Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You is the twentieth film entry in the Pokémon anime, released in 2017 to coincide with the series' twentieth anniversary. Pokémon might never live up to the obsession and craze that marked its initial release in the late '90s, but the twentieth anniversary saw it come close. Pokémon GO found many new fans who had never given video games a second thought; a reprint of the original Pokémon Trading Card Game brought people back to collecting. Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You also drew back older fans by retelling major events from Pokémon's first season.

Longtime fans of the series found the film's opening familiar. Ash (Sarah Natochenny) wakes up late and finds that Professor Oak (Carter Cathcart) has run out of Bulbasaurs, Charmanders, and Squirtles, the traditional choices of starter Pokémon companions for trainers in the Kanto region. As in Pokémon: Indigo League, the show's first season, Ash is forced to befriend Pikachu (Ikue Ōtani), a misbehaved Pokémon that refuses to get in its Poké ball. It also refuses to fight, leaving Ash to chuck rocks at a Pidgey and accidentally turn a flock of Spearows against him and Pikachu. Pikachu saves the day, and the legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh flies overhead. Also, like in the first season, Ash finds an abandoned Charmander in the rain that he takes in to eventually raise into his beloved Charizard. He also releases Butterfree, like in the heartwrenching Bye-Bye, Butterfree! episode. Retelling major moments in the first series makes this film an alternate telling of Ash's journey that fits outside the timeline of the rest of the series. It is a sweet narrative tool that allows Ash, the hero of the story, to have experiences that involve newer Pokémon and people without having the 'been-there-done-that' attitude that would come with Ash living through the events of the prior films and episodes. It is cool to see Charizard back in the show as Ash's new Pokémon, rather than the deus ex machina living in the Charicific Valley at Ash's beck and call.

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I Choose You is also easily the most bizarre and surreal in the series, impressive for an anime series about traveling a world with magical animal companions to make new friends and beat up on bad guys. This article is about to flood you with spoilers, so watch the movie right now if that is not your sort of thing. To summarize some of the film's oddest moments, there is an on-screen Poké-death, a moment Pikachu talks to Ash (with words other than "Pika pika!" delivered by actor Kate Bristol), and a sequence where Ash has a nightmare that parodies the series and explores the show's themes of friendship and adventure. The nightmare is one of the most compelling parts of Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You and the series overall. It ties into the first scene of the entire anime and shows off, through chilling contrast, how vibrant and beautiful the world of the anime is.

Ash succumbs to a nightmare as a result of being haunted by Marshadow, this film's mythical Pokémon. Marshadow touches Ash, and the rainbow wing dropped by Ho-Oh loses all color before Ash falls into his nightmare. Like at the start of the film and the first scene of the series, Ash wakes up late to see Professor Oak. However, we already see something unusual. Not only is the color noticeably washed out, but there is a notable lack of Pokémon in this dream. Instead of a poster of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, Ash has a picture of a blue, orange, and green car. When he catches up to Professor Oak, he gets chastised for being a late student. We then see Ash daydreaming in class. He sees a yellow shadow of Pikachu run under his desk, and he thinks he sees the Ho-Oh fly overhead, but on a second look, it is just an airplane.

Right before falling asleep, Ash wandered into the woods alone and angry. He had just lost a match to Cross (Billy Bob Thompson) and his Incineroar and feels even Pikachu is judging him as weak. Before falling asleep, he says, "Who needs Pikachu anyway? I'm just fine, all by myself." This sequence is like It's A Wonderful Life, but instead of seeing George Bailey's cursed wish of a world without him, Ash gets the harsh reality of a world with no Pokémon, without his best friend, Pikachu. After class, Ash stands alone and looks into the distance at the real-world counterpart to Pallet Town. Verity (Suzy Myers) and Sorrell (David Oliver Nelson) approach and ask what's up. He gives a heartwarming speech about how he just wants to travel, see everything, and spend the nights looking at the stars with friends. He describes his life. However, he gets caught up trying to explain his "buddy" to his friends. He describes a companion that is always with him. When Ash realizes Pikachu is not with him, a yellow apparition of the electric mouse appears. Ash tears up, chases the ghostly Pikachu, and the fabric of the dream falls apart. When he catches up with the yellow shroud, it materializes into Pikachu, and the two fall through the sky into a field of yellow flowers. Then, Ash wakes up surrounded by his friends and Pikachu.

Any longtime fan of the series would get a kick out of this dream. The way it parallels episode one with a lackluster late arrival to school is hilarious. Also, Verity asks Ash, once he wakes up, "You forgot that Pokémon even existed? That had to have been the worst dream ever." Anyone who experienced childhood Pokémon obsession remembers spending a few birthday wishes wishing that these pocket monsters were real. The dream is a silly inversion of "what if Pokémon were real" in a world where they are real.

Ash's dream sequence also serves to highlight some of the more central themes of Pokémon. Pokémon is about adventuring and friendship. The original progenitor of the game, Satoshi Tajiri, was a hobbyist naturalist and wanted to inspire kids to play outside. He did not come up with this idea out of nowhere. Humans love exploring with their friends. It is quite insightful to show Ash in a completely normal element to highlight just how great and bizarre the world of Pokémon is. Pokémon is about a fairly dreamy subject, a ten-year-old traveling the countryside with his best friends and animal companions. It makes sense, then, that, if he were stuck in school all day, Ash would daydream about his exact life. While it can be fairly dark to imagine Ash with no Pikachu, this is far from the darkest point in the film. You also get to see Ash and Pikachu hug right after the dream, and they are together preceding it, so the pain of imagining them apart is short-lived.

If you have not yet watched Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You, put it on your queue. It has moments that service longtime fans and newcomers to the world of Pokémon. It is also likely the most narratively mature of the Pokémon films, making it great for audiences of all ages.