The Power of One

The first time I ever saw Pokemon 2000: The Power of One I was only 14.My mom dropped me off with two of my friends and brother. Initially it was another film where we got free cards with an admission ticket and it was Pokemon. The hopeless romantic I am saw and loved the Ash/Misty moments scattered through the whole thing, and I really wanted to see it again both because of that and because I wanted to recreate the fun of hanging out with my friends. We never did see it again in theaters. Maybe a week later we all got caught for sneaking out of the house. It was supposed to be our last time, and I was feeling so invincible. But then we saw his mom’s car. It was a collective ‘oh shit’ moment. He got sent off to New York for three weeks, taking the soundtrack for this movie with him. I found out from Jeanine a week after it happened. I confessed to my mom in Denny’s while we were on vacation in New Mexico, and I was pretty much off the hook. I tell you, that three weeks without him was hell. He wrote, and I wrote. I saved the letters. He had loads of fun, and I was alright. Life was life for the rest of the summer. Then when he came back he had gifts…but I digress (I still have that Bubbles keychain he bought me as well as the pictures he drew and sent).

Rewatching the movie brings back all of that as well as what the movie really means. Some guy disrupts the balance, and all hell breaks loose. It’s commentary on us humans. The Pokemon are all in tune with nature like our animals. They know when something is really wrong and want to fix it. The moral of that movie is that we humans have to live in harmony with nature and with Pokemon (animals). In the real world there is no chosen one who can fix everything by collecting treasures from three islands. The Deep Water Horizon that was leaking uncontrolled into the Gulf of Mexico for the last two and a half months is proof enough. We all need to be a part of the solution, whatever that is.

Still, I would gladly be that chosen one as naïve as that sounds.