The Pokemon universe is full of games, TV shows and movies, and now its first feature-length film is getting a Netflix reboot. Titled Pokemon: The First Movie when it was released in the United States in 1998, the Netflix remake reverts to its original name: Mewtwo Strikes Back. From the looks of the trailer, it will follow the path of the same movie, including Ash Ketchum and Co.’s journey to a Pokemon tournament where they get tangled up in a tale of Poke men tempting fate by playing Poke gods.
The film explores the origin of Mewtwo, the human-created Pokemon scientists cloned after discovering a fossil of Mew, No. 151 if you’ve got your Pokedex out. But the creation of Mewtwo, the most powerful Pokemon in existence, was bound to go wrong and he soon breaks free and creates all kinds of havoc.
“I will strike back against you,” Mewtwo says, or perhaps telepathically intimates to his scientific creators as be goes wild.
Only the first generation of Pokemon are present here, which isn’t a surprise. And the animation style is much different than the more traditional approach done in the last millennium, and separate still from 2019’s hyper-realistic Detective Pikachu style. That makes for cuter Pokemon, as well as a younger-looking Ash Ketchum battling and having a good time with friends. We’ll see how faithful this remake is to the original next month: Mewtwo Strikes Back hits the streaming service on Pokemon Day, February 27.
