With a huge thanks to Alex Aniel, we now have a summary for the 20th Pokemon movie! Alex was able to attend the world premiere screening at Japan Expo in France today. The movie will be released in Japanese theaters on July 15th.

The movie disregards all canon. It is loosely “inspired by” Ash’s adventures in Kanto but is a completely alternate storyline. The season one events in the film play out in different ways and some new characters replace the functionality of old ones. Brock and Misty are not in the film except for brief cameos in the end credits.

The Pokemon Company probably made an alternate storyline because their priority is to using Pokemon films to market whatever is currently going on in the franchise. This movie had to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the anime, promote the second generation (because of Pokemon GO and the upcoming G/S Virtual Console releases), appease old fans, and it also had to introduce Marshadow. With all these “marketing elements” in mind, it would not have been easy to make a film that is merely a retelling of Ash’s adventures in Kanto. So the film is its own thing!

Alex is a casual Pokemon fan who has seen all the original movies. As I was working with him on the summary, he stated that he thought the film was “lacking” and “underwhelming.” He thought the two movie characters were boring and that the story’s pacing was rushed. But he thought the bad guy, Cross, was an improvement on Damian (Charmander’s owner in the TV show who Cross takes the place of in this movie). He also really liked certain scenes, such as the ending when Ash gets separated from Pikachu.

However, that is just one person’s opinion, and everyone’s tastes differ. Who knows how you’ll like it when you see it! Also note that this summary is missing details, as it’s always hard to remember a whole movie after only one viewing. But this should give you an overall idea of the plot.

Update: Makoto is from Twinleaf Town, not Azalea Town. Future D/P remakes or sequels confirmed! :p