Island of the Giant Pokémon (Japanese: きょだいポケモンのしま！？, Hepburn: Island of the Giant Pokémon!?) is the 17th episode of Pocket Monsters of Pocket Monsters (1997 series), Season 1 of Pokémon the Series, and Pokémon: Indigo League of Pokémon the Series: The Beginning.
Synopsis[]
As our heroes and Team Rocket beat the odds by surviving the sinking ship, they are dragged into another potentially deadly situation when they are attacked by the ferocious Pokémon, Gyarados. One Gyarados becomes many and Ash, friends and foe are swept up in a tornado landing them in various locations on an island. Ash loses Pikachu and the Poké Balls containing Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur. Jessie and James from Team Rocket, who land in another remote part of the island, also lose their Pokémon. Thus both Pokémon and their masters are left searching for each other on this strange island, inhabited by gigantic Pokémon. Where could this island be?[1]
Episode plot[]
After the Gyarados fiasco, Ash, Misty, Brock and Team Rocket find themselves stranded on separate sides of an island, their Pokémon nowhere to be seen. Team Rocket in a stroke of luck find a phone booth, but to their horror, they possess no money with which to make a call. Meanwhile, Pikachu awakens and finds some Poké Balls, releasing the Pokémon within. Squirtle and Bulbasaur both seem relaxed, not really caring, just spending some time on the beach. Meowth, Ekans and Koffing find Ash's Pokémon. When Koffing and Ekans refuse to attack due to Meowth not being their master, the two parties call a truce and decide to travel together. Bulbasaur, ever the pessimist, states his belief that they have been abandoned. This freaks out Ekans and Koffing, but Pikachu is not so sure. He argues that Ash would do no such thing and vows to find Ash. As they continue, Ash and his group escape a massive Zapdos, with Ash vowing the same. Team Rocket just barely escape a Moltres of large proportions, but upon smacking into a sign, the two of them are knocked out. The day after, Team Rocket decides to call collect. And as the Boss, Giovanni, answers the phone, they introduce themselves with their motto, but when it goes on too long, Giovanni gets tired and hangs up on them. Team Rocket then decide to follow the wire to the telephone company, hoping it'll lead them to civilization. As they do so, they discover a Pikachu. However, its preportions are far larger than they expected. Meanwhile, Ash's Pokémon then find large versions of their evolutions, Blastoise and Venusaur. Squirtle attempts to communicate with the Blastoise, but insteads finds itself on the receiving end of a Hydro Pump. They decide to try the Venusaur, but Bulbasaur refuses to interact with it, for fear he will be attacked too. Team Rocket are then seen being chased by a rather large Kabutops. As they run, they fall into a mine cart, and find themselves rushing back toward the Kabutops. They eventually run into Ash and the heroes who are fleeing from a massive Charizard, before running into the Pokémon who are being chased by a massive Venusaur and Blastoise. As they come to a stop, it is revealed that the massive pokemon that they had been fleeing from were robots. And when a woman shows up on a boat shaped like a Gyarados, it is revealed to them that they were never stranded on a deserted island, but really a rather dangerous amusement park run by Team Rocket's boss, Giovanni, called Pokémon Land and when he got a call that Pokemon Land had been totally destroyed and in a fit of rage he said I spend millions on that place! After this, Team Rocket and the heroes go their separate ways, with the heroes journeying to Porta Vista.
Debuts[]
Pokémon[]
- Slowpoke
- Slowbro
- Charizard (robot form)
- Blastoise (robot form)
- Venusaur (robot form)
- Zapdos (robot form)
- Moltres (robot form)
- Rhydon (robot form)
- Kabutops (robot form)
Quotes[]
- "Talk about twists of fate. Round and round they go. Where they'll stop? Even I don't know!" - Narrator
- "Could it be?" - Jessie
- "Does this mean?" - James
- "We survived again." - Jessie and James
- "We're the completely invincible..." - Jessie
- "Unbeatable..." — James
- "...Team Rocket! Huh?" — Jessie and James
- "But I don't hear any annoying..." — Jessie
- "Complaining." — James
- "Meowth is missing!" — Jessie and James
- "I've lost the Poké Ball with the Ekans I got for my birthday last year!" — Jessie
- "Ah! The Poké Ball with the Koffing I got for Christmas is gone too! And we're totally broke." — James
- "We're penniless and Pokéless." — Jessie
- "We can always call for help." — James about a nearby phone booth
- "But we don't have any change." — James
- "And without any change..." — Jessie
- "...Our luck sure has changed." — Jessie and James
- "What's this? Ash's Poké Balls! Come out, everybody!" — Pikachu's subtitles
- "I'm all right." — Charmander's subtitles
- "I've felt better." — Squirtle's subtitles
- "I'm just fine." — Bulbasaur's subtitles
- "I guess the Team Rocket motto is starting to lose it's impact. Never mind! Okay guys, go get 'em!" — Meowth
- "You're not master." — Ekans subtitles
- "Not Master!" — Koffing Subtitles
- "Masters?! I'm twice as smart as those 2-watt light bulbs you're callin' masters!" — Meowth about Jessie and James
- "It can't be! My master's not around and I always seem to act like a rat." — Meowth realizing that Pokémon are only bad when their masters order them to be.
- James: "What is that thing?!"
Jessie: "I don't wanna stop to find out!"
- "Good thing we hid behind this sign." — Jessie
- "Yeah, maybe our luck is changing." — James
- "It's a good sign." — Jessie and James
- "Pardon me, but where are we running?" — James
- "To make a phone call." — Jessie
- "But Jessie, we don't have any money." — James
- "There's one number we can always call for free." — Jessie
- "Huh?" — James
- "Hello, operator? I'd like to put this call through Collect please." — Jessie
- "Who'd accept the charges?" — James
- "Hello, boss?" — Jessie
- "THE BOSS?!" — James
- "You fools had better have a good reason for calling me this early in the morning." — Giovanni answering the phone
- "Jessie, hauling this phone booth is exhausting." — James
- "Well you could use a good workout." — Jessie
- "It's Bigachu!" — Jessie and James about to run from the giant Pikachu
- "That looks like a Charizard!" — Misty
- "An evolved Charmander?" — Ash
- "But much bigger." — Brock
- "(Awesome, talk to it. You guys are like family.)" — Squirtle
- "(No way! Just call me an orphan. I have no family.)" — Bulbasaur
- "(Good point.)" — Charmander
- "(Coward!)" — Squirtle
- "Don't tell me we're..." — Jessie
- "...Going back the way we came!" — Jessie and James
- "RUNAWAY TRAIN!" — Jessie and James after breaking the break
- "Pikachu!" — Misty
- "Jumbo sized!" — Brock
- "Now we got you just where we want you." — Jessie
- "Hand over Pikachu. huh?" — James
- "But not that big one!" — James
- "Stop the car right now!" — Ash
- "We can't do that." — Jessie
- "We can't stop, the brake's broken." — James
- "Gimme a break." — Ash
- "Prepare for big trouble!" — James
- "Make it double! And I can't stand roller coasters!" — Jessie
- "Stop the ride! Stop the ride! I wanna get off!" — Jessie
- "You're safe." — Jessie
- "How did you make it?" — James
- "Ha ha ha! I Cat-apulted!" — Meowth
- "They're after us!" — Misty
- "Maybe our luck'll hold out!" — Ash
- "Well, based on our recent run of luck I would say the cable should snap." — James
- "That should happen about... now." — Jessie
- "Next we'll be hurled into the air." — James
- "Then we'll probably crash into something." — Meowth
- "That's weird. Looks like that was a mechanical Pokémon." — Brock
- "And then finally." — Jessie
- "We hit the water." — James
- "After a very, very long droooooop!" — Meowth
- "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Pokémon land. Here you will see various Pokémon at over ten times their natural size. Of course the Pokémon are all mechanical so don't worry, it's very safe. Now if you look to your left...!" — Pokémon Land guide.
- "We apologize ladies and gentlemen but our giant Pokémon are temporarily out of order." — Pokémon Land guide apologizing.
- "Yes. What? Pokémon Land has been totally destroyed?! Grr. I spent millions on that place." — Giovanni about Pokémon Land.
- "Slowbro." — Slowpoke after realizing Shellder bit its tail.
Trivia[]
Slowpoke
Slowbro
- The robotic Moltres that chased Team Rocket and the robotic Rhydon were the only giant Pokémon that were not seen to get destroyed in the episode.
- Jessie and James reveal that their Ekans and Koffing were given to them as birthday and Christmas presents, meaning they didn't catch them.
- This is the first episode that has subtitles during the parts where Pikachu and the other Pokémon (aside from Meowth who can already talk) are speaking in their own language.
- This is the first episode insisting characters getting drunk.
- When Jessie uses the phone to call Giovanni, she uses 1-800-Collect (a parody of 1-800-Contacts).
- "Who's That Pokémon?": Slowpoke (JA and KO), Slowbro (EN)
- This is the first time the Pokémon get separated from their trainers.
- It is revealed that Jessie is afraid of roller coasters.
- The music in the Pokémon Land Tour is the Generation I Surf Score.
Mistakes[]
- When Team Rocket is about to use the brakes on the cart, they say "pull" but push the lever.
- One of Squirtle's captions spells Pokémon as "pokémon", without a capital P.
- When Team Rocket sees Meowth, James and Jessie are crying and James has no pupils.
- After the scene when the cable is about to snap, Meowth's paws are brown instead of white.
- When James is explaining about their recent run of bad luck, Jessie's earrings and lipstick are gone.
- After all the Pokémon jumped in the moving cart, when Jessie and James are hugging Koffing and Ekans their gloves are missing.
- When the Pokémon jump into the moving cart, Misty catches Squirtle and Brock catches Charmander and Bulbasaur. However, when the cart falls towards the water, Misty is shown holding Charmander while Brock is holding Squirtle and Bulbasaur.
- When the destroyed robots are shown, the Blastoise robot's bottom jaw is miscolored.
- At the very end, when Brock, Ash, and Misty are seen walking a path, Ash's gloves are missing. Just afterwards they reappear, only to disappear once more as the three are running towards Porta Vista.
Dub differences[]
- The digital effect of Giovanni's voice is dub-only.
- Ekans and Koffing were given to Jessie and James as birthday and Christmas gifts, respectively. In the original, they were for chuugen (Ghost Festival) and oseibo (Year-End).
- Ash's Bulbasaur and Squirtle and Meowth are shown to be drunk in this episode, this was changed to match the kids TV demographic's ratings outside of Japan.
- In the original, Giovanni was furious that Pokémon Land went bankrupt, since it was a vital source of funds. In the English dub, Giovanni was told Pokémon Land was destroyed, and got furious that he spent millions to acquire it.
Video[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ^ (n.d.) . "Island of the Giant Pokémon! | Pokémon TV (pokemon.com)". From The Official Pokémon Website | Pokemon.com. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024.
