Pokémon the Movie: White—Victini and Zekrom and Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini and Reshiram (known in Japan as Victini and the Black Hero: Zekrom and Victini and the White Hero: Reshiram) are a pair of Pokémon: The Series movies that together are the 14th movie in the franchise. It follows Ash, Iris, and Cilan meeting the legendary Pokémon known as Victini at the site of an ancient kingdom. The main antagonist is Damon, a descendant of the People of the Vale who wants to restore their kingdom, and will use whatever means necessary to do so.
The White movie got a limited theatrical release in the US over the weekend of December 3, 2011; the Black movie was shown on Cartoon Network the following week.
These movies provide examples of:
- Action Mom: Juanita.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Carlita and her mom both own Shiny Pokémon depending on the version: Juanita's Golurk is Shiny in the Black movie while Carlita's Hydreigon is Shiny in the White movie.
- And I Must Scream: Victini being trapped within the confines of the Kingdom for thousands of years. Doesn't help matters that its confinement happened right after its best friend died right in front of it. Even worse, it's immortal in the first place. So if not for Damon and Ash, it literally would have been trapped in that tiny mountain kingdom for all eternity.
- Anti-Villain: Damon is of the well-intentioned variety, as explained below under Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- Big Bad: Damon.
- The Chosen One: Ash and Damon are chosen by their respective Legendaries.
- Continuity Cameo: Peg appears in the credits.
- The Corruption: What happens when the Dragon Force gets out of control, complete with disintegrating plants.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Carlita's Hydreigon (a pseudo-Legendary) beats Cilan's Pansage (a not fully evolved Pokémon with low stats) with a single Dragon Breath. Later, Oshawott beats Tatsuki's Emboar after a collision between Aqua Jet and Flare Blitz and Ash's Tepig and Scraggy beat Lear and Carlita's Pokémon in one blow after being powered up by Victini. Golurk is also knocked out by the Legendary dragon without much problems. Finally, Pikachu knocks out Mako's Serperior with a single Electro Ball and later takes down Damon's Reuniclus or Gothitelle with little issue.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Zekrom, in the White movie.
- Death Glare: Iris shoots Emolga one after the latter's Volt Switch causes Iris to automatically be disqualified from the tournament due to sending out Excadrill even though the rules are the trainers can only use one Pokémon.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Damon's Gothitelle in Black.
- A trainer dressed as one with a Gothita and a Gothorita is shown in both movies.
- Gilded Cage: Victini is unable to go beyond the barrier surrounding Eindoak Town. The area is certainly beautiful, and Victini has plenty of friends among the local wild Pokémon, but it's been trapped there for 1,000 years. It's finally freed at the end of the movie, allowing it to explore the rest of the world.
- Heel–Face Turn: Damon realizes his mistake and attempts to help save Ash and Victini.
- Heroic Second Wind: Victini, being the Victory Pokémon, gives this to Ash's Pokémon during Eindoak Town's Pokémon competition, making it so that Tepig and Scraggy are the ones delivering Curb Stomp Battles instead of receiving them from a Samurott and a Hydreigon, respectively.
- Light Is Not Good: Reshiram, in the White version.
- Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: Which of the two legendaries Ash and Damon wind up releasing depends on the version of the movie, but both get to use all of their signature moves either way.
- Meaningful Name: Damon- His name can refer to the English word of evil demon or the original Greek meaning heavenly god or the Greek neutral/unaligned spirit.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Damon after he realizes that his plan will destroy the world.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: In Japanese, Damon is named Dread Grangil.
- Never Say "Die": Averted, when Damon uses the Pillars of Protection to drain Victini’s power to move the castle, Juanita tries to stop Damon by saying that “Victini will die” if he continues.
- Non-Serial Movie: The first full-on case for the series; whereas all previous movies can either be written off as filler or have some set-up/reference in the show proper, these movies are explicitly debunked since Ash and his friends claim they haven't met Zekrom/Reshiram in the Episode N arc of the anime. Even if this wasn't the case, having two mutually exclusive versions makes this movie mostly incompatible with the anime's continuity.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The referee abruptly shows up when Carlita challenges Ash to a battle and the People of the Vale unexpectedly turn up at the castle to support Damon.
- Oh, Crap!: Numerous times such as when Iris gives Emolga a Death Glare after the latter's Volt Switch causes Excadrill to be sent out during the tournament and disqualifies Iris and when Ash thinks he is going to die.
- Ominous Floating Castle: The Sword of the Vale.
- One Game for the Price of Two: The movies are almost identical, with only a few minor, cosmetic differences. Given that it's Pokémon, this worked surprisingly well.
- Later averted, as the DVD release bundles the two movies together for about the same price as a single movie.
- The original Australasian release played this straight, with separate DVDs for White and Black, though a combined package of both was later released.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: Only The Chosen One can progress beyond a certain point in the caverns beneath the castle. Anyone else will just keep going around in circles.
- Out of Focus: As always, the travelling partners Cilan and Iris hardly get to do anything for the plot and in fact they lose the opening tournament (Iris is disqualified thanks to Emolga's Volt Switch and Pansage is blown away via Dragon Breath).
- Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Reshiram and Zekrom. Zekrom follows heroes with strong ideals (Romanticism) while Reshiram follows heroes who seek the truth (Enlightenment).
- Shout-Out: When a Fire-type battles a Water-type, Cilan comments that an attack is 'not very effective'. Also counts as a Mythology Gag.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Damon states that sacrifices are needed in the pursuit of ideals or truth (depending on the version), Ash responds that his own view of the given concept doesn’t need sacrifice, leaving Damon in Stunned Silence.
- Single Tear: When Ash thinks he's about to die from cold and oxygen loss.
- Space Is Cold: When the castle rises up it gets so cold that Ash's tear freezes solid before it hits the ground. Considering it had rose to the Mesosphere, which has temperatures below -143 Celsius, this isn’t too implausible.
- Sweet Tooth: Victini is a huge fan of Cilan's macarons.
- Telepathy: Reshiram and Zekrom speak through this.
- Vocal Dissonance:
- Carlita's Hydreigon in the Japanese version has a cry that sounds like a very high-pitched shriek. In the English dub, this was replaced with a slightly deeper growl.
- Samurott's cry resembles a gruff woman's voice in the dub. It could well be female, but a female voice wouldn't be the first thing to come to mind when thinking of a bearded samurai sea lion, and was most likely done in order to share a voice actor with Ash's Oshawott. PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond would later feature a Samurott with a more fitting, male-voiced cry.
- Despite technically being genderless, Reshiram speaks with a distinctly masculine voice in both the Japanese and English versions, contrasting its feminine appearance.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Damon wants to restore the Kingdom of the Vale to its former glory, blissfully unaware (until his plan is underway) that the resulting Dragon Force upheaval would cause catastrophic damage to the land. He is quick to do everything in his power to repent once the truth is revealed to him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The unimportant People of the Vale disappear half-way through the flying castle sequence and aren't shown evacuating with everyone else, though the end credits show them celebrating with everyone else.
- Wolverine Publicity: Reshiram and Zekrom. Despite what the trailers would imply, the dragon mascot of each movie only appears for about 15 minutes, with Damon's dragon getting (a bit) more screen time. Most of the movie focuses on Ash, Pikachu and Victini (along with Cilan and Iris). Also, compare one of the Japanese posters
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