AS if a top-rated animated kids’ TV show and a world-wide obsession isn’t enough, “Pokemon” is now headed toward a theater near you.
“Pokemon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back” – which will open this November – was the fourth highest-grossing film in Japan last year.
A 22-minute short called “Pikachu’s Vacation” – that features four brand-new Pokemon characters – will be a lead-in to the movie in the U.S.
Like the super-popular TV show, the movie was created in Japan and dubbed in English. It will be distributed in the U.S. by Warner Bros.
The show – the WB network’s highest rated kids’ series – airs Saturdays at 10 a.m. and in syndication, but starting this fall will begin airing 11 times a week: twice on weekdays and once a day on weekends.
“Pokemon” (short for Pocket Monsters) started airing on the WB Kids! last fall, and became must viewing overnight.
Before the launch, “Pokemon” was best known in the U.S. for a freak event that took place in December, 1997 when 700 children across Japan were sent into seizures induced by an explosion sequence that used a technique called transparent light filming. That glitch was worked out before the show premiered here.
Pokemon are a race of monsters that possess a variety of powers and weaknesses, and can be trained as harmless pets or fearless fighters. There are 150 of them and they grow into a different creatures as they get older.
The hero of the Pokemon story is a 10-year-old boy named Ash, who is on a quest to collect as many Pokemon as possible. His sidekick – a Pokemon character and star of the show – is Pikachu, a cute ‘electric mouse’ who can shock his enemies.