Is The New Pokemon Movie a Remake of ‘Pokemon the Movie: 2000’?

Fans are going crazy over the new Pokemon movie trailer, but for a totally unexpected reason.

Yesterday, the Pokemon Company revealed the first teaser trailer for next summer’s Pokemon movie. The trailer didn’t reveal too much about the actual plot of the film, although it does show Ash wearing the same hat as he did in Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You, which implies that it’s a sequel to that film.

The movie also showed off a new character, a girl with blonde hair, rainbow colored highlights, and sunglasses. At the end of the trailer, the girl is shown holding a PokeBall to the sky and looking at it with a strange, confused expression while a single flute played in the background.

It’s that flute solo that has people talking, as it’s a direct callback to another classic Pokemon movie: Pokemon the Movie: 2000. The flute solo is the Japanese version of “Lugia’s Song,” a song first heard in that movie. Pokemon the Movie: 2000 starred Lugia as the guardian of the ocean and the only Pokemon who could stop the three rampaging Legendary Birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.

“Lugia’s Song” isn’t the only evidence that Lugia will be a major part of the next film. As you can see below, the logo of the new Pokemon movie also has a few flourishes that distinctively look like the back of Lugia’s head:

Some people are even speculating that the girl in the trailer could be a new version of Melody, the female protagonist of Pokemon the Movie: 2000. Melody was technically Ash’s first kiss in the anime series and played “Lugia’s Song” to calm the storm that had started due to the fierce battle between the various Legendary Birds. The two don’t really look alike, but both of their clothes have the same red and white color scheme, and the girl is wearing sunglasses just like Melody did when she first appeared in Pokemon the Movie: 2000.

It’s not totally implausible that this new Pokemon movie could be a loose remake of Pokemon the Movie: 2000. After all, Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You was a loose retelling of the first episode of the Pokemon anime, although it quickly spun off into its own storyline.

We’ll have to wait a couple more months until we get more information about the new movie, but we at least have a couple of clues of which Pokemon will be featured in it.