Pokemon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back

Pokemon, the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back

Okay, I probably should've reviewed this movie way back when I was reviewing the Indigo League arc of the Pokemon anime, since there is a subtle background plotline with Giovanni and the mysterious armoured Mewtwo that takes place in the initial Indigo League arc of the anime. Should've, but didn't. 

Mostly because... I really was a bit overloaded with just how many changes were done to this movie. And unlike most anime material or even the Pokemon anime in general, I can't just go "well, the original one was better". And... yes, the original one was better, but the final dubbed English product was also honestly a very solid story in and of itself! Click here for a more in-depth comparison of the two different versions of the movies. The most important part, of course, is that they basically changed Mewtwo's motivations in the two versions of the movies.

Mostly, I was waiting for my full DVD version that included both English and Japanese versions of the movie to arrive, and it took quite a while. I finally managed to sit down and watch the Japanese version of the movie earlier this year... and not just the Japanese dialogue either. There's apparently a 'kanzenban' ('full') version, which adds some 10 minutes of screen-time to the beginning of the movie that is based on a radio drama that tied into the story of the movie. 

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So, first, let's talk about....

The Uncut Story of Mewtwo's Origin!

And this one is honestly kind of... interesting. It starts off basically expanding the prologue we already know from the original version of Mewtwo Strikes Back, showing Dr. Fuji actually going to the South American mysterious jungle to hunt down the original Pokemon, Mew. But turns out that Dr. Fuji's whole deal is that he's trying to use Mew to resurrect, recreate or clone his deceased daughter, Ai. And after getting the sample of Mew's fur, Dr. Fuji is able to not only clone Mew and create Mewtwo, but also create clones of Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle.

The young Mewtwo is thought to be non-conscious, but in reality it's able to use its psychic powers to hear the thoughts of the three starter clones... but also Ai-two, the clone of Ai. There's a fair amount of philosophical self-questioning on Mewtwo's part, as his interactions with Ai-two and the three starter clones have him questioning who he is and what he is; and what the difference between humans and Pokemons are. Dr. Fuji himself also get a flashback where he had been trying to clone his dead daughter even before the Mewtwo Project, and this attempt ends up driving away his wife, who angrily yells that he needs to move on and accept their daughter's deaths.  

And the whole short prologue is just such a melancholic story framed by this, and it gets surprisingly sadder from then on -- Ai-two shows the young Mewtwo scenes from her own memory and it's a lot of cute bonding moments there, but then in a discussion how the moon keeps people from being afraid of the dark, everyone dies. No, it's not implied, the scientists talk about how the Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle clones are 'failures', and we get to see them disappear from Mewtwo's mind-psyche one by one, and the last one to go was in visible panic. Ai-two herself also expires shortly afterwards, telling Mewtwo goodbye and the poor genetic-created psychic Pokemon panics and feels sorrow and grief...

And then as Mewtwo's psychic power activates, Dr. Fuji's team ends up calming Mewtwo down by injecting an anesthetic and a memory-wiping serum. The movie then continues as most of us remember it, with Mewtwo awakening in the lab and questioning his existence, completely forgetting all the nice parts of humanity that he's experienced, or that he's learned what tears are and all that jazz.  

And... and holy crap! It's a pretty fucking depressing twenty minutes to watch. It's exactly the sort of story that a tube-grown psychic superweapon clone would go through, and in some aspects, it also helps to put in frame some of Mewtwo's later actions in the movie when we realize that he's essentially an artificially-grown child who's still trying to grapple with loss and just why he is created. But man, the fact that he gets amnesia at the end of this prologue really stings, doesn't it? Because it does mean that while it's a cool chunk of information to us, the viewer, Mewtwo himself doesn't remember anything that happens here. It's kind of a huge wasted effort, honestly -- I've never really cared for the amnesia trope in anime, and I really wished that they had simply rewritten some of the scenes so that it makes sense that they drive Mewtwo's actions in the movie proper, but the fact that he doesn't go into a monologue about his depressing and traumatic experience with death doesn't really affect the main movie. 

And as a side-note... holy shit, right? The Pokemon franchise in general barely deals with death at all, and the only times death have been brought up, I think, is in the Pokemon Adventures manga and even then it's Shonen-manga-style death where humans die in explosions and stuff. This doesn't just delve into the nastier aspects of cloning and genetic modification, it also has the surprisingly mature elements of Dr. Fuji's refusal to accept his daughter's deaths and turn to cloning experiments to bring her back.  Honestly, I actually did like the story of this little prologue, sans the amnesia bit at the end, but man does it feel so jarring placed next to the rest of this movie. 

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Mewtwo Strikes Back!

But hey. Here we are, starting with Mewtwo Strikes Back! I remember 1999 mostly because of this movie. No, I didn't get to watch it in the theaters, but my parents got a VCD of this movie and I watched it so many times. I wasn't really smart enough to really know about how the animation of this movie was more top-notch (it was), how it had a bigger budget for more Pokemon on-screen and more action scenes, and how its plot was significantly more 'epic' in scale compared to a typical Pokemon episode. 

And, yes, twenty years later and I know that there are a lot of narrative fumbles in the movie. There's also a lot of debate on whether the original existentialism story and motivation for Mewtwo, or the anti-violence/anti-racism message given by the dub is the superior story. Both have merits for sure. But man, I still remember 1999 when I first saw this Mewtwo fellow in a tube, asking the world "who am I?" This is Pokemon #150, the one that is at the absolute end of the original Pokedex, the one that we have glimpsed hidden in a fancy space-suit armour throughout several episodes in the anime... and what a great first showcase, huh? Mewtwo awakens in the lab, blows up the island and most definitively killed all the scientists there in the explosion, and is quickly identified as the 'strongest Pokemon'. 

Then good ol' Team Rocket boss Giovanni shows up with his helicopter and his cat and offers to let Mewtwo focus his power. And I still remember just how much this little montage spoke to me as a child, of how easily Mewtwo one-shots everything in its path. The giant Onix? No problem. A horde of rampaging Tauros? Easy levitation. The most powerful Psychic Pokemon in the original 150, Alakazam? So overwhelmed that even his spoons get bent. Magneton? He gets shocked by his own electricity. Gary's Nidoking and Arcanine? Not even a contest. Yeah, again, it's a bit of a cheap trope, but it most certainly works so well in showcasing that Mewtwo and his fancy armour does deserve the title of 'strongest Pokemon'. And, well, depending on the version you watch, this ends up either being megalomania (English dub) or Mewtwo being utterly uncertain about his place in the world, and whether he's merely a shadow of Mew (Japanese version).

And, well, after one too many arguments with Giovanni and some self-introspection, Mewtwo blows up the Team Rocket base and flies off, absolutely disgusted with Giovanni, Dr. Fuji, and every other human he's met in his short life. 

And, well, that prologue most certainly had an effect on young me, because I can still remember so much from that short sequence of Mewtwo being a badass more than I can the rest of the movie, or indeed most of the entire Pokemon anime in general. 

We then get to the opening credits, which, in a trend started off by this movie, will always feature Ash fighting against a random trainer with his team while the opening theme song plays in the background. In this case, this also features the debut of Generation II Pokemon Donphan, which was another thing that blindsided me as a kid and really made me go "holy shit that is so cool". Again, this mostly serves to showcase Ash's team -- Pikachu, Squirtle and Bulbasaur (who gets possibly the coolest Solarbeam in the Kanto era) -- and what they can do. 

A Dragonite interrupts their little picnic and gives them an invitation to arrive to New Island, setting off the main plot of the movie. Team Rocket, being Team Rocket, also intercepts the letter. We later get to see that Mewtwo has caused a massive storm around the nearby port, which is honestly pretty cool. In addition to Nurse Joy having been MIA in the city, Team Ash gets to see that there's a lot of Pokemon trainers gathered around the pier, and many of them are most certainly hardy enough and very willing to leap into action and brave the storm to get into the mysterious invitation where all the 'strongest trainers' are invited to. The animation at this point is kinda cool, with the stormy waters and everything, and after some comedic moments involving Team Rocket masquerading as a Viking rowboat (yeah I don't know) Team Ash manage to swim the rest of the way to New Island with Squirtle and Staryu. 

Also, Mew, the original Pokemon and the one that Mewtwo is cloned off of, shows up and playfully follows Team Rocket as they arrive on a different part of New Island. As a kid I've always found this subplot bizarrely distracting beyond giving Team Rocket something to do, but now I know that this is basically a way for exposition to happen -- Team Rocket and Mew gets to see a bunch of the stuff that happens at the beginning of the movie, and presumably it's what would lead to Mew eventually deciding to step in. 

Team Ash and company get to see three other Pokemon trainers -- Neesha/Sweet, Fergus/Umio and Corey/Sorao. And they all have full teams of mostly-evolved Pokemon, including some fully-evolved starters and pretty impressive ones like Gyarados or Nidoqueen. Again, back in the original 150, these honestly show off a bunch of pretty cool fully-realized teams, intended to make Mewtwo feel so much more impressive when he bitch-slaps them down. 

And Mewtwo, of course, shows up and does exactly that. And to be fair, a lot of the other trainers do act like assholes, talking down to Mewtwo because he's a Pokemon and trying to capture him. Fergus gets tossed around the room, and his attempt to counteract with his Gyarados and a Hyper Beam gets said attack reflected back at Gyarados. And Mewtwo, well... he just gives this speech about how humans are all cruel and abrasive, and how they enslave weak Pokemon who choose to associate with humans. Oh, and how humans have no right to rule the world. (In the English dub, Mewtwo declares that he's the only one fit to rule the world, but the Japanese version has him be uncertain about his role in things)

While all of this is going on, Team Rocket (and, unbeknownst to them, Mew) find out the cloning machines deep in the castle, as well as cloned versions of Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise. Who have blotches on their skin -- thanks to the prologue, we now know that Mewtwo probably at some point re-cloned his dead friends. Even though... he's supposed to be amnesiac? Okay, sure. They accidentally activate the automated machine, hear some recorded dialogue from Dr. Fuji, and Meowth gets cloned. 

Mewtwo then summons Venusaur-two, Charizard-two and Blastoise-two, in order to show off that his cloned Pokemon are actually more powerful than 'natural' or 'original' Pokemon, leading the trainers to an arena. We get another pretty cool scene, where Neesha, Corey and Ash use their own respective Blastoise, Venusaur and Charizard to fight against Mewtwo. Also cool is when Charizard is initially released, where he tries to flamethrower Mewtwo and the fire attack gets easily blocked by Mewtwo's manipulation of water. Obviously, since Charizard is part of the main cast, the Charizard-vs-Charizard-two fight is the longest one, featuring a very cool Seismic Toss. 

Mewtwo then shows off his master plan, which is creating a bunch of black-coloured Mewtwo Balls that go around and capturing everyone else's Pokemon. This freaked me out as a kid, and I'm not sure why. I guess it's so ingrained in me from playing the video games that you can't steal anyone else's Pokemon and they can't steal yours? Everyone's Pokemon gets stolen and there's nothing you can do to avoid it! Even the Pokemon used by our heroes! Vulpix, Psyduck, Charizard, Bulbasaur, Squirtle... there's an admittedly funny bit where Ash uses Pokeballs to recall Bulbasaur and Squirtle, but then the Mewtwo Balls just capture those balls instead. We get an obviously long scene of Pikachu and Ash trying their best to fight the swarm, but Pikachu gets captured nonetheless. Ash gets dragged down into the cloning facility while gripping Pikachu's ball, while Mewtwo makes a speech -- depending on the version you watch, he either wants to prove the clones' superiority by making more powerful clones (the original), or to destroy the world with psychic storms and rule the world with his clones (the English dub). Either way, Mewtwo has some serious issues about being a clone and his worth, and whether the clones/copies have a right to live in the world

The cloning devices make clones of all of the captured Pokemon, but Ash's interference when he gets dragged into the cloning device causes an explosion that frees all of the captured Pokemon. Meanwhile, the clones are all released and stride off to join Mewtwo. Can I just say just how absolutely cool the animation was for the Pokemon gooping out of the lower part of the cloning tubes? They could've had the tubes open up their glass windows normally, but no, there's this weird slime-goop thing that they walk through. 

Which leads to the final battle. Mewtwo is surrounded by his army of cloned Pokemon, but then we get a very badass shot of Ash and the army of 'originals' walking out of the flames. Ash tries to charge Mewtwo, but he gets blasted away and saved by the pink psychic bubbles of Mew. Faced with the original that he is imperfectly cloned off of, Mewtwo and Mew engage in battle both with their psychic moves and some philosophical yelling. And this is a pretty cool shot -- the two god-like Mewtwo and Mew fighting in the air, while the rest of the Pokemon fight against their clones on the ground. 

Everyone is fighting savagely and this is more poignant in the Japanese version, I feel, which doesn't have 'Brother My Brother' playing in the background, and just has the pained roarings of the Pokemon as they clash and fall and hurt each other. The only ones that refuse to fight are Ash's Pikachu and both Meowths. 

Speaking of 'Brother My Brother'... I really don't have much against the song, but something I never quite realized until I watched the Japanese version is that the original Mewtwo Strikes Back has some really great orchestral and instrumental pieces that, if memory serves right, got replaced with music from the anime in the English version? I guess they had music copyright problems or something?

It's just... kind of a shame that the climax feels so shoehorned in. Mewtwo and Mew unleash their greatest psychic blasts at each other. Ash, angered at the violence, runs in the path of the blasts, and gets turned into stone. Pikachu goes through a very sad sequence of trying to wake Ash up, and cries, and all the original and clone Pokemon all stop fighting and cry together. Somehow, the tears come together, magically revive Ash, and brings him back to life. Mewtwo gets and epiphany about how the circumstances of creation are irrelevant, realizes that all life deserves to live, then, uh... psychically takes all the clones, wipes everyone's memory, and returns them back to the pier. 

It sure is a self-contained ending, but I honestly always felt kind of cheated out. There's certainly a lot of merit in having the ending not end with a huge showdown against Mewtwo, but basically having him see reason. Whether it's the existence themes of the original Japanese version, or the anti-violence themes of the English dub, I certainly approve that Mew or Ash's actions or Ash and Pikachu's bond or whatever is what shakes Mewtwo out of his plans. But on the other hand... I don't know. Between the instant-amnesia handwave as to why no one remembers Mewtwo, or the honestly rather silly revival tears (which I found to be a bizarre deus ex machina even as a child).

And rewatching the movie twenty years older than I was... it's honestly got a lot of holes in it. The story is certainly ambitious at how cerebral it intends to be, and how it tries to tackle some rather mature themes, but a good chunk of the movie is just building up how badass Mewtwo is, and the ending is rather clunky and rushed. The voice acting for Mewtwo really makes the movie work for both Japanese and English versions of the movie, and the animation was certainly fancy and stellar... but at the same time, it really doesn't fill up the holes in the narrative storytelling. And as much as I adore the 'Mewtwo Origin' prologue, the movie itself really doesn't build up much from that, does it? Neither does the Team Rocket origin of Mewtwo, for that matter, other than giving Mewtwo a skewed look at what humanity is.

Ultimately, I honestly did enjoy the Japanese version a lot more -- the story of Mewtwo asking to the world who and what he is ends up being so much more compelling to me. I can see why they decided to change it when localizing it, because it'd probably be a bit too hard for kiddies to wrap their minds around, and it's certainly not butchered the way that 4Kids One Piece or the US release of Digimon: The Movie ended up becoming... but yeah. It's certainly a pretty enjoyable cornerstone of Pokemon's history for sure. 

Featured Characters:

• Pokemon: Mankey, Mew, Butterfree, Mewtwo, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Persian, Onix, Tauros, Alakazam, Magneton, Nidoking, Arcanine, Togepi, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Donphan, Machamp, Squirtle, Pinsir, Golem, Venomoth, Meowth, Fearow, Dragonite, Raticate, Kingler, Venonat, Electabuzz, Caterpie, Poliwhirl, Oddish, Nidorino, Weedle, Growlithe, Spearow, Sandshrew, Vileplume, Bellsprout, Slowpoke, Ekans, Raichu, Drowzee, Jigglypuff, Horsea, Pidgeot, Gyarados, Dewgong, Staryu, Weezing, Wigglytuff, Vulpix, Psyduck, Scyther, Hitmonlee, Venusaur, Sandslash, Rhyhorn, Seadra, Nidoqueen, Golduck, Tentacruel, Vaporeon, Rapidash, Nintetales, Blastoise
• Humans: Dr. Fuji, Ai-two, Giovanni, Gary, Brock, Misty, Ash, Raymond, Jessie, James, Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, Miranda, Fergus, Neesha, Corey

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Random Notes:

• The theatrical airing of this movie featured an extra short, "Pikachu's Vacation". All Pokemon movies thereafter are always 'bundled' with such a short, which featured minimal human characters and almost exclusively just Pokemon. Pikachu and company get into hijinks in a huge park, this short is most notable for debuting Generation II Pokemon Marill and Snubbull. 
• In addition, Mewtwo Strikes Back also debuts Donphan, which was a huge 'what the fuck is that thing' moment for a little me. What is that huge elephant-rhino thing that's able to transform into a wheel, it looks so god damn cool and isn't anywhere in my 151 full Pokemon list!
• Among the trainers that we see flying off from the pier, there's a lady on a Fearow that never shows up again. I guess she straight-up got killed by the storm? 
• This is one of the few times in the earlier Pokemon seasons where nicknames are used, which threw me for a loop back in '99 when I first watched the movie. "Bruteroot" is "Bernard" in the Japanese version, and "Shellshocker" is "Kusukusu". 
• Raymond totally yells "OH MY GOD!" in the original Japanese version after Pikachu takes out three of his Pokemon at once. 
• From the anime's standpoint, this movie takes place after episode 65, which shows Mewtwo escaping from Team Rocket's Headquarters. 
• It was released in Japan between episode 54 and 55 instead, however, because of how the anime was placed on hiatus after the Porygon episode incident putting the anime in hiatus for months. 
• Dub Changes: (Dogasu's Backpack has a very much more in-depth dissection and comparison between the two versions of the movie)
• The English dub changes a lot about Mewtwo's motivations and the central themes debated between Mewtwo and Mew/the humans. The Japanese version had a heavy ethical theme of existensialism, and whether the clones have a right to exist despite being unnaturally created (there are lines of dialogue where Mewtwo asks if he's created by humans instead of God). The English dub changes it into themes revolving around Mewtwo being seeped in violence due to his upbringing, and learning about anti-violence. Mewtwo, in particular, is a lot more arrogant and boastful about his superiority and powers over humankind and natural Pokemon; whereas in the Japanese version he's confused about his worth as a clone.
• In particular, the English dub makes Mewtwo a bit more megalomaniacal -- his "the reign of Mewtwo will soon begin" is this in the Japanese version: "This is not an attack, or a declaration of war... but against all of you who brought me into the world, I will strike back." Thus, Mewtwo strikes back!
• Giovanni is never referred to by name in the Japanese version, but the English dub makes his identity explicit. 
• Giovanni's meeting with Mewtwo has Giovanni talk about how humans are superior to Pokemon in the Japanese version, while the English dub has Giovanni be more conniving and pretending to be a valuable partner. 
• The English dub adds some foreshadowing about Pokemon tears reviving people early on in the movie.
• In the original version, the clone Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise seemed to arrive on the stage of their own will, whereas the dub makes it seem like Mewtwo summoned them.
• Mewtwo's end-game is just to make more powerful clones in the original version, but the English dub adds an extra 'I will use my storms to destroy the world' to make him more villainous, I guess. 
• Mew is a bit more confrontational in the original version, talking about how the 'originals' will not lose to the copies, while the dub has Mew talk about how shows of force prove nothing, and real strength comes from within. 
• The dub adds a line where Mewtwo 'locks' everyone's special moves to force them to fight with physical force. This isn't there in the original. 
• The original Meowth/Meowth-two dialogue in the Japanese version just has them look at the moon, a reference to the original ending them. The dub has Meowth think about how their method of creation really isn't that different since they live under the same sky. 
• The English dubs get several Pokemon referred to by the wrong names -- Pidgeot gets called Pidgeotto; Scyther is called Alakazam; and Sandslash is called Sandshrew. A commentary by the dubbing team noted that they left the Scyther/Alakazam error as it being Team Rocket themselves goofing up. 
• Errors:
• The animation of Machamp being sent out by Raymond is sent out twice, but this scene is fixed for most re-releases of the movie.
• Pikachu's electric-attacks takes out a Golem in the music prologue, which shouldn't happen since Golem is Ground-type. In the 3D remake of the movie, Golem is replaced with a Drowzee. 
• When Fergus/Umio sends out Gyarados, its lips are briefly blue instead of yellow. 
• When Fergus runs over after Mewtwo knocks back Gyarados, his Nidoqueen is miscoloured as Nidoking. 
• When Ash walks out with the army of Pokemon, the Rapidash is shown without flames. This one was fixed in later releases.