A wibbly wobbly timey wimey adventure that includes a water dog, an evil Steampunk man, and an onion fairy.
Pokémon 4Ever, also known as either Celebi: Voice of the Forest in the English version or Celebi: A Timeless Encounter in Japan, is the fourth Pokémon: The Series film, released on July 7, 2001. It was once again directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and written by Hideki Shirane.
A long time ago, a little forest guardian known as Celebi is chased by an unknown Pokémon poacher. A young Trainer, Sam, saves Celebi, and the two travel through time. In the present day, a member of Team Rocket, known as the Iron Mask Marauder ("Vicious" in Japanese), confronts the now old poacher and destroys his home, taking a Tyranitar with him.
Ash, Misty and Brock see a Suicune, and Oak tells them about the legendary Pokémon. While in the woods, they see Sam, and they befriend him. Unfortunately, the Iron Masked Marauder plans to capture Celebi for himself, and he plans to overthrow Giovanni in the process.
The movie provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The scene with Suicune majestically standing on a high place and then running to the rescue is totally done in CGI. Suicune appears in 2D for the rest of the movie. Celebi's monstrous form is also CG.
- Adapted Out: Tracey makes two appearances as Oak's assistant. Both scenes were removed in the dub version, reducing his presence to a cameo during the end credits.
- All Just a Dream: In the Japanese version, Sam wakes up after being returned to the past and mentions he had "a wonderful dream." In the dub, this isn't the case.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Towa's granddaughter Diana wears a pink tank top that slightly shows her belly.
- Big Damn Heroes: Suicune.
- Blatant Lies: This exchange during Ash and the gang's first encounter with the Marauder as he blocks their way on his spider-bot.Iron-Masked Marauder: I've been lookin' for that little Celebi!
Ash: Who are you?
Iron-Masked Marauder: A Pokémon lover.
Ash: Leave us alone! -
Broken Aesop: The movie's Deus ex Machina ending is why Linkara hates the movie so much, as pointed out in his crossover review with That Dude in the Suede. Why bother bringing up the danger of permanently wrecking the environment when they make the whole thing crash and burn by bringing the once dead Celebi back to life? - Butt-Monkey: The Iron Masked Marauder, though given how evil he was and how his actions almost killed Celebi, his bad luck is completely justified.
- Call-Forward: Sammy's sketching hobby, considering it might be the inspiration for the Pokédex, and that Sammy's "biggest fan" (currently his assistant) has the very same hobby.
- Captain Obvious: Brock, as always:Brock: (after the water from the Lake of Life turns Celebi healthy again) This must be the Lake of Life. ...Hey, that's it! The lake water must have brought Celebi back to life!
- Chekhov's Classroom: The conversation with Professor Oak at the start of the movie. He mentions Suicune's ability to purify water, as well as his claiming that he only saw Suicune just one time.
- Cruel Mercy: When surrounded by angry forest Pokémon as they confront him for all the heinous crimes he has committed, the Marauder tries to summon his Dark Balls, but he doesn't have any. The villain begs for mercy, but his pleas are ignored, and they tie him up using String Shot.
- Deus ex Machina: Just when all hope of reviving Celebi seems lost, other Celebi from past and future arrive from a portal to save their friend, and succeed.
- Disney Death: Celebi. It comes Back from the Dead in the Japanese version, though it was changed in the dub. It even looks like a corpse!
- Disney Villain Death: Subverted, to rather ridiculous levels. The Marauder falls several meters, lands in a tree branch that snaps and then lands and rolls down a small hill, finally landing hard on the ground. Then Diana, Toya and Mr. White along with the angry forest Pokémon confront him. The now powerless Marauder begs for mercy. Then Caterpie, Weedle, and Spinarak spray silk at him, tying him up.
- The above two tropes were fitting, given US distributor Miramax was owned by Disney (which like The Pokémon Company has a mouse as its mascot) at the time of the film's release.
- Eldritch Abomination: Whatever the hell Celebi makes out of the chunks of forest it decimates. It has spider legs, horns, skeletal wings, and can blast the crap out of about half a mile of tree canopy to vaporize half of the lake on the other side.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Jessie, James and Meowth initially accompany the Marauder to catch Celebi (out of fear of him). However, they're genuinely horrified of the Marauder's methods in doing so (i.e. brutally electrocuting Celebi, and brainwashing it into destroying the forest). The trio may love stealing Pokémon, but they would NEVER sadistically torture and manipulate them!
- Jessie is also horrified when the Marauder tells her that he plans to use Celebi to overthrow Giovanni and rule Team Rocket.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Celebi is trailing sparkles and spinning when it pops out of the Lake of Life completely healed and when it heals Misty's twisted knee.
- Expy: The Iron Masked Marauder, being one of Lawrence III from the movie "The Power of One".
- Both have motives that involve stealing legendary Pokémon for their own nefarious purposes (Moltres and Zapdos in Lawrence III's case and Celebi in Iron Masked Marauder's case).
- Both have forced said legendary Pokémon to obey them until their defeats.
- Both encounter another legendary Pokémon that catches their eye that avoids being caught by them (Articuno in Lawrence III's case and Suicune in Iron Masked Marauder's case)
- Despite their similarities, their methods couldn't be more different: While the Iron Masked Marauder takes a more crueler forceful approach that sets him and Lawrence III's motives apart, Lawrence III acted nowhere near as cruel as The Iron Masked Marauder did. Also, Lawrence III was not a member of an established evil organization, while the Iron Masked Marauder was a member of Team Rocket.
- Eye Scream: The hunter who attempts to capture Celebi at the beginning of the movie has an artificial eye in place of his right one.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Sam travels from the past to the present day.
- Fingore: The Iron-Masked Marauder manages to knock Ash unconscious by painfully stepping on his fingers when he retrieves Celebi's Dark Ball.
- For the Evulz: The Iron-Masked Marauder has Celebi destroy much of the forest simply to show off his power. Even Jessie, James, and Meowth think this is overkill.
- Future Self Reveal: This movie features a character named Sammy, a boy that has been transported 40 years in time to the present day by the Mythical Pokémon Celebi. Ash and his friends meet him unconscious near a shrine dedicated to Celebi and nurse him back to health. Sammy plays an active and important role throughout the film, defending Celebi from poachers and a twisted villain that wants to use its power for himself. At the end of the film, Celebi and Sammy part ways with Ash and company, going back to the past. In the original Japanese version, it's unstated but heavily implied that Sammy is in fact the present-day Prof. Samuel Oak, a beloved prominent recurring character in the franchise. In the international version (which actually had new scenes added to it), it is explicitly shown to be the case when we see a time-faded sketchbook previously established as belonging to Sammy in Oak's possession. Despite this, Oak decides to keep this secret to himself.
- Humongous Mecha: The giant spider robot four legs thing that the Marauder uses to try and capture Celebi.
- Importation Expansion: 4Kids Entertainment had the Japanese animators create additional scenes to make it clearer that Sammy is Professor Oak, as well as adding a comedic Team Rocket scene.
- I Never Told You My Name: In the final scene, the gang tells Professor Oak about their most recent adventure and Professor Oak notices Ash is unusually subdued. Ash tells him about the boy he befriended who went back to his own time and how Ash is worried they'll never meet again. Professor Oak reassures him that true friendships stand the test of time and that "I'm sure you and Sammy will be friends forever." After the video call is over, Misty realizes they never mentioned Sammy's name to the Professor... Cut to Professor Oak in his lab looking through his old sketchbook and saying, "It seems like it happened only yesterday."
- Knight of Cerebus: The Iron-Masked Marauder is one of the first truly vile villains to appear in the movies. In addition to being completely devoid of redeeming qualities, he also tries several times to have Ash and his friends killed, and his actions nearly resulted in Celebi's death.
- Missed the Bus: Ash narrowly averts this in the opening credits, with a boat that he didn't board earlier because he was in the middle of a Pokémon battle. He ends up having to make a leap for it.
- No-Sell: A Dark Ball can catch a Pokémon that was already in the possession of someone else.
- The Old North Wind: Suicune, a veritable Nature Spirit, is referred to by several characters as "The North Wind".
- Paint It Black: Whenever a Pokémon is caught by a Dark Ball, their skin color darkens.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Part of the movie's opening intro is the same electric guitar riff from the second Pokémon movie.
- The Reveal: At the end, it’s heavily implied that Sam is Professor Oak.
- Saying Too Much: In one of the 4Kids added scenes, Misty realizes how strange it was for Professor Oak to know Sam's name, even though Ash never mentioned it.
- Schizo Tech: The past that Sam comes from is pretty inconsistent in tech level. On one hand, Poke Balls from that time period need to be wound-up before use. On the other hand, a poacher from that period has a cyber eye and electro trap, while riding a fairly old motorcycle.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once Marauder has been defeated, his Pokémon leave him forever.
- Shout-Out: There's a trainer who's named Dundee in the English dub. He's got a Croconaw. He's also got an Australian accent.
- The Starscream: The Marauder was planning on being this by using Celebi's power to take over Team Rocket. Fairly small goal with the power of a time traveling legendary.
- Stuff Blowing Up: At the beginning of the movie, the Marauder uses Dark Tyranitar to blow up the old hunter's ranch to make him say where he found Celebi.
- Time Master: Celebi can travel through time.
- Title Drop: A case can be made regarding Professor Oak reassuring Ash that, in spite of Sammy travelling back to the past, he and Ash will be friends "forever."
- Villainous Rescue: Of a sort, since the Terrible Trio aren't the main antagonists here, but Jessie grabbing onto Ash and Sammy when the two boys are flung against the Eldritch Abomination could still count. Bonus points for Jessie being a Damsel in Distress herself at the time.
- Whole-Plot Reference: This movie's plot — particularly Celebi becoming evil, giving rise to a monster that destroys the forest, being killed and coming back to life — is supiciously similar to that of Princess Mononoke.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Iron-Masked Marauder. Not only does he order Dark Celebi to "get rid of" Ash and his friends, he also tries to kick Ash away from him while they are a considerable distance off the ground.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Marauder's attitude when seeing Scizor and Sneasel tied up. He just leaves them there without a care and continues to pursue Ash and Celebi. His decision comes back to bite him on the ass after he loses all his weapons and left at the mercy of the forest Pokémon. Scizor and Sneasel, along with Tyranitar are shown at the end, free from the Dark Ball’s influence and from their former trainer.
