Ranking the Top Six Pokemon Movies

Since the start of the Pokemon anime nearly 20 years ago, the Pokemon Company has released a new Pokemon movie annually, usually starring Ash and one or more Legendary and/or Mythical Pokemon.

The movies have a loose fit in the Pokemon anime’s canon, as they’re almost never mentioned in the show. There’s the occasional hint or nod, but largely the movies don’t have any impact on the plot of the show.

That doesn’t mean they’re not fun, though, provided you enjoy 90 minutes of Ash teaming up with super-powered Pokemon to stop some sort of potentially world devestating threat. And a couple of them are even “good”, at least by the definition of anime movies.

Here’s a rundown of our six favorite Pokemon movies. If your favorite movie didn’t make the cut, be sure to yell at us in the comments below!

6) Hoopa and the Clash of Ages

Sitting in sixth place is the most recent Pokemon movie, Hoopa and the Clash of Ages. The first half of the movie is pretty simple: Ash and his friends encounter the mischevious Pokemon Hoopa, and discover that it has two separate personalities: the happy, childlike Hoopa and the dark and dangerous “Fury”.

However, the movie gets good when the Fury is accidentally unleashed on a city, and Hoopa’s two personalities clash for control and summon small armies of Legendary Pokemon via their teleportation rings. The last 30 minutes or so of the movie becomes an all out brawl, with Pokemon like Rayquaza, Palkia, Groudon, and Giratina wrecking both an entire city and each other. 

Hoopa and the Clash of Ages isn’t exactly a captivating movie, but it’s entertaining…provided you’re into Pokemon acting like Godzilla. 

5) Pokemon 3: The Movie

Pokemon 3 has more personal stakes than other Pokemon movies, as the plot centers on Ash trying to rescue her mom from a young girl empowered by the Unown, a mysterious race of Pokemon with the power to seemingly re-write reality. 

The movie starts when Molly Hale’s father disappears while researching the Unown. Molly then accidentally summons the Unown to her home and use their powers to create a new father: the Legendary Pokemon Entei. Entei then captures Ash’s mother to complete their new family. 

Of course, Ash and his friends immediately sets off to rescue his mother from Entei and the Unown, but they just aren’t strong enough to take on a Legendary Pokemon on their own. The climactic scene comes when Ash and Pikachu are blasted out of a building, but are rescued by Ash’s Charizard (who had recently left Ash’s party to train with other Charizard).

Even with Charizard’s aid, Ash isn’t strong enough to stop Entei on his own. Luckily, Molly comes to her senses and stops the battle, which leads to the Unown to changing everything back to normal.

Pokemon 3 is largely forgettable, but Charizard coming back to save Ash and the subsequent battle with Entei make for some pretty cool Pokemon moments.  

4) Pokemon Heroes

If you’ve watched the Pokemon anime for any length of time, you know that Ash is quite popular with the ladies. Ash has left a trail of broken hearts during his travels, ranging from Misty to (probably) Serena. 

But Ash’s charms don’t just work on humans. In Pokemon Heroes, Ash accidentally romances a Latias, one of the twin guardians of the Hoenn region. Ash rescues a disguised Latias from two Team Rocket members trying to obtain the Soul Dew, a powerful artifact and key to Alto Mare’s defense systems. 

Throughout the movie, Ash and Latias bond over dodging zombie Pokemon and watching Latios sacrifice itself to save Alto Mare. Ultimately, Latias plants a kiss on Ash before he leaves Alto Mare, thus proving that Ash has an unstoppable animal magnetism. 

3) Pokemon 2000: The Movie

Pokemon 2000 is a personal favorite because it focuses on the Legendary Birds, the best Legendary Trio in Pokemon. The plot of the movie is a bit convoluted: Ash sets off on what should be a ceremonial quest to collect three orbs from different islands and bring them to a shrine at the center of Orange Islands.

But Ash’s quest takes on a greater importance when a mad Pokemon collector riles up the Legendary Bird trio, triggering dangerous weather phenomena around the world. Only completing the quest will calm the birds down, although Ash does gain the help of Lugia, the angry whale/bird dad of the other Legendary Pokemon.

One of the cool parts about Pokemon 2000 is that it’s actually Team Rocket who saves the day by jumping off Lugia to lighten its load and allow it to fly faster. That was one of their first acts of “true” heroism, although they’ve often sided with Ash and his friends in later episodes of the show when it suits them.

2) Lucario and the Mystery of Mew

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew explains (in part) why Ash Ketchum seems to wind up as “the Chosen One” in every single Pokemon legend and movie. The movie reveals that Ash has the ability to see and control aura, a Force-like energy present in every living object. 

Ash learns about this ability when he teams up with an ancient Lucario to find Pikachu after Mew takes his partner Pokemon to a mythical Tree of Life after they’re attacked by a group of Pokemon hunters. Although Lucario is hesitant to train Ash (he’s mistrusting of humans because of a perceived betrayal from his master hundreds of years ago), the two cooperate long enough to learn how to rescue Pikachu and save Mew.

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is also notable in that just about everyone dies. Ash, Brock, and their friends are all eaten by giant tree antibodies (they get better) and Lucario sacrifices himself to keep the Tree of Life alive. Lucario’s death is a pretty touching scene, and actually might be one of the most bittersweet moments in the entire Pokemon anime. 

While it sits only second on our list, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is probably the most well-rounded Pokemon movie and one of the few movies to be referenced on the actual Pokemon show. 

1) Pokemon: The First Movie

Pokemon: The First Movie had it all: big battles, powerful Pokemon, and a few tearjerking moments. The movie followed up on an anime plotline in which Team Rocket briefly controlled Mewtwo. After discovering that it was to be used as a weapon, Mewtwo escapes and plans his revenge against the entire human race. 

Mewtwo creates a clone Pokemon army and then uses its immense psychic power to create a giant storm to wipe out humanity (this seems to be a running thread in anime movies). Ash and his friends try to stop Mewtwo and its clones, leading to a big battle in which Ash is somehow petrified by Mewtwo’s psychic powers.

Ash’s petrification leads to the most heartbreaking moment in the entire Pokemon anime. Pikachu tries to revive Ash by shocking him with his electricity and then breaks down into tears when it doesn’t work. Seeing Pikachu cry causes all the other Pokemon in the room (even the burly ones like Gyrados and Charizard) to start crying. It’s a sad, sad moment ruined only because Ash somehow comes back to life because of the tears. 

We’ve got Pokemon: The First Movie in our top spot because its the movie everyone remembers, has the best scene in the entire anime, and also is the only Pokemon movie anyone remembers because it came out at the height of the Pokemon craze.