History Anime / Pokemon3

* AnAesop:
** It is better to live in the real world than live in a delusion.
** Also: BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor and EvilIsNotAToy.

* CatchPhrase: Entei has two, "If that is what you wish." and "I am happy that you are happy."

* SmallNameBigEgo: Durring her battle with Molly, Misty claims to not only the leader of the Cerulean Gym, but "One of the best" gym leaders. She wasn't actually the real gym leader at the time of this movie, her sisters where.

For 18 years, this was the last ''Pokémon'' film to score a wide release in North America, after disappointing at the box office. The [[Anime/Pokemon4Ever fourth]] and [[Anime/PokemonHeroes fifth]] films settled for limited releases (and under Miramax instead of Warner Bros.), while all the rest have gone straight to video or TV. However, this film is currently the fifth highest grossing anime film in North America. In 2019, the franchise finally made its return to wide cinemas in North America with ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'', with Warner Bros. once again distributing.

* LuckyTranslation: When Molly uses the Unown tiles to spell out "Mama and Papa and Me together", she's actually spelling out her own name, ミー ''Mii''. It just so happened that they romanized it to "ME" allowing them to use the scene without having to do any visual edits.

* BattleButler[=/=]OverprotectiveDad: Entei has the latter personality, which results in him playing the former to the letter.

** Molly vs Misty and Brock. Though the only reason for that is because she's essentially cheating. But it's a bit different in a few cases. Zubat lost to Flaaffy due to the type advantage (electric v flying/poison). Vulpix should've won against Teddiursa, fire v normal, but Teddiursa did pull off a Dynamic Punch on Vulpix. With Onix v Phanpy, it's ''very'' unlikely that Phanpy could defeat Onix with a rollout unless it there was a huge level gap since rollout is a rock move and Onix is resistant to rock moves. Against Misty, it was mostly played straight. With Kingdra vs Goldeen, Kingdra had the advantage of being part dragon and for having far better stats than a Goldeen. Mantine v Staryu should've had both tied strength wise, but we never see the end result of that battle.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Some websites (''Serebii'' included) actually went on to list Charizard as one of the three featured Pokémon alongside Entei and the Unown. He's even on the cover image above!

''Pokémon 3 the Movie: Spell of the Unown'', known as ''Pocket Monsters: Lord of the Unknown Tower'' in Japan, is the third ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' film and first film in the Johto arc, released on July 8, 2000. It was directed once again by Kunihiko Yuyama and written by Creator/TakeshiShudo and Hideki Shirane. It was Shudo's last ''Pokémon'' film before his death in 2010.

* MindControlEyes: Delia gains these when Entei hypnotizes her. They're restored back to normal when she sees Ash in danger.

** In the Japanese version, [[spoiler:it's stated that she left her husband because he wouldn't stop obsessing over his work. Should be noted that the English dub never rules out this to be the case.]].

* VillainousRescue: While Team Rocket is not the film's antagonist, they manage to catch Ash's hand before he falls out of a window.

** Doubles as a FunnyAneurysmMoment, seeing as what role they ''did'' get in ''[=4Ever=]''. [[note]]Having to work together with the ''worst kind'' of villain there is; Jessie even got to be a DistressedDamsel![[/note]]

* HypnotizeTheCaptive: Molly wants a mother, so Entei searches around, finds Ash's mother, brainwashes her, and takes her back to the mansion. It also has a funny moment when Ash's mother sees Ash getting into danger, and she snaps out of the trance to berate him.

* MindControlEyes: Delia gains these when Entei brainwashes her. They're restored back to normal when she sees Ash in danger.