The intro sequence to the Pokemon anime series and its accompanying theme song is a cultural cornerstone for anyone who grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s. Even those who have drifted far away from the fandom can still likely recall much of the iconic intro's sights and sounds. One comedian has managed to recreate the sequence shot-for-shot, except instead of the expected Pokemon animation, it uses only stock footage.
Pokemon as a franchise has become as popular as ever. The series has a slew of recently released titles, with several more planned over the course of the next year or so. These includes titles such as New Pokemon Snap, the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remakes, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Pokemon Legends: Arceus is perhaps the most intriguing, as the title is set to take place prior to any other mainline title, and will feature an open-world design many fans are likening to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Comedian Matthew Highton, the person behind the video, posted the recreation on Twitter, claiming his creation took an entire day to make. What ensues is sure to make anybody familiar with the anime crack a smile. The footage replaces basically every shot with a live-action approximation, leading to hilarious results. For example, a close-up of a dog's panting tongue replaces the part where Charmander gets licked by a Haunter. Although absent from his recreation of The Simpsons' intro using stock footage, Highton's manual animation of stock images is arguably when the video is at its most ridiculous. The intro sees a weird cat and regular cat image flying across space, meant to represent the legendary Mewtwo and Mew.
While the juxtaposition of stock video to the iconic Pokemon anime may seem ridiculous, the franchise actually has a distinct connection to the royalty-free media. Last week animator and artist Fanamel revealed that the original Pokemon card backgrounds came from stock images. The artist takes several cards from original Pokemon TCG packs, including Ponyta, Wartortle, Professor Oak, and Pikachu, and layers the original background images over those cards. By reducing the opacity of the original background image, the proof that the stock images and the card backgrounds are one in the same.
Pokemon, while always maintaining a loyal fanbase, has seen somewhat of a renaissance over the past few years. The Pokemon TCG has seen a suregence, galvanized by a rash of high-profile card purchases by celebrities for astronomical amounts, including a rare Blastoise card going for the highest-ever amount for a single card at auction. This has only been compounded by the franchise's 25th anniversary, which saw McDonald's adding Pokemon cards to its Happy Meals.
With well over a quarter million views at the time of writing, the video is sure to delight Pokemon fans everywhere. For people who aren't big fans of the long-running franchise, the video creator has also given the equally iconic Friends intro the same treatment.