Pokémon Movie: Lucario & The Mystery of Mew

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Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, or when directly translated from the movie’s Japanese title, Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation the Movie: Mew and the Wave-Guiding Hero, is the eighth movie in the Pokémon franchise and the third in the Advanced Generation series.

The movie was directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and starred all the usual voice actors from the Japanese and English versions of the anime episodes. The movie included the introduction of four previously unseen Pokémon from Generation IV: Bonsly, Lucario, Mime Jr. and Weavile. There are also appearances from Regice, Regirock and Registeel; Ho-Oh also appears to be in the movie, but this is actually Mew in disguise.

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is a complement to the Pokémon Advanced series of the anime, and as such ties in with many of the locations, characters and so on from those series.

The initial release came on 16 July 2005, when it hit theatres in Japan. Later that same year, just in time for Christmas, the Japanese DVD release arrived on 22 December 2005. The movie then enjoyed a limited cinema and full-scale DVD release across the globe until the summer of 2007, when it finally finished releasing across Europe.

Distribution and airings

Once more the international adaptation and English dub was dealt with by 4Kids Entertainment, with the first DVD releases coming in Australia on 16 August 2006 and next in the US on 19 September 2006.

The movie premiere for the US took place at Comic-Con 2006 in San Diego, California. In the UK it aired on Cartoon Network and sometimes airs on CITV. This would be the last time that 4Kids Entertainment would work on a Pokémon movie. A Hindi-dubbed version of the movie was aired in India on Hungama TV on 19 July 2017.

Although Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew was well enough received by audiences to become one of the four nominees for Best Anime Feature at the American Anime Awards, it unfortunately lost out to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Chronology in relation to the anime
In Japan the film opened on 16 July 2005, between A Real Cleffa-Hanger (AG134) and Numero Uno Articuno (AG135), early in the Battle Frontier arc of Advanced Battle. The gang are back in Kanto: Ash has just beaten the Battle Factory and is heading for his next Frontier Symbol with Pikachu, Grovyle, Corphish, Swellow and Phanpy; May has Combusken, Munchlax and Squirtle; Brock has Forretress and Mudkip, having left Ludicolo at the Pewter Gym in that very episode. The timing is slightly awkward for Grovyle, who evolved into Sceptile in the following week’s episode. Bonsly, introduced here, would later join Brock’s team in the series proper.

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is a single feature

• Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew – the main feature, 100 minutes; no Pikachu short was shown

Story

Prologue: the hero of Cameran

Centuries ago, two vast armies of Pokémon and men – one red, one green – converged on the kingdom of Cameran, with the palace caught in the middle. Lucario, a warrior Pokémon able to see and wield the power of aura, served Sir Aaron, an Aura Guardian in the service of Queen Rin. When Lucario tried to warn his master through their crystal link, Aaron seemed to abandon his post and the kingdom; confronted by Lucario, he sealed the Pokémon inside the jewel of his staff and fled on his Pidgeot. Moments later the Tree of Beginning blazed green, the armies laid down their arms and peace returned. History remembered Aaron as the hero who sacrificed himself to save Cameran – but nobody ever knew what had really happened.

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Hero of the Year

In the present day Ash, May, Brock and Max arrive in the town of Rota for the Rota festival, which every year crowns a “Hero of the Year” through a Pokémon tournament at Cameran Palace. Ash and Pikachu fight their way to the title, and at the costume ball that follows Ash is dressed as Sir Aaron and handed the hero’s ceremonial staff by Queen Ilene, Rin’s descendant. The jewel begins to glow – and Lucario bursts out of it, calling Ash “Aaron” before realising, with fury, that his master is long dead and the world has moved on without him.

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Mew’s games

Meanwhile Mew, which has been living in the Tree of Beginning for as long as anyone can remember, is playing in the palace in a string of disguises – a Pichu, a Taillow, an Aipom, a Treecko – and leading the castle’s Pokémon on a merry dance through the attics. Treasure hunter Kidd Summers, in Rota with her two Weavile on a job for her sponsor Banks, tries to tag Mew with a tracking device and fails. In the chaos Mew teleports away to the Tree of Beginning, taking Pikachu and Meowth with it.

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The road to the Tree of Beginning

With Pikachu gone, Ash sets out for the Tree with Lucario as his reluctant guide, the others piling into Kidd’s Humvee alongside them. The journey gives the film its heart: a Bonsly that keeps tagging along, a stop at the hot springs, and a bitter falling-out when Lucario, still raw from his master’s betrayal, questions whether Pikachu really trusts Ash at all – and Ash lashes out. A Time Flower, a crystal that replays moments from the past, shows them the truth of Aaron’s departure, and Ash apologises.

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Inside the Tree

The Tree of Beginning turns out to be a vast living organism of rock and crystal, patrolled by Regirock, Regice and Registeel and defended by an immune system of red blobs that engulf anything it mistakes for an infection. The group push through its tunnels, dodge the titans and are finally reunited with Pikachu on a bridge of crystal pillars – just as the Tree, disturbed by the intruders, begins to fail.

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Aaron’s sacrifice

Mew guides them to the core chamber, where one last Time Flower shows what really happened all those centuries ago: Aaron sealed Lucario in the staff to keep him safe, then poured his own aura into Mew to heal the Tree and end the war – and died doing it. Understanding his master at last, Lucario resolves to do the same, and Ash, wearing Aaron’s gloves, joins him in channelling aura into Mew.

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Farewell, Lucario

At the critical moment Lucario pushes Ash away and completes the transfer alone. The Tree’s crystals blaze green again and Mew is restored, but Lucario fades, his spirit reunited with Aaron’s. Back at the palace the great tapestry of Sir Aaron has quietly changed: Lucario now stands at his master’s side. Bonsly stays behind with Mew, Kidd files her report, and Ash and his friends move on.

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Major Characters

Ash Ketchum (Satoshi) is thrust into the role of Aura Guardian and turns out to have a genuine, if untrained, gift for aura – something the series would return to again and again. May (Haruka), Brock (Takeshi) and Max (Masato) ride along in Kidd’s Humvee, with May’s Munchlax and Squirtle and Brock’s Forretress earning their keep in the Tree.
Lucario (voiced by Daisuke Namikawa in Japanese and Sean Schemmel in English) is the first Pokémon to carry a movie as a true co-lead: a proud, wounded warrior who speaks through telepathy, sealed away for a thousand years and convinced his master betrayed him. Sir Aaron (Kōichi Yamadera / Jason Griffith) is that master, the legendary Aura Guardian whose last choice the whole film turns on, and Queen Rin the monarch he served. Mew (Satomi Kōrogi) is the playful heart of the Tree of Beginning, here with a new talent for Transform.
Queen Ilene (Momoko Kikuchi / Bella Hudson), Rin’s descendant and the current ruler of Cameran, keeps a Mime Jr. and is the one who persuades Lucario to help. Kidd Summers (voiced in Japanese by TV personality Becky) is a globe-trotting adventurer and record-breaker working for the mysterious Banks, with two Weavile at her command. Jenny, the castle’s maid, and the Rota townsfolk fill out the cast, and Jessie, James and Meowth get an invitation to the ball – Meowth spends most of the film as Mew’s unwilling playmate.

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Other Characters & Pokémon Debuts

The three legendary titans – Regirock, Regice and Registeel – guard the Tree of Beginning, which is itself a kind of Pokémon ecosystem, home to Omanyte, Omastar, Lileep, Cradily, Armaldo, Yanma and a whole aviary of Flying-types. Sir Aaron’s Pidgeot carries him in the prologue, Kidd’s twin Weavile provide the muscle, and a wild Bonsly steals every scene it wanders into.

Pokémon making their anime debut in the film

Four Generation IV Pokémon made their first appearance anywhere in the anime here, more than a year before Diamond & Pearl reached Japan.

• Lucario#448 · the Aura Pokémon
• Bonsly#438
• Mime Jr.#439 · Queen Ilene’s
• Weavile#461 · Kidd’s

Cast

The voice cast of both the Japanese and English versions of Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.

Character	English voice actor	Japanese voice actor
Ash Ketchum (Satoshi)	Veronica Taylor	Rica Matsumoto
Pikachu	Ikue Ōtani	Ikue Ōtani
May (Haruka)	Veronica Taylor	KAORI
Max (Masato)	Amy Birnbaum	Fushigi Yamada
Brock (Takeshi)	Eric Stuart	Yūji Ueda
Jessie (Musashi)	Rachael Lillis	Megumi Hayashibara
James (Kojirō)	Eric Stuart	Shin-ichirō Miki
Meowth (Nyarth)	Maddie Blaustein	Inuko Inuyama
Lucario	Sean Schemmel	Daisuke Namikawa
Mew	Satomi Kōrogi	Satomi Kōrogi
Sir Aaron	Jason Griffith	Kōichi Yamadera
Queen Rin / Queen Ilene	Bella Hudson	Momoko Kikuchi
Kidd Summers	Rebecca Soler	Becky
Banks	Pete Zarustica	Takeshi Aono
Jenny	Suzanne Goldish	Kumiko Okae
Bonsly	Eric Stuart	Yūta Kajiwara
Weavile	Eric Stuart	Daisuke Sakaguchi · Jun Fukushima
Regirock	Eiji Miyashita	Eiji Miyashita
Regice	Kunihiro Kawamoto	Kunihiro Kawamoto
Registeel	Atsushi Kakehashi	Atsushi Kakehashi
Narrator	Mike Pollock	Unshō Ishizuka

Trailer

The official English trailer for Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, from our own Pokémon Dungeon YouTube channel.

Trading Cards

Japanese cinema-goers in 2005 were spoilt. From opening day on 16 July the Movie Commemoration VS Pack: Aura’s Lucario went on sale – another 19-card half deck built entirely from the film, headlined by Aura’s Lucario and Rota’s Mew and backed by Ash’s Grovyle, Phanpy and Swellow, May’s Munchlax, Brock’s Forretress, Ilene’s Mime Jr., Rota’s Bonsly, Kidd’s two Weavile, Aaron’s Pidgeot and Trainer cards for the Time Flower and Aaron’s Aura, with a blue Lucario coin in the box. On top of that, four Rota’s promos – Mime Jr., Bonsly, Munchlax and Weavile – were issued in the PCG-P promotional series to tie in with the film, giving Japanese fans their first look at three Generation IV Pokémon in card form. Cinemas also handed out a Lucario keychain as an admission gift.

None of these cards was ever released in English; Western players would wait until Diamond & Pearl in 2007 for a Lucario of their own. Everything is catalogued in our Trading Card Game section.

• Movie Commemoration VS PackAura’s Lucario · Japan, July 2005
• Aura’s Lucario012/019
• Rota’s Mew002/019
• Ash’s Grovyle001/019
• Ilene’s Mime Jr.003/019
• Rota’s Bonsly005/019
• Aaron’s Pidgeot006/019
• Kidd’s Weavile009/019
• Time Flower015/019
• Aaron’s Aura019/019
• Rota’s Mime Jr.PCG-P Promo 086
• Rota’s BonslyPCG-P Promo 087
• Rota’s MunchlaxPCG-P Promo 088
• Rota’s WeavilePCG-P Promo 089

Movie Ads & Posters

Posters and home-video artwork for Lucario and the Mystery of Mew – the Japanese one-sheets, the English poster, and the DVD releases from Japan, the States, Australia and Europe. Magazine clippings and adverts are still wanted; if you have any, please get in touch.

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Trivia & Facts

• In Japan the film was released between A Real Cleffa-Hanger (AG134) and Numero Uno Articuno (AG135).
• This is the movie that introduced the concept of aura to the anime, and it made Ash an aura user for good: his gift resurfaced in The Keystone Pops!, the Pokémon Ranger and the Kidnapped Riolu! two-parter and Caring for a Mystery!, which in turn confirmed the film as canon.
• It is the second movie, after Pokémon Heroes, in which a character dies and stays dead – and this time there are two of them, Lucario and Sir Aaron, although both are glimpsed together over the ending credits.
• Cameran Palace is based on Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, and the two armies, red and green, are a nod to the original Pokémon Red and Green.
• Production began before Destiny Deoxys was even finished. The strings on Shinji Miyazaki’s score were recorded by Koike Strings on 11 June 2005, and when Ash remembers his first day with Pikachu, an instrumental of Aim to Be a Pokémon Master plays underneath.
• This was the only Advanced Generation movie to play the season’s theme tune – Advanced Battle, standing in for Battle Frontier – over the opening credits, and the first in which a Generation IV move is used.
• The Lapras music box in the Tree of Beginning plays Jigglypuff’s song, and Jynx’s original purple design can be spotted among the Pokémon in the opening.
• Munchlax makes the front cover for the second film in a row – May’s Munchlax is the only main-character Pokémon besides Pikachu to appear on it – and the epilogue sends Kidd to Forina from Jirachi: Wish Maker, with Butler and Diane standing behind her.
  

  

• It was nominated for Best Anime Feature at the inaugural American Anime Awards, losing to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and in February 2021 it was voted the most popular Advanced Generation movie in an official Pokémon poll.
• A film of lasts: the last Pokémon movie dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment, the last released on VHS in Japan, and the first not to get a VHS release at all in the US and Canada.
• This is one of only two Pokémon movies, along with Zoroark: Master of Illusions, whose headline Pokémon is neither Legendary nor Mythical. It also marks one of the very rare occasions on which Ash deliberately hurts a Pokémon, knocking Lucario down in anger.
• Several lines were softened or changed in the dub: Lucario originally says he came along because Queen Ilene asked him to, rather than that he has no friends and wants none, and Max’s theory that Aaron sealed Lucario away to protect him was turned into an accusation of abandonment. The Japanese ending theme Song of Origin was replaced by We Will Meet Again.
• The Finnish dub skipped this film entirely – the first Pokémon movie to be passed over there – and the other Nordic countries followed suit, as they did with the next film.

Errors

• In the opening tournament, when Ash is about to call on Phanpy, the button on his Poké Ball is drawn far too large.
• Houndoom’s Japanese dialogue was accidentally left in the English dub, and when Mew transforms into Ho-Oh it uses Pidgeot’s cry.
• When the guests in the ballroom watch the staff glow, part of Jessie’s sleeve is missing; when May admires Queen Ilene on the balcony, the pink bow on her left sleeve is coloured yellow.
• When Lucario emerges from the staff, his paws are blue instead of black.
  

  

• The dub pronounces Regice “Rej-i-ice” and Bonsly “Bonsl-ee”, where the series itself later settled on “Rej-ice” and “Bons-lie”.
• After the costume ball May’s hairstyle changes from a bow to pigtails and braids, and never changes back.

Reviews & Reception

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew was a hit in Japan, taking around ¥4.3 billion – roughly $37 million – and finishing as the best-earning Pokémon film since Spell of the Unown. There was no Western cinema run beyond its Comic-Con premiere, so the usual review aggregates don’t apply, but it became one of four nominees for Best Anime Feature at the 2007 American Anime Awards.

Among fans it is the undisputed high point of the Hoenn-era movies and regularly ranks among the best Pokémon films full stop: Lucario is a genuinely well-written character, the relationship between him and Ash has real friction, the Tree of Beginning is one of the series’ great settings, and the ending earns its tears. Lucario’s popularity here is a large part of why it went on to become one of the franchise’s flagship Pokémon. An official poll in 2021 voted it the most popular movie of the Advanced Generation.

The Japanese DVD and VHS arrived on 22 December 2005. In the West the film went straight to DVD – Australia first on 16 August 2006, then the US on 19 September 2006 as the first Pokémon movie released by Viz Media, with Europe following through 2007. Cartoon Network and CITV have both aired it in the UK, and a Hindi dub reached Hungama TV in India in 2017.

Scores at a glance (as of October 2026)

• IMDb – 6.8/10 from around 6,000 user ratings
• Rotten Tomatoes – 81% audience score (5,000+ ratings) · no critics’ score – only one review“It manages to expand the Pokémon world in surprisingly interesting ways” – Sebastian Zavala Kahn, Más Gamers
• Letterboxd – 3.5/5 average from 24,000+ ratings
• DVD Talk – Rent It“A great production for younger audiences” – Jeffrey Robinson
• Anime News Network – “Worth Seeing” tier in ANN’s ranking of every Pokémon movie“A successful attempt at an adventurous Pokemon film” – Callum May