randomize4:
Wow. I stoped watching these after the first movie. It's hard to believe it's still this popular.

It's Japan, pretty much everthing thats not popular everywhere else, is over there.

The first one was the only decent film, in my opinion.

2nd was pretty ok, and the third kinda lost the plot...

As to how they made it to twelve, I do not know. But, congratulations.

i still like pokemon ... alot

Therumancer:

I'd half expect that if we ever sent forward the best media our cultures had produced those three enduring classics would be on the American short list, and Mobile Suit Gundam, and a couple of the Pokemon movies (if not the whole series) would be somewhere on the Japanese ones.

Best media? Of course not, pop culture icons? Maybe along the same lines as Luke Skywalker is here. The huge success of Twilight and Transformers recently in the western world pretty much eradicates any pretence of superiority of our media over theirs. And Kurosawa's films are far too huge to be ignored, easily on par with Casanova and many other classics. Sure, cultural differences and the post-war focus on animation due to lack of funds and western actors/settings have led to a strange gulf between the cultures, but there's no need to be quite so disparaging.

Still, twelve films, wow. All I remember from the first two which I saw is that absolutely incredible song from Pokemon 2000 that some girl has to play to summon Lugia.

MalevolentJim:
Would it be ironic if the 13th one failed misreably?

Thank you. You absolutely made my day! /\\ Pure unfiltered awesome here!

Nice. Now Arceus is official.

This is Japan's Harry Potter I guess.

MalevolentJim:
Would it be ironic if the 13th one failed misreably?

ironic? i don't think so. funny? yes

Magnatek:

MalevolentJim:
Would it be ironic if the 13th one failed misreably?

No. With Arceus, they pretty much covered all of the Legendaries of the series, so I'm pretty sure that they're running out of new material.

They have to be. If they make a 13th movie, it would have to end the series and Ash might just possibly have a love interset by then. I mean jesus, 12 movies and god knows how TV episodes and the main hero of the show still doesn't have a girl? Come on.

Kind of on a side note here, but did you guys know ash ketchum was voiced by a girl (Sarah Natochenny)

Hardcore_gamer:
It's Japan what do you expect.

And just for the heck of it, here is a interesting fact: The boy and the star of the films/episodes is suppose to be 10 years old, there are only 365 days in a single year and yet the number of pokemon episodes featuring the boy vastly exceeds that number. So unless he has like 3 or 4 adventures a day, the whole thing makes next to no sense.

Good point because there's like what 1500 episodes at this point by now? Anyway the way I see it, Ash is two years older at the end of each group of films. So after movie 5 Pokemon Heros, he's 12. After movie 9 Temple of the Sea, he's 14. Again that's my assumtion, since in the 9th movie his voice gets deeper so he must of hit puberty somewhere between movies 8 and 9; so they are trying to make it seem like he is "growing up."
...
...
but I could be wrong.

cavsfan69:
Kind of on a side note here, but did you guys know ash ketchum was voiced by a girl (Sarah Natochenny)

WHA?!
...
Well, maybe that explains why they don't give Ash a love interset!

Hardcore_gamer:
It's Japan what do you expect.

And just for the heck of it, here is a interesting fact: The boy and the star of the films/episodes is suppose to be 10 years old, there are only 365 days in a single year and yet the number of pokemon episodes featuring the boy vastly exceeds that number. So unless he has like 3 or 4 adventures a day, the whole thing makes next to no sense.

You could say the same about The Simpsons but I guess they break the 4th wall often enough for it to be irrelevant.

There's 12 of these movies? I didn't even know there was a 2 through 11.

What the hell are they going to do now?

If they're finally going to do a movie about the Pokemon-equivalent of God, where else do they go? Unless they, as previously mentioned above, add even more Pokemon with a new Super God Legendary Pokemon, then they have very little else to run on.

I remember seeing the first movie in theaters. damn i'm old

Everyone noticed how he's been ten years old forever without noticing that this 10 year old is walking down the streets alone with two other kids being stalked?

Onmi:

And he's allready done 3 games and a god damn filler arc not to mention the whole battle frontier thing. Seriously he should be around 16ish now like Red. But everyone knows that Pokemon's anime exists to promote the games so it will go on (and on, and on, and on)

Ash should be like the ultimate hardened battle master now. Other Pokemon trainers should be bowing and scraping at his heels, content for only the tiniest scrap to fall of of his godlike and encyclopedic knowledge and experience.

Oh, yeah. Shonen hero. Forgot.

yourbeliefs:
There were 12 of these things?

But are they SURE that this had the most advanced purchases EVER? You're telling me movies like The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, Transformers, or Iron Man didn't get more advanced ticket sales than the TWELFTH movie in a fledgling franchise?

Most of those films did TERRIBLY in Japan. A part of that though is bad marketing. Japan is a capitalist's paradise, so long as you can market the shit out of a product. Pokemon had great marketing and merchandising.

Tip: If you want something to be big in Japan, make a bajillion things that have no real relavance to what your actual product is and have little 10 second commercials for them every 20 minutes or so on TV. You will make millions.

Back when I was a fanboy I loved the first and second movie. But the other ones, even when I was into pokemon, just didn't appeal to me.

Good point because there's like what 1500 episodes at this point by now? Anyway the way I see it, Ash is two years older at the end of each group of films. So after movie 5 Pokemon Heros, he's 12. After movie 9 Temple of the Sea, he's 14. Again that's my assumtion, since in the 9th movie his voice gets deeper so he must of hit puberty somewhere between movies 8 and 9; so they are trying to make it seem like he is "growing up."
...
...
but I could be wrong.

Puberty? he sure doesn't show it.

However, one thing redeems the entire franchise...

That was in one of the official mangas.

Kriptonite:

MalevolentJim:
Would it be ironic if the 13th one failed misreably?

Thank you. You absolutely made my day! /\\ Pure unfiltered awesome here!

...Your welcome? o.O

Oh, it's gonna get worse guys. Thanks to the anime, I estimate about 25 and a half more movies they can make. One Chronicling Jigglypuff's adventures through stardom, one starring Meowth in a Greaser omage, one where Ash ACTUALLY catches them all, then puts them with Oak while he catches more of them for some reason, and don't even get me started on the "side characters" they could do.

Just die already!

JUST DIE!!! DIE!!! DIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

YOUR CHARACTERS HAVE LOST THEIR CHARM, THE RECURRING GAGS ARE TIRESOME, AND THE NEW POKEMON DESIGNS ARE ABSURD.

does japan scare anyone else just a wee bit? (dont take that as a race thing)

cavsfan69:
Kind of on a side note here, but did you guys know ash ketchum was voiced by a girl (Sarah Natochenny)

It's pretty common in Japan for young male characters to be voiced by women.

Not to mention Bart Simpson.

I'm not suprised at all. Pokemon is, after all, the second most profitable video game franchise, in the world, ever. You may hate it, but pokemon is a very old, very original-ish franchise, that has aged very well. It will be making money for years and years.

You just know that when Mario: the first movie comes out, it will sell.
(Just forget that super mario brothers movies with dinosaurs. WTF.)

There were 11 of these things? Hmm. I'm sorry, but my brain just broke.

Nimbus:
Twelve? Christ!...

And I thought dragonball was drawn-out...

or final fantasy......

seriously? didnt the main characters die or something around the third movie? what the hell japan? why must you hold on to '90s nostalgia?

My god... People pay that much to see some freak stuff small furry creatures into tiny, cold metal balls and then force them to beat eachother to near death, only to revive them and make them do that all over again?! I can do that for free! Just give me a few pokeballs and some cats and you've got a show!