Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (film)

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is a 2010 American/Japanese anime film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and based on the game, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team. It is the first and only Pokémon film to be co-produced by Universal Animation Studios and distributed by Universal Pictures outside of Japan. However, the film was distributed by Toho in Japan. The film was released in theaters in Japan on February 19th, 2010, before being released internationally on March 25th, 2010. The story focuses on a little boy, who has been turned into a Pikachu and has developed amnesia who later joins a rescue team with three partner Pokémon while finding out who they are. The English dub stars Bryce Papenbrook, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Billy West and Carlos Alazraqui.

The film received positive reviews for its animation, faithfulness and references to its source material, and voice acting.

Plot
A little boy named Hiroto wakes up one day finding that they have been transformed into a Pikachu, without any memory of their past. In a world devastated by many natural disasters — that have only begun to happen quite recently —  Hiroto and three newly made friends join forces and form a rescue team. The team meets other rescue teams, including a top-ranked rescue team consisting of Alakazam, Charizard, and Tyranitar, named Team ACT. The team makes enemies unwittingly with another rescue team, Team Meanies, consisting of Gengar, Ekans, and Medicham, who seek world domination under the disguise of a rescue team. Not far into the storyline, Hiroto is told of a legend about a Ninetales laying a curse on a human who had deliberately grabbed Ninetales' tail. Ninetales predicted that the human would eventually be reborn as a Pokémon, and that the natural balance of the world would be upset. In the quest to discover Hiroto's lost memory and purpose as a Pokémon, the team journeys to where the fortune-teller Xatu resides. Xatu is quick to realize that the Hiroto was once a human and tells that Hiroto's human-to-Pokémon transformation is tied together with the natural disasters. This conversation is eavesdropped upon by Team Meanies' Gengar, who reveals Hiroto 's secret to the townsfolk and says that eliminating the human-turned-Pokémon in the legend would return the world to normal.

They are confronted by Alakazam, who says the Pokémon held a town meeting on what they must do to save the world: they must find and kill Hiroto and anyone who sides with him. As they give the team one night to get away, the two leave Pokémon Square as fugitives and make their way to the northeasternmost part of the world in an effort to elude the teams that are now hunting them down. Along the way, they encounter the legendary birds Moltres and Articuno, who feel the effects of the disasters in their respective areas. They befriend an Absol who seeks to find the true cause of the natural disasters. The five reach the top of Mt. Freeze only to be cornered by Team ACT. They get ready to finish Hiroto and his partners off, but are stopped by Ninetales, who reveals that Hiroto is not the human in the legend, that both parts of the legend are coincidental occurrences, and that the world is in greater danger caused by the awakening of Groudon. Team ACT proceeds to try and stop Groudon, while the team heads home to clear all remaining suspicion at Pokémon Square. After a few days, Hiroto and his partners worry, as Team ACT has not come back from their mission to quell Groudon. Asking to rescue the missing Team ACT, Lombre refuses to let them go, saying there are plenty of tougher Pokémon than them. Shiftry convinces three of the strongest Pokémon, Blastoise, Octillery, and Golem, to form a special rescue team and rescue Team ACT. After a few days, the special team returns defeated.

After being discouraged by Gengar, Hiroto and his partners are able to get everyone's spirits back up, and volunteer to rescue Team ACT themselves. When the team reaches Magma Cavern, they find Charizard and Tyranitar defeated, with Alakazam fighting against Groudon alone before quickly being defeated. The team takes matters into their own hands and defeat Groudon. They return to town as heroes, but their celebration is short-lived as grave news arrives from Xatu. A huge meteor, revealed to be the true cause of the natural disasters, is heading for the world, threatening to destroy it. The only way to stop it is to ask for help from the sky guardian Rayquaza. It is less than cooperative, but after a battle, Rayquaza agrees to use its Hyper Beam to destroy the meteor. The team reawakens on the ground, surrounded by their supporters, where they find that the world is safe once again. However, Hiroto must return to being a human and leave the Pokémon world behind. Later, Hiroto returns to the rescue team base in Pikachu form and surprises everybody.

During the credits, many more secrets are revealed. A shard of the destroyed meteor opens a secret cave under Whiscash Pond, enabling evolution. It is later revealed that another shard hit Latias' wing, and the team rescues her at Pitfall Valley. In a mid-credits scene, Hiroto and his partners discover that Gengar was the human from the legend; after uncomfortably getting the player's assistance, he manages to remove the part of the curse that affected his old partner Gardevoir.

Trivia

 * This is the first and only Pokémon film for several things.
 * The first and only Pokémon film to not focus on Ash Ketchum.
 * The first and only Pokémon film to feature regular and Funimation voice actors in it's English dub.
 * The first and only Pokémon film to be co-produced by Universal Animation Studios.
 * The first and only Pokémon film to receive a full theatrical release internationally.