Pokémon XYZ: Infinity War

DISCLAIMER: For those who are confused, let me explain. Do not mistake this for a ripoff of Avengers: Infinity War, for this is in fact a parody of that film, meaning that it's a non-profit version of that film but with Pokémon anime characters and videogame characters from Nintendo and third-party companies rather than the Avengers made just for fun. Additionally, this is also non-canon, meaning anything and anyone can be added, even if it contradicts the anime or the games. Thank you for accepting and respecting this explanation.
Pokémon XYZ: Infinity War is a 2023 Japanese-American anime film based on and featuring characters from both the Pokémon XYZ anime and various franchises owned by Nintendo and third-party videogame companies. Produced by The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., Nintendo, Bandai Namco Entertainment, and Sora Ltd. in association with OLM Inc., TV Tokyo, Temco, Sega, WayFoward, Rare, Namco, Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, and Capcom and distributed by A24 and Toho, it is a parody of Marvel Studios' 2018 superhero blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War, the true series finale to the Pokémon X & Y anime series, the direct prequel to Pokémon the Series: Sun and Moon, and the 24th film in the Pokémon franchise, as well as the first to be canonically set in the mainline anime since Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel (2016). Directed by Tetsuo Yajima and Masahiro Sakurai from a screenplay by Takashi Yamazaki and the filmmaking duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the film features an ensemble cast including Sarah Natochenny, Ikue Ōtani, Lisa Ortiz, Josh Hutcherson, Jonathan Silver, Haven Paschall, Catrin Lloyd Bollard, Tressa Brooks, Mike Liscio Jr., Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, Tom Holland, Roger Craig Smith, Paul Bettany, Cristina Vee, Chris Sutherland, David Hayter, John Mulaney, Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Eric Bana, Samara Naemyi, H.D. Quinn, and Mike Moh. In the film, Ash Ketchum and his allies from Kalos join forces with some characters from other certain Nintendo and third-party videogame franchises in an attempt to prevent Lysandre from collecting the six omnipotent Infinity Feathers in his quest to destroy half of all life in the multiverse.
The film was announced in April 2018 alongside a direct sequel, Pokémon XYZ: Endgame (2024), following a deal that was made between The Pokémon Company and Marvel Comics that allowed the former to make parodies of two of the latter's film, with this parodying Infinity War and the sequel parodying Endgame. Yajima and Sakurai came on board to direct in September 2019, and a month later Yamazaki, Lord and Miller came on board to write the script, which features characters from other Nintendo and third-party franchises appearing in addition to the characters from the Pokémon anime, particularly the XYZ arc. In 2020, Yajima and Sakurai revealed that the film additionally takes inspiration from Sakurai's Super Smash Bros. series. Production began in January 2021, with a large voice cast consisting mostly of actors reprising their voice roles from their respective franchises, including Quinn as Lysandre. Production lasted until July 2022, being produced and animated back-to-back with its direct sequel Pokémon XYZ: Endgame. Animation and visual effects was provided by 20 different studios, mainly TMS Entertainment and Wit Studio. With a production budget of $400 million, Pokémon XYZ: Infinity War is the most expensive animated film and one of the most expensive films ever made.
Pokémon XYZ: Infinity War premiered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on December 18, 2023, and was released in Japan and the United States on December 23, as the first installment in the Pokémon Extended Multiverse (PEM). The film received universal acclaim for Quinn's voice performance and Yajima and Sakurai's direction, as well as the animation, visual effects, action sequences, dark tone, emotional weight, musical score, and faithfulness to each featured character and their respective franchises, with many deeming it a successfully worthy parody of Avengers: Infinity War and crowning it the best film in the Pokémon franchise. It was a major box-office success, being the first Pokémon film, the first anime film and the first videogame-based film to gross over $2 billion worldwide, and broke numerous box office records, including the most successful opening weekend for an anime film (until it was surpassed by its successor, Pokémon XYZ: Endgame) and the second anime film after Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train (2020) to top the annual global box office. It won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Quinn and an Academy Award for Best Animated Film, among numerous other accolades. The sequel, Pokémon XYZ: Endgame, was released in March 2024.
== Plot ==
After acquiring the Space Feather, one of the six Infinity Feathers, from Ninja Village, Lysandre and the lieutenants of New Team Flare: Xerosic, Ganondorf, Hunter J, and Dr. Neo Cortex, intercept the Shalour City Gym. After subduing Korrina and her Lucario, Lysandre extracts the Power Feather from the Rumble Badge, overpowers Little Mac and kills Gary Oak, the latter of whom had just finished a Gym Battle moments prior. He also kills Gurkinn after he sends Little Mac to Anistar City using the Scroll of Secrets. Lysandre and his lieutenants leave, reducing the Gym to ruins.
Little Mac crash lands in the Anistar City Gym, reverting from his Final Smash form to his regular self. He warns Olympia and Yuri Kozukata about Lysandre's plan to annihilate half of all life in the universe, and they recruit Ash Ketchum and Pikachu. Xerosic and Ganondorf arrive to retrieve the Time Feather, drawing Pit's attention. Xerosic, unable to retrieve the Time Feather due to Olympia's enchantments, captures her. Ash, Pikachu and Pit sneak aboard Xerosic's hovercraft while Yuri stays behind to guard the Sundial.
Ryu, Malva, Crash Bandicoot, Ratchet and Clank, Piranha Plant, and Wii Fit Trainer respond to the Shalour City Gym's distress call and rescue Korrina. Korrina surmises that Lysandre is after the Reality Feather, which Dr. Eggman possesses on Mobius. She travels with Ratchet, Clank and Piranha Plant to Flat Zone to enlist the aid of Mr. Game and Watch in creating the Shalour Fistcracker battleaxe. Ryu, Malva, Crash and Wii Fit Trainer travel to Mobius, finding out that Lysandre already has the Reality Feather. Lysandre kidnaps Malva, who discloses the Soul Feather's location to save Samus Aran from torture. In the Distortion World, the Feather's keeper, Grings Kodai, tells Lysandre that he can only acquire it by sacrificing someone he loves. Lysandre reluctantly sacrifices Malva, earning him the Feather.
In Scuttle Town, Hunter J and Dr. Neo Cortex ambush Shantae and R.O.B. in order to retrieve the Mind Feather, which is built into R.O.B.'s chest. Alain, Serena, Banjo and Kazooie rescue them and they take shelter with Clemont, Bonnie and Little Mac at the Prism Tower. R.O.B. asks Shantae to destroy him and the Mind Feather to keep it from Lysandre, but Shantae refuses. Alain suggests they travel to Green Hill Zone, which he believes has the resources to remove the Feather from R.O.B.
Samus escapes captivity and asks Ryu, Crash and Wii Fit Trainer to meet her in Lysandre's abandoned hometown, Hearthflame Utopia. Ash, Pikachu and Pit kill Xerosic and rescue Olympia. The quartet crash lands in Hearthflame Utopia, where they meet Ryu, Crash and Wii Fit Trainer. Using the Time Feather, Olympia views 14,000,605 possible futures, seeing only one in which the Kalos Unity win. The group formulates a plan to subdue Lysandre and remove the Combustion Gauntlet, with which he safely houses and wields the Infinity Feathers. Lysandre arrives, justifying his plans as necessary to achieve world peace and rid the multiverse of selfish beings. Samus arrives soon after and helps the others subdue Lysandre, but then deduces that Lysandre has killed Malva. Enraged, Ryu attacks Lysandre, which inadvertently allows the latter to break the group's hold and overpower them. Lysandre greviously burns Ash and Pikachu, but Olympia offers the Time Feather in exchange for sparing Ash's and Pikachu's lives.
In Green Hill Zone, Alain reunites with Solid Snake before Lysandre's army invades. The Kalos Unity, along with Sonic the Hedgehog and the Mobius Freedom Fighters, mount a defense while Miles "Tails" Prower works to extract the Mind Feather from R.O.B. Unable to summon his Final Smash after losing to Lysandre, Little Mac fights while commanding some of Ash's old Pokémon (Totodile, Quilava and Meganium, the latter of the three having evolved from his Bayleef sometime offscreen). Korrina, Ratchet, Clank and Piranha Plant arrive to reinforce the Kalos Unity. Together they kill Hunter J, Ganondorf and Dr. Neo Cortex and rout Lysandre's army. Tails cannot complete the extraction before Lysandre himself arrives on the field, slowed only briefly by Little Mac, Alain, Sonic, Banjo, Kazooie, Clemont, Bonnie, Snake, Rayman, Serena, and Piranha Plant. R.O.B. convinces a reluctant Shantae to destroy him and the Mind Feather, but Lysandre uses the Time Feather to reverse her actions, rip the Feather from R.O.B.'s chest and complete the Gauntlet. Although Korrina severely wounds Lysandre with the Shalour Fistcracker, Lysandre activates the Gauntlet by snapping his fingers before teleporting away.
Half of all life across the universe disintegrates, including Snake, Sonic, Bonnie, Piranha Plant, Shantae, Banjo, Kazooie, Wii Fit Trainer, Crash, Ryu, Olympia, Pit, Delia Ketchum, and Mario, although the last of whom is able to send an emergency signal on a modified pager before disintegrating. Ash, Pikachu and Samus remain stranded in Hearthflame Utopia while Little Mac, Knuckles the Echidna, Rayman, Clemont, Ratchet, Clank, Alain, Serena, and Korrina are left on the Green Hill Zone battlefield. Meanwhile, Lysandre watches a sunrise in Soda Jungle in the Mario universe.
== Cast ==
# Sarah Natochenny as Ash Ketchum, a 10-year-old boy and a Pokémon trainer from Pallet Town who is currently travelling through the Kalos region and aims to become a Pokémon Master. Co-director Masahiro Sakurai explains that Ash "senses an old threat approaching stronger than before, so he is doing everything in his power to keep the multiverse safe". Natochenny added that Ash has smaller goals and is more serious than in the anime and previous movies.
# Ikue Ōtani as Pikachu, an Electric-type Pokémon that is Ash's trustworthy best friend and very first Pokémon.
# Lisa Ortiz as Korrina, the Shalour City gym leader and the keeper of the Scroll of Secrets, as well as the youngest descendent of the first person to perform Mega Evolution on a Lucario. Masahiro Sakurai states that Korrina's storyline picks up immediately after the Pokémon XYZ epsiode "Battling With a Clean Slate!", which finds her in a "very profound", "very interesting place" with real emotional motivation". At the recommendation of Ortiz, writers Takashi Yamazaki, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller consulted Pokémon creator himself Satoshi Tajiri and Pokémon X and Y director and lead developer Junichi Masuda on how to combine the character's usually confident, happy-go-lucky demeanor with a more subdued and battle-ready side, filled with vengeance after the death of her grandfather Gurkinn at the hands of Lysandre. Masahiro Sakurai states that Korrina has "the diving hero's arc of the movie which stands in direct opposition to Lysandre's argument" and would have been the main protagonist had Korrina killed Lysandre. All of this is directly inspired by the portrayal of Thor in Avengers: Infinity War.
# Josh Hutcherson as Little Mac, a 17-year-old professional boxer and the main protagonist of Nintendo's Punch-Out!! game series who holds a headstrong personality and, when performing his Final Smash, which was directly adapted from the Super Smash Bros. games, temporarily transforms into a monstrous version of himself. Little Mac spends the film trying to befriend the rest of the Kalos Unity after befriending Korrina after the events of the Super Smash Bros. series, as well "impress upon everybody how dangerous Lysandre has truly become". Tetsuo Yajima felt the character's Final Smash form refusing to be used for much of the film was only partially because he was scared, but also because he has realised at the end of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that "Little Mac only wants Final Smash Little Mac for Final Smash only. I think he's had enough of saving Little Mac's ass at the last minute". Masahiro Sakurai added that this was "really reflective of the direction he and Yajima wanted to the character down after the conclusion of Smash Bros., as well as striking similarities to the relationship between Bruce Banner and Hulk in the MCU, with which these two different characters are constantly in conflict with each other over control". Little Mac's inclusion in the film establishes a character development arc for the character that continues in Pokémon XYZ: Endgame and is set to conclude in an upcoming solo Punch-Out!! film set in the Pokémon Extended Multiverse (PEM), with the difference between Little Mac and his Final Smash form "starting to blur a little bit". Yajima and Sakurai described Little Mac's Final Smash form in the film as having the mental capacity of a five-year-old. Mark Ruffalo provides the uncredited voice and vocal effects for Little Mac's Final Smash form.
# Jonathan Silver as Alain, the fugitive leader of the non-regulation faction of the Kalos Unity. A former member of the original Team Flare, he has since used his research on Mega Evolution for more noble deeds, though an offscreen disagreement between him and Ash somewhere between the events of the anime and this film has caused him to split off from Ash and end their friendship, to which Ash still regrets to this day.