Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew

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Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew
DVD Cover
Directed by	Kunihiko Yuyama Darren Dunstan
Produced by	Jim Malone
Written by	Hideki Sonoda
Starring	Veronica Taylor Amy Birnbaum Eric Stuart Rachael Lillis Mike Pollock Madeleine Blaustein Ikue Ootani
Distributed by	Toho (Japan) VIZ Media (U.S.) Shogakukan Productions (Japan) Magna Pacific (Australia)
Release date(s)	July 16, 2005 (Japan) August 16, 2006 (Australia) September 19, 2006 (USA) October 10, 2006 (Canada)
Running time	103 min.
Language	English Japanese
Preceded by	Destiny Deoxys
Followed by	Pokémon Ranger and the Prince of the Sea: Manaphy

Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (劇場版ポケットモンスターアドバンスジェネレーションミュウと波導の勇者ルカリオ, Gekijōban Poketto Monsutā Adobansu Jenerēshon Myū to Hadō no Yūsha Rukario^?, POCKET MONSTERS Mew and the Wave Guiding Hero: Lucario) is the eighth Pokémon movie. It was released in Japanese theaters in Japan on July 16, 2005, then after that followed by the Japanese DVD release on December 22, 2005. The English dub made its worldwide DVD debut in Australia on August 16, 2006, with the US release following on September 19, 2006 by VIZ Media. The English dub of the movie premiered in the US for the first time at the 2006 Comic-Con in San Diego, California.^{[citation needed]} While the Australian DVD has only one disc with slideshows as the sole extras, the North American DVD set comes with the redubbed The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon special included on the 2nd disc as a bonus feature, as well as a 'Making Of' feature on the first disc along with sketches similar to the slideshows on the Australian DVD.

The background for this movie was based on visits by Kunihiko Yuyama to Bavaria, Germany. Neuschwanstein Castle and Linderhof Palace were used as the basis of the movie's setting.

"Hajimari no Uta", the ending theme for the Japanese version of the movie, is performed by Puffy AmiYumi. The English dub replaced that with "We Will Meet Again" (no singer listed in the ending credits however).

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Plot
2 Voice Actors
3 Box office performance
4 Aura
5 Pokemon-Themed Toys Seen
6 Trivia
7 External links

[edit] Plot

Ash arrives at Cameran Palace where a festival is being held to celebrate Sir Aaron, an ancient hero who averted a war that was about to begin outside of the Tree of Beginning. At the festival, Ash competes in a tournament at Cameran Palace and wins, to become the "Aura Guardian" for that year. As part of the celebration, Ash is granted Aaron's staff, which contains his Pokémon companion, Lucario, whom Aaron had sealed before stopping the war. However, Pikachu is taken away by Mew when an adventurer named Kidd attempts to put a tracker on the legendary Pokémon using her Weavile. Naturally Ash, with the help of Lucario, follows Mew to the Tree of Beginning in order to rescue Pikachu. There is but one problem. After being sealed in the staff, Lucario has lost his complete trust for humans. Then Ash earns Lucario's trust and they enter the entrance to The Tree of Beginning. They are attacked by Regirock, Regice, and Registeel, the tree's guardians who recognize them as a threat. They enter the tree and are attacked by the tree's defense system, with the actions of white blood cells and able to transform into other Pokémon such as Aerodactyl. When Ash and the gang are absorbed into the tree, Mew saves them by reasoning with the tree's defense mechanism, but becomes incredibly weak in the process. In order to save Mew and the tree, Lucario and Ash combine their Aura to reverse the self-destruction of the tree. Lucario pushed Ash away towards the completion of the process so that Ash wouldn't end up forfeiting his soul to the realm of Aura. The dramatic ending concludes the story well as all characters move on after learning important lessons of trust, sacrifice, and love.

[edit] Voice Actors

Character	Japanese voice	English voice
Satoshi / Ash	Rika Matsumoto	Veronica Taylor
Haruka / May	KAORI	Veronica Taylor
Masato / Max	Fushigi Yamada	Amy Birnbaum
Takeshi / Brock	Yuji Ueda	Eric Stuart
Pikachu	Ikue Otani	Ikue Otani
Lucario	Daisuke Namikawa	Sean Schemmel
Kojirou / James	Shinichirou Miki	Eric Stuart
Musashi / Jessie	Megumi Hayashibara	Rachael Lillis
Nyarth / Meowth	Inuko Inuyama	Madeleine Blaustein
Mew	Satomi Koorogi	Kôichi Yamadera
Regirock	Eiji Miyashita	Pete Kaplan
Regice	Kunihiro Kawamoto	Pete Kaplan
Registeel	Atsushi Kakehashi	Pete Kaplan
Kidd Summers	BECKY	Jessica Calvello
Lt. Banks	Takeshi Aono	Oliver Wyman
Arlon / Sir Aaron	Koichi Yamadera	Jason Griffith
Leen / Lynn	Momoko Kikuchi	Kelly Ray
Eirene / Lady Eileen	Momoko Kikuchi	Kelly Ray
Ginny / Eileen's maid	Kumiko Okae	Jennifer Blood
Freddy	Akihiro Nishino - "King Kong"	Darren Dunstan
Usohachi / Bonsly	Yuuta Kajiwara - "King Kong"	Pete Kaplan
Narrator	Unshou Ishizuka	Mike Pollock

[edit] Box office performance

The general screening of Mew and the Wave-Guiding Hero: Lucario in Japan ran for 6 weeks from July 16 to August 26, 2005. Source: [1]

July 16 - 17: 2nd overall, 1st domestic
July 23 - 24: 2nd overall, 1st domestic
July 30 - 31: 2nd overall, 1st domestic
August 6 - 7: 3rd overall, 2nd domestic
August 13 - 14: 3rd overall, 2nd domestic
August 20 - 21: 4th overall, 2nd domestic
August 27 - 28: 7th overall, 4th domestic

Since premiering on July 16 2005 the eighth Pokémon movie, Mew and the Wave-Guiding Hero: Lucario, has officially made 4.11 billion yen (approx. US$36 million) in box office sales. This number was tallied from box office receipts from the premiere to Sept. 25. Approximately 3,930,000 viewers saw the movie during its run.

The final box office tally is 98.3 percent of the sales of last year, but with the last three movies all consistently passing the 4 billion yen mark, it is considered a market success. The slight market loss is attributed to stiff competition at the box office from other anime films running at the same time.

[edit] Aura

Aura (Hadou 波導 or literally Wave Guidance) is the type of energy that Aaron and Lucario are sensitive to. In defensive aspects, Aura allows a level of clairvoyance which would explain his knowledge of the attack Anticipate. In offensive aspects, Lucario can create powerful, but small energy spheres. Aaron is not seen in the movie displaying any offensive capabilities with Aura. Aura is connected to the Tree of Origin due to Aaron's sacrificial attempt to transfer his Aura into the tree/Mew so that harmony could be spread all across the region, thereby ending the war. Ash Ketchum can also use Aura, but is very undeveloped and needs Sir Aaron's Aura-enhancing gloves to put it to good use. He can attempt such a feat because his Aura is similar to Aaron's, thus providing legitimate evidence that Ash could be Aaron's descendant.

According to the Japanese pamphlet, every object in the world exhibits some oscillation. Wave Guidance is supposedly a manipulation of this oscillation. Aura may be based on quantum mechanics, which states that every wave-particle has a wavelength.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Pokemon-Themed Toys Seen

Hitmontop Gyroscope
Shuckle Noise Maker
Spoink n' the Box
Lapras Music Box
Suicune Rocking Horse
Legendary Bird Mobile
Train Car with Celebi carved in the side

[edit] Trivia

This is the first Pokemon movie to feature a full-length version of its season's theme song, the last movie to do this was Pokemon Heroes.
Diane and Butler, from Pokémon: Jirachi Wishmaker, can be seen in the end credits sequence with Kidd Summers at Forina.

On September 30, 2006, Toys "Я" Us held a special one-day event to celebrate the release of Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, where owners of a Pokémon GBA game (any of the third generation of Pokémon games for the Game Boy Advance: Pokémon Ruby, Pokémon Sapphire, Pokémon Emerald, FireRed, or LeafGreen), were able to receive a promotional Mew for their game pack. To receive the legendary Pokémon, the attendees were required to trade any Pokémon of their choice for Mew.

To provide a happy ending for those missing Lucario, the end credits shows a scene where Sir Aaron and Lucario stand at the top of a hill. To prove it is not a flashback, Sir Aaron brings out a bar of chocolate-the same bar Max used to cheer up Lucario.

During the Fall of 2006, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system promoted this movie, as well as five other movies based on series, on the back of it's subway tickets as a "win a trip to Tokyo" sweepstakes.