PK01: Difference between revisions

If you were looking for the card, see Pikachu's Summer Vacation (CoroCoro promo). For the series of Pikachu shorts, see Pikachu's Winter Vacation.

Pikachu's Vacation

PK01   ピカチュウのなつやすみ Pikachu's Summer Vacation

First broadcast Japan July 18, 1998 United States November 10, 1999

English themes Opening Vacation Ending None

Japanese themes Opening 夏休みファンクラブ Ending ピカピカまっさいチュウ

Credits Animation OLM Screenplay 園田英樹 Hideki Sonoda Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Animation director 玉川明洋 Akihiro Tamagawa Additional credits

Pikachu's Vacation (Japanese: ピカチュウのなつやすみ Pikachu's Summer Vacation) is the first Pikachu short. It debuted in Japanese theaters on July 18, 1998, and then made its way to North American theaters on November 10, 1999.

Pikachu's Vacation was shown alongside Mewtwo Strikes Back.

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

Blurb

Pikachu and its buddies have decided to spend their summer vacation here in Pokémon Square, a place for Pokémon to get together and have fun. Along come four Pokémon, making a racket as they head into the Square—and the noise wakes up Togepi, who just got to sleep!

Pikachu and its friends try to get the four noisy Pokémon—Raichu, Cubone, Snubbull, and Marill—to calm down, but everything starts going downhill from there! Squirtle and Marill go head to head, while Pikachu and Raichu face off in a heated battle. Charizard finds itself mixed up in the melee, too, and ends up getting its head stuck in a pipe!

This musical fantasy is full of the friendship, camaraderie, and lovable characters that make Pikachu and its friends so special!

Plot

Ash, Misty, and Brock release their Pokémon to spend the day at a theme park for Pokémon. With Pikachu and Togepi leading, all of the Pokémon dance their way to the theme park.

However, upon arriving, all of them stampede off to look for fun, except Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Psyduck who have to look after Togepi when it gets hungry and bursts into tears. Squirtle and Pikachu attempt to make Togepi happy by making faces at it, but Squirtle's scary face makes it even worse. Upset, Squirtle walks off but then spies an apple on a tree. Bulbasaur gets it down using Razor Leaf but it rolls over to Psyduck who eats it and wanders off, Togepi bursting into tears again. Bulbasaur, however, uses his Vine Whip and rocks Togepi to sleep by singing a lullaby (which Dexter names the Bulbaby).

Togepi has fallen asleep, but is awakened by a quartet consisting of Raichu, Snubbull, Marill and Cubone. Pikachu approaches and asks them to be quieter, but instead, the four get aggressive. After the quartet started arguing with Bulbasaur and Squirtle, Pikachu tries to make peace stating that since they're older, they should set a better example for the baby. Togepi wanders off onto a log that starts rolling down a river, Pikachu crazily trying to stay on, but eventually falls into the river and watches the log roll off and hit a nearby swimming pool. Thankfully, Togepi gets off the log safely. Pikachu retrieves Togepi but finds Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and the bullying Pokémon squaring off against each other.

Squirtle and Marill challenge each other to a race across a crowded swimming pool. Pikachu starts off the race with the help of Electrode who rolls and explodes. Squirtle and Marill race across the pool, but then Marill bumps into a Starmie and it becomes so angry that it attacks Marill with Water Gun. Afterwards, Squirtle ends up getting caught on the back of a Goldeen. Squirtle escapes and speeds across the pool, but discovers Marill has already won.

Pikachu and Raichu's unstoppable race

The two groups continue to square off, Pikachu not wanting any more competition. Raichu's sparks out lightning bolts which scare Togepi. Pikachu hugs it, only for the two to get electrocuted by Raichu. Pikachu finally snaps and gets angry. Pikachu and Raichu attempt to overpower each other with their sparking cheeks, and instead speed off across the park, causing mayhem. Meowth, Arbok and Weezing are trying to sleep but are continuously disrupted by Pikachu and Raichu. The battle concludes with the two stepping on the tail of Charizard, who chases them, but the two are going so fast that they outrun it. Charizard eventually outspeeds them and he stops right in front of Pikachu and Raichu and he blows them away, making them fall on a Snorlax. Afterwards, the two are crushed by said Snorlax. The others rush to help but stop when Charizard hurtles out of control and gets its head stuck in a climbing frame.

Pikachu and all of his gathered friends (minus Staryu and Goldeen) attach a rope to Charizard's foot and try to pull it out, but Charizard's frantic panicking causes them all to fly backward. Charizard begins to cry so Pikachu manages to enlist the help of the bullying Pokémon who apologizes for their previous actions - all except Cubone, who follows its nature of only caring for itself. However, Cubone eventually helps. Charizard is eventually pulled out, but it sends all the Pokémon flying through the air. Charizard flies off, taking Psyduck with it. Meowth, who has been disrupted from his sleep multiple times, brings out a bomb to stop all the noise, but Charizard lands on him and Meowth is blown up underneath Charizard.

In the end, all the Pokémon help rebuild the destroyed climbing frame and spend the rest of the day having fun. As the sun sets, all the Pokémon hear their Trainers calling and all leave. Before Pikachu leaves, he shakes hands with Snubbull, the five becoming friends. Pikachu hops off as his new friends wave farewell. Happy to see his Trainer again, Pikachu leaps into Ash's arms for an exchanged hug.

Major events

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Marill
• Snubbull
• Mr. Mime

Characters

Some of the characters

Humans

• Ash (face never shown)
• Misty (face never shown)
• Brock (face never shown)

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Togepi (Misty's)
• Pidgeotto (Ash's)
• Bulbasaur (Ash's)
• Charizard (Ash's)
• Squirtle (Ash's)
• Goldeen (Misty's)
• Staryu (Misty's)
• Psyduck (Misty's)
• Onix (Brock's)
• Geodude (Brock's)
• Zubat (Brock's)
• Vulpix (Brock's)
• Arbok (Jessie's)
• Weezing (James's)
• Raichu
• Cubone
• Marill (debut)
• Snubbull (debut)
• Charmander
• Charmeleon
• Wartortle
• Blastoise
• Butterfree
• Beedrill
• Pidgey
• Pidgeot
• Ekans
• Nidoran♀
• Nidorina
• Nidoqueen
• Nidoran♂
• Clefairy
• Clefable
• Ninetales
• Jigglypuff
• Oddish
• Gloom
• Vileplume
• Paras
• Parasect
• Venonat
• Diglett
• Dugtrio
• Golduck
• Mankey
• Primeape
• Growlithe
• Poliwag
• Poliwhirl
• Poliwrath
• Abra
• Bellsprout
• Weepinbell
• Victreebel
• Tentacool
• Tentacruel
• Golem
• Ponyta
• Slowpoke
• Slowbro
• Magnemite
• Farfetch'd
• Doduo
• Seel
• Dewgong
• Shellder
• Cloyster
• Drowzee
• Krabby
• Kingler
• Voltorb
• Electrode
• Exeggutor
• Hitmonlee
• Hitmonchan
• Lickitung
• Koffing
• Chansey
• Tangela
• Kangaskhan
• Horsea
• Seadra
• Seaking
• Starmie
• Mr. Mime (debut)
• Pinsir
• Magikarp
• Lapras
• Eevee
• Vaporeon
• Omastar
• Snorlax

Trivia

Recolored Jynx in the ending credits

Another recolored Jynx in the ending credits

• For the Japanese Blu-ray release in 2012 of this Pikachu short, Jynx was recolored in the ending credits due to the controversy surrounding her color scheme.
• This Pikachu short was adapted into the graphic novel All That Pikachu!.
• All three Pokémon that debuted in this Pikachu short would later be made Fairy-type.
• This Pikachu short introduced Misty's Togepi as well as spoiled the evolutions of Ash's Charizard, Jessie's Arbok, and James's Weezing to audiences in numerous countries, since it was released well before Togepi's hatching episode and the episodes in which the aforementioned Pokémon evolved (EP031, EP043, and EP046).
• This marks the anime debuts of Pikachu and Meowth's current, slimmer designs. These would become their species' default designs from Generation III onwards.
• At least one Pokémon of each evolutionary line that evolves by evolutionary stone appears in this short.
• In the dub, this is the only Pikachu Short where Ash's Pokédex, Dexter, provides narration.
• Although genders were introduced in Generation II, the ending credits shot at the onsen implies that Ash's Bulbasaur, Brock's Geodude, Ash's Pidgeotto and Jessie's Arbok are all male due to the presence of Jynx on the other side of the onsen’s divider, given that Jynx is a female-only species.

Errors

• During the opening credits of the English dub, Takeshi Shudō is mistakenly credited as the screenwriter of this short instead of Hideki Sonoda.
• When all of Ash, Misty, and Brock's Pokémon stampede into the park, Misty's Psyduck is seen running over Pikachu. However, in the next frame, Psyduck is seen standing right behind Pikachu.
• In the logo, the é in Pokémon is not e-acute, thus making it read as "Pokemon".
• In one scene, an Eevee in the background has white eyes instead of black.

Dub edits

• Ash's Pokédex, Dexter, acts as a narrator of sorts in the short, giving out various facts about the featured Pokémon and their behavior. These facts include:
  • Togepi is identified as the Egg Pokémon, although the species was later identified as the Spike Ball Pokémon. Togepi is also mentioned to have a low tolerance for hunger.
  • Bulbasaur performs a calming melody for Togepi, identified by Dexter as the "Bulbaby".
  • Snubbull was identified as a "newly discovered" Pokémon.
  • Pokémon are usually peaceful creatures who prefer to cooperate with each other, and will not usually battle unless instructed otherwise by their Trainers.
  • The Pokédex is shown to be able to translate Pokémon languages.

In other languages

Language		Title
Chinese	Cantonese	比卡超的假期
	Mandarin	皮卡丘の歡樂假期 * 皮卡丘的欢乐假期 * 皮卡丘的暑假 *
Czech		Pikachu na prázdninách
Dutch		Pikachu's vakantie!
Finnish		Pikachun loma
Hebrew		חופשת הקיץ של פיקאצ'ו
Icelandic		Pikachu fer í frí
Italian		Le vacanze di Pikachu
Korean		피카츄의 여름방학
Norwegian		Pikachus ferie
Polish		Wakacje Pikachu
Brazilian Portuguese		As Férias de Pikachu
Slovak		Pikachuove prázdniny
Latin American Spanish		Las Vacaciones de Pikachu
Swedish		Pikachus semester

External links

• Official website for Pikachu's Vacation (Japanese)