Pokémon the Movie 3: The Spell of the Unown

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Pokémon 3: The Movie – Spell of the Unown: Entei is the third movie in the Pokémon franchise. Its Japanese title, Pocket Monsters the Movie: Emperor of the Crystal Tower – ENTEI, was rendered on the original posters as Lord of the “UNKNOWN” Tower, but most viewers simply know it as Pokémon 3: The Movie, as that’s rather less of a mouthful!

Once more the movie is directed by the main director of the anime series, Kunihiko Yuyama, and its initial release came in Japan on July 8th, 2000 through Toho, continuing with staggered releases across the globe until it finally finished rolling out across Europe on July 20th, 2001. Warner Bros. Family Entertainment handled the theatrical release in the States, but it would be the last time Warner Bros. was involved in releasing a Pokémon movie – it would be almost two decades before the studio returned with Detective Pikachu.

The tradition of a 20-minute Pikachu short ahead of the main feature continued; this time it was titled Pikachu & Pichu and follows the misadventures of Pikachu and the mischievous Pichu Brothers in the big city. This was also the first Pokémon movie to make it to IMAX theatres, which took full advantage of the crystallisation effects and the Unown swirling about the screen for an impressive 3D-style spectacle. People who watched the movie at the cinema could pick up a free promotional Pokémon trading card with their ticket – one per person and subject to availability at each showing.

Chronology in relation to the anime
The third movie belongs to the original series’ Johto Journeys arc, set in the Johto region. It opened in Japan on 8 July 2000 – just two days after Forest Grumps (EP155) aired and before The Psychic Sidekicks! (EP156) – and the film slots neatly into that gap. Ash is travelling with Misty (and Togepi) and Brock, who had rejoined the group for Johto after staying behind with Professor Ivy during the Orange Islands, with the Zephyr and Hive Badges already in his case and Goldenrod City next on the road. His team is exactly the one he fields in the film: Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile and the shiny Noctowl he had only just caught in Fowl Play! (EP154). Charizard, meanwhile, had been away training at the Charicific Valley since Charizard’s Burning Ambitions (EP134) – a detail worth keeping in mind as the film unfolds.

Pokémon the Movie 3 is broken down into the following parts

• Pikachu & Pichu – the Pikachu short, around 21 minutes long, set in Big Town and starring the mischievous Pichu Brothers.
• Spell of the Unown: Entei – the main feature, with a runtime of around 74 minutes.

Although it didn’t reach the heights of the first two films at the box office, Pokémon 3 still took around $68.4 million USD worldwide and was the third highest-grossing film of 2000 in Japan – and many fans and critics alike regard it as the best-told story of the original movie trilogy.

Story

Pikachu & Pichu (the short)

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The short opens in Big Town, a bustling Johto metropolis of skyscrapers and double-decker buses. Left to their own devices while Ash and friends are busy, Pikachu and the gang spot two Pichu – the Pichu Brothers – larking about on the rooftops. When the little brother slips and nearly plummets from a ledge, Pikachu dashes to the rescue, only to end up tumbling off a bus and fleeing an extremely grumpy Houndour alongside its new friends. The chaos reaches a peak when the brothers’ beloved playhouse – a precarious tower of old tyres – comes crashing down, and the whole neighbourhood of Pokémon pitches in to rebuild it before sunset. Pikachu makes it back to Ash just in time for a surprise party: it’s exactly one year since the pair first met, and the short ends with the friends celebrating their anniversary.

A father vanishes

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In the peaceful town of Greenfield, the scholarly Spencer Hale reads his young daughter Molly a storybook about the Legendary Pokémon Entei. Their evening is interrupted by a message from his assistant Schuyler, who has uncovered a set of ancient ruins out in the desert. Spencer, a former student of Professor Oak and an old friend of Ash’s mum Delia, has devoted his life to studying the mysterious Unown, and the ruins are everything he hoped for – until a swarm of the letter-shaped Pokémon erupts from the stonework and he is pulled through a shimmering portal into their dimension, leaving nothing behind but a scattered box of carved tiles.

Back at the Hale mansion, a heartbroken Molly overhears the news. Rummaging through her father’s belongings she finds the Unown tiles and, as children do, begins spelling out the things she misses most: Papa, Mama and Me. The tiles glow, a portal yawns open and the Unown pour into the house, their psychic energy spreading a web of crystal across every surface. Gazing at the picture of Entei in her storybook, Molly wishes for a daddy – and the Unown, reading the longing in her heart, give her one. A towering Entei strides out of the light and takes its place at her side.

Molly’s crystal kingdom

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Overnight the Hale estate becomes a glittering fortress, and the crystal keeps spreading, swallowing fields and roads and driving out the townsfolk. News crews descend on Greenfield; a bulldozer sent to break through is simply engulfed by fresh spires. Watching the reports in Pallet Town, Delia recognises the Hale family from old photographs and sets off for Greenfield with Professor Oak, worried sick about their friend. Ash, Misty and Brock, who happen to be passing through on their Johto journey – having just finished a thrilling six-on-six battle with a travelling trainer named Lisa – are reunited with Delia and Oak at the Pokémon Center on the edge of town.

Inside the tower, Molly has everything she asked for except one thing. Seeing Delia on a television screen, she tells Entei she wants a mama too. Entei charges out across the crystallised valley, brushing aside Pikachu’s Thunderbolts, and places Delia under a hypnotic spell, convincing her she really is Molly’s mother before carrying her off into the tower. Ash can only watch helplessly as his mother disappears.

Into the tower

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The adults want to wait for help, but Ash isn’t going anywhere. Armed with Lisa’s Pokégear so the Professor can track their progress, he, Misty and Brock find a route in via a waterfall the crystal hasn’t touched, with Noctowl ferrying Bulbasaur and Chikorita to the top so their Vine Whips can haul everyone up. Inside, the mansion has become a shifting dreamscape built from Molly’s imagination – staircases that lead to meadows, rooms that open onto sea beds – and the trio burn and splash their way through with Cyndaquil and Totodile. Team Rocket, meanwhile, blunder in through the same breach after Entei’s Fire Blast brings their balloon down, and spend the rest of the film in bewildered pursuit.

Molly, who has used the Unown’s power to age herself into an adult trainer, intercepts Brock first and challenges him to a three-on-three battle. Her dream Pokémon make short work of him: Flaaffy’s Thunder Shock downs Zubat, Teddiursa out-brawls Vulpix and a tiny Phanpy sends the mighty Onix flying with Rollout. Brock stays behind to keep her occupied while the others press on. Next the floor dissolves into an underwater arena, where a now ten-year-old Molly squares up to Misty. Her Kingdra overwhelms Goldeen with Smokescreen and Headbutt, and Mantine and Staryu are still trading Whirlpools and Rapid Spins when Misty, too, lets Ash go ahead alone.

Ash versus Entei

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At the summit Ash finally reaches his mum, and Delia – coming to her senses – gently tells Molly the truth: she loves her, but she is not her mother. Molly’s anguish sends the Unown into overdrive, pillars of red crystal split the room, and Entei orders Ash to leave or be removed by force. Totodile’s Water Gun and Cyndaquil’s Flamethrower are brushed aside; Pikachu’s electricity barely registers. Entei summons a blizzard inside the tower and, as an exhausted Pikachu takes a Fire Blast meant for it, Ash dives in the way and both are blasted clean through the wall and out into the open air.

Charizard returns and the spell breaks

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Far away in the Charicific Valley, Liza and her Charizard Charla have been watching the Greenfield footage – and Ash’s Charizard has seen enough. Snatching Ash and Pikachu out of their fall, it carries them straight back into the fight, trading Flamethrowers with Entei in a blistering aerial duel that smashes through the tower walls and ends with Entei pinning Charizard by the throat, a point-blank Fire Blast building in its jaws.

It is Molly who stops it. Realising that her wishes are hurting real people, she begs Entei to end the fight and tells it she wants to go home – the real one. But the Unown have fed on her dreams for so long that they can no longer stop, sealing themselves inside a crackling barrier. Pikachu, Charizard and Entei pour everything into one final combined assault, and Entei’s last Flamethrower shatters the shield. The Unown spill back through their portal, the crystal dissolves across Greenfield like morning frost, and Entei, fading away in a soft green glow, tells Molly to keep it alive in her dreams and in her heart.

In the closing scenes Spencer Hale steps out of the Unown dimension and is reunited with his daughter – and, as the credits roll, Molly’s mother returns too, while Molly plays by the pond with a very real Teddiursa. Ash bids Charizard farewell as it heads back to the Valley, and our heroes set off once more on their Johto journey.

Major Characters

Molly Hale (Me in the Japanese version) is the heart of the film: a lonely little girl who loses her father and, through the Unown, gains the power to make her wishes real. Her “dream” Pokémon – Flaaffy, Teddiursa, Phanpy, Kingdra and Mantine – are conjured from her imagination, as are the older bodies she borrows to battle Brock and Misty. Her arc, from denial to accepting that the people around her are real and hurting, gives the movie its emotional punch.

Entei is not the Legendary beast of the Johto games but an illusion the Unown build from the Entei in Spencer’s storybook – a deep-voiced, fiercely protective father figure who will burn down anyone who threatens Molly’s happiness. Fittingly, it is voiced by the same actor as Spencer Hale in both Japanese (Naoto Takenaka) and English (Dan Green). It is the only movie “Legendary” of the original trilogy that isn’t really a Pokémon at all.

Spencer Hale is the Unown researcher whose disappearance sets everything in motion. A former student of Professor Oak and an old friend of Delia’s, he spends most of the film trapped in the Unown’s dimension before being returned at the end.

Ash, Misty and Brock are passing through Greenfield when disaster strikes. Ash’s determination to rescue his mother drives the plot, while Brock and Misty each take on Molly in memorable battles so Ash can reach the summit. Delia Ketchum gets her biggest role in any Pokémon film as the “mama” Molly claims – and it is her gentle honesty, rather than any attack, that begins to break the spell. Charizard, back from the Charicific Valley, provides the film’s most crowd-pleasing moment.

And then there are the Unown themselves – the alphabet-shaped Psychic Pokémon whose combined power can bend reality around a child’s wishes. All 26 letter forms known from Gold & Silver appear, along with a few mysterious extras (see Trivia).

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Other Characters & Pokémon Debuts

Lisa is the easygoing trainer who opens the film by challenging Ash to a full six-on-six battle – Totodile beats her Granbull, Girafarig takes down Chikorita, Noctowl sees off Aipom, Butterfree puts Bulbasaur to sleep, Cyndaquil roasts Mankey and Pikachu and Quagsire knock each other out, giving Ash the win 3–2. She later lends Ash her Pokégear so Professor Oak can follow the rescue, and waits anxiously at the Pokémon Center. Schuyler is Spencer’s loyal research assistant, who discovers the ruins and keeps Oak and the authorities informed, while David, the Hales’ devoted butler, is looking after Molly when the Unown arrive. Officer Jenny coordinates the evacuation of Greenfield, and Liza and her Charizard Charla watch events unfold from the Charicific Valley. Professor Oak and Delia (with her Mr. Mime, Mimey, back home) make the trip from Pallet Town, and Team Rocket – Jessie, James, Meowth and Wobbuffet – tag along for the ride, lending an unexpected hand in the finale.

Pokémon making their anime debut in the film

Entei and the Unown had already been revealed in Pokémon Gold & Silver, but this film gave them – and a handful of other Johto Pokémon – their first appearance in the anime.

• Entei#244 · Unown illusion
• Unown#201 · all letter forms
• Teddiursa#216
• Flaaffy#180
• Phanpy#231
• Mantine#226
• Kingdra#230
• Aipom#190
• Granbull#210
• Girafarig#203

Debuting in the Pikachu & Pichu short

• Pichu#172 · the Pichu Brothers
• Cleffa#173
• Igglybuff#174
• Magby#240
• Hitmontop#237
• Furret#162
• Chinchou#170
• Murkrow#198
• Smeargle#235
• Shuckle#213
• Smoochum#238

Cast

The voice cast for the English dub and the original Japanese release.

Character	English voice actor	Japanese voice actor
Ash Ketchum	Veronica Taylor	Rica Matsumoto
Pikachu	Ikue Ōtani	Ikue Ōtani
Misty	Rachael Lillis	Mayumi Iizuka
Brock	Eric Stuart	Yūji Ueda
Molly Hale	Amy Birnbaum	Akiko Yajima
Entei	Dan Green	Naoto Takenaka
Spencer Hale	Dan Green	Naoto Takenaka
Delia Ketchum	Veronica Taylor	Masami Toyoshima
Professor Oak	Stan Hart	Unshō Ishizuka
Lisa	Lisa Ortiz	Ai Katō
Schuyler	Ed Paul	Hirohide Yakumaru
David (the Hales’ butler)	Peter R. Bird	Kōichi Yamadera
Officer Jenny	Lee Quick	Chinami Nishimura
Jessie	Rachael Lillis	Megumi Hayashibara
James	Eric Stuart	Shin-ichiro Miki
Meowth	Maddie Blaustein	Inuko Inuyama
Narrator	Ken Gates	Unshō Ishizuka

Trailer

The official US theatrical trailer – Warner Bros., via the Warner Bros. Rewind channel.

Trading Cards

As with the first two films, going to see Pokémon 3 at the cinema came with a trading card bonus. In Japan the tie-in was the Neo Premium File 2, a card file sold at participating cinemas from opening day on 8 July 2000 before going on general sale on 5 August 2000. Inside were nine unnumbered promotional cards, headlined by a reverse-holofoil Entei and a Pichu.

When the film reached America, Wizards of the Coast handed out Entei (Black Star Promo #34) with ticket purchases from 6 April 2001 for as long as stocks lasted. It is a landmark card in its own right: the very first reverse-holofoil card released outside Japan. An 80 HP Basic Fire-type illustrated by Ken Sugimori, it carries the Pokémon Power Bolt and the attack Protective Flame for 50 damage. Its sibling Pichu (Black Star Promo #35), a holofoil, followed through Pokémon League play in April 2001. You’ll find all of these promos catalogued over in our Trading Card Game section.

• EnteiWizards Black Star Promo #34 · reverse holofoil
• PichuWizards Black Star Promo #35 · holofoil
• Neo Premium File 2Japanese cinema card file · front
• Neo Premium File 2Japanese cinema card file · back

Movie Ads & Posters

Posters and home-video artwork for Pokémon 3: The Movie from around the world – the Japanese “Emperor of the Crystal Tower” one-sheets, the US theatrical and digital posters, and the DVD, Blu-ray and VHS releases from the States, the UK, Australia and Japan.

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Trivia & Facts

• This was the last Pokémon movie written by Takeshi Shudō, the anime’s original head writer, who was unwell during production. His first draft was something else entirely – a dinosaur fossil brought back to life and rampaging through Kanto – which was rejected as too risky. It is also the first Pokémon movie with two credited screenwriters, Shudō sharing duties with Hideki Sonoda.
• Molly’s Japanese name, Me, was a nickname Shudō had for his own daughter.
• The opening battle between Ash and Lisa is a genuine six-on-six Full Battle – the only one in any Pokémon movie – and the first time Ash faced a female trainer in one.
• It is the only film of the original series whose headline Pokémon weren’t brand-new reveals: Entei and the Unown had already debuted in Pokémon Gold & Silver. Strictly speaking it’s also the only one of those films without a real Legendary Pokémon in it, since this Entei is an Unown-made illusion – although the Unown themselves are explicitly described as Legendary in the movie.
• Several Unown forms glimpsed on Professor Oak’s computer screen have never appeared anywhere else in the franchise – not in the games, the anime or the TCG.
  

  

• Western audiences met Totodile and Noctowl here before their anime debut episodes had even aired in the US.
• Entei and Spencer Hale share a voice actor in both languages – Naoto Takenaka in Japanese and Dan Green in English – a deliberate nod to Entei being the father Molly wished for.
• It was the first Pokémon movie shown in IMAX, and the last Pokémon film distributed theatrically by Warner Bros. until Detective Pikachu in 2019.
• The Entei card given away at US cinemas was the first reverse-holofoil card ever released outside Japan.
• This is the last movie to close with Jessie and James’ Japanese catchphrase “ii kanji!”

Errors

• Professor Hale’s research report, seen on screen, repeatedly misspells Unown as “Unknown” and is riddled with spelling and grammar slips – a rough translation of the Japanese text that made it into the finished film (pictured).
  

  

• After Charizard catches Ash, the front panel of Ash’s cap is coloured red like the rest of the hat instead of white.
• During the Unown barrier scene, the inside of Brock’s mouth is coloured the same as his skin.
• The US DVD commentary describes Entei as a Fire/Psychic type; it is a pure Fire type – its ability to speak comes from being created by the Psychic-type Unown.
• In the UK television airings Molly’s “Headbutt” command was cut, but the footage of the attack itself was left in.
• Various dubs added their own slips: the Brazilian Portuguese version calls Misty the Vermilion City Gym Leader (she’s from Cerulean), and the Hindi dub refers to Goldeen as “Magikarp”.

Reviews & Reception

Pokémon 3 arrived just as the initial Pokémania fever was cooling, and the numbers tell the story. In Japan it was a hit, taking around $48.5 million USD – the third highest-grossing film of 2000 in the country – but in North America it managed $17.1 million across its entire run, a sharp drop from the $85.7 million of the first movie and the $43.8 million of Pokémon 2000. Worldwide it finished on roughly $68.4 million, still a very healthy return on a modest animation budget.

Critics were, as ever, lukewarm: the film holds a 20% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 55 reviews, with an average score of around 4 out of 10, and a Metacritic score of 22 out of 100 from 18 critics, indicating “generally unfavourable” reviews. The recurring verdict, though, was that Spell of the Unown told a noticeably stronger and more coherent story than its two predecessors – it just wasn’t going to win over anyone who wasn’t already a fan. Audiences disagreed with the critics: cinema-goers polled by CinemaScore gave it an “A−”, and over the years its focus on a small, personal story about grief and family has earned it a reputation among fans as the best-written of the original trilogy.

The film arrived on VHS and DVD in the States on 21 August 2001 (7 July 2001 in Japan), and was later remastered for a limited-edition Blu-ray steelbook collecting the first three movies in February 2016, with digital releases following that same month.

Scores at a glance (as of October 2026)

• IMDb – 5.9/10 user rating
• Rotten Tomatoes – 20% Tomatometer (54 reviews) · 54% audience score“The animation and script still look as crummy as ever” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
• Metacritic – 22/100 Metascore (18 critics) · 7.5/10 user score“Mind-blowing and headache-inducing. But the kids loved it” – Lou Lumenick, New York Post
• Letterboxd – 3.3/5 average from 51,000+ ratings
• Anime News Network – “Must Watch” tier in ANN’s ranking of every Pokémon movie“The franchise’s capacity to tell emotionally powerful stories” – Callum May