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All That Glitters is Not Golden (Japanese: ウソッキー！黄金伝説!? Usokkie! Gold Legend!?) is episode 172 of Advanced Generation. It first aired in Japan on April 20, 2006, and in the United States on November 28, 2006.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Synopsis

The flames of courage burn ever so brightly as we make our way closer to Ash's final destination, the Battle Pyramid. A glorious day is upon us as May runs towards a glistening body of water shining every so brightly from the reflection of the bright sun. A golden Sudowoodo begins moving across Ash's and May's path as she turns around to notice it. Sudowoodo panics and freezes in position as Ash queries its Pokédex data. A blast from the past ignites the screen as Pikachu explodes forward with a Thunderbolt striking Sudowoodo for a direct hit. A solitary Poké Ball rotates from Ash's hand in attempt to capture the wild "gold" Sudowoodo. With an extension of its upper branch, Sudowoodo evades the Poké Ball and after a few moments of resistance, forces the Poké Ball back towards Ash and dashes off in a plume of dust and smoke into the distance. Ash takes a direct hit from the Poké Ball and falls to the ground.

The path leads our heroes into a nearby town as Brock suggests visiting the local restaurant/parlor. The establishment is filled with patrons with the suspected goal of attempting to capture the "golden" Sudowoodo. May notices a poster inside advertising the next contest. As May mentions her sighting of the Sudowoodo, almost every patron inside of the establishment move towards May and interrogate her about the Sudowoodo sighting. Everyone begins fighting over the incident as a young male motions for our heroes to evade the feuding patrons. As our heroes successfully escape the mob of people, Team Rocket is perched atop the restaurant spying on the overall situation. The young boy leads everyone into a nearby building as he checks his surroundings and closes the curtains. The boy introduces himself as Keenan while our heroes exchange introductions. Keenan walks over and opens a drawer and removes a small portrait. Keenan shows the image to Ash which portrays him and the golden Sudowoodo.

Now located at the laboratory, Team Rocket listen in on the conversation. Meowth makes the depiction of how Sudowoodo would benefit Giovanni and they would be up for a "big" promotion. In Giovanni's residence all of the surroundings are comprised of gold as he strides outside and notices the magnificent golden "Sudowoodo".

Team Rocket arrive at the location where our heroes first made contact with the golden Sudowoodo. Jessie makes the suggestion of submerging a Sudowoodo into the water creating the "golden" effect. After a few moments, Meowth is dressed in a Sudowoodo outfit as Jessie and James move in to blast Meowth into the water. An explosion occurs as the true "golden" Sudowoodo makes its appearance. Meowth dresses Jessie in a rubber suit and hands her a net as she rockets towards Sudowoodo and collides with the body of water. Jessie explodes from the water with Sudowoodo successfully captured. Our heroes arrive on the scene to halt Team Rocket as Pikachu's electric sacs begin sparking. With the sight of electrical energy, James and Meowth dash off into the distance. Keenan attempts to return Sudowoodo to its Poké Ball but successfully evades the red ray of energy as it collides with Jessie. Brock calls upon his Bonsly. Bonsly strides over and attempts conversing with Sudowoodo but it ignores Bonsly dashes off into the distance. Keenan begins running towards Sudowoodo but manages to trip and fall to the ground. After Keenan recovers from the fall, he manages to let slip how Sudowoodo actually managed to turn "golden".

Sudowoodo was placed inside of a strange machine as Keenan pulls the switch. Explosions begin to take place as energy and vibrant colors illuminate the laboratory. After a few moments, the glass shatters and a "golden" Sudowoodo is revealed. Sudowoodo notices its new "golden" exterior and begins to cry. Sudowoodo has been evading Keenan after the incident refusing to be returned to its Poké Ball.

Ash confirms to Keenan that he will assist him in recovering Sudowoodo. Meanwhile, Team Rocket has been actively tracking Sudowoodo and is now suspended in the air above Sudowoodo. Meowth holds a rocket device and begins blasting capture devices towards Sudowoodo. Team Rocket and Sudowoodo close in on the city as Sudowoodo manages to evade Team Rocket and slips into the same parlor which housed all the men who were looking for Sudowoodo. Everyone looks surprised doubting what they have seen as Sudowoodo begins moving backwards and blasts out of the parlor followed by a group of men. Keenan waves and motions Sudowoodo towards his location but Sudowoodo just ignores Keenan's call and heads in the opposite direction.

Meowth, now equipped with a remote device, launches two mechanical devices towards Sudowoodo's direction. Sudowoodo manages to evade the men escaping behind a group of nearby boxes. The two mechanical parts begin deceleration and attach together forming a mecha. The mecha blasts forward just managing to miss Sudowoodo. Pikachu electrocutes the mecha but manages to have no effect. The mecha blasts forward with another attack, as Keenan rushes forward to defend against the attack with a shovel. As the mecha moves forward with another attack, Keenan grasps onto the mecha's legs attempting to halt it from further attacks. Sudowoodo becomes inspired from Keenan's heroic efforts and strikes forward knocking the mecha backwards. Sudowoodo rotates forward with a final strike destroying the mecha. With an electrifying experience, Pikachu blasts our everlasting Team Rocket off like a brilliant star. Keenan thanks Sudowoodo for its heroic efforts as the group of men manage to locate Sudowoodo once more as our heroes escape into laboratory. Sudowoodo is placed inside of the strange machine once more and the effect is reversed returning Sudowoodo to its previous body.

As the brilliant sun sets, the flames of courage and adventure burn brighter than ever with our heroes obtaining an everlasting ally and friend.

Major events

Debuts

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Giovanni (fantasy)
• Keenan (Japanese: キンヤ Kinya) (Seiyū: 阪口大助 Daisuke Sakaguchi)
• Man A (Seiyū: 小西克幸 Katsuyuki Konishi)
• Man B (Seiyū: 坂口候一 Kōichi Sakaguchi)
• Man C (Seiyū: 三宅健太 Kenta Miyake)
• Man D (Seiyū: 石塚運昇 Unshō Ishizuka*)
• Fountain Goddess (Jessie's fantasy) (Seiyū: 林原めぐみ Megumi Hayashibara*)
• Team Rocket Mecha (Seiyū: 石塚運昇 Unshō Ishizuka*)

* No official credit was given for this character.

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Sudowoodo (Golden, Kinya's)　(Seiyū: 松本保典 Yasunori Matsumoto)
• Bonsly (Brock's)
• Onix (fantasy/flashback)
• Steelix (fantasy/flashback)

Trivia

• Solana and Jack Walker replace the final scene in the opening. This is the first time that a movie character has appeared in the anime arc.
• Pokémon Symphonic Medley and the ballad version of Battle Frontier are used as background music.
• 私、負けない！ ～ハルカのテーマ～ replaced GLORY DAY 〜輝くその日〜 as the ending.
• This was the last AG episode animated by Team Ota. Team Iguchi took over the animation duties starting with AG173.
• This episode reveals that if a human gets hit by the tractor beam that a Poké Ball creates when returning a Pokémon into it, he/she will get stunned for a short period of time.
• Jessie's fantasy comes from a Japanese tale about one throwing an object by accident and it turning into gold. There is a similar Western fairytale, where a woodsman loses his axe in a lake. The lake's spirit asked if he lost an axe of pure silver or one of pure gold, but the woodsman asked for his cheap axe. He is awarded both the silver and gold axes for his honesty.
• The name of this episode is a parody on the famous phrase (Really a mistranslation of a line in the merchant of venice) "All that glitters is not gold".

Errors

• When everyone fled into Keenan's house for the first time, the golden Sudowoodo appeared on the screen for a split second. The golden Sudowoodo wasn't with them at this point.

Dub edits

In other languages

• French: Tout ce qui brille n'est pas or
• Latin American Spanish: No todo lo que brilla es oro

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This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.