Awesome / Pokémon 3

• Entei's Big Damn Heroes moment at the end. Entei is cool personified so his arrival to fight off the Unknown turns him from a misguided villain, into a Hope Bringer is most welcome. And being voiced by Dan Green doesn't hurt either.
  Entei: If you believe in me, there is nothing I cannot do!
• The first time Entei shows himself to the heroes, Pikachu senses it before it arrives and puts himself between Ash and his mom and Entei. When Entei makes its move and grabs Delia, Pikachu latches on to Entei's tail and does it's best to shock it into letting go of Mrs. Ketchum before being thrown off.
  • Later on, Pikachu fearlessly engages Entei in battle. Keep in mind that he just witnessed Totodile and Cyndaquil go down with one blow each, but Pikachu still fights on even when he becomes visibly exhausted and Entei clearly isn't effected by any of his attacks.
• Brock and Misty—and even Team Rocket saving Ash from falling off the ledge.
• Charizard's entrance to the Entei fight. Ash is falling to a bloody death and at the last available second is caught by Charizard, who gives his trainer a quick smile then puts on his game face as he prepares to face the Pokémon that completely curbstomped Ash's entire team.
  • If you watch that little moment as Charizard catches Ash, Charizard performs some AMAZING aerodynamics. Twirling upside-down quickly, catching him and righting himself in a matter of seconds.
• The entire fire fight between Charizard and Entei is a crowning moment for both parties. Entei showed the heroes why pissing off a legendary Pokémon, even a fake one, is not a good idea, but even though he came out on top, Charizard made him fight hard for it. Despite being in a terrain that suited Entei better and Entei not being held back by that pesky "reality" thing. Showing how much Charizard has improved over at that valley.
  • Said Entei was arguably even STRONGER than a NATURAL Entei due to it being an imaginary Pokémon, and thusly not burdened by the limitations of normal Pokémon (as shown by the Pokémon used by Molly's avatars completely and utterly THRASHING EACH AND EVERY SINGLE POKEMON used by Misty and Brock while they were trying to buy Ash enough time to confront Entei in the first place). It also had a terrain advantage; throughout the battle, there were spikes erupting from the crystal walls to both provide footholds for Entei to keep up with Charizard's aerial ability, and for further unfairness, said spikes also erupted in precisely the right locations to slow Charizard down, when they weren't outright impaling him. This makes it arguably possible that had this been a straight fight, Charizard would have put up an even better performance.
    • At one point, Charizard blasts Entei off the tower he happened to be standing on. Between Entei's roar (which had some strong This Cannot Be! vibes) and Molly's Big "NO!", it's implied Charizard would have WON the fight right then and there if Molly hadn't stepped in.
    • Also, just as an aside, there's considerable distance between the Charicific Valley and Greenfield, and Charizard most likely booked it as fast as it could to back Ash up. So that means not only did Charizard do ALL OF THE ABOVE, but did it when it wasn't even at full strength.
  • Charizard uses Flamethrower. An absolute inferno completely swallows up the top of the tower.
  • Let's face it: Charizard vs. Entei is the best 1-on-1 battle in the anime ever.
  • To put it in better context, before Charizard arrived, Entei had wiped the floor with Totodile and Cyndaquil, and taken out Pikachu without much effort. Three Pokèmon were down with minimal effort...and then here comes Charizard to show off his training.
• Cyndaquil deserves a mention. While the little guy doesn't have as much firepower as Charizard, it was briefly able to match Entei's flamethrower with its own, and for a split second actually manages to push back the attack!
• Ash does not care if a legendary Pokémon gets on his bad side, no matter how powerful it is. Imaginary!Entei kidnaps Ash's mother under some very flimsy pretenses. His response is to charge after it, ready to beat Entei down with his bare hands, if it came down to it.
  Ash: Entei! You took my mother...NOW WHERE IS SHE?!
• Delia Ketchum gets one. When Entei starts tearassing around and manipulating reality and kidnaps Delia (to fulfill Molly's wish for a mommy), she gets right in his face and lets him have it verbally, thoroughly chewing him out for his reprehensible behavior.
  • Pretty much anything Delia does after she snaps out of her brainwashing is awesome. The woman is softspoken and kind, but when it counts she's pretty brave, you can now see where Ash got his Determinator traits.
• The water Pokémon battle between Misty and Molly epitomizes what every water Pokémon battle should be like. Underwater, where the Pokémon are in their element and can move and attack the way they would naturally, accompanied by some of the most awesome music in the film.
  • Staryu for actually putting up a fairly decent fight against Molly's Mantine. Staryu manages to shake off several of Mantine's attacks and trade several blows, despite Mantine being far larger than Staryu and a crystalized Pokémon to boot. Though Staryu was inevitably beaten offscreen, it held its own against her better than Goldeen or any of Brock's Pokémon.
• Despite being a product of the Unown, Entei doesn't hesitate to stop them even though he clearly knows that he will cease to exist the minute the Unown are defeated.
• It's a small one, but Ash has a rare moment of Awesomeness by Analysis when he figures out how to break through the crystal wall and keep it from resealing long enough to get everyone through.
• Another tiny one from Lisa, the obligatory "just appears in the movie" trainer the main characters meet. When Ash sneaks into the crystallized house, Professor Oak irately demands to know what Ash is doing. Lisa gets downright angry on the behalf of Ash (who she's barely known a day) and yells at Professor Oak (one of the most respected people in the world) that "he's looking for his mom!"
  • Points for Lisa for being more useful at contributing something than most other minor movie only characters, even after her battle sequence at the start of the movie was done and over with.
  • And just before that, giving Ash her Pokegear, and telling the trio of friends, "If Professor Oak finds out what you're doing, it won't be from me." with a friendly smile and a wink. Doubles as a heartwarming moment, too.
• The entire score. All of it.

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