Arceus Movie Summary, HG/SS Commercial, 13th Pokemon Movie

Today was the luckiest day ever. At 11:30, I was reminded that a special premiere for the Arceus movie would take place in Tokyo, so I dropped everything I was going to do for the day and ran around like crazy trying to find the place hosting it. I eventually found it around 12:30, only to learn that it was an invitation-only event. I spent about 30 minutes talking to the officials in-charge, explaining to them that I was from a Pokemon website and that I wanted to cover the event and the movie. They told me no a few times, but I kept giving them reasons why it wouldn’t hurt anybody if I were to see the movie and so they finally gave in, smiled, and kindly lead me in. Talk about lucky! I was sitting on the train so convinced that I would never be posting this.

The event took place at the Sunplaza convention center in Tokyo. The names of children were picked at random from a raffle conducted by CoroCoro magazine, and they and their families were invited to the movie premiere for a total of 2,000 people in one giant theater. Talk about an exciting event!

Before the movie started a new HeartGold and SoulSilver commercial played, which I imagine will not air for another few weeks. A 3D Entei appears, followed by Raikou, and then Suicune. We see Ho-Oh and Lugia posing, and then some game footage. Most of it has already been seen, but there is some sort of footage involving a race with laps being counted. I have no idea what it was, so it’s probably something completely new in the games. The male character is also shown riding a Pokemon in the Lake of Rage. He encounters the red Gyarados while doing so.

After the movie aired, a teaser for the 13th movie played. Lugia and Ho-Oh are seen fighting each other. Lugia fires some Aeroblasts while Ho-Oh uses what appears to be Sacred Fire. This does not mean for sure that the two will actually be fighting in the movie. It’s just a teaser trailer.

I will improve the summary below when I go to see the movie again with Heerosferret. I can’t remember the ending as well as the rest of the movie because I ran out of paper to take notes. I probably mixed-up the order of a few things as well. But I’ll fix and expand upon it in a few weeks when the movie officially plays in theaters.

Before the movie started, Meowth appears on screen with an animated DSi. He explains how to download Arceus and then walks away.

The movie opens with strands of DNA. Pokemon such as Darkrai appear in bubbles, which I assume are amino acids. The scene then shifts to an ocean with Kyogre and Manaphy swimming, followed by Lugia who jumps out of the water, flies high into the sky, and then dives back in. Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres fly by as well, and then the camera zooms to some rocks by the ocean where Entei, Suicune, and Raikou are standing. We also see Groudon roaring.

A Garchomp and Milotic are fighting in an arena, launching attacks at each other. Who owns them? Cynthia and Palmer! They are battling each other.

Grass Pokemon are sitting in a field, and a Dusknoir comes out and attacks Pikachu with a Will-o-the-Wisp. Pikachu and Piplup attack the Dusknoir, creating an explosion.

Dialga and Palkia are seen fighting in a flashback straight from the Darkrai movie. As they fight, the Space-Time Machine, which is a machine showing the dimensions of Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Arceus, and the real world, fluctuates violently. Dialga and Palkia’s dimensions clash against each other symbolizing their interaction. Another flashback occurs in which a solar eclipse is seen. Arceus’ plates circle around the sun and what I assume are its 1000 arms spreads across space. Arceus remembers how Damos betrayed him and a conversation the two had in the past echoes across the space. The camera then zooms down to Earth and the Pokemon logo rises out of the ground. The music playing is an updated version of the intro music from the Deoxys movie.

The movie opens with our heroes, Pikachu, and Piplup walking through a large grass field. They come across a river and decide to go swimming. While in the water they see watermelons floating down (like that one Johto episode). When they pick one up, a boy and girl with blue hair appear and point to some nets in the water. The watermelons are being cooled in the river, but a few escaped. Ash as usual challenges the two to a battle, and so he and Dawn face off against them in a 2-on-2 battle. The “High Touch!” song plays in the background. It’s Pikachu and Piplup vs. Beautifly and Heracross. Piplup gets launched into the air by Heracross’ horn and Beautifly greets it, charging up a Shadow Ball to fire. Pikachu jumps into the air and smacks the Shadow Ball right into Beautifly’s face, and then Piplup uses Whirlpool on both of the opponent’s Pokemon, knocking them out. After the battle, everyone enjoys some watermelons and Ash and crew leave.

In the next scene, the kids walk up to a lake. Rifts in the sky and water form, and a giant water tornado grabs everyone except Brock, who pulls Dawn and Ash out (he did something for once!). Pikachu and Piplup fly high into the tornado, which is heading into a rift. Sheena and Kevin then jump out of nowhere and observe the situation. Sheena prays, and Dialga appears out of its own dimension, knocking Pikachu and Piplup out of the tornado. Brock hits on Sheena, grabbing what he thinks to be her hand. It’s of course Croagunk’s, who subsequently jabs him with poison. This scene generated a lot of laughter in the audience.

Suddenly Giratina pops out of nowhere and attacks Dialga with a Will-o-the-Wisp. The two exchange fire for a while. Sheena attempts to communicate with Giratina using her empathic powers, but Giratina resists her and in their psychic connection thrusts Sheena back, causing the connection to break. Ash walks up to Giratina and says what I assume to be “Remember me?!” Giratina stares at Ash intensely, remembering how it rode him in the Shaymin movie, and then it stops the attack on Dialga. Sheena communicates with both Pokemon, apparently resolving any conflicts they have. Dialga flies up into the air and circles around for a little bit as Sheena comments how it was amazing that Ash stopped Giratina.

In another dimension, we see a giant rift flow across space. Back in the real world, another water tornado forms. Dialga gets captured and can’t escape. Palkia appears out of its own dimension, and the Dragon trio throws a tea party. Just kidding. Palkia frees Dialga (I don’t remember why. Maybe Sheena called it?), Sheena communicates with both of them to yet again resolve their hurt feelings, and then the two get along. All three Dragon Pokemon then leave back into their own dimensions.

Ash and crew follow Sheena and Kevin into a room. Sheena shows them the Space-Time Machine, explaining which sphere represents which dimension. Sheena explains how she and Kevin were investigating the legend of Arceus and their town’s history. A flashback shows them outside of Alamos Town as Palkia was putting the city back where it belonged in the 10th movie, followed by a flashback of the two in front of the glacier in the 11th movie after Zero’s ship crashed. Sheena also shows everyone the Jewel of Life, which Team Rocket, who is standing outside of the door like usual, freaks out over.

Suddenly, the Space-Time Machine fluctuates. Arceus’ dimensional sphere is reacting violently. In space, we see Arceus beginning to awake. It’s encased in some sort of bubble and breaks out of it. It’s 11 plates circle around it, with five missing. Arceus then absorbs them into its body.

Back in the room, Sheena and Kevin show the kids the legend of Arceus, which appears on some sort of waterfall-like display as stylized stained glass (they show it like a Powerpoint presentation). It talks about how Damos stole the Life Jewel from Arceus, how it’s formed from five of its Plates, how Damos borrowed the Jewel from Arceus to create the beautiful Miichina, etc.

The Space-Time Machine fluctuates even more. Outside, dark clouds form and a golden rift opens up. Arceus appears rather quickly out of the rift and wastes no time using Judgment. It launches it like fireworks, shooting up the energy into the sky. The attack then rains down on Miichina in probably one of the most violent scenes ever in Pokemon. The entire city is completely bombarded by hundreds of balls and lots of things fall all over the place and are destroyed. It was rather epic.

Arceus looks down at a temple and sees Damos running toward it. Damos is not actually there, but Arceus senses that someone resembling Damos is coming toward him. Sheena then runs out to Arceus, presenting him with the Jewel in a rather calm scene. Arceus calms down and comes closer to examine the Jewel, which Sheena is very emotional about giving back. Team Rocket is on the sidelines, debating rather comically about who should go steal it. Since they are in the presence of Arceus, however, they ultimately decide not to take it since they might get beat up badly.

Arceus seems grateful to have the Jewel back. However, when examining it, it completely crushes it with one of its hooves and declares it a fake. Sheena is shocked, so Kevin tells everyone to run as Arceus charges some sort of Fire-looking attack. He stands in front of the attack to protect everyone, but Giratina emerges from its dimension and takes the blow. Arceus fires more attacks, causing the ruins to break open and dirt to fly everywhere. Team Rocket falls through the top of the mountain into water encased in the mountain, and then down a waterfall to the base of the mountain.

Giratina fires an attack at Arceus, but Arceus changes its type to resist the attack completely. Dialga and Palkia then appear, firing attacks at Arceus. They are also ineffective because of Arceus changing its type. Arceus tries to attack the humans again but Pikachu zaps it, which actually hurts it. Kevin explains that since Arceus is missing the Zap Plate, it can be hurt by Electric attacks. Palkia uses some sort of Water encasing attack on Arceus and is able to subdue it. Dialga, who was thrown into the ground in the fighting, sends everyone back in time except Kevin. The blue strips on its sides glow and everyone is whisked away.

In the past, it is night and an eclipse is occurring. Arceus appears out of the sky and floats down to a temple lit by fire to meet Damos, who is supposed to return the Life Jewel to Arceus on this day. The camera angle cuts off Damos’ face, obviously because he is being controlled. Damos is holding the Jewel and tells Arceus to come inside, so it follows him into the heart of the temple. Sheena and everyone else is observing the scene from the top. Suddenly, several dozen Pokemon wearing Gishin’s machines attack Arceus with Electric attacks. Arceus doesn’t understand what’s going on and asks Damos what he’s doing, and we can see that Damos’ eyes are missing their shine, meaning he is being controlled. Damos walks up to the top where Gishin, Heatran, and Bronzong are standing and releases the candle chandelier hanging from the top of the temple, which crashes down on to Arceus. The scene is actually quite violent, and some kids in the audience were freaking out. Damos then releases boulders, completely burying Arceus again rather violently. While all of this is happening, the Pokemon are still attacking with Electric attacks. Arceus is hurt severely but blasts the boulders away, causing Damos and Gishin to apparently fall to their deaths. The Jewel falls with them and is buried in the rubble. Sheena and crew also fall, but she prays for Dialga (who is still in the present) to send them back even further in the past, so Dialga again whisks them away.

In the present, everyone is still fighting. Dialga finally faints, and so will not be able to move Ash and crew through time anymore. Team Rocket keeps getting hit by water as more of the temple and city is blasted away.

In the past Sheena and crew are immediately surrounded by a Heatran, Bronzong, and guards. Dialga sent them back to the afternoon of the same day. Bronzong uses some sort of attack on everyone except for Sheena, which hypnotizes them. Notched-Ear Pichu is observing the situation from afar and goes inside a building. The next scene shows a bag being thrown into a prison, which contains Piplup and Pikachu. Both are surrounded by strong, sleeping Pokemon. They are the same Pokemon that will attack Arceus later in the day. A Manectric threatens the two for making so much noise and then goes back to sleep. Pichu then comes in through a hole and tells them (I assume) to come with it. Pikachu and Pichu rub their tails against each other to greet each other, and Piplup tries to do the same but gets shocked.

Ash and crew are in jail and become unhypnotized as they are locked in. A little bit after, they see that Damos is in the cell with them. Ash yells at Damos for what he has done, but Damos of course doesn’t know what he is talking about since it hasn’t happened yet (not to mention he was being controlled by Gishin’s Bronzong when he did it). Ash shows Damos Poke Balls, shows him Monferno, tells him that these creatures are called Pokemon, but Damos only knows them as “monsters.”

Sheena is having quite a lovely dinner with Giishin and his two Pokemon. Giishin is interested in what Sheena has to say about Arceus, since earlier, she was trying to tell the guards about what will happen in the future. Giishin listens as Sheena explains that Damos must surrender the Jewel to Arceus to prevent Arceus from being hurt and the destruction that will occur in the future.

Meanwhile, Pichu, Pikachu, and Piplup are traveling in some sort of tunnel and escape into a kitchen. A man is ordering a Chikorita to cut some dough and a Cyndaquil to keep fueling a fire. Both Pokemon are tired and it is obvious they don’t like the man. Piplup unintentionally falls down from the tunnel, causing pottery to fly everywhere. One gets stuck on its head and the man screams as this weird creature is walking toward him (Piplup looks like some sort of monster). The man runs and gets smacked in the head with a pot, knocking him out rather comically. Pichu and Pikachu use Iron Tail to break the machines that are strapped around Chikorita and Cyndaqul, and everyone escapes from the kitchen as the man begins to come-to.

In the present, Team Rocket has again fallen through the mountain and encounters pottery encased in mud from an old kitchen. Meowth tries one on. Palkia is able to again subdue Arceus.

Back in jail, Damos is offended at what Ash and crew were saying and says that it helped Arceus long ago. The following flashback took place for several minutes and was actually quite long. It was my favorite part of the movie. Damos is walking around desolate land at night and snow is falling everywhere. A bunch of large meteors strike the land. As you are watching the scene you think the meteors are already huge and causing a lot of damage. Damos then looks up into the sky and the hugest meteor ever is coming towards the Earth. Arceus appears out of its dimension and flies up to the meteor. Its plates leave its body and circle around it, forming a strong barrier around the Pokemon. It then rams the huge meteor and is like an ant in comparison to it. The ensuing explosion is the largest that has ever occurred in the anime, and the meteor completely disintegrates as it flies into Arceus. From afar, the meteor is disintegrating into the atmosphere.

Back on the ground, Arceus is 99.9% dead. Pokemon are surrounding it and protecting it, fearing for its safety. A Graveler is being weakened by the falling snow but doesn’t care. Damos uses the same psychic power as Sheena and attempts to communicate with Arceus, but there is no light emanating from it. Damos tries harder and sees a small amount of light. The light points far away and Damos follows it, discovering one of Arceus’ Plates. When returning it to Arceus, the Pokemon still does not move, but the other Plates hover out of the ground and fly back to Arceus, absorbing themselves into it. Arceus is revived now that it has its life forces back. It rises up from the ground as the sun is beginning to rise, creating a rather beautiful (and arguably religious) scene.

Arceus asks Damos for his name and thanks him. I probably missed some dialogue here, but Arceus shows Damos what the land surrounding them could look like. The land is completely dead (naturally), but Arceus shows Damos a vision of it covered by plants and trees and water. It then calls out its Plates, which circle around it. Removing five of them, it creates the Jewel of Life, handing it to Damos. Damos raises it into the air, and the land below instantly flourishes. Damos is teary and thanks Arceus again. The next scene shows people beginning to come to the land. Damos says hi to a man and his Tauros, who is plowing a field. Arceus tells Damos it is going to leave now and I believe tells him to give the Jewel back during the next eclipse when he awakens. As Sheena and crew witnessed earlier, of course, this did not happen. Back in the jail cell, everyone now understands that Damos is not bad.

Back at dinner, Sheena is still talking about the future, and Giishin tells her he understands and that he’ll try to stop Damos. Heatran is standing on the wall and Bronzong is behind Giishin. He walks into a corner and reveals to the camera that he is in possession of the Jewel. He removes it and puts it into his clothes and then hands the empty staff to Sheena, who will deliver the Jewel to Arceus that night (of course, there is nothing to give back).

Piplup, Pichu, and Pikachu are still running around. They pass by a bunch of barrels being filled with hot metal. They eventually find a room where the jail keys are hanging, but a man is in the room guarding them. Piplup strings Pikachu and Pichu down but they can’t get the keys. A Totodile walks through the door, smiles, and then squirts the keys at them. They now have them!

Back in the present, Arceus has seriously destroyed everything in the area. As Team Rocket sees Arceus and Giratina fighting, a stray attack from Arceus rips open the side of the mountain. Jessie finds the Jewel of Life stuck in a wall and rips it out. Arceus uses Judgment again, destroying things even more and sending Team Rocket back down the mountain again.

Back in the cell, a candle flickers and Damos senses someone is coming. It’s his Pichu with the keys! Notched-Ear Pichu hands them to Damos and he thanks his Pokemon for a good job. They escape.

It is now night and Arceus enters into the real world, going down to the temple to get the Jewel of Life from Damos. Sheena greets him inside, telling Arceus that it is giving the Jewel to him in place of Damos (who she thinks is evil). When she opens the staff, the Jewel is of course missing since Giishin removed it. As soon as this is revealed, Giishin’s Pokemon attack Arceus with Electric attacks. It’s the same thing all over again, except now hot metal is poured on to Arceus for more damage. Arceus can’t escape the metal and struggles, firing an attack. Sheena begins to fall but Damos grabs her. She is struggling with him because she thinks he is bad, but he uses his psychic powers to explain the whole situation to her, and the two smile at each other.

Damos and Sheena attempt to run up to the top of the temple to stop Giishin, but a bunch of liquid metal is rushing toward them. Brock appears out of nowhere and orders Sudowoodo to use Wood Hammer, which destroys the floor and causes the metal to fall below. Meanwhile, Ash is running up to stop Giishin as well. However, Heatran and Bronzong interject. Pikachu tries to attack Heatran but it has no effect, so Piplup fires Bubble at it, causing it to fall off the wall. Heatran and Bronzong also use Protect.

Arceus is still being attacked by the Electric attacks and is almost completely buried by the liquid metal, which is hardening. Sheena and Damos use their powers in tandem and tell all the Pokemon to stop hurting Arceus. Heatran and Bronzong also stop attacking and Pikachu removes the machines controlling them. They then turn on Giishin.

Ash fights Giishin literally but can’t get the Jewel away from him. The Johto starters and Rattata appear out of nowhere, firing attacks at him. He drops the Jewel in the process, and it begins to role away. Chikorita attempts to grab it but fails, so Ash jumps down and catches it with his legs. It’s slipping out, so Pikachu goes under him and catches it again. They try to present the Jewel to Arceus below, but it is completely frozen, as if it is a dead carcass stuck in tar. It is alive however, but not moving, and it’s eyes are open but are not responding.

Damos and Sheena are trying to communicate with Arceus. Arceus’ rage forms a barrier around it in the psychic connection and both can’t break through it. Sheena gets knocked away, but Damos keeps trying on his own. As he is attempting to calm Arceus, who is now completely covered in metal, Ash, Dawn, Pikachu, Piplup, and Sheena begin to disappear. Apparently, Arceus being alive lead to them being alive, so if Arceus dies, they die in the future. Pikachu completely disappears, and so does half of Ash. All of them become quite emotional of the situation.

I forgot how (XD), but Damos is able to calm Arceus down. As this happens, the Jewel breaks down into the five Plates it was made of and get absorbed into Arceus’ body. A beautiful golden light surrounds Arceus and shoots up into the air, and Arceus is able to break free. He is completely calm. Ash and everyone else is back to normal and Pikachu reappears. Arceus asks Ash and Pikachu their names and a while later restores the past Miichina back to normal. I completely forgot how this whole part went since I ran out of paper, but Arceus returns back to its dimension. He also sends everyone back into the future.

In the present, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina are all Knocked Out. Ash and crew return to a rather calm scene, and to the audience, it would seem that since now Arceus was calm in the past, it is calm now. However, it becomes quickly apparent this is not the case. Arceus fires a large Judgment into the sky, which begins to rain down on everything. Ash screams to Arceus to remember him, and the camera zooms up to Arceus’ eye… “Satoshi… Pikachu…” All of the events that took place in the past that Ash and crew changed remind it that everything is okay now, and so Arceus freezes its Judgment. It revives the three Dragons and they all fly up next to it. It also restores Miichina. Everyone is okay now and the Dragons all fly back to their own dimensions.

A legend that was written on a stone tablet at the beginning of the movie has now completely changed to something else. I have no idea what it said.

In the ending credits, we see that Giishin is now working under Damos. Back in Alamos Town, Alice and Tonio are riding in her hot air balloon as the Baron bikes by in his own hot air balloon. Darkrai is in the distance watching, and returns to the ground. Zero is in jail. Newton visits him with a hologram (like the one in the first movie with Nurse Joy). Out pops Infi, which Zero is excited to see. Newton was obviously able to recover her program from the ship. Shaymin is also seen sitting in a tree and comes out to the sunrise. Team Rocket steals a watermelon only to discover that it is a Voltorb, which explodes and blasts them off.