My Thoughts on: Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (2005)

After a lengthy delay (largely due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that temporarily killed any desire to watch and review anything), my quest to watch all of the Pokémon movies continued with Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. This is the eighth Pokémon film in the series and it came out in 2005. The story follows the ongoing adventures of Ash, Pikachu, Brock, May and Max as they help a Pokémon called Lucario unravel the mystery of why he was sealed away by his master, Sir Aaron, a thousand years ago. And oh yes, did I mention Mew puts in an appearance?

I’ve yet to see a Pokémon film that I didn’t like, but this definitely has to be my favorite after the first three films (which in my mind will always be the best). The story is fairly straightforward: Ash and company stumble onto an adventure, Team Rocket inevitably tags along, and Ash must to do something to save the immediate area. The story’s setting is out of this world. There’s a beautiful castle, the phenomenal Tree of Beginning that looks like a tree but is actually made of stone and crystal, and (I can’t mention this enough) some completely adorable scenes with Mew. I’ve loved Mew ever since the first Pokémon movie and this story has more than enough of the adorable critter in it.

I really like how this story uses “time flowers” as a way of looking into the past to find out what happened without resorting to true flashbacks every five minutes. It’s really interesting how the story actually seems to employ the “unreliable narrator” trope. That is, it forces you to question if you can really believe the accepted version of what happened to Sir Aaron, or if Lucario’s version of events is actually correct. The truth, once it’s revealed, is pretty heart-wrenching (but I’m discovering that’s par for the course for Pokémon films).

My favorite visual in the film has to be the secret world inside the Tree of Beginning. It’s amazing how many of these Pokémon films involve secret worlds where Pokémon thrive without any interference from humans. This one is particularly well put together, and I genuinely wished it was a real place I could explore, that’s how beautiful it was. On a separate note, it’s also fun to watch all of the Pokémon interact with each other. Even though all they do is repeat their own names, you still get an idea of what they’re saying.

The one character that surprised me the most in this story was Kidd Summers. When she initially started snooping around the castle, I was convinced that she was the bad guy for this film, the kind that would ingratiate herself with Ash and company before revealing her true colors. But not only was that not true, now that I think about it, there really isn’t a villain in this story (and no, Team Rocket doesn’t count, they don’t even really try anything this time). That shows what a good film this is, when you get totally engrossed in the story despite there not being a villain for our heroes to go against.

If you’re looking for Pokémon films to try outside of the first three films, I highly recommend watching Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. The story was excellent and the animation was spot-on. This was truly a great story about the world of Pokémon and I hope you get the chance to check it out.

Let me know what you think about Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew in the comments below and have a great day!