'Pokemon' Movie Release Date, Plot News: 'I Choose You' Retells Earliest Days of 'Pokemon'

By Vianne Ilagan, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, March 05, 2017

The upcoming "Pokemon" movie will take the anime back to its roots as it recounts the earliest days of "Pokemon." The Japanese trailer for the upcoming film titled "Pokemon: I Choose You" reveals that the film will retell the first few episodes of the anime and will show how the idealistic Ash became a Pokemon trainer and bonded with the batty Pikachu.

The new "I Choose You" trailer hints that the film is going to be nostalgic. While the clip is in Japanese, the scenes it features unmistakably show the first fateful encounter of Ash and Pikachu, as well as the mythical Pokemon Ho-Oh dropping a Rainbow Wing.

One of the scenes in the clip shows Ash carrying Pikachu in the rain while riding the bike of Misty. By the looks of it, the film will take the franchise back to the beginning, when the game was simpler as there were only 151 Pokemon to catch.

While the upcoming film will revisit the earliest days of the franchise, it is not going to be exactly the same as the first episodes of the anime. Reports suggest that while it retells the first season, it will also explore some plot points that have never been explored before.

"Pokemon: I Choose You" is a special offer to "Pokemon" fans as the franchise celebrates its 20^{th anniversary. It was first announced last Dec. 15 during the TV broadcast of "Oha Suta" in Japan, where the first teaser trailer for the upcoming film was also unveiled.}

Voice actors for the upcoming film include Rica Matsumoto as Satoshi and Ikue Otani as Pikachu. The film will premiere in Japan in July and will get a DVD and Blu-ray release a few months later. The creators of the film have yet to announce when it will debut in the U.S.