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FILM NOTES
Pokemon: The Movie 2000 arrived from Warner Bros. and Nintendo's expanding partnership with 4Kids Entertainment, riding the crest of the franchise's first theatrical wave in North America. Following hot on the heels of the original Pokemon movie's surprise box office success, this sequel, known in Japan as Mewtwo Strikes Back's follow-up "The Power of One," pushed the series into grander mythological territory with the legendary bird trio and Lugia. For a generation raised on the trading cards and the television series, this release was an event, a marker of just how far the phenomenon had traveled in barely two years.
This cell centers on Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, the inseparable pair at the heart of the entire franchise, shown together with Lugia, the legendary Guardian of the Seas whose presence anchors this film's mythology. Collectors prize Ash and Pikachu material above nearly anything else in Pokemon memorabilia, since their bond is the franchise's emotional core. Pairing them with Lugia signals one of the story's pivotal, larger-than-life passages, the kind of frame that anchors a reel in film history.
