say, while this is a very large and kinda nicely designed cabin, they add in little details like cracks and peeling paint to indicate that it’s not the best quality cabin so we won’t be flabbergasted at their sudden influx of money……..at least until Pikachu and Pichu where they seem to get rich for a day with that really beautiful hotel room and party.

They leave, and the smaller Pokemon wander the house and stumble upon the room that Ash and the others have decorated for Christmas. They’re in awe of everything because they have never celebrated Christmas before, and they mess around with some stuff.

Vulpix in a party hat. Best short ever.

Eventually, the Poke-group starts causing a ruckus. Squirtle accidentally eats Bulbasaur’s Pokemon-themed cookie, and in spite of having a full plate of them in front of him, he still chases Squirtle all over the house. Vulpix gets stuck in a stocking. Yes, you may have gifs.

And Psyduck shakes up a bottle of what I think is meant to be champagne, but considering their age I’ll just assume it’s sparkling cider.

All of the Pokemon nearly knock over the tree with Pikachu saving it in the nick of time. Here’s Vulpix wearing a party hat while in a Christmas tree.

So cute! ♥♥♥♥♥

Okay, I’ll try to stop, I promise.

Sadly, thanks to Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Psyduck and not Vulpix because Vulpix is awesome, the tree has its lights ripped off and topples over on Pikachu.

Squirtle and Bulbasaur laugh at him because they’re jerks, Vulpix doesn’t because it’s awesome, and Pikachu gets so pissed that he unleashes his electricity throughout the room. However, he does not hit Squirtle and Bulbasaur and instead knocks the power out. Good job.

In the darkness, Pikachu stumbles upon a Christmas music box, and the group stares in awe at the pretty little light up tree and the cute song that it plays as the sun sets. The song ends, the lights go out, and Pikachu and the others decide to band together to fix what they have messed up.

Later, Ash and the others return to the dark cabin and enter the room with all the Christmas stuff in it to find the tree looking great and even lit up by the power of Pikachu’s cheeks.

The group starts the party and we zoom out of the cabin to look up into the sky at the giant moon and see, of course, Santa with a Rapidash or Ponyta pulling the sleigh. Because Stantler haven’t been introduced yet.

The End.

Art and Animation: The art and animation seems a tiny bit better than it normally is early in Kanto, but it’s not that noticeable. It’s definitely not movie quality, which I didn’t expect anyway. I actually like some of the finer details like the cookies and the decorations.

Music: Just okay – average TV show fare. It’s biggest issue for me is that none of the songs are really that Christmas-y except the music box song, and that was over very quickly.

Bottom Line: It’s a nice little Christmas short that really goes to show that it’s a bad idea to leave animals with elemental powers alone in a rented cabin with no supervision. I guess I can just be thankful Ash wasn’t stupid enough to let Charizard out for this.

Sadly, many of the Pokemon are missing, which kinda makes it a tiny bit sad as a Christmas special. Christmas is about being with those that you care about yet only Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Togepi, Vulpix and, of course, Pikachu get let out here. They could at least show the other Pokemon outside or something, but I guess they’re confined to their Pokeballs for Christmas.

I still would like a Christmas special that isn’t based fully on the Pokemon and actually has the kids going back to their families for the holidays. I think they could make for a really sweet special.

As it stands, though, it’s not a terribly memorable or creative short, but it’s nice and a sweet little watch for a Pokemon fan on Christmas time.

Recommended Audience: C for Christmas! And cookies! That’s good enough for me.

Pikachu’s Winter Vacation: Kanga Games

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Pokemon Shorties! (4) Pikachu’s Pikaboo

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.

Eat him, Wailmer! Do the world a favor! No one has to know!

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?

WHOO!! WE’RE WAY TOO EXCITED FOR THIS! ALRIGHT! YEAH!

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.

“Haha! Nearly murdered you!” “Haha! Must not get upset at this for fear of the repercussions of conflicting with Messiahchu’s wishes!”

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!

MUAHAH! YOUR WATER GUN CANNOT EXTINGUISH THE FIRES OF HELL THAT ARE COURSING THROUGHOUT MY IGNITION SYSTEM!

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.

I told them not to build this place so close to Crystal Lake.

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…..…

Curses….my one weakness….poor writing.

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.

Short 5: Camp Pikachu

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Pokemon Shorties (3)! Pikachu and Pichu

Plot: Ash, Misty and Brock have arrived at nonspecific-oddly-American-looking big city. Pikachu and all of the other Pokemon are let out of their Pokeballs to have some fun on the roof of a building while Ash and the others plan a big surprise. However, when Pikachu gets made fun of by a Pichu in a building across the street, he ends up falling from the roof and landing on the other building with the Pichu Bros. Can Pikachu make it back in time before Ash returns?

Breakdown: The short that accompanied Movie 03, Pikachu and Pichu, otherwise known as “That one with the Pichu Bros.”….is one I don’t really remember all that well. I remember it taking place in a city and the Pichu Bros., of course, I remember there being a Smeargle….that’s about it.

Oh and I remember the ending being the cause of much discussion seeing as how many people take this as proof that at least one year has gone by since the start of the series, which I don’t really believe given how much has gone on between then and now. Also, it’s hard to take that as canon when the series keeps insisting that Ash is and always will be ten years old.

As for Pichu….I don’t particularly care for it. Its existence makes me think they wanted a ‘chibi’ Pikachu that they could market even harder than Pikachu. Lest we forget the pointless novelty of spike-eared Pichu and even Ukelele Pichu (proudly following in the footsteps of surfing Pikachu….Where are the novelty Raichu? What a rip off.)

Pichu’s existence never made full sense to me, either. That means Ash got an evolved Pokemon as his starter Pokemon. Not to mention that Pikachu was a huge brat when we first met it, which makes it hard for me to believe that Pikachu evolved from a full happiness Pichu.

I do remember the music being a snappy new change, so there’s that. Well, let’s start, shall we?

(For Dogasu’s comparison on this short, click here.)

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Ash and the others are in some unspecified city. They let out all of their Pokemon on the top of some random building/hotel(?) because they have stuff to do. However, even this doesn’t make much sense to me. It makes sense that Ash wouldn’t want Pikachu around to keep from spoiling the surprise, but why let out all of the other Pokemon, which they hardly ever do? Just to keep Pikachu company? It is a nice thing to do, but it’s also rare. They say they’ll be back at six o’clock and leave.

A smiling Vulpix with sparkles around it. Enjoy your free warmfuzzies.

The copy I’m using for screenshots is the Japanese video spliced in with the English audio track (Since my copy is VHS and I have no way to transfer that to my computer). The Japanese version has an entire theme song here, but they completely amputate it from the short in the dub.

They skip the entire theme song animations to splice in their own opening, which is just the title card translated to English, Pikachu meeting with the Pichu bros. and having the city background appear for a second before a dual page transition goes back to the short.

The English theme is a jazzy track that was made for this short. The Japanese theme is okay, but pretty forgettable.

As the Pokemon are playing, Pikachu comes across two Pichu hanging out on a building across the street, one of which starts mocking Pikachu. He makes faces back, and Pichu climbs out on a ledge.

Pichu’s brother, let’s call him Tuffed-Hair Pichu, tries to keep him from going out on the ledge and getting hurt while Pikachu climbs out onto a flag pole to warn him as well, which just furthers the question of why the hell did they let out all of their Pokemon to play ON THE TOP OF A BUILDING!?

I get it, it’s all fancified, meaning that people can hang out on the roof without issue, but there are no guardrails and it can’t be all that safe if Pikachu can perch itself on a nearby flagpole on the side of the building with no problem. Imagine what would happen if dopey Psyduck got turned around up there.

Pikachu looks down to realize where he is and wow, cars! Lots of ’em! I keep feeling like they’re in some American city from the way they keep portraying it. The buildings, atmosphere, music etc. just give the feeling like they’re in America somewhere. It definitely doesn’t give the same vibe as other cities seen earlier in Pokemon. Even Celadon city felt a lot different than this.

Not only does Pikachu freak out because of this, but a few Murkrow also come out and peck at him since he’s on their perch. He falls, but grabs onto the always handy rope that is always below in these situations.

The Murkrow aren’t deterred, however, as they also peck at the rope to make Pikachu fall. So, in conclusion, Murkrow are murderers….which makes sense because a flock of crows is called a murder. Next time on Law and Order: Johto Unit.

We pan down to Meowth who is washing windows sans Jessie and James, but this time they actually give a reason for this that makes a lot of sense. They tricked him into a window washing job so they could get extra money. Since it has been shown several times in the series that Jessie, James and Meowth do get jobs sometimes and many of those jobs tend to be separate from each other, this makes perfect sense.

Murkrow starts untying the rope when a breeze carries a bunch of Hoppip into the Murkrow’s face, making it drop the rope and Pikachu. The rope somehow swings up which allows Pikachu to fly up and bounce on all of the Hoppip. However, when he gets to the last of them, he falls onto Meowth’s washing platform, which causes a catapult effect and sends Meowth flying into a nearby billboard.

Pikachu climbs up to meet the Pichu bros. but is upset when he finds out that none of the other Pokemon can hear him and help him get back to the other building. That means that, unlike the other shorts where we got small groups of the Pokemon mostly made up of Ash’s with some of Misty’s, Tracey’s and Brock’s…..this short just releases them for a few seconds and puts the entire focus on Pikachu and Pichu until the very end where they all reunite.

I get it, it’s the title of the short, but come on. The other Pokemon get such little screen time. It’s almost mocking to let them all out to hang out and play but give them absolutely nothing to do.

The Pichu Bros. offer to take Pikachu back to the other building. They make their way out, but land on a bus, which only leads them further away. The Pichu Bros don’t seem to care (jerks) and the bus takes a sudden turn which causes the three to fly off of the bus and into a nearby river.

Everything seems okay for a bit until a ferry in the shape of a Lapras shows up and is about to run them over. Pikachu and Pichu try to get away, but they succumb to Prometheus syndrome with not realizing that there are directions other than straight.

Luckily, a Gyarados suddenly shows up and sends the three flying again….Pokemon shorts really do involve a lot of Pokemon being flung around like ragdolls. Also, this is a manmade river, why the hell is a Gyarados in there? Do they love scaring the crap out of the people on the ferry boat and putting them in danger for no reason?

The three fall into an alleyway onto a Houndour who starts chasing them around. It corners them, but the wonder twins use their electric powers to shock Houndour. However, “Too bad Pichu can’t use electric attacks without shocking themselves!” Pichu sucks.

The Pichu Bros. end up knocking themselves out due to the electricity, and to make matters worse, Houndour’s not affected that badly and starts chasing them again, this time with Pikachu carrying the Pichu Bros. Pikachu bounces off of a random Snorlax’s belly yet again. For the love of God, he’s not a trampoline or an air bag! Stop making this a theme in the shorts!

Houndour tries to follow, but Snorlax moves when it tries to jump on it, causing Houndour to land on the ground instead and get squashed when Snorlax moves back. Well, it’s dead. A moment of silence for Houndour.

They arrive at some fort made of tires and pipes. This is a little hideout for the Pichu Bros. and their friends, a whole bunch of other Pokemon with many of them being new pre-evos.

Oh and we get another Pokemon misidentification. This time a Voltorb says ‘Electrode’. I’m going to give 4Kids a slight pass here again since, like Poliwhirl/Wrath, they look very similar, but 4Kids should really know better by now or at least know to double check this crap.

They screw around with all of the Pokemon to eat up two minutes of screentime. When they’re done, the other Pokemon leave and they realize that it’s getting awfully late. Pikachu has to be back before Ash returns, so he asks the Pichu Bros. to lead him there. They start to leave but AH ZOMBIE!!

Oh, I guess Houndour lived through that. Houndour arrives and starts chasing them around again, causing the big tire fort to fall over, burying Houndour in huge heavy tires. Well, I guess it’s dead again. A moment of silence for twice dead Houndour.

Also, why is Pikachu not attacking Houndour? It’s shocked people and Pokemon for lesser reasons.

Anyway, Houndour’s not dead again, instead it’s mildly stuck I think maybe. Pikachu and the Pichu Bros. help it out and they’re instant friends I guess. Saving Pokemon from being trapped – making jerk Pokemon nice since Short 01. Another part of the fort starts falling over, and Houndour and Pikachu try to save it, but they’re slipping fast. The Pichu Bros. then call their friends back to help out…Where were they going anyway? Do they have owners? Where else would they be living besides that fort?

The Pokemon band together to save the fort, even Cubone, the Pokemon who cares only about itself. Sorry – some leftover bitterness.

Pictured: A selfish prick.

And, really, guys, hire a licensed contractor next time. The design of that thing? No wonder it fell so easily.

The fort is saved, hip hip hooray! That’s also a recurring theme in these shorts – a bunch of random Pokemon coming together to solve a problem and fix stuff.

Pikachu realizes what time it is, and he and the Pichu Bros. head off to get back to the building by rolling in a tire. On the way, they run over Meowth.

I would complain about his completely pointless part in this short, but this short is already basically Togepi-free, so there’s a bonus. However, the Pichu Bros. kinda act like Togepi a few times.

Pikachu returns, the Pichu Bros. leave, and Ash and the others return to show their big surprise to the Pokemon (mostly Pikachu).

The owner of this place has no qualms with a giant snake made of rocks being in what looks like a very nice dining room? Okay.

Ash reveals his surprise is a big party in honor of it being the anniversary of the first day he became friends with Pikachu. Geez, look at that setup.

So much food and decorations and reserving a beautiful room too? For god’s sake, I’ve never had a birthday anywhere near this nice. And this is a friendship anniversary for a mouse! Where the hell did Ash and the others get the money for this? They can usually just barely afford to feed themselves. Did they plan the fireworks too? Because I can’t see any other reason for that.

This I find to be even more blatant favoritism considering he never does the same thing for any of his other Pokemon. Then again, he’d actually have to have his Pokemon for over a year to do that…But Squirtle and Bulbasaur are still around at this point, which means it shouldn’t be far off from their one year anniversary, but nope, no party for them. They should’ve just said they wanted to make a sort of annual Pokemon appreciation party instead. But why do that and have Pikachu share the attention, which is, of course, blasphemous?

Thus our short ends….in the English version anyway. The Japanese version stays true to their ending credits sequences with fan art and a song behind it. While the fan art is nice…did the kids who sent in the pictures get like a template to color in? Because all of the pictures in the start have the exact same pose and drawing quality. Unless this is just crudely drawn official art.

Whoever made the picture with Pidgeotto despite the fact that it was long gone before this short, my hat’s off to you good sir or madam.

Art and Animation: The art is crisp and the animation was actually quite a bit better than normal. Some scenes were shaky, particularly the last shot you see of Pineco, but nothing that bad.

Music: I really enjoyed the jazzy soundtrack. It’s a welcome change from the average Pokemon music we’re used to.

Bottom Line: I can’t bring myself to say I’m crazy about this short. By all intents and purposes, it’s completely harmless fun, but then again it is just a lot of hijinks with not a lot of story, and any message is one we’ve already heard before in previous shorts – teamwork basically.

Also, the stuff with Houndour was resolved so quickly and easily it’s almost like it was a non-plot point.

That being said, it does have the best art and animation quality of any of the shorts so far. The city looks very nice, many shots look great, the Pichu Bros. didn’t get annoying and there were never lulls in the fun like the second short. It’s a pretty good short, but it is disappointing that none of the other Pokemon get to do anything.

Recommended Audience: E for eggplants! And everyone. Eggplants are people too!

Short 4: Pikachu’s Pikaboo

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Pokemon Shorties: Pikachu’s Summer Vacation Review

Plot: Pikachu and all of Ash, Misty and Brock’s Pokemon are on vacation in a local park designed for Pokemon only. Pikachu is tasked with watching Togepi, but while he tries to keep Togepi from crying, a group of rowdy and rude Pokemon start making trouble with him, Squirtle and Bulbasaur.

Breakdown: The movies had a tradition of putting a short film, starring Pikachu and usually not including the human characters for the most part, before each theatrical movie. This tradition has since stopped, and seems to have stopped around Movie 06, but there are many Pokemon shorts out there still being made to this day either for no reason or special occasions.

I’ve always been kinda blasé about the shorts. They’re usually cute and harmless, but they’re not particularly interesting. Sometimes, the shorts are used to introduce new Pokemon from the next gen as teasers. For example, Marill and Snubbull being in this short, Elekid and Bellossom being in the second etc. Once you’re introduced to that generation, though, there’s really no hook anymore. These shorts are usually enjoyable, I just can’t say I’m particularly in love with any of them.

I won’t do a Sub/Dub Comparison of the short because the one on Dogasu’s Backpack is already very thorough. That being said, the two main changes between the dubbed version and the subbed seems to be the change in narrator and the lack of end credits, which were removed because 4Kids didn’t want people walking out of the theater thinking the movie was over. Though that may seem dumb, apparently it actually was an issue with parents even without the credits, and their children had to tell them that the movie was just coming up after the short…wow.

Another reason I won’t compare these shorts is mostly because, well, I can’t. Many of them aren’t readily available in both subbed (or just raw Japanese) and dubbed versions.

Also, there’s not entirely much point. These shorts consist of 99% Pokemon antics while the humans are away for nearly all of the short. Unless you’re noting music changes, which I tend not to bother with, there’s usually not much there to compare anyway. You can pretty much guess what they’re saying in the scenes with the humans if the short isn’t in English.

Without further ado, the short that accompanied Pokemon Movie 01, Pikachu’s (Summer) Vacation! As a note, I am working off of the English dubbed version of this short.

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Ash, Misty and Brock are dropping off their Pokemon at some Pokemon park for the day to have a short break while they go off and do whatever.

We quickly get the title screen and our opening song “I Need a Vacation,” which is a fairly lame song, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that, despite going years between viewings of this short, I still get this song stuck in my head randomly. It may be lame, but it’s a bop.

The whole opening is just them letting out their Pokemon and the Pokemon walking into the park. Charizard is looking creepily happy through the whole thing, too. It’s just so odd to see him smiling so much.

We hear our narrator and, no, it’s not our regular TV series narrator….It’s Dexter.

I wish. I mean Dexter, the Pokedex….How is this even working? Ash LEFT. How is the Pokedex recording and studying Pikachu and the others if it’s not there?

According to the comparison, the original had a nice motherly lady narrator. Quite the drastic change.

The Pokemon rush off to have fun while Pikachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Togepi stay behind…..because no one….likes…Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto does appear in this short, in the opening and later when they’re trying to help Charizard. That’s it. It does nothing besides that. What do the writers have against poor Pidgeotto?

Togepi’s hungry so it starts crying. Pikachu cheers it up a bit by making funny faces. Squirtle pushes Pikachu out of the way and tries to help by making faces too, but it just upsets Togepi. Pikachu goes back to making more faces, but to no avail this time.

Squirtle, defeated, goes off and spots an apple in a tree. They get Bulbasaur to cut it down using its Razor Leaf, but before they can retrieve it, Psyduck grabs it and eats it in one bite……Holy crap. Psyduck doesn’t even have teeth!

Togepi continues to cry, and Bulbasaur decides to cheer it up by grabbing it with its Vine Whip and singing to Togepi as it rocks it back and forth. It quickly cheers Togepi up. This is an absolutely adorable scene, and definitely one of the more memorable moments in the short.

We get these somewhat odd transitions that showcase certain Pokemon going across the screen. The first is this trippy Bellsprout one where we get mirror images of a Bellsprout and odd earthy music as it slowly comes into frame and says its name over and over…..It’s….weird.

Cut to Togepi sleeping on a…rock-chair? The others are breathing a sigh of relief that Togepi’s fine now, but it’s still hungry. You’re never going to find a way to feed it? What piss poor Pokemon park where Pokemon are meant to be by themselves the entire time doesn’t have any food source around?

However, the silence is disturbed by four unfamiliar Pokemon; a Cubone, a Marill, a Snubbull and a Raichu, also known as “far superior Pikachu.”

The laughter and whatnot is causing Togepi to stir in its sleep, so Pikachu tries to tell them to please keep it down. This only upsets the unruly Pokemon. As they get louder, Togepi wakes up, which draws Squirtle and Bulbasaur to face off against the group.

Pikachu doesn’t want to fight, and Dexter says that Pikachu’s saying “We should set a good example for the baby!”…..Wait, what!? Dexter knows how to translate Pokemon speech?! How!? That raises so many questions and possibly creates a lot of continuity issues.

Whatever. Togepi starts to wander off. It’s about to crawl across a log bridge, and Pikachu takes chase.

We get another weird transition where we see all of the Water Pokemon underwater, not moving, as they just pan upwards. Magikarp then blows bubbles in our faces and it’s the next scene.

Well, technically it’s the same scene because we just cut back to Pikachu chasing Togepi on the log.

While chasing down Togepi on the log, the log starts to roll. Pikachu starts freaking out, but Togepi just finds it fun. Pikachu falls into the river below and watches the log roll and fall into the water too. No worries, though. Togepi…magically jumped off the log and made it safely to the other side of the river off-camera.

We then get the awesome Slowpoke transition. It’s just Slowpoke saying its name while drawing out the ‘Slow’ part, but it’s my favorite transition of the short. There’s just something about it that’s really entertaining to me.

Meanwhile, Squirtle and Snubbull have a ‘see how far we can puff our chests out for no reason’ contest, but Squirtle loses and the other Pokemon laugh at him.

Bulbasaur then squares off against Snubbull by instigating a staring contest. He wins by making Snubbull dizzy by spinning its eyes round and round…..it’s a little freaky now that I think about it.

Things start getting out of hand again, and Marill and Squirtle face off as Pikachu and Togepi return.

We get a Primeape transition, which is pretty okay. It’s just a bunch of grunting to rhythmic music, but it’s catchy.

Cut to a big pool where Marill and Squirtle are prepping to have a race. It’s here where Dexter starts getting irritating. I can tell what’s going on from watching. It’s not complicated, and I don’t need to know these insipid tidbits about Pokemon that are also obvious.

The race is about to start, using an Electrode’s explosion as the starting gun. Love how happy Electrode seems afterward. Like ‘Heheh, guys did you see that? Awesome.’

Accompanying the race is a pop song ‘Catch Me if You Can.’ Again, lame pop-ish song, but it’s still a bit of an earworm.

I find this race to be the best part of this short. There are all sorts of funny moments.

Marill and Squirtle are neck and neck at first, but Marill gets a bit of a lead by diving underwater. However, this leads him to bump into a Starmie who Water Guns him back into a wall. Squirtle gains the lead as his friends cheer behind him.

I love this shot.

From Raichu’s expression to the fact that they somehow have a Squirtle flag, this shot is just awesome.

Squirtle gains the lead, but is suddenly sent backwards as a Goldeen swims under him….I’m not sure if this is Misty’s Goldeen, but I like to think so. “This is what you get for eating up all the Water Pokemon screentime, you ass!”

Squirtle tries its hardest to regain his lead, but when he reaches the wall, Marill has not only already won, he got up on top of the wall to celebrate with the others. This is weird, because, like half a second before he hits the wall, you can see Bulbasaur and the others still cheering and smiling. Why would they be doing that if it lost so badly that Marill actually had time to climb up onto the wall and start celebrating?

And HEY LOOK A TANGELA! I love Tangela! Too bad it gets featured in the show about as much as Porygon.

You’ll also notice on the balloon is Jigglypuff and its signature microphone. It’s not announcing anything, but it’s there as an unnoticeable cameo.

We then get an Exeggutor and Oddish transition that is boring.

Cut back to the two groups still harboring extremely harsh tensions. Raichu tries intimidation by making sparks come out of his cheeks, but this scares Togepi and makes it cry.

Pikachu tries to pacify Togepi, but Raichu shocks him and Togepi while they all laugh….Why is Raichu always made out to be a prick? First Lt. Surge’s Raichu now this. Raichu doesn’t show up much in the show, yet it seems like he’s consistently made out to be an ass in every appearance.

This pisses Pikachu off, so he challenges Raichu. They stick their cheeks together while making sparks and….somehow get stuck-ish or something, I don’t know, magnetism? And they start running together at high speeds while not caring about who or what they’re plowing into in the process.

We get a Diglett/Dugtrio transition that’s less boring than the last one, but still not entertaining.

Cut to somewhere else in the park where Meowth, Arbok and Weezing are also on vacation….Wow, how convenient. I’d say they were taking a note from Ash and the others, but if they knew Ash and the others just let out their Pokemon in some open area and left for hours, you’d think they’d see this as a huge opportunity to steal Pikachu as well as the rest of their Pokemon. Hell, this park as a whole seems unmonitored by humans. Team Rocket may actually have a shot of stealing stuff here.

Also, where are Lickitung and Victreebel? Do they get no vacation?

Raichu and Pikachu plow through them and continue running when we get a Farfetch’d transition. They plow through a Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan who are training before we get a Chansey transition.

Cut to Charizard who is napping. Raichu and Pikachu run over his tail, which causes him to chase after the two. When they start taking the lead, Charizard starts treating it like a race. Charizard runs out in front, cheers and flaps his wings, which causes Raichu and Pikachu to be knocked off the cliff. They fall into the belly of a Snorlax and land on the ground, only to have Snorlax roll over and crush them. They get out, but quickly fall over, too exhausted to go on.

However, Charizard’s hopped up and starts causing chaos. He flies a few inches above the group to pick on them, but doesn’t watch where he’s going and crashes into some of the nearby play…things and gets his head stuck in a pipe.

Charizard’s roaring in panic, and Meowth, who has moved with Arbok and Weezing to a cliff directly above the pipe, tells Charizard to be quiet. He’s rewarded by Charizard Flamethrowering in the pipe, which is redirected upwards through another pipe, burning Meowth’s face.

We then get a weird Magnemite transition that is constantly fading to black while adding more Magnemite to the picture.

We finally see the rest of Ash, Misty’s and Brock’s Pokemon show up with a rope to try to pull Charizard free. They try their hardest, but Charizard stomps his foot down and causes the other to fall down.

Aww, look at Vulpix helping! ❤

The other group laughs at them and Charizard starts crying…Not magical tears, mind you. Just regular ones.

Pikachu pleads with the other group for help, and, hey, this might actually be one situation where a translation would’ve been somewhat helpful, but Dexter’s been asleep at the wheel since the swimming race. Maybe I hurt its feelings.

Raichu, Snubbull and Marill discuss if they should help them, and they say yes, but Cubone refuses.

They give it another shot while Cubone watches. They try in vain to get Charizard out, and Dexter decides to chime in again saying “Cubone has earned its classification as the ‘Lonely Pokemon’ by caring only about itself.”

…..Uhh….Noooooooooooo. Every Pokedex entry for Cubone states that it’s called the ‘Lonely Pokemon’ because its mother was killed by Team Rocket or simply died shortly after its baby was born.

In its sorrow, it wears the skull of its mother on its head. There’s also several depressing notes such as the skull having stains on it due to Cubone’s tears and crying as it sees the likeness of its mother in the moon. Don’t BS a different explanation as to why he’s the ‘Lonely Pokemon’ just because….because…I actually have no idea why. 4Kids is just a prick.

Cubone eventually decides to help, and they manage to get Charizard unstuck….I still don’t get this. Cubone hasn’t done anything but laugh and cheer this entire short but suddenly the fate of Charizard rests on its shoulders? Also, I love how a Cubone makes the difference here. Cubone barely has hands. An Onix…..AN ONIX is helping them, yet a Cubone makes all the difference in getting Charizard free.

Getting Charizard unstuck causes Pikachu and the others to fly backwards while Charizard and Psyduck (who keeps making everything more funny) go off in an entirely different direction for some reason….How would that work?

Meowth gets angry at the noise again, and this time he wants to shut them up with a bomb or I guess it would be a ‘blaster ball’. However, Charizard and Psyduck land on Meowth, causing the bomb to blow up on Meowth instead.

The other Pokemon cheer that they got Charizard unstuck and decided to fix what’s left of the park together.

Dexter says his analysis concludes that Pokemon are kind creatures by nature and prefer cooperation to confrontation….Okay, look, you can’t say ALL Pokemon are kind by nature. That’s just not true. And they learned that cooperation is better after working together towards a common goal and putting their differences aside. Plenty of Pokemon love to fight and compete, and some are actually assholes.

Also, Charizard is again happily helping the others with a big smile….Is he only a little brat when Ash is around? I mean, the only time he’s been mean here is when Pikachu and Raichu stepped on his tail and that’s understandable. Does Charizard just choose to be an ass when Ash is around because he dislikes him for one of the many reasons Ash is awful?

We get a pretty cute Jigglypuff transition before cutting back to the Pokemon having fun in the park. We see Charizard again happily playing with the others by letting them try to seesaw with him by jumping on one end of the board while he smiles and lays there. That’s pretty cute.

Dexter’s final note is that “Despite former uncertainties, Pokemon vacations are highly recommended.” What uncertainties? Just the fact that they ran into some douchey Pokemon? Welcome to life, Dexter.

Dexter deactivates, and we cut to all of the Pokemon watching the sunset. Ash calls out for Pikachu (and only Pikachu, of course) to come back because it’s time to leave. Misty calls out Goldeen, Staryu and Psyduck….and oddly enough she doesn’t call for Togepi….what the hell? Brock calls out for all of his Pokemon because I guess he’s the only one who cares.

As the others leave, Pikachu stops and turns back to say farewell to the other group. He shakes Snubbull’s paw, which is weird. Shouldn’t he have shaken Raichu’s paw? Raichu was Pikachu’s main rival here, and he’s seemingly the leader of this group. Snubbull was Bulbasaur’s rival and Marill was Squirtle’s.

Pikachu reunites with Ash and the short ends.

Bottom Line: Despite Dexter being somewhat intrusive, this is a really good start to the Pokemon shorts. I wish we had gotten to see more of the Pokemon we just don’t get to see very often like Goldeen, Zubat, Geodude and Pidgeotto, but they have to make the main ones the frontrunners….

Recommended Audience: It’s Pokemon. The most offensive we get here……I can’t even make a comparison joke, it’s that tame. The shorts always seem to be aimed at an even younger audience than usual anyway.

Short 2: Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure

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