Pokémon: The First Movie is a 1998 Japanese anime fantasy adventure film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. The film centres around Mewtwo a Pokémon genetically created by scientists but instead seeks out its revenge against the world. Now I’m not going to say that Pokémon: The First Movie is deep or even good but there is an oddly interesting subtext in the film about the meaning of life.
In the original version Mewtwo he gains conciseness in his tank and communicates with the other clones being the starter Pokémon and amber a clone of the doctors deceased daughter. The four clones float around Amber before they dissolve one by one showing they do not survive. As amber passes, she tells Mewtwo life is wonderful and leaves Mewtwo feeling his first emotion sadness for the first fiend, as a result he is pumped full of chemicals to forget this. This gives much more weight to the character of Mewtwo in that he experienced the lesion that he will learn in the film about life and happiness but ends up losing them just to lean them again making his story ever the more tragic. It also helps to humanise the doctor character giving him reason behind the creation of Mewtwo making his death tragic.
The film starts with a strangely philosophical note about the meaning of life and the pursuit of that question which is ultimately Mewtwo’s metaphorical journey throughout the film. This is shown from the very being of the film there Mewtwo contemplates reality and his own existence, him breaking is ultimately wanting to be alive. Mewtwo’s external journey throughout the film is that he is ultimately angered about the idea of being a clone, he was created as an experiment with no place in the world. Him breaking out is him rejecting the idea of him being a copy and by breaking out and kill people he decides to forge his own destiny. The doctors quote “we dreamed of creating the most powerful Pokémon and we succeed” is brilliant. In his last words you feel the regret of his creation Allah Frankenstein he wanted to create a clone of his dead daughter and created Mewtwo to receive the help to do that, in his last moments you hear the regret in his voice making him a tragic character.
Just after escaping he meets with Giovanni and makes a deal with him to train his powers for them to both control the world. However, with Mewtwo learning his powers through Giovanni he ultimately again questions his existence. Mewtwo’s philosophical journey throughout the film is the driving force of him trying to find his place in the world. Mewtwo is a sympathetic character Giovanni betrays Mewtwo by him saying he must serve him Mewtwo. He rejects the destiny forced upon him by others creating his loneliness and escapes by blowing up the base. The film is ultimately about Mewtwo’s philosophical journey to find meaning in life. With his declaration of war on humans he acts like a child with godlike powers again been betrayed by the only people he ever knew.
When Mewtwo spies on Ash through a camera attached to a bird, it ultimately kicks off the film as the idea of a human and Pokémon caring for one another is terrifying. Mewtwo is ultimately a bored god with nothing to do as shown with him whipping up a storm which wakes up Mew as well as stop unworthy trainers, his lonely god status wants to find someone to challenge him he is almost innocent and childlike in his thinking.
Then the charter visit Mewtwos lair this idea of article creation rally take hold with his lair being a H.R. Giger biomechanical nightmare. In some way Mewtwo acts like a twisted version of the humans he hates he makes his maid faint and treats people like toys, Mewtwo is ultimately a hypocrite. Mewtwo ultimately believes himself and is Pokémon to be superior as that is all he has ever been told, he has been conditioned to believe he is the strongest Pokémon and sees no reason to challenge his world view. This idea of artificial creation vs real living creatures is at the heart of the film. Mewtwo is ultimately angry at humans for creating him with no other purpose than to be a slave, therefore his plan is to destroy all humans and Pokémon alike so only the clones survive. Mewtwo is a child in the body of a god, he is angry and enacts to take it out on the world because he ultimately doesn’t understand life yet.
When the artificial Pokémon come out there is some true H R Giger-esc body horror imagery. This again links to Mewtwos hypocrisy in finding his place in the world by creating Pokémon the same way he was created. He is a child with God like powers doing these things because that’s all he ever knew by the people that created him. Mewtwos childlike hypocrisy is shown throughout the film as Mewtwo collects there Pokémon through pokeballs, everything he has learnt is a result of humans interacting with him.
In the Mew vs Mewtwo battle Mewtwo ultimately wants to be superior like a child, however Mew doesn’t want to fight ads he sees it as pointless. There is lots of differences between the American version for the film and the Japanese version. One of the strongest differences is in the English version Mew says, “a Pokémon’s real strength comes from the heart”. However, in the original he says “no matter how much you attack and clash against us the real ones won’t lose to copies”. The battle is much more philosophically complex between real Pokémon vs clone Pokémon with no real good or bad side. Mewtwos hypocrisy is the heart of the film with Mewtwo blocking the abilities as he wants to prove who is superior via bloodsport. This pointless hypocrisy is shown with Mew and Mewtwo two ideologies clashing that will never have a winner. This is ultimately reenforced by Meowths quote “We do have a lot in common, the same earth, the same air, the same sky. Maybe if we started looking at what’s the same instead of always looking at what’s different… well who knows?”. This ultimately demonstrates the main point of the film being that it doesn’t matter how you were born into existence, what matters is what you do with it.
In Pikachu refusing to fight he realises the hypocrisy. In Ash sacrificing himself he ultimately destroys his preconceived world view on one side being more superior than the other. What Mewtwo sees is a selfless sacrifice of a human trying to stop the violence between Pokémon. Ash’s sacrifice mirrors the death of his childhood friend and with the tears of the Pokémon reviving Ash Mewtwo sees the error of his ways. This is ultimately reenforced by Mewtwo’s quote “I see now that the circumstances of one’s birth is irrelevant it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.” It doesn’t matter who you are or how your born what matter is what you do with life that ultimately determines your destiny. It could very much be argued the ending of the film spoils the movie with Mewtwo whipping all the characters memories. So, the protagonists don’t learn anything. However, the lesson isn’t really there’s to learn its Mewtwos with him taking away the Pokémon away to live in peace.
Pokémon the first movie is a film about accepting who you are, the differences of others and moving forward. It demonstrates that what matter is your actions and what you do with your life and not who you are or where you come from.