Japanese title: It's Children's Day! Everyone Gather!
Original airdate: July 9, 1998
US airdate: September 11, 1999
The one where... The Team Rocket Trio steal a kid instead of Pikachu.
It's Kids Day, and Ash and friends help the children at a nearby school celebrate the holiday. Team Rocket spoils the fun with a Pikachu-napping scheme that goes awry when they snatch a kid named Timmy instead of the Pokémon. But in a shocking turn of events, Meowth becomes a good guy—or does he?
Tropes
- Accidental Kidnapping: Team Rocket's magician cover to steal Pikachu backfires when they find out they snatched Timmy instead. So they get the idea to have Meowth pretend he was the same Meowth who saved him from the Beedrill.
- And Call Him "George": Upon first seeing him, the children pull and prod at Pikachu to the point he nearly electrocuted them if not for Ash.
- Bee Afraid: Timmy was once menaced by an angry Beedrill, only to be saved by a wild Meowth. This incident is why he's so obsessed with catching one of his own.
- Big Damn Heroes: The wild Meowth returns to save Timmy and Ash by kicking a boulder in half.
- Big "SHUT UP!": The teacher, of all people, delivers it to the children several times.
- Catchphrase Interruptus: The kids swarm Team Rocket and prevent them from completing their slogan.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: The wild Meowth is able to cleave a boulder in half despite being no more muscular than the average Meowth.
- Continuity Nod: Ash and Brock insisting on Kids' Day as a man's holiday, probably after what they went through during a previous episode that also features a festival.
- Demon Head: The teacher gets this when she hollers at the kids to shut up. She even wears a pair of fake Oni horns during each occasion!
- Even Evil Has StandardsJames: Team Rocket may be rotten cheaters, but we're not in the business of destroying children's dreams!
- Left the Background Music On: The leitmotif under Team Rocket's slogan the second time is being played by a boom box.
- Pet the Dog: Team Rocket is fully willing to play along with Timmy mistaking Meowth for the heroic one that saved him, due to not wanting to sink as low as to crush a kid's dreams.
- Shout-Out: Meowth is seen wearing a very obvious Superman costume during his fantasy.
- Translation Nod: This episode, which aired in Japan a couple of months before any English Pokémon media was released, has "Meowth" written out in huge letters in an Imagine Spot parodying Superman, even in the original Japanese version, where the species is called Nyarth.
