The Pokemon Company has unveiled the first of what hopefully is many “PokeToon” cartoons done in the style of classic Looney Tunes shorts. Earlier today, the Pokemon Kids YouTube channel unveiled a four minute short titled “Chase the Beans” featuring Scraggy and Mimikyu. In classic Looney Tunes fashion, the video uses mostly physical slapstick gags as Scraggy follows a trail of beans onto a train. After sustaining countless traumatic head injuries, Scraggy eventually discovers that the beans come from Mimikyu’s head, and Mimikyu delights in torturing Scraggy with its mere existence.
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There are lots of wonderful nods towards the early Looney Tunes cartoons, from the way the animation dances along with the music to Scraggy’s wonderful facial expressions as he gets hit in the head over and over and over again. While played up for laughs, the cartoon also maintains several key points of Pokemon continuity, such as Mimikyu’s “body” being a costume that hides its true form. There’s a reason why Scraggy looks scared when he peeks under Mimikyu’s sack-like costume, and we’re guessing it had nothing to do with the
The Pokemon Company has a history of releasing whimsical animated shorts, usually for its Japanese fan groups and YouTube channels. The PokeToon cartoon is a bit different as it doesn’t require any translation (the title card is written in English), so any Pokemon fan can watch this cartoon and enjoy it. Hopefully, this is the first of many PokeToon cartoon shorts, because this is a great way of giving lesser-known Pokemon a showcase for their personality. Scraggy is usually seen as a punk Pokemon that appeals to villainous teams, so it’s great to see the Pokemon in a more lighthearted manner.
You can watch the full PokeToon video above. Be sure to let us know if you want to see more PokeToon shorts in the comment section or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCBus to chat all things Pokemon.
