Movie Stats:

Japanese Mini-Movie 2:  "Pikachu's Exploration Party"
American Mini-Movie 2:  "Pikachu's Rescue Adventure"
Japanese Air Date:  July 17th, 1999
American Air Date:  July 21st, 2000

Satoshi and his friends decide to stop for a rest. As the three fall asleep under a tree Togepy gets caught up in watching a group of Ladyba fly overhead and absentmindedly walks into a hole in the ground! Pikachu and the other Pokémon follow and soon find themselves transported to a village under a massive tree! They soon meet an Elekid and tells it that they're looking for Togepy. The Electric-Type Pokémon leads our heroes to an area where a bunch of nests housing the Pokémon Tamatama are lined up, one after the other, and inside one of those nests just happens to be Togepy! The Tamatama are missing one of its seeds and refuse to let Togepy out of their group until they're reunited with their friend! As Pikachu and the others search they come across a dance performance by a group of Kireihana.  Later, a strong rainstorm appears over the tree! The strong winds threaten the smaller Pokémon so everyone joins together to help catch the Tamatama before they blow away. It seems like everyone's efforts aren't going to be enough when a Kabigon steps up and uses its massive strength to pull everyone to safety! After the storm passes a Lucky appears and announces that it found the Tamatama seed! As the Pokémon are reunited, a nearby Leaf Stone activates the Pokémon's evolution into a Nassy! Now that Togepy is free to go our heroes say goodbye to their new friends and return to their Trainers.  

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<>Thoughts
The English dub of "Pikachu's Rescue Adventure" is a really odd one. That's because this is the film where 4Kids decided, for whatever reason, to not bother translating any of the narrator's dialogue from the Japanese version, thereby making this one of the most dialogue sparse films in Pokémon dub history. I generally don't understand 4Kids or the decisions they make half the time but I do have to admire how they're able to take a cartoon made for preschoolers and somehow make it as difficult to understand as humanly possible. That has to take some skill, right?

Most of the newly introduced Generation 2 Pokémon (Ladyba, Elekid, and Hoho) keep their Japanese voices.

Region One Cropping
So the United States had this problem in the late 1990s / early 2000s where many of the movies released on home video would only ever get "fullscreen" releases. "Fullscreen," back in those days, meant taking a 16:9 video and cropping it down to 4:3 in order to fill up the giant boxy TVs that were the standard at the time. People really hated the idea of black bars on the top and bottom of their screens, you see, and so what film companies would do is they'd simply lop off the left and right sides of the image in order to force a "full"-screen presentation.

For the very first Pikachu film, "Pikachu's Vacation," Warner Bros' desire for a 4:3 presentation wasn't a problem because that particular movie was originally already animated in 4:3, just like the weekly TV series. So nothing had to end up getting cropped out after all. But from the second movie onwards the Pikachu movies are all given 16:9 presentations and so for the Region 1 DVD release Warner Bros decided to crop it down to 4:3.

The results of that cropping can be seen below. The original Japanese home video release is on the left while the North American DVD release is on the right; click on each image to see a larger version.

In crowd scenes like these a lot of the Pokémon end up getting cropped out completely.
Poor Squirtle and Marill get their faces chopped off while Oddish is removed altogether.
Sucks to be the Bellossom on the left, I guess!
This cute little animation of Snorlax trying to grab the apples is basically removed.
The animators did not intend for you to only see half their faces...

While an iTunes release in 2009 apparently did provide English dub viewers with a version of this film in its correct aspect ratio, the United States still has not seen a physical media release of the uncropped version of this film. That is just absolutely wild, isn't it?

Music Edit
The background music composed by video game legend Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka and animation music legend Kan Sawada for this movie is -- surprise surprise! -- replaced for the English dub. Every. single. piece. The music in the Japanese version has a fantastic range that goes from the playful melodies during the opening parts of the film, to folksy dance theme that accompanies Kireihana's dance show, to the suspenseful crescendos of the big storm, and so on and so on. The music from this movie, like that from the previous one, will get reused for the TV series for years to come and will become just as internal a part of the series' soundtrack as anything Shinji Miyazaki ever produced for the show.

The music used in the English version, on the other hand...it's just sort of there, I guess? It's not too horribly distracting or anything like that but it's also completely forgettable music that doesn't really add anything to the film.

Dialogue Edit
So I finally get to talk about the dialogue in this film.

Remember how 4Kids changed the narrator of the first mini-movie from a kind motherly figure to a series of robotic Pokédex entries? And how it was completely out of place and didn't fit the tone of the film at all?

Well, this time around 4Kids decided that the best way to screw up the narration for this film -- because a desire to mess around with the narration is pretty much the only motivation I can think of for these type of changes -- was to eliminate the narrator's role altogether! Japan gets well-known TV and movie actress Tamao Sato to narrate Pikachu's Exploration Party while 4Kids apparently decided that not having anyone say anything at all was the best way to go.

Tamao Sato in 1999

The overwhelming majority of this comparison, therefore, is going to be me basically transcribing every one of the narrator's lines from the Japanese version. Here are the two lines removed before the film's opening sequence:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「ピカチュウたちお昼寝とっても気持ちよさそう」	Narrator:  "Pikachu and the others look so cozy taking a nap here."	Narrator:  "..."

These edits are really obvious because the camera will linger on these shots for just a few seconds longer than any other part of the movie in order to give the narrator enough time to say her lines, and so by muting all this dialogue you're basically left with a film that's constantly taking odd pauses for seemingly no reason whatsoever. It's really quite strange!

Music Edit / Logo Edit
In the Japanese version, the movie's opening theme is this absolutely adorable song Tankentai o Tsukurou! (たんけんたいをつくろう！), or "Let's Form an Exploration Party." The song is composed and arranged by Hirokazu Tanaka and is performed by the Pokémon Kids, a group of four children who had previously contributed to classic Pocket Monsters songs like Hyaku Gojuu-Ichi, Pokémon Ieru Ka Na?, and Kaze to Issho ni, among others.


For the English dub this gets replaced by a song called "Comin' to the Rescue" by O-Town, an American boy band from the early 2000s whose breakout hit was a catchy little bop about nocturnal emissions. So you know, kids' stuff!

Toward the end of O-Town's performance we get to see how 4Kids changed the movie's title screen:


The thing that sticks out to me about this particular change is how the Region 1 DVD's cropping job is so bad that it actually chops off part of the English version's logo. They probably could have panned the image a little bit more to the left to fit the rest of Pikachu's right ear and its tail, but apparently that was too much trouble or something...?

Dialogue Edit
The narration erasure continues:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「まあでんきポケモンのエレキッドだわ。何か警戒してるいたいだ けど…」	Narrator:  "Well, it's the Electric Pokémon Elekid. It seems like it's on edge for some reason..."	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「深い谷の中にあった不思議な大きな木。この木には野生のポケモ ンたちがたくさん住んでるみたい。こんな場所があったのね」	Narrator:  "There's a mysterious huge tree deep in the valley where a lot of wild Pokémon seem to live. To think a place like this could exist!"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「ここのポケモンたちには外の世界からやってきたお客さんはとっ ても珍しいみたい」	Narrator:  "It seems like these Pokémon aren't used to seeing outsiders."	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「ピカチュウはエレキッドたちにトゲピーを捜してここにやってき たことを話してるのね」	Narrator:  "Pikachu's telling the Pokémon they came here to search for Togepy."	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「ここはタマタマの巣が集まってる所ね」	Narrator:  "This is where a bunch of Tamatama nests are gathered."	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「６個で固まって仲が良さそう。あら？この模様は？」	Narrator:  "There are six parts who all seem to get along with each other. Wait a minute... what's with the pattern on this one in the back? "	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「タマタマが５個しかいないわ」	Narrator:  "There are only five Tamatama!"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「ピカチュウたちはいなくなったタマタマを見つけだして元の巣に 返してやることにしました。そうしないとトゲピーを連れて帰れないんですもんね」	Narrator:  "Pikachu and the others have decided to find the missing Tamatama and return it to its friends. If they don't do this then they won't be able to bring Togepy back with them."	Narrator:  "..."

For a non-narrator related dialogue change, the English dub has all the Pokémon who appear during the Bellossom dance sequence say their names as they pop up one by one, while in the Japanese original all of these Pokémon appear without saying a word.


The English dub also makes the mistake of having this Poliwhirl here say "Poliwrath" when that's obviously not correct.

The rest of these changes are all narrator related:

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「とてもステキな踊りね。でも道草はこれくらいにしないとね」	Narrator:  "That was such a great dance, wasn't it? But let's focus and get back to the task at hand, alright?"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「ちょっと２人とも意地になっちゃって。タマタマを捜してたん じゃなかったの？」	Narrator:  "Come on you two! Don't get distracted now! Weren't you supposed to be looking for the missing Tamatama?"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「突然嵐がやってきました」	Narrator:  "A storm's appeared all of a sudden!"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「この嵐はかなりひどそうよ」	Narrator:  "This looks like it'll be a bad one!"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「大丈夫？ピカチュウ」	Narrator:  "Are you OK, Pikachu?"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「大変！このままじゃタマタマの巣が全部飛ばされちゃう」	Narrator:  "This is bad! If this keeps up then all the Tamatama will be blown away!"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「あら？他のポケモンたちが助けに来てくれたわ」	Narrator:  "What's this? The other Pokémon are coming to help!"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「雨と風に加えて雷まで落ちてきちゃった。この雷ピカチュウの電 撃より何十倍も威力がありそう」	Narrator:  "As if the rain and wind weren't enough, now we've got lightning starting to come down too! This lightning seems to be dozens of times more powerful than Pikachu's electricity!"	Narrator:  "..."

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ナレーション　「みんなが力を合わせてタマタマの巣を守ってくれたことナッシー はずっと覚えててくれるわよね」	Narrator:  "Nassy will never forget how everyone worked together to save the Tamatama group."	Narrator:  "..."

Also, there are several parts throughout the film where Pikachu's "dialogue" from the original will get replaced with a different recording of Ikue Ohtani, just because! I don't know why replacing an audio clip of Pikachu saying "Pikachu~" with a different audio clip of Pikachu going "Pi Pi Pi" is something any human would ever do on purpose, but it's something that happens several times throughout the film.

Now, as for this narrator edit...I will be the first to admit that the original dialogue isn't exactly good and that 90% of what Ms. Sato is given to say is just useless fluff. But there are definitely a few places that made me wonder how audiences who have only ever seen the English dub could figure out what was going on. And please don't misinterpret that as a slam against dub fans; if you watched the English version and could follow the story the first time through without any problems then you're a smarter person than me. But it's hard to imagine someone being able to follow what's going on in the English dub as well as a Japanese person is able to follow the story of the Japanese version.

The whole reason English dubs even exist in the first place is to allow viewers to watch foreign programming in a language they can actually understand. The dubbers take the dialogue from the original version, translate it, and then have their voice talent act out this newly translated dialogue. But if 4Kids skips all that and just mutes 95% of the dialogue then can we still call this a dub? Isn't this just the Japanese version with the dialogue track muted and replacement music playing in the background?

One of the big complaints professional film critics had after "Pikachu's Vacation" was that they didn't understand what the hell was happening, and so I guess 4Kids decided the best way to respond to that was to make things even worse the second time around. Why would anyone except the most diehard fan know that Exeggcute are supposed to have six seeds instead of five? Is that something your parents would have known when they took you to the theaters a quarter of a century ago? And why would they know that finding the missing Exeggcute is the only way they'd be allowed to bring Togepy back with them? The Japanese version makes all of this very clear but the English dub turns everything into some weird convoluted puzzle that requires multiple viewings to figure out why anyone's doing any of what they're doing.

Some people like puzzles. And that's fine! But I also think it's fine to let kids' movies be something kids can easily understand the first time through.

Finally,

Japanese (original)	Japanese (translated)	English Dub
ニャース　「やっとキャンプ場に着いたニャ」	Nyarth:  "I finally arrived at the camp site Nya"	Meowth:  "I never want to go to camp ever again."

Nyarth was actually trying to go to the camp we see in the previous shot, something you can still kind-of sorta get from the English version but is made much, much more clear in the Japanese original.

Cut - 2 minutes, 13 seconds
Like with the last Pikachu film, the ending credits for this mini-movie were completely removed from the English dub. The song is Sora Tobu Pokémon Kids (そ らとぶポ ケモンキッズ), or "The Flying Pokémon Kids," and it's performed by Becky, a celebrity who will go on to do other songs and even some voice acting in future Pokémon productions. The Pokémon Kids provide the chorus of this song. Lyrics are by Akihito Toda and the song is composed and arranged by Hirokazu Tanaka.

The sequence starts off with shots of the winning designs for the ANA Pokémon Jet '99 design contest. This was a contest that ran in CoroCoro Comics and the Shogaku "Nen Gaku" magazines where elementary school aged children were tasked with decorating this blank image of an ANA jet with Pokémon pictures.


One of the prizes promised to participants was the chance to get their winning designs shown during the ending credits of the year's film, and so that's what roughly the first half of the sequence shows us. Click on each image to see a larger version.

The next screen shows the winners of the first annual Pokémon movie illustration contests. These contests will continue to be a thing all the way up to 2020's Pocket Monsters The Movie "Koko."

The second half of the ending sequence consists of a bunch of charming drawings by Keiko Fukuyama (ふくやまけいこ), the artist who also provided the illustrations seen at the end of Pikachu's Summer Vacation. Click on each image to see a larger version.

4Kids went for the whole "let's not confuse the parents into thinking 'Pokémon the Movie 2000' is only 20 minutes long" route by cutting all this out. I can't say I blame them -- American movie theater audiences can be shockingly dense at times -- but I do wish 4Kids could have at least found a way to include this ending as an extra on the home video releases.

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And that's the second Pikachu film! Watching this film in English is certainly...unique, I'll give it that. If you have the means to watch this in Japanese I highly recommend you give it a shot because it's such a different experience from whatever the hell it is 4Kids released out into the wild back in the year 2000.

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