Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution Features Hilarious Dub Joke

Pokemon's English dub is fairly infamous with fans. Although the early days of the dub were [...]

By Nick Valdez

Pokemon's English dub is fairly infamous with fans. Although the early days of the dub were positively received thanks to the height of Pokemania, there were many who came to prefer the original Japanese language release of the series (which is still not legally available to watch in English territories). It's because as the years went on, more fans became privy to many of the changes that the English dub had made to the original release of the series. Some were more innocuous than others, and some have become huge in-jokes among the community.

One of the most famous examples of changes turning into major jokes is the "Jelly Doughnuts" gag from the original series. Among the many alterations the 4Kids release of the series made to the franchise's characters, one of the script changes had Brock refer to some onigiri (Japanese rice balls) he made as "jelly doughnuts." This became huge with the community because the two items are so remarkably different.

With Pokemon's newest movie, Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION, now streaming on Netflix, this in-joke has actually made its return to the franchise as the English dubs (and subtitles) also have Brock refer to onigiri as his "famous jelly doughnuts" as spotted by @JPRPT98 on Twitter:

Although the Netflix release of the film finally broke a major curse that kept Pokemon's original Japanese dub outside of the United States, the English subtitles has the same flavor text as the dub. So the jelly doughnuts gag is in that version as well, so there's no "escaping" the memorable in-joke in either version. With Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION being a full CG animated remake of the first animated film, this return to a famous joke is a double hit of nostalgic goodness.

Brock's return to the franchise is also very much welcome as it's been a while since he's been involved with Ash's adventures in a full capacity. He and Misty briefly returned during the Sun and Moon anime, but their days of being travel companions are long over. But at least the dub really made their return count with the return of the jelly doughnuts!

Did you catch Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back EVOLUTION on Netflix yet? What did you think of the English dub release of the film? Are you waiting to see the next movie in the franchise already? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!

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