Anime / Pokémon Heroes

Legends make the heroes. In this case, the same guys from the last 4 films.

^{Japanese Poster} 

Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias is the fifth in the series of Pokémon: The Series movies and the first not to have a number in the title. It tells the story of Ash and friends' visit to the Venice-like city of Alto Mare, where they take part in a water chariot race. They later meet an aspiring artist named Bianca^note not that Bianca and her grandfather who runs the city's museum. The two of them hold a secret: the knowledge of Latios and Latias, twin dragon Pokémon who protect the city and the Soul Dew, a mystic orb that keeps the city safe from natural disasters. When a pair of thieves, Annie and Oakley, come to steal the Soul Dew and revive the ancient Pokémon at the museum, it's up to Ash and his friends, as well as new allies, to stop them.

On a side note, this was the final Pokémon film with the original cast, as well as being the last Pokémon movie to get a theatrical release in the U.S. for over 16 years. Starting with Pokémon the Movie: White - Victini and Zekrom in 2011, subsequent films got one-weekend limited engagements in select cities, but it wouldn't be until Pokémon Detective Pikachu when the franchise got another major nationwide theatrical release.

Alongside Pokémon: The First Movie, Heroes is one of the few Pokémon movies that has been confirmed to not be a Non-Serial Movie, and is in canon with Pokémon: The Series.

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Pokémon Heroes contains examples of:

• Adaptational Wimp: Latios and Latias are Legendaries, and impressive fighting forces in the games, with solid stats all around and an array of devastating attacks. In the movie, their fight against Annie and Oakley is just them flailing around and getting pummeled by Swifts and Night Shades before getting wrapped up in electrified nets.
• All Animals Are Dogs: Once you get friendly with them, Latios and Latias act like big puppy dogs. D'awww.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is it Bianca who kisses Ash at the end, or Latias in disguise?

• Badass Normal: Annie and Oakley. They're skilled acrobats and a part of the fight to capture the Eon Duo as much as their Pokémon, revealing no shortage of nifty gear to counter out the dragon's tricks.

• Big Brother Instinct: Latios is rather protective of his sister Latias and takes a hit for her when Annie and Oakley try to capture them, thus buying a few seconds of time for her to escape.
• Big Damn Heroes: Ash and Latias are cornered by Kabutops, with no hope of escape, until Brock's and Misty's Pokémon swing in, knocking Kabutops out in one hit.
• Bittersweet Ending: Latios is dead but the antagonists are defeated, the Soul Dew is returned and the city is saved from destruction.
• Butt-Monkey: The only reason the Rocket trio even show up in this film is for them to get soaked or screwed over in some way by the main plot. Their last scene in the film is them being swept away by the returning Alto Mare waters (not counting the credits where they're back pursuing the twerps in their Magikarp sub). Kind of what happens when you're Demoted to Extra.
• Chase Scene: There are a LOT of these. Then again, the story takes place in what amounts to Venice, Italy, so sit back and enjoy the Scenery Porn.

• Continuity Nod: At the end, when Annie and Oakley are in prison, they are looking over a book. The book has an image of Lawrence III and his flying fortress from the second movie.

• Darker and Edgier: While the movies are in general darker than the anime, Heroes takes it up a bit: battles are quick, brutal and fought very unfairly, with Mook Chivalry soundly averted and attacks on the Trainer established early on as a viable tactic by both sides. We see what amounts to a torture scene as Latios' energy is drained from him by the DMA, and the movie concludes with Latios Killed Off for Real, a first in a series with a number of Disney Deaths.
• Demoted to Extra: Team Rocket (not counting the dub's change of making Annie and Oakley part of the team) doesn't even get to share a scene with the twerps in this film.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Annie and Oakley are able to capture Latios with ordinary Pokémon and machinery.
• Digital Destruction: In addition to the usual Pan and Scan transfer most of the movies received for the DVDs, Heroes' release was given an intense blue tint, making everything much darker than normal.
• Disney Death: Oh, so very Averted. Also notable in that Latios is the first character in the franchise to be shown dying onscreen.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Twice. Ash leans against the DMA upon seeing Bianca for the first time, only for Lorenzo to scold him for even brushing against the weapon. The second time is when Annie foolishly tries to take the corrupted Soul Dew despite the old man's warnings. It ends up getting her and Oakley trapped in the cockpit (and eventually arrested) and creates a huge tidal wave that Latios has to sacrifice his life to stop. Thanks a lot, girl.
• Doomed New Clothes: During her first fight with the heroes, Annie is knocked into a canal and angrily yells about how they've ruined her expensive new outfit.
• Drunk with Power: Oakley starts a rapid downhill slide when she hops into the DMA, cackling maniacally and claiming she can control the whole world with it. It's telling that her partner Annie is clearly off-put by what's happening to her.
• Expy: Alto Mare itself is this. How many people could look at it and not say "That's Venice!" Seriously, the plaza two pillars that the statues of Latios and Latias are on is pretty much an exact clone of the Plaza of St. Marco! The film crew very clearly based Alto Mare off of Venice.
• Foreshadowing: Ross mentions how peaceful Alto Mare is, and Latios and Latias haven't been seen in ages because they haven't needed to protect the city. It's revealed Latios spends his time in the Secret Garden watching over the Soul Dew, while Latias just wanders around the city having fun. When something bad does happen, the twins have no clue how to deal with it, not even using offensive moves like Luster Purge or Mist Ball: their only 'strategy' is to turn invisible and slam into their foes at high speed, and when that's taken away they get utterly stomped.
• Fossil Revival: Oakly uses the DMA to resurrect a Kabutops and Aerodactyl from fossils to attack Ash and friends. After the DMA malfunctions, they return to being fossils.

• Go Out with a Smile: Latios gives his sister one last gentle smile before perishing.

• Here We Go Again!: The ending credits imply that Annie and Oakley might be planning to rob Lawrence III after being released (or escaping) from jail.
• Hope Spot: Our heroes disable the DMA and save Latios, everything is calming down...and then Annie touches the corrupted Soul Dew and everything goes straight to hell.
• Hypocritical Humor: Annie makes a few jokes about Bianca (actually Latias) and her choice of a hairstyle. Never mind that Annie herself has giant pigtails that are both bigger than her head.
• Interspecies Romance: Possible in the ending, where either Latias or Bianca kisses Ash on the cheek. Ending aside, throughout the movie Latias clearly shows quite a bit of affection for Ash.
• Leitmotif: Latias has a chipper little accordion piece called ''Mystery Girl (Labyrinth)'' which is a calmer snippet of ''Mystery Girl, Again (Labyrinth)'' also popularly known as Search for the Girl.
• Le Parkour: Annie and Oakley show how to do it right. Jessie, James, and Meowth show how not to.

• Meaningful Name: Annie Oakley was the stage name of Phoebe Mosey, a famous American exhibition sharpshooter. Also regarded by many to be the first "superstar" for having starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West stage show.
• Mind Screw:
  • Either Bianca or Latias kissed Ash on the cheek in the end. There is no exact proof which one it was, because Bianca's major distinguishing feature from Latias is wearing a hat, and the hat was left in Bianca's house. General fan consensus is that it's Latias, though; Bianca showed no signs of attraction to Ash (or even interacted with him much). ^note  as well, there is a noticeable difference between Bianca's & Latias' gaits. Bianca walks like a normal human; Latias, being able to fly in her normal form and basically having to prop herself vertically to walk on two legs, has a Ninja Running gait (especially obvious when we first see her in human form). This increases the likelihood that it was Latias who kissed Ash, as she ran away in that stilted manner afterward, but since we never see Bianca run, she might just as well have a similar running style that Latias also copied. Another thing to note is an upbeat variant of Latias's leitmotif is playing as Latias/Bianca is running towards the boat and onto the dock.
  • As the group leaves on a boat, they see three forms of two Latios and one Latias in the air. Whether it's Latias reunited with her father and brother, a family of her own or a trio of different Latios and Latias is left up to the audience's interpretation, although them being the spirits of her father and brother is by far the most popular interpretation.
    • Although, the Japanese version makes this a lot more clearer thanks to still having the prologue as opposed to the English dub, which mentions that Alto Mare is a popular spot for Eon Pokémon to visit, so those three Eon Pokémon have no relation to the main Latias and Latios and are simply visiting the city.
• Moe Couplet: Ash and Latias have this trait in abundance. Despite the obvious Interspecies Romance, their interactions are so sweet and cute that AltoShipping is still a rather popular couple in the fanbase despite the movie having come out back in 2002.
• Nice Girl: Latias to her very core; she cushions the blow when Ash is thrown toward a wall during the race, gives Ash a helping hand in taking the lead, helps a thirsty Pikachu get water, and is generally one of the friendliest Pokémon you'll ever meet.

• No Fair Cheating: Ash is an entirely unwilling victim of this when Latias decides to help him out during the race at the beginning. Feet from the finish line, Latios swoops in and drags them all off-course.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Latias is understandably shocked when she realizes that Annie has seen through her disguise...and that the thief is holding a Pokéball.
  • Everyone present when they see a friggin' tidal wave coming to smash them.
• One-Steve Limit: Retroactive aversion, as a character in the fifth generation games also received the dub name Bianca and has an anime counterpart.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Sort of. Latias takes on the form of her friend Bianca, but Bianca's haircut greatly resembles Latias's ears, potentially revealing her true nature.
• Pet the Dog: Annie and Oakley do really care for each other, and Annie actually smiles when Latios is rescued from the machine toward the end of the movie. Also, Annie has an Espeon, which only evolves at maximum happiness.
• Rescue Romance: Latias develops a crush on Ash after he saves her from Annie and Oakley.
• Scenery Porn: Again, Alto Mare is an Expy of Venice Frikken' Italy! There are a lot of chase scenes just to take advantage of that fact.
• Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Latias and Latios share this ability with one another.

• Shipper on Deck: At the end of the film when Bianca/Latias kisses Ash on the cheek, Pikachu is seen looking on happily compared to Brock and Misty being shocked.
• Team Member in the Adaptation: The English dub gives Annie and Oakley affiliation with Team Rocket, and establishes their job as an assignment from Giovanni, despite all of their actions ultimately having nothing to do with the organization.
• Tempting Fate: After the city is saved and the water returns, Team Rocket manages to climb out of the trapped gates with Jesse bemoaning "I would kill for a hot bath right about now..." only for the waters to hit them and splash Team Rocket back farther into the city.
• Too Dumb to Live: Annie, trying to remove the warped Soul Dew from the DMA. Even without Lorenzo's warning, you'd think that the dark colors and creepy aura would give the girl the message "don't touch and stay away", but nope.
• Unnaturally Blue Lighting: There is a blue tint given to 90% of the movie in the English DVD releases.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When she gets into the Defense Mechanism's cockpit, Oakley goes a little Off the Rails and nearly destroys the entire city. It seems to be actually induced by the combination of the machine and the Soul Dew, as when it's trashed, she snaps out of it and can't remember what she was doing.
• Would Hurt a Child: Annie has no issues with ordering Espeon to directly attack Ash, who's ten, and later Bianca, who can't be much older; the Sun Pokémon's Psychic attack is potent enough to knock Bianca clean out. Oakley tops her sister by trying to out-and-out kill Ash through the Fossil Pokémon and later manipulating Alto Mare's waters to try to drown him.

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