So, Pokemon is a huge part of my life. It hasn’t always been an obsession of mine, but it did start out that way. I got into the franchise really early on, when the anime was still in its first run on Kids WB, and Ash was still moving through Viridian forest. I didn’t really play the games until Generation 2 came out, but I did waste endless amounts of time drawing the various Pocket Monsters that I was familiar with. I was pretty young at the time, the internet wasn’t nearly as widespread as it is today, and it wasn’t that easy to get an official list of all 150 pokemon, so I was watching the show and all related media religiously to memorize as many of them as possible. I lost interest in the franchise a little ways into Generation 3, at which point I was reaching the age where being the only person in my school who was still into this waning little kids’ show was starting to feel embarrassing. I kinda played the next few games, but pretty much gave up when they moved to the 3DS, as I didn’t feel like buying an entirely new handheld system just to play through story mode once and lose interest.

Pokemon always retained a place of importance in my heart, and I never stopped loving my favorite pokemon(Bulbasaur, bitches), but I never really got back into the swing of things until Sword and Shield hit the Switch... And even then, I didn’t buy a copy until around a year in, when Home opened up and I was finally able to own a Bulbasaur. From there, if I may quote John Wick, “Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.” I bought Shining Pearl, I skipped Legends Arceus(sorry) and now for the first time in over 20 years, I find myself on the edge of my seat as a brand new generation is around the corner, and every new bit of information about Scarlet and Violet is just the most important damn thing ever. True, for some of the more loyal fans, this has become a regular thing, but for me? I haven’t felt this anxious about an upcoming Pokemon release since the onset of Generation 2, and if you’re as old and decrepit as I am, you might also remember just how crazy it was to see 100 new pokemon added to the franchise for the first time ever.

Generation 2 was teased hardcore. The anime obviously played its part, what with the first appearance of Ho-oh and the introduction of Togepi to the main cast, but the online fandom was on fucking crack throughout the entire process. You’ve probably heard of the internet legend “Pikablu,” where an image of Merril leaked online and everybody thought it was a new water evolution for Pikachu, but I lived through that shit, and you have NO idea. I used to be a huge fan of this fanfic called Pokemon Neo, which came out just before all of this was announced. The main character had a newborn baby Pikachu(not Pichu) and then when everything hit the fan a few chapters in, she had to change the name to Pokemon Conclave(because there were new cards named Neo) and when she decided to feature a baby Clefairy later in, the new Pokemon hadn't been named yet, so she named it Clefeather before going back years later to edit and rename it Cleffa.

So yeah, if you weren't there for the online Generation 2 hype, you have no idea how impactful every single reveal was. Snubbul leaked in a magazine, Donphan featured in the first movie(poorly, I’ll admit), and then you had the second movie. I may not have given it a very high critical score when I reviewed it all those years ago, but make no mistake, the second Pokemon movie is my favorite by far, and if I ever start to revisit my old reviews, that’s one of the ones I need to redo. If this ever happens, I promise I will be less of a stick in the mud, let more of my personal feelings into the piece, and give it a higher score. But for now, I think I’m going to do the next best thing, and review one of my favorite parts of the second movie... The short that came attached to it, Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure.

Now, even though I was a kid at the time, I never really liked the first movie, and I especially never liked the short it came with, Pikachu’s vacation. It officially introduced Snubbull, and I do like Snubbul, but not enough to enjoy the lackluster story of Pikachu and his friends having some arbitrary beef with Raichu and his friends. Much like the second movie had a far more gripping plot and cinematic presentation than the first movie, I found the story of Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure to be far more engaging than the Vacation plot, which I found kind of boring, not gonna lie. It also doesn’t hurt that the second movie, along with this short, took place during the Orange Islands arc, which is by far my favorite arc in the entire Pokemon anime(what little of it I’ve seen). I like Tracy more than Brock, come at me. I like seeing the cast travel astride Lapras more than I like seeing them walk through forests, I like seeing them visit islands instead of town after town, and I liked how creative and unique all the gym battles were. I think one of the reasons I wound up falling off was because Johto Journeys just didn’t live up to the Orange Islands, not gonna lie.

Before I go into the plot of Rescue Adventure, there’s a little gag in the opening that I don’t think was intentional, but I’ve never been mature enough to let it slide. The short starts with Ash, Misty and Tracey taking a nap in silhouette at the base of a tree. Ash says “I sure could use a rest,” while his shadow is kind of groping Misty’s shadow’s chest, and I could never resist the urge to intentionally mishear him as “I sure could use a breast.” I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m a slave to my gross sense of humor.

Anyway, Togepi leaves the group to follow a swarm of Lediba... I don’t remember for sure, but I’m pretty sure by this point the list of new additions to the second generation had been released, and now it was just a matter of seeing everything get officially introduced... And Togepi accidentally falls down an ominous hole near the edge of a cliff. Pikachu and a few of the team’s other pokemon... Squirtle and Bulbasaur from him, Psyduck from Misty, and Merril and Venonat from Tracey... Follow Togepi, accidentally falling down themselves, and they all tumble down a long, winding hole through some slightly repetitive animation loops to the tune of a terrible pop song from a long defunct terrible pop band. Don’t worry, unlike the first two movies, there’s only one of these in the short. They land in an expansive rainforest canopy environment where they meet Elekid... I never liked the idea of baby Pokemon, but to his credit, Elekid does look kind of cool, I like his little light socket prongs... And they find out that Togepi has accidentally replaced one of the heads of an exeggcute, so to get him back, they have to find the missing head!

Two things I’d like to call attention to right off the bat. First, Tracey’s pokemon have NOTHING to do in this short but tag along. I think Merril might have had to use a water gun once or twice, but holy shit, poor Venonat did not need to be here. It’s already one of the most forgettable generation 1 Pokemon, so bringing one in as part of a main character’s team was a wastefully generous move. Tracey eventually gets a Scyther, by the way. Second, I absolutely love the setting of this short. I enjoy every inch of this treetop environment; All the cool backgrounds they get to visit, all the different animation techniques they get to explore... There’s one part where the camera is moving through the trees to follow our heroes, and all these thick branches covered in random pokemon start moving across the screen in what has to be one of the cheapest visual effects ever, but I still enjoy it every time I see it. Eventually we also reach the cliffside, where a trio of Bellossom do a musical number, a bunch of other pokemon living in that ecosystem join in, and I feel like it’s one of those Pokemon moments that’s so iconic that even if you haven’t seen the short, you’ve seen this scene. They even pay homage to it in New Pokemon Snap.

There’s almost no stupid bullshit, which is weird for a pokemon... Anything. There’s no real dialogue outside of the prologue, the epilogue, and a pretty funny cameo from a lost Meowth. It feels like the animators were given an opportunity to really explore the setting and get creative, coming up with different encounters, biomes and more, finding different ways for the characters to move from place to place, as well as different dangers for them to face, all while neglecting to give Venonat anything to fucking do. I love this short. I can’t say I like it better than the second movie, but on a technicality, it’s a lot shorter, it had less opportunities to screw up, and they didn’t really have to write a lot of dialogue, so the chance that any of it would come out cringey was a lot slimmer. As short as the story may be, it has just enough of an epic feel to it, and is paced just fast enough, to not get boring and hold even the most fragile of attention spans.

At only around twenty minutes long, it’s not a huge time commitment, and while it’s not available on every Movie 2000 DVD, it is worth seeking out wherever you can find it. It’s a fun, simple, nostalgic short that I would personally recommend checking out if you’re looking for something to tide you over while you’re waiting for Scarlet and Violet to drop.

I give Pikachu’s Rescue Adventure a 7/10.