If you've been paying any attention to the world of TV and movies you'll notice one major trend: nostalgia is everywhere. With 80's and 90's kids now living their adult lives, reboots of classic properties allow the generation to travel back to a simpler time. Shows like Fuller House and movies like Power Rangers intend to cash in on this trend, releasing the inner child in its audience. But some properties have never really left the lexicon of pop culture, including everyone favorite pocket monsters, Pokemon. The Pokemon franchise captured the hearts, imagination, and piggy banks of kids in the 90's, and now someone has remade the classic theme song with 3D graphics.
Every 90's kids knows all the words to the Pokemon anime's theme song. But the quality of animation has improved greatly since its inception, and now one talented animator has remade the iconic opening sequence in beautiful 3D graphics. Check it out.
If this doesn't make you feel like it's Saturday morning in the 1990's, then you must not have been a true Pokemon master.
The above video is a shot for shot remake of the original theme song, and it looks absolutely awesome. Opening up with the super engineered Mewtwo and its predecessor Mew, we see the classic video remade with gorgeous new visuals. Series protagonist Ash Ketchum's long journey in the Kanto region is then highlighted with a few moments. Standing alone in a colosseum, we see the 10 year old ready to take on the world and catch em all.
Part of what makes this video so enjoyable is going back to the bizarre choices the original editors made when constructing the theme song. With only a few episodes to chose from, many of the "clips" were from the first few episodes of Pokemon. Charmander is licked by a Haunter, Bulbasaur is caught, and Squirtle jumps into Ash's arms.
But then there are the moments which were animated especially for this sequence. It's these moments that are strange, as random Pokemon interact with Ash in ways that never happened in the anime. We see Ash running alongside a (giant) Arkanine, and then flanked by a Rapidash. While these two Pokemon raced in an early Pokemon episode, this moment never actually happened in the anime. Additionally, we see the legendary birds Zapdos and Articuno flying through the air, although Moltres is noticeably absent.
Seeing Pokemon rendered in 3D is super satisfying, especially since the anime still hasn't yet expanded their visuals in such a way. Obviously new episodes are visually appealing and feature awesome battle animation, but seeing the Pokemon in 3D adds something special. Then again, this would likely be quite the budget change, and it would be more expensive to produce each 30 minute episode.
Pokemon is still currently airing new episodes, usually coinciding with the release of a new video game. With Pokemon Sun and Moon recently hitting the Nintendo 3DS, we will see Ash explore new worlds with each episode.
