Team Rocket's Meowth

Meowth is a member of Team Rocket who travels with James and Jessie. In Unova, Meowth briefly left Team Rocket and traveled with Ash and his friends; however, this was later revealed to be a ploy and Meowth returned to Team Rocket. He is one of the few non-Legendary Pokémon that is capable of speaking human language without using telepathy.

Early life
Before joining Team Rocket, he was just a normal Meowth living on the streets of Hollywood (AKA "Tinseltown") after he went there searching for fame and fortune.

He joined a gang of street Meowth led by a Persian. They annoyed humans in Tinseltown in a typical alley cat fashion, such as stealing food and rummaging through trash cans. Eventually he met a female Meowth named Meowzie, who he fell in love with. However she rejected him, in favor of the attention of her rich human mistress. Wanting to impress her, Meowth began learning to become more human-like. With a great amount of time and effort, Meowth learned to speak human language (with a New York accent) and walk upright. However all his efforts backfired, as he was again rejected by Meowzie, who now saw him as a freak. With his heart now broken, he decided to join Team Rocket (mainly due to the fact that the word "Rocket" was the first word he learned to speak and understood its meaning).

According to Meowth (himself), he claims to have been Boss Giovanni's personal pet (or "Top Cat"). He was later replaced by a Persian, the evolved form of Meowth, possibly due to Meowth's inability to learn Pay Day and Giovanni's favoring of rare and powerful Pokémon.

Partnership with Jessie and James
Eventually Meowth was assigned by Giovanni to work alongside Jessie and James. Though he often bickers with the duo (possibly due to his belief that he is their superior/boss), he bonds with them. After their first run in with Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, they become obsessed with stealing Ash's Pikachu and presenting it to Giovanni. Meowth also believes that by catching Pikachu, he can regain Giovanni's favor and his position as his "Top Cat".

As of his, Jessie and James' promotion and transfer to Unova, Meowth has become a highly skilled stealth artist, an excellent negotiator and is often successful in many missions with his team-mates to the point of the trio becoming a serious enemy for Ash and co. The trio were key in Team Rocket's Meteonite plan, taking order directly from Giovanni himself as well as his secretary. Meowth and his team-mates worked together with Pierce and met Doctor Zager.

Once the plan culminated, Meowth and his team-mates were asked to be as they please in Unova, so they continued working hard to do Team Rocket good and now work closely with Zager. Ash has also become less important to them but they will still antagonize him if he interferes in one of their plans.

During a mission in Unova, Meowth was fired from Team Rocket. After he was fired, he was found by Ash and Co. being beaten by a wild Scrafty. He then decided to travel with Ash and help them on their quest. Later, Iris tried to catch him, but failed to do so. Meowth later reveals that his expulsion from Team Rocket was nothing but a ploy to take Ash and his friends off guard whilst Team Rocket stole hundreds of Pokémon from Nimbasa City's grand Pokémon Center. This plan was foiled by Ash and company and Meowth rejoined his true allies Jessie and James.

Personality
Meowth is loyal to his group (Jessie and James), and never lets a few fights get in his way of being friends with them. He acts like he's the boss and the leader of them, being as he builds all the contraptions and thinks of all the plans. Meowth is very good at lying, as he often tricks Ash and company to believe he's on their side. Pikachu is the only one who doubts Meowth's loyalty because he always seemed to betray them. It was shown with Meowzie that Meowth had a heart and if he wasn't convinced by Team Rocket, he would be a normal Meowth that didn't care at all for stealing Pokemon.

Improvised Move

 * Fury Swipes of Love

Voice Actors

 * Inuko Inuyama (Japanese)
 * Nathan Price (English; IL002-IL017,IL019-IL031)
 * Maddie Blaustein (English; IL018, IL032-AG145, Movies 1 - 8)
 * Jimmy Zoppi (English; AG146-Present, Movie 9 - present)
 * Charis Grigoropoulos (Greek)
 * Jan Nonhof (Dutch; IL002-AG104)
 * Bas Keijzer (Dutch; AG092-present)

Trivia

 * Meowth learned how to speak because he wished to win Meowzie's heart. However, this attempt failed, as she saw him as unusual.
 * In IL018: Beauty and the Beach, Meowth was voiced by Maddie Blaustein, since the episode aired in America when she took over for Nathan Price.
 * A trend Meowth has in the anime is that he falls in love with female cat-like Pokémon: in Kanto, before he met Jessie and James, he fell in love with a female Meowth named Meowzie, in Hoenn he fell in love with May's Skitty and in Sinnoh he fell in love with a female Glameow. In Unova he fell in love with a male Purrloin who he and Ash's Oshawott both thought was female. Also, in the short "Eevee and Friends" he fell for Espeon, Glaceon and Leafeon.
 * It appears that Meowth also falls in love with Meloetta in "Meloetta's Glittery Recital" along with Ash's Oshawott.
 * Meowth is jealous of Giovanni's Persian and has a desire to fill in for it.
 * Meowth acts as a translator for Team Rocket and sometimes Ash and his friends, translating what other Pokémon are saying.
 * He was allowed to go to the Unova region despite being a Kanto Pokémon as he was more of a regular Team Rocket member than a Pokémon.
 * Meowth has been known to break the fourth wall several times, his partners have been known to do it a few times too.
 * It has been revealed that Meowth is still a wild Pokémon as Pokéballs are able to grab him, but none have successfully captured him as none of the trainers who threw the Pokéballs fought and weakened him first.
 * The first time that he said Ash's name was in BW048 when he was translating Pikachu. Also, it is the last episode that features a whole episode that Meowth was with Ash and the crew.
 * Meowth doesn't seem to know much about type matchup, as in Gotta Catch Ya Later, he tried to attack a bunch of Haunter with Fury Swipes, which would have no effect, and then, was scared by Night Shade, which would not affect him as a Normal type.
 * He, Gastly, and Slowking are currently the only Pokémon that can talk without using telepathy.
 * Ironically, despite being in most Pokémon episodes (second only to Ash's Pikachu), he did not evolve yet. This is due to the fact he rarely fights.