Pokemon S01E46 Review: Welcome to Jurassic Park

Pokemon, Season 1, Episode 46: Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon / Resurrection? Fossil Pokemon

Ah, this was my favourite episode as a kid because it has dinosaurs! And dragons! Those things are cool! And, hell, it's a homage on The Lost World and Indiana Jones. And it's... it's actually a decent enough episode, not only focusing on the five fossil Pokemon from the first generation, but also features Charmeleon's evolution to the ever-popular Charizard. Oh, and Gary has a minor role, cosplaying Indiana Jones and digging up Pokemon dung.

Anyway, our heroes end up arriving at Grandpa Canyon, where everyone is on a fossil rush trying to get fossils. And while this little homage to one of the biggest events in dinosaur discovery history, Team Rocket just wants to fucking blow up the entire ravine to uncover all the fossils. Ash's attempt to stop Team Rocket with a hilariously ineffective Squirtle ends up causing a localized explosion that buries Ash, Pikachu and Team Rocket, and we get a hilarious OHFUCK moment of realization from Pikachu and the rest of the cast when they realized what Pikachu did when he thundershocks the dynamite.

Only Squirtle manages to escape, and he, alongside Misty, Brock and a rare Geodude appearance starts trying to dig out the rock pile that covers the exit to the underground chamber that Ash and Team Rocket fell into. Meanwhile, they encounter a bunch of creepy-ass glowing eyes, and, of course, they have fallen into a forgotten world where the fossil Pokemon are still alive... but are awakened by the explosion! The hostile fossil Pokemon attack our heroes. Ash, forgetting that he has a couple other obedient Pokemon, ends up sending out Charmeleon who proceeds to nap on a rock. Arbok and Weezing get absolutely bullied by the swarm of Omanyte, Omastar and Kabuto; while Pikachu's attacks bounce off of Kabutops' armour.

Of course, the apex predator of this prehistoric ecosystem shows up, and it's motherfucking Aerodactyl! It's actually a very effective way to build up Aerodactyl's badassery by showing that even the two angry, scary Kabutops pussy out immediately in response to Aerodactyl's cry. Aerodactyl immediately grabs Ash as a hostage and flies out, with Pikachu and Charmeleon hanging on to Aerodactyl's tail.

Charmeleon and Aerodactyl stand off against each other, with Charmeleon really wanting to fight this seemingly far more powerful opponent (yeah but you did get your ass handed by a Parasect with no actual fighting capabilities two episodes ago). And then Charmeleon just... straight up evolves into the most overrated and popular final starter evolution, Charizard! And, okay, it's actually pretty badass. The actual airborne battle between Charizard and Aerodactyl is relatively simple, mostly involving them flying around and flapping their big wings and Charizard shooting fire at Aerodactyl (not caring if he hits Ash).

Meanwhile, while all of this is going on, Jigglypuff has been looking at the pile of rocks that Brock and Misty are working on, thinking it's a stage, and I do like this just happening in the background. And... Misty convinces Jigglypuff to help take down Aerodactyl by singing, and it's the first of many, many times that Jigglypuff is going to interrupt a pretty exciting battle. Everyone gets drowsy and falls asleep, although Charizard manages to catch the falling Ash before he succumbs as well -- he's an asshole, but not 100% a dick. Aerodactyl falls back into the hole and covers it up... and after everyone wakes back up after the obligatory Jiggly-doodles, officer Jenny tells the crowd to disperse because the area is now fragile and that the giant Aerodactyl they all saw was part of Jigglypuff's dream. Oh, and Ash finds an egg, randomly, just because! Oh god, here comes the egg baby.

It's actually a pretty fantastic episode, one that might not explore a lot of its themes well and ends with the cop-out that is a Jigglypuff sequence, but we do get a lot of wonderful shots and moments for a pretty jam packed episode. I'm actually surprised, considering how bare-bones and simplistic most of the previous filler episodes are, how many they fit into this one. Charmeleon's evolution into a Charizard not just being something that they accomplish at the end of the episode, and actually in the climax, is definitely something new to this show, and it's a badass moment while it lasted.

A bit of an announcement after this episode... see, there aren't any good subbed versions of the Japanese audio after this, with most of the subbing work understandably going to newer seasons. But I still do want to review the first Pokemon season! So I'm going to dig out my old box sets and watch the dub versions, and rely on Bulbapedia to see what got changed. We'll see how things go after I go through the Indigo League season, though. 

Pokemon Index:

• Pokemon: Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Meowth, Squirtle, Weezing, Arbok, Kabuto, Omastar, Kabutops, Omanyte, Charmeleon, Geodude, Aerodactyl, Charizard 
• Humans: Misty, Ash, Brock, Gary, Jessie, James, Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy

Random Notes: 

• Charmeleon really didn't get its chance to shine, huh? I know they're just hurrying things along to quickly get from Charmander to Charizard, but poor, poor Charmeleon is honestly just brushed over very quickly. 
• Considering how casual people would be later on in the series about fossil Pokemon, the fact that we took time for Jenny to actually give a cover story about what happened was a bit bizarre. 
• The fossil rush is based on a real thing that happened with actual dinosaur bones.
• Kabutops is shown to be immune to electric attacks for some reason. Did they mix up Rock and Ground type again? Won't be the first time that the show's production team forgot that, admittedly. 
• Brock really should've used Onix to help dig out those rocks, huh? 
• So is it implied that Togepi is actually a fossil Pokemon, since Ash found the egg there?
• Gary's cheerleaders having A B C D E F scribbled on their faces is hilarious. Speaking of Gary... the show really has no idea what to do with him, huh? 
• Dub Changes:
• Some versions of the dub cuts out the scene of Meowth lighting the fuse, instead zooming into Meowth's face during the scene so the lighter is out of view. Explosives and dynamite are fine to portray, but a lighter? Heaven forbid!
• Misty's line about how Ash "shouldn't die on me" is changed to a "you still owe me a bike" joke in the dub.