Special Stats:

Japanese TV Special:  "Myuutsu!  Ware wa Koko ni Ari"

("Myuutwo!  I Exist Here")

American Direct-to-Video Johto Movie:  "Mewtwo Returns"
Japanese Air Date:  December 30th, 2000
American Release Date:  December 5th, 2001
Important Characters:  Cullin Caylucks (Benny Shiriina), Domino (Domino), Luna Carson (Luna Carson)

Myuutwo, since its adventures in the first movie, has since been hiding away on an island with all its clones.  Satoshi-tachi are travelling through Jouto as it starts to rain, and while trying to find shelter they befriend a young girl, Luna.  As they're talking at her place, the Rocket-Dan appear and kidnap Pikachu.  Their balloon gets caught up in the windy storm, so the Rocket-Dan, Pikachu, and Satoshi-tachi (who are holding on to a rope hanging from the balloon) crash, right into Myuutwo's island.  Sakaki, who had found out about Myuutwo's location through his secret agent Domino, appears with the Rocket-Dan Combat Unit.  They lock Satoshi-tachi and Musashi-tachi into prison cells while they use two robots to shoot energy beams at Myuutwo, paralyzing it.  Satoshi-tachi escape their cells and are able to knock the robots out of commission, freeing Myuutwo.  The pokemon then uses its powers to make everyone who would hurt it and its clones (the Rocket-Dan) forget the events that had occurred, and Myuutwo decides to let the clone pokemon out of isolation and let them join the rest of the world.

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Thoughts
This is probably one of my favorite Pocket Monsters stories, and when it had been announced that 4Kids was going to dub it, I was a little apprehensive.  Judging with what they had done with Myuutwo in the first movie, I was afraid that 4Kids would dumb the whole thing down, rewrite a slew of dialogue, and cheapen the whole special into a sloppily-written, preachy, hour-long advertisement for Hasbro's newest action figures. 

Luckily, this was not the case.  4Kids did a good job with this special.  It seems as though 4Kids actually hired a translator rather than a writer, because most of the dialogue is dead-on.  And the difference is clear--the dialogue is more intelligent than it is in the movies and the whole thing just flows better.  People who complain that Pokemon isn't a "real" anime should watch this special because not only does it have a good story, it's also dubbed well. 

I used the American DVD for this comparison, and let me tell you--the video quality is a thousand times better than my crummy fansub.  In fact, it's the best-looking DVD, video-wise, in my entire collection!  Part of that is due to the fact that it's a really recent animation (it's only a year old), it's a special so the animation is better anyway, and because the DVD was made by Warner Brothers, a company with quite a bit more money than your average anime company.  Anyway, the DVD has trailers for the first three movies, the fourth opening, and the uncut Birth of Mewtwo mini-episode, which I'll get to later. 

So anyway, most of the edits deal with making this TV Special seem like a movie.  It seems that 4Kids didn't want you to know that this was a TV Special that aired on television with commercials and everything, so they cut out some footage here and there to make it flow more like a movie. 

The clone Nyasu and clone Pikachu keep their Japanese voices.

Music Edit
As was the case with the first movie, all of the background music for the dub was redone.  4Kids recycled the soundtrack from their first movie dub instead of using the Japanese one, but that's OK because that wasn't my big quarrel with the first movie to begin with.  And besides, the Japanese soundtrack just recycled the Japanese first movie's music, so 4Kids was just doing what the producers in Japan did.  Luckily, 4Kids spared us of any insert songs--I would have been really pissed if "Brother My Brother" started playing when Mewtwo let all the clone pokemon free.

Opening Theme
4Kids cut out the opening theme.  It was the first thing you saw, right before the recap of the first movie's events.  It was the third opening, OK!, and it was the regular TV version.  Even if 4Kids had included an opening theme, it most likely would have been the wrong opening, judging by the fact that the American DVD contains the fourth opening as an extra, not the third. 

Dialogue Edit
The whole recap of the first movie was originally narrated by the narrator, not Myuutwo.  And because of that, a bunch of the dialogue was rewritten to suit Mewtwo.

Also, while talking about Mewtwo's voice--I don't know who does his voice for the special, but it isn't Phillip Bartlett (the voice of Mewtwo in the first movie) because his name isn't in the credits.  Though you really wouldn't know, because both voices sound almost the same.  But the thing that bothers me is how a majority of Mewtwo's lines sound really really forced.  It's like he's trying to make every line he says super-melodramatic.  Mewtwo constantly makes random pauses in its speech, and it just doesn't sound good.  I know this isn't the fault of the voice actor (it's the voice directors who told him to deliver his lines like Adam West who's to blame), but it still gets to you after an hour.

Video Edit
The CGI clouds around Myuutwo's castle (during the recap) make their return for the flashback.  These clouds weren't CGI when the special aired on Japanese TV, but they were when the movie was put on DVD.  So like with the first movie, 4Kids used the footage of the Japanese DVD.  Thanks to Murgatroyd for the info. 

Title Screen
The title screen for the dub's a bit flashier and lasts a bit longer than the Japanese one.  The original just had the special's title as white text against a black background, while the dub's is animated and everything.

Side Note
The special in Japan aired with commercials, so it had its own eyecatches.  It wasn't much--it was just a black screen with "MEWTWO LIVES" (the English-given title) printed in English on the lower right-hand corner of the screen.  For the dub, all of these are cut out so that you wouldn't know that there were multiple commercial breaks throughout and to make it flow more like a movie.  Most of them are pretty easy to spot because of the way the scenes fade in and fade out, so I won't list them out.

Dialogue Edit
Domino's second line in the special:

"Oh wow!  I can't believe I'm meeting the Luna Carson!  I'm like a totally off the hook fan of yours!  I wanna be exactly like you when I get old!"

Yes, Domino was turned into a valley girl for us.  Luckily, when she ditches the disguise and starts doing evil later in the special, her voice is MUCH better, but while she's doing the innocent girl routine it just doesn't work. 

By the way, Domino's nicknames are the same in both versions--she's 009 and "Kuroi CHUURIPPU" (Black Tulip) in the Japanese, and 009 and "The Black Tulip" in the dub.

Cut--23 seconds
Right after Giovanni crushes his glass of bourbon with his bare hand (well, it looks like bourbon) and his helicopter flies off, there are a bunch of still shots of each character's face as the narrator asks what will happen next.  Then the special cuts to commercial.  For the dub, these shots were taken out to make it seem that this is, indeed, a "Johto Movie Adventure" instead of just a TV special.

Side Note
I want you to take a look at Gyarados all thorughout this special.  Do you notice how it does nothing throught the whole special?!  Considering how powerful it is, it sure doesn't help anyone fight the Rocket-Dan.  Later in the special, when Satoshi-tachi are thrown into the prison cell, Gyarados is just sitting in the back with its mouth gaping open,  with that same blank expression on its face.  Take a second to notice it, because it really is quite funny. 

Cut--6 seconds
The shot zooming away from the mountaintop after Team Rocket says "Looks like Team Rocket's never blasting off again~~~!" is a bit longer in the original.  The scene zooms out, and then it freezes while the narrator asks what will happen next.  Again, this was probably done to make it seem as though this is really a movie, but the transition from this scene to the next is really poorly done in the dub.

Dialogue Edit
Despite that this is a direct-to-video release, the censors still got ahold of this one:

Mewtwo:  "I would sooner leave this world than serve you."
Giovanni:  "I suggest you reconsider your opinion.  If you choose to defy me, your fellow creations will all be used in our experiments and will certainly leave this world."

All that "leave this world" sounds really corny.  Why can't they just say "die?" 

Side Note
Brock makes this statement about Mewtwo erasing everyone's memory:

Brock:  "And just forgetting things doesn't change the fact that they happen."

That sounds really funny coming from a product of a company who invests thousands in disguising every Japanese aspect of Pocket Monsters.  Practice what you preach, 4Kids...practice what you preach...

Side Note
Ash makes this continuity error:

Ash:  "This time we'll both be able to remember"

When he says "this time," Ash is implying that there was a first time, right?  Yet Ash has no memory of the events of the first movie.  So how can he know that there was a time before when Mewtwo erased his memory?  He shouldn't have said that line because he shouldn't have remembered something from the past that he forgot!  Think, 4Kids, THINK!!!

Ending Theme
The ending theme in the original version is Boku no Best Friend e ("To My Best Friend"), and has little animations of Satoshi running, as well as some clips from the special.  This was all done away with for the dub and replaced with scrolling credits against a black background while some overly dramatic music plays in the background.

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The American DVD also featured the uncut "Birth of Mewtwo" animated short.  I have no idea how one can obtain the Japanese version, so I can't really compare it to the dub.  The short starts out the same way it does in the American VHS/DVD of the first movie, but then continues well past the part it was cut off at in the American VHS/DVD.  Ai is renamed as Amber, but Fuji-Hakase wasn't given a dubbed name.  Some of the emotional impact was retained, but it was obvious that 4Kids was trying to downplay the whole "death" thing.  They continually dance around the notion, saying phrases like "leave this world" and "we're losing her."  And the dubbed Child Mewtwo sounds way too old--he doesn't have that innocent child voice that the Japanese Chid Myuutwo had in the "Birth of Myuutwo" CD Drama.  Other than that, I can't think of anything else to say about the short.

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