Nightmare Fuel / Pokémon: The First Movie

• Mewtwo. While Pokémon who are abused usually grow afraid or mistrustful towards humans, this one was driven half insane by them and decides to use its extremely powerful psychic abilities to exact his revenge, human and Pokémon alike. Given his game counterpart's ability in the later series to take on, and possibly even beat, other Legendaries, including Arceus, the God of all Pokémon itself, it's a very good thing for the universe in the anime that Mewtwo eventually decides to take a more productive approach to finding his purpose in life. The last thing Ash and his friends need is a Pokémon version of Kratos or Sephiroth running amok.
  • Mewtwo's "Uh-Oh" Eyes deserve a mentioning all their own. Between having Glowing Eyes of Doom, Hypnotic Eyes, Hellish Pupils, and an unwavering Kubrick Stare, this guy has one terrifying gaze.
  • His "birth" when he escapes the laboratory and unleashes his full power on the scientists experimenting upon him is a massacre. Fuji's final words before Mewtwo annihilates what's left of the lab—and Fuji with it—are filled with a broken, terrible dread about what he's just unleashed on the world.
    "We dreamed of creating the world's strongest Pokémon. And we succeeded."
• Mew himself, despite all his cute antics, turns out to not be as nice nor harmless as it first appears, as after Mewtwo attacks him and sends him flying into the sky, Mew retaliates with equal force, blasting Mewtwo right into what would be the Pokemon Gym Stadium's bleachers (if there were a crowd present). From then on, they engage in a titanic psychic battle, with Mew striking with entirely merciless and lethal intent. In the Japanese script it also appears to have a low opinion of the clones compared to the originals.
• This promotional photo.◊ Notable in that it depicts Mewtwo in Evil Overlooker fashion...with its mouth open, despite the fact that it never does so in the actual movie. Which, to be honest, makes the image all the creepier.
  • Slightly Nightmare Retardant as they forgot to draw Pikachu's mouth, though.
• In the Japanese CD drama, The Birth of Mewtwo, one scene involves a fight between Giovanni and a random trainer. After Mewtwo defeats the trainer's Magmar, it steals the poor Pokémon, then orders Mewtwo to attack the child.
  • Earlier in the same CD drama, when Mewtwo's starting to go berserk, the computer shoots him dead. Yes, it was confirmed dead when the monitor flatlined. Mewtwo got better using Recover, of course, but that and the talk of Mew being immortal still adds Fridge Horror that more-or-less confirms Mewtwo literally can't be killed.
• Mewtwo’s creepily organic cloning machine. The robotic hands that grab Ash are articulated like human arm bones, and the clones, when born, get pushed out from their tubes with a nasty squishing noise.
• The "evil" black Poké Balls sent to capture every trainer's Pokémon. No matter what they do, they just keep coming back. Poor Pikachu in particular was practically fighting for his life trying to outrun them.
  • Even worse, one could equate this event to the "G"-rated equivalent of a mass sniper attack/ambush, because they are being picked-off one-by-one, without anyone knowing where the downing strike of a Shadow Pokéball could come from, and being helpless to intervene.
  • For double the nightmares, keep in mind that later episodes of the anime make it impossible to catch another trainer's Pokémon. Mewtwo basically just used something that's capable of breaking the rules. And for triple, imagine the balls used as being the same type Giovanni must have used to capture the Magmar as stated above. For all intents and purposes, Mewtwo must have used Giovanni's own tools against humanity.
  • There is yet another personal aspect of terror when you remember how much Pikachu HATES being confined to a Pokéball. Being hunted down and forcibly dragged inside one, for the explicit purpose of being cloned (and Mewtwo had no reason or likelihood of releasing the original Pokémon once his clone army was complete) was almost certainly the poor Pokémon’s worst nightmare.
• The entirety of New Island, where Mewtwo resides, looks like something out of the mind of H.R. Giger.
• When Team Rocket stumble onto Mewtwo's cloning laboratory, two moments in particular stand out.
  • First, when the computer detects a viable Pokémon DNA sample, that being Meowth, and attempts to put him in the cloning machine. It starts out a little funny with him complaining about it, until he actually goes into the machine, where James grabs him to pull him out, and Meowth is begging for help, literally crying from sheer terror. Jessie and James barely manage to pull Meowth out, but the machine still manages to pluck a few tufts of fur from his tail. It then uses those hairs to complete the cloning sequence, and Meowth's clone slides down the cloning tube. The trio is severely creeped out by the result.
  • Second, the music that plays immediately after [1], as the machine reads Meowth's DNA sample. The first 15 seconds are creepy enough to put anyone on edge, giving the cloning a sinister, unnerving vibe
• Nurse Joy as Mewtwo's servant; her mindless, almost robotic movements and expressions make her really creepy.
  • Even worse, there are a few moments wherein she and Mewtwo speak in unison with each other—the effect makes it sound as though he's speaking through her, complete with their voices melding together. It makes her seem less like a brainwashed robot and more like a puppet.
  • In a brief Widescreen Shot scene in which Nurse Joy as a servant asks Mewtwo about sending an invitation to Ash and friends. Mewtwo is sitting in a huge seat which obscures him from us and doesn't reply verbally. But if you look very closely you can see it motioning her with a hand gesture, and Nurse Joy replies "as you wish" and proceeds to send the messenger, further showing how she's practically a living puppet.
• Ash's petrification, where he isn't just blown away by Mewtwo and Mew's combined blasts of energy, but instead turned to stone.
• The big battle between the natural Pokémon and the clones. We've seen Pokémon fight before, but the obvious lethal intent and the sheer brutality made the whole event absolutely horrifying.
  Nurse Joy: Pokémon aren't meant to fight. Not like this. What can come out of it?
  Neesha: Nothing but pain...

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