Japanese Title: Gluttonous Kabigon! Huge Panic!
Original Airdate: April 29nd, 1999
US Airdate: March 25th, 2000
First time around, we experienced Snorlax's sloth. Now, we bear witness to its gluttony.
The one where... Ash catches a Snorlax.
While Ash and friends are still discovering new islands, they come upon the seven Grapefruit Islands where groves of giant grapefruit are ripe and in season. When it looks like thieves are stealing the grapefruit, Ash, Tracey and Misty volunteer to help catch them. Surprisingly enough, what looked like hundreds of thieves was actually just one giant, hungry... and sleepy culprit!
Tropes
- Acrofatic: Snorlax, shockingly, it is able to run, swim across oceans, and has a powerful kick that sends Team Rocket flying.
- Big Eater: Snorlax, which endangers a local farm.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Jigglypuff, who has been an adorable nuisance for the most part, is useful in putting Snorlax to sleep.
- Counting Sheep: Misty tries to get Snorlax to fall asleep by counting its fellow Snorlax. Unfortunately, she ends up putting herself to sleep.
- Curbstomp Battle: Snorlax easily defeats all the Pokemon that try to fight it.
- Determinator:
- Nothing, not Ash, not even a body of water, will get between Snorlax and the grapefruit.
- Ash resisting Jigglypuff's lullaby long enough to catch Snorlax.
- Epic Fail: Team Rocket's singing is so horrible, Snorlax punts them into the air.
- Misty tries using Goldeen to fight Snorlax, forgetting that it needs water to be able to move and just barely avoids becoming a snack for Snorlax.
- "Eureka!" Moment: While Team Rocket's attempt to sing Snorlax to sleep fails miserably, it does inspire Ash and the others to put Snorlax to sleep with a real lullaby expert: Jigglypuff.
- Green Thumb: The gang see a bunch of saplings growing where all of the destroyed trees where and hypothesize that this is one of Snorlax's abilities.
- Heel–Face Turn: After spending the episode as an antagonist that threatend the livelihood of the Seven Grapefruit Islanders, Snorlax is captured by Ash and joins his team, becoming a frequently crucial part of Ash's team and savior of the day several times in the future going forward.
- Hope Spot: Happens twice in succession. First, after Snorlax eats all the grapefruit Ash and his friends picked, they figure it's probably full and will go to sleep. Then Snorlax goes back to eating grapefruit still on the trees. Second, after Snorlax eats all the grapefruit on the first island, everyone looks on the bright side that at least Snorlax can't get to the rest of the groves. Then, Snorlax reveals it can swim.
- Hypno Fool: At one point, James tries to hypnotize Snorlax into falling asleep. He ends up putting himself to sleep.
- Idiot Ball: Misty makes some pretty stupid decisions in this episode. Most notably, she tries to send out her Goldeen to battle Snorlax while they're on dry land. It's helpless to even move on its own and Snorlax actually almost eats it! She also tries sending in Psyduck and Togepi to battle. However, she forgets that Psyduck needs to get a headache before it can use Psychic attacks (not to mention it ends up choking on a grapefruit it tried to eat whole), and even though we now know that Togepi can use Metronome, there's no reason for Misty to believe Togepi can do anything. She also tries to put Snorlax to sleep by getting it to count Snorlax (like counting sheep), but she herself forgets to stop counting and puts herself to sleep in the process.
- Mundane Utility: When Bulbasaur attempts to attack Snorlax, it uses Bulbasaur's Razor Leaf attack to slice a grapefruit. Misty halfheartedly jokes that Bulbasaur would be handy in a kitchen. It also uses Lickitung's tongue when it tries Wrap as a napkin to clean it's face to Jessie's annoyance
- Nigh-Invulnerable: Snorlax resists everything Ash and his friends throw at it. Jigglypuff's lullaby, however, weakens it enough for Ash to shock Snorlax unconscious.
- Squashed Flat: The fate of multiple Pokemon on the receiving end of Snorlax's Body Slam.
- This Explains So Much: As Tracey points out, Snorlax being able to swim explains how it found its way to the Grapefruit Islands.
