March 26th, 2019 
Charles Solomon 
Although Pokémon is no longer the craze bordering on mania it was 20 years ago, the property remains extremely popular. The TV series, which runs to more than 800 episodes, enjoys a worldwide audience on TV, streaming services and discs; YouTube lists more than 100,000,000 Pokémon films. Pokémon merchandise is ubiquitous, and on a typical day, eBay offers hundreds of thousands of Pokémon items, some with seven-figure prices (!).
The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (1998) grossed $86 million in its 1999 American theatrical release, setting a record for a Japanese animated feature that still stands. Since then, many of the 20 subsequent Pokémon features have offered variations on its plot. When irrepressible Pokémon Master-in-training Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan) visits a new city with his pal Pikachu, he encounters some previously unknown, staggeringly powerful Pokémon who refuses to believe that friendship between humans and Pokémon is desirable–or even possible. Furious, the new creature starts to attack the world and/or humanity. After some dramatic special effects, Ash and Pikachu change its mind by demonstrating the unbreakable bond of affection they share.
Directed by Tetsuo Yajima and written by Eiji Umehara and Aya Takaha, Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us (2018), the 21st feature, breaks with that formula and offers a more interesting and original storyline. Ash and Pikachu visit Fula City to attend the carnival-like Wind Festival. Guided by a special beacon, the legendary Pokémon Lugia directs the winds that power this green city. While going on rides and competing in contests, Ash meets several new friends: Risa, a champion runner who’s lost her confidence after suffering an injury; Callahan, a blowhard who desperately wants to impress his sickly niece Kellie; Margo, the daughter of the mayor of Fula City; and Toren, a painfully shy Pokémon researcher.
Margo has been secretly caring for Zeraora, a rare, powerful Pokémon who watches over the inhabitants of the surrounding forest. A brave, determined girl, she protects her friend from poachers until and Ash and the others can come to her aid. When the inept villains of Team Rocket inadvertently smash a bottle of a Pokémon pheromone they’ve stolen from Toren’s lab, the fumes threaten the inhabitants of Fula City and the adjacent woodland. A forest fire breaks out, exacerbating the crisis.
Unlike previous Pokémon features, Ash doesn’t solve everything by himself, although he rallies the troops with a speech about how friendship with their Pokémon will give them the strength to do what they can’t do alone. Risa rediscovers her courage and sprints to restore the beacon that will summon Lugia. Margo persuades Zeraora to trust the humans fighting the fire; Toren treats gas victims with an antidote he devises. Even Harriet, a cranky old lady who doesn’t like Pokémon, comes out of her sulk to restart an ancient wind generator she designed.
The Power of Us delivers a welcome ecological message when the Mayor apologizes for this city’s wanton destruction of the forest: In the future, the citizens of Fula City will strive to live in harmony with the woods and the Pokémon who live there. Their bustling town will continue to rely on renewable energy sources.
Like Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name (2016) and Seiji Kishi’s Assassination Classroom: 365 Day’s Time (2016), the film also touches on major traumas the Japanese people have suffered. In 1995, a massive earthquake struck the city of Kobe, and a crackpot religious cult released deadly sarin gas in the Tokyo subway, killing 12 people and sickening hundreds of others. In 2011, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown Americans refer to as “Fukushima,” killed an estimated 20,000 of people and destroyed entire villages. The government response to all three crises was seen as inadequate at best. But in Fula City, the people and their representatives work together effectively to minimize the effects of the man-made disasters.
Although some parents object to Pokémon films as product-based, Ash’s message encouraging honesty, fair play, respectful conduct and, above all, friendship feels especially important to impart to children in these bitterly divisive times.
Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us
Viz: $24.98, 1 disc DVD
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