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Traveling from Pallet Town to Hollywood, Pokémon made the stars come out on November 6. In the big Hollywood premiere of the Warner Bros. animated motion picture Pokémon: The First Movie, Ash, Pikachu, Team Rocket and a cast of nearly 150 different Pokémon made their U.S. feature film debut in front of an audience of celebrities and gaming fans. The capacity crowd, which included Kirstie Alley (Veronica's Closet) and David Hasselhoff (Baywatch) filled the world-famous Mann's Chinese Theater, where everybody who's anybody in Hollywood has had their hand and foot imprints immortalized in the cement Forecourt of the Stars.

Fans of the video game juggernaut who were lucky enough to win tickets from various Pokémon contests and promotions flooded the street, so authorities blocked off Hollywood Boulevard to accommodate the hundreds of Pokéfanatics who were linking up in the "World's Largest Pokémon Battle," playing Pokémon Snap and participating in other prescreening festivities. As show time neared, pop star Billy Crawford performed the "Pokémon Theme" from the movie's soundtrack, but his singing wasn't enough to lure the kids from the serenade of Jigglypuff and the other Pokémon being traded in the Pokémon Card Game tent. Even the daughter of actor Stephen Collins (7th Heaven) got into the action, trading her promo Dragonite card.

Once Billy wrapped up his performance, fans filed into the theater, chanting "Pikachu! Pikachu!" until the lights went down and Pikachu's Vacation began rolling. The animated short, which features no human characters until the end, lends a glimpse into how Pokémon behave without trainers. The short also offers a peek at two new Pokémon, Marill and Snubble.

In contrast to the purely adorable 10-minute Pikachu's Vacation is the darker Pokémon: The First Movie. The 76-minute feature immediately follows the short and begins with the ominous introduction of Mewtwo, a Pokémon engineered by humans using DNA extracted from a fossil of Mew. But with any Jurassic Parklike tampering with nature comes a price, and Mewtwo is born as a confused creature that goes on a rampage as it struggles to find its purpose and place as a Pokémon.

Vengeful toward humans, Mewtwo schemes a way to lure the greatest Pokémon trainers to its lair by creating a secret tournament. Ash, Brock and Misty receive an anonymous invite and set off to meet the unknown host. Team Rocket, of course, follows close behind until all of the trainers walk straight into the grand trap that Mewtwo has set. The gathering ultimately culminates into a battle royal involving dozens of Pokémon and a showdown fought between Mewtwo and Mew in a battle zone of glowing psychic attacks and spectacular effects.

The animation is very true to the style of the Kids WB! animated series, but the film was also spruced up to look and sound better than the Japanese version of the film. Now boasting cleaned up animation and sound, some 3-D computer-generated backgrounds and a pop soundtrack that includes Christina Aguilera, Pokémon: The First Movie surely will have fans cheering as much as the enthusiastic Hollywood audience was screaming and applauding last Saturday.

The Warner Bros. feature Pokémon: The First Movie opens in theaters nationwide on Wednesday November 10th. The movie is preceded by the animated short Pikachu's Vacation.

Attendance was big, but not everyone could take part in the Hollywood premiere. When a local TV show announced a ticket giveaway, the phone system at Warner Bros. studios crashed after it received 70,000 calls a minute.
Hollywood Boulevard was shut down as fans and celebrities flocked to the premiere at Mann's Chinese Theater.
Singer Billy Crawford sang the "Pokémon Theme" to usher the excited capacity crowd into the theater.

http://www.pokemon.com/news/images/moviebeetle.jpg

The premiere was by invitation only, and Nintendo Power contest winner Aaron Jacobi was lucky enough to score a ticket along with a ride to the premiere in a Pikachu New Beetle.
Big stars came out for the premiere, and we're not talking about Water-type Staryu either. Among the attending celebs were actors Antonio Sabato Jr. (The Big Hit) and Virginia Madsen (Candyman).

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Page Updated Mon Jul 24, 2000 2:17pm EDT