YMMV / Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew

• Ensemble Dark Horse: While already darkhorses in their own right, the Regi Trio have garnered some love in their movie debut, as intimidating and absolutely unstoppable juggernauts with some of the most wonderful yet terrifying vocalizations to date.
• Fanon Discontinuity: A Vocal Minority of fans dedicated to 4Kids Entertainment tend to view this film as a Finale Movie for the anime, or at least act like the franchise underwent No Dub for You after this film, rather than acknowledge the switch to TAJ Productions and the mass actor switch that came with it.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Everything about Ash and Lucario's developing friendship bond, despite the hostilities Lucario has for humans after Sir Aaron's "betrayal", becomes even sweeter when Ash himself bonds with a Riolu that just hatched from an egg and later evolves into a Lucario, serving as Ash's secondary Ace Pokémon in Pokémon Journeys: The Series. One is left to wonder if Ash's Riolu is the reincarnation of Lucario himself after the latter gave up his life to save Mew.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Brock's first meeting with the wild Bonsly can be seen as even funnier, when, later in Battle Frontier, he would catch a Bonsly of his own.
  • Brock's flirting with Kidd is interrupted by this Bonsly. Brock's own Bonsly occasionally takes over the Running Gag of preventing him from hitting on girls.
  • The city where Kidd's partner Banks looks an awful lot like Castelia City from above.
  • The Mew in this movie has no connection to the Mew of Pokémon: The First Movie. Later, the same happened with Mewtwo's clone, and had a much bigger impact on the fanbase.
  • May's dress for the festival, specifically her bow, certainly looks like the one her game counterpart wears in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, doesn't it?
  • While rather dark, it's actually pretty funny that Sir Aaron sacrifices himself to end a war without bloodshed...only for Pokémon Conquest, a game about winning them, to come out a few years later.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some people watch the movie for the titular Lucario and his storyline, leading to some disappointment after the darker, more serious opening gives way to the wacky antics of Ash, his friends, all the "cute" Pokémon, and the Rocket trio. This is interesting, as in most cases of this trope the audience ignores the story in favor of something else. Here, they're coming for Lucario's story and ignore everything else.
• Memetic Mutation: The noises made by the Regis in this movie became a meme both for being a Most Wonderful Sound and because older viewers of the movie remembered being frightened by them as children.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Out of universe, every time one of the Legendary Golems "speak."
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Kidd being an agent for a secret organization is never brought up again.
  • Mew only really contributes two key plot points to the movie; its connection to the Tree of Beginnings is never really elaborated on.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The fact that Ash possesses the same power as Aaron and Lucario is never really touched upon in this movie or the series. It would take them nearly 14 years to have that be a major plot point when Ash obtains a Riolu egg (that would only hatch after sensing Ash's Aura powers). While minor plotlines in Sinnoh did reference his connection to aura, they were never so pivotal.
• Tough Act to Follow: This movie is praised as one of the best in the series and a successful promotion of an upcoming Pokémon, with Lucario becoming one of the most popular Pokémon for its role in it and great usability in-game. Zoroark and its movie were an attempt to emulate that, but being more gimmicky than useful and harder to acquire^note Only available through event as opposed to regular gameplay in-game stopped it from achieving similar success. When they tried again with Mega Mewtwo Y, its movie proved so controversial that it sunk its reputation regardless of its in-game performance until it reappeared in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as a form for a more popular version of Mewtwo.
• The Un-Twist: After the entire movie is spent on people vouching for Sir Aaron's heroism, one would believe it would lead to the revelation that Sir Aaron was a Fake Ultimate Hero and Lucario's grudge was justified, but nope, Aaron was a good guy and Lucario just misunderstood the situation.

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