As an ongoing project, /r/movies will be posting Throwback Discussion threads weekly for the movies that came out this same weekend 25 years ago. As a reminder, Official Discussion threads are for discussing the movie and not for meta sub discussion.
Pokémon 3: The Movie – Spell of the Unown (2001)
Summary
Ash and his friends encounter the mysterious Unown, whose powers create an alternate reality around a young girl dealing with loss, leading to a battle to restore balance.
Director
Kunihiko Yuyama
Writer
Hideki Sonoda
Cast
- Veronica Taylor as Ash Ketchum (voice)
- Rachael Lillis as Misty / Jessie (voice)
- Eric Stuart as Brock / James (voice)
- Ikue Ōtani as Pikachu (voice)
- Lisa Ortiz as Molly Hale (voice)
Rotten Tomatoes: 47%
Metacritic: 22
VOD / Release
Theatrical release
Trailer
Official Trailer
by LiteraryBoner
15 Comments
When I watched the movie as a little kid those clear stairs they ran on with no guard rails freaked me out.
Charizard appearing and saving his boy still fills me with joy and awe after all these years
Oh wow, 47% audience rating on RT and 22 on metacritic. I guess I didn’t mind it back then as a Pokemon fan and 7. I also don’t remember much of the plot… except one part. Where Entei (or the w/e the Unknown creation was) says “You are MAMA!” and proceeds to kidnap Ash’s mom. In hindsight, yeah this movie is kinda bad.
I have great memories of renting this from the library and watching it at my Grandma’s house.
Entei? Wtf is Entei? That’s Papa.
Still consider it the best of all the Pokemon movies
Molly’s entire arc of moving past her tragic backstory and having to accept the real world over the fantasy one generated by the Unown always hits hard for me.
Especially in the final scene when Entei sacrifices himself to stop the Unown after her believing in him is what finally stops their threat
Favorite one.
Insane to me that Raikou was the only one that didn’t get a movie like Entei and Suicune. Also the Pichu Bros. short before this was great
This movie didn’t stick out in my memory because the talking pokemon was not a Slowking
The underwater battle with Misty was epic. I still get hyped listening to the music. It’s how I always wished the battles would go in the games.
This movie goes so hard. Charizard coming in is so peak
I still hear Pikachu headbutting Quagsire, that resounding GONG noise, whenever I listen to the theme from the movie.
…I should really pick up the CD soundtrack to the movie.
Did a recent rewatch of this one. Love the darker edge to this movie, but I feel like they shot themselves in the foot by showing what happens to Molly at the beginning with her father. I think it would have worked better to save that for the end and have it be a mystery what happened.
I will always have a special spot in my heart for the first, and love it the most.
But this is a legit decent movie and by far the best Pokemon movie.
It’s cool but Pokemon 2000 is still the GOAT Pokemon movie.