Team Rocket's Meowth

Meowth is a -type Pokémon. He is a member of Team Rocket that travels with James and Jessie, serving as one of the main antagonists of the franchise, a supporting character in the Pokémon movies, and the main antagonist of Pikachu Shorts series. He is one of the few non-Legendary Pokémon who can communicate with humans. He is Pikachu's archenemy. He and fellow Team Rocket members Jessie and James are always to trying to catch Ash's Pikachu.
He regularly helps Jessie and James (and sometimes Ash and co.) to translate Pokémon language and is revealed to be the one responsible for building the machines that Team Rocket uses. The Team Rocket trio pilot a hot air balloon in his image. 
==Personality==
Meowth fits in perfectly with his human comrades of Team Rocket as he is conniving, prideful, greedy, and mischievous. Compared to most other Pokémon, he is capable of communicating to humans without needing assistance, having taught himself. Like other Pokémon, he can translate what other Pokémon say to him to those that don't understand what they're saying. However, as a result of learning how to walk and talk, his combat proficiency dropped, most notably claiming that he's unable to use his species' signature move, Pay Day. As such, most of his fights are pitiful. On rare occasions, however, when passionate or incensed enough, Meowth can be very formidable in battle. He has also proven quite able as a performer as well, helping Jessie win several contests and showcases.
He sometimes views himself as the boss and the leader of the trio, reason being, that he builds all the contraptions and thinks of all the plans, though he is rarely taken seriously (and like James, Meowth can be rather submissive to the domineering Jessie). For all his faults, however, he is loyal to Jessie and James, and never lets a few fights get in his way of being friends with them. He thinks highly of their boss Giovanni and dwells on becoming his "top cat" (having a disdain for his Persian as a result).
Meowth is superb at lying, as he often tricks Ash and his friends to believe he is on their side. Pikachu is the only one who doubts Meowth's loyalty due to remembering his countless double-crosses. Despite their rivalry, Meowth has arguably the most sociable moments with Pikachu, especially since they are often forced to team up for real. In some cases, he laments that they can easily be friends. As often as he likes to consider himself a dastardly villain, he is also often shown to be rather jaded and even philosophical at times. He often looks at the moon and laments his direction in life. Among the trio, Meowth tends to be the one who stands most on the facts rather than belief.
Meowth frequently shows himself to be a rather amorous cat: in Kanto, before he met Jessie and James, he fell in love with a female Meowth named Meowzie, in Hoenn he fell in love with May's Skitty and in Sinnoh he fell in love with a female Glameow. In Unova, he competed with Ash's Oshawott for both a male Purloin (that they believed to be female) and Meloetta despite being the main target for Team Rocket's Operation Tempest in the Black & White series until in the episode Unova's Survival Crisis!. Also, in the short "Eevee and Friends" he also showed an attraction to Espeon, Glaceon, and Leafeon. His pursuits for Meowzie in particular chained off his ambitions to learn to speak and act human-like and ultimately his employment within Team Rocket. In Alola to New Adventure! and A Talent for Imitation!, it is implied that he also has infatuations on beautiful-looking and feminine Pokémon such as Gardevoir, Glaceon and Lopunny.
Meowth has yet to evolve. He often expresses contempt for his evolved form, Persian. He is in fact jealous of Giovanni's Persian and has a desire to fill in for it as the boss's "top cat". In Acting True to Form!, Meowth has a bitter rivalry with an Alolan Meowth who is very smart and cunning, and also loyal to Jessie and James, but temporary. Upon hearing that the Alolan Meowth was now working with Team Rocket later owned by their secretary Matori, he became disappointed to hear when he translated its language about its main reason to stay at their headquarters.
Meowth is also a wild Pokémon, despite travelling with human companions. He refuses to let himself be caught by anyone, although he appears to be somewhat partial to Luxury Balls, having nearly been caught by Pikachu in one of them.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Before joining Team Rocket, he was just a normal Meowth living on the streets of Hollywood (AKA "Tinseltown"). He had been abandoned as a kitten and was left to provide for himself, often violently rejected by people for trying to steal food.
He joined a gang of street Meowth led by a Persian. They annoyed the people of Tinseltown in a typical alley cat fashion, such as stealing food and rummaging through trash cans. Eventually, he met a female Meowth named Meowzie, who he fell in love with. However, she rejected him in favor of the attention of her rich mistress. Desiring to impress her, Meowth committed to becoming more like a human. With a great amount of time and effort, Meowth learned how to speak in human language (with a New York accent) and how to walk upright. However, all his efforts backfired, as he was again rejected by Meowzie, who saw him as a freak. With his heart broken, he decided to join Team Rocket (mainly due to the fact that the word "Rocket" was the first word he learned to say and comprehend).
According to Meowth, he claims to have been Boss Giovanni's personal pet (or "Top Cat"). However, as a result of his incompetence, he was later replaced by a more majestic Persian, the evolved form of Meowth. In truth though, Giovanni's Persian have been with him since the start. Meowth started in Team Rocket as an intruder, and began serving Giovanni. It was by chance that Meowth became a Team Rocket agent, as his initial purpose was said to be to disrupt Jessie and James's training and cause the two troubled trainees to leave.
====Partnership with Jessie and James====
Eventually, Giovanni assigned Meowth to work alongside Jessie and James. Though he often bickers with the duo (originally considering himself their superior/boss), he bonds with them and the three become best friends. After their first run-in with Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, the trio becomes obsessed with stealing Ash's Pikachu and presenting it to Giovanni to regain his good favor. All their attempts ultimately ended in failure, though, and usually an excessive amount of abuse and humiliation. This tenure continued throughout Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, with the trio only becoming bigger laughing stocks in each region.
As of his, Jessie, and James' promotion and transfer to Unova however, Meowth has become a highly skilled stealth artist, excellent negotiator, and is often successful in many missions with his team-mates to the point of the trio becoming a more serious enemy for Ash and co. The trio was vital in Team Rocket's Meteorite plan, taking orders directly from Giovanni himself as well as his secretary. Meowth and his teammates worked together with Pierce and met Doctor Zager.
Once the plan culminated, Meowth and his team-mates were allowed to do as they please in Unova, so they continued working hard to do improve Team Rocket and now work closely with Zager. Ash has also become less important to them but they will still antagonize him if he interferes in one of their plans.
During a mission in Unova, Meowth was fired from Team Rocket. After he was fired, he was found by Ash and co. being beaten by a wild Scrafty. He then decided to travel with Ash and help them on their quest. Later, Iris tried to catch him, but failed to do so.﻿ Meowth later reveals that his expulsion from Team Rocket was nothing but a ploy to take Ash and his friends off guard whilst Team Rocket stole hundreds of Pokémon from Nimbasa City's grand Pokémon Center. This plan was foiled by Ash and his friends, and Meowth rejoined his true allies, Jessie and James.
As their tenure in Unova continued, their obsession with Pikachu returned and, as a result, their serious attitude faded (though their more dangerous weaponry and shades of their former competence remained). After just barely remaining on Giovanni's good books through their defeat of Team Plasma and handing in their Unova Pokémon as supposed stolen goods, the trio reunited with their teammate Wobbuffet and set upon returning to shadowing Ash's team throughout Kalos in attempts to capture Pikachu.
When he was in the Galar region, he got hit by the Gigantamax energy and became Gigantamax Meowth.PJ044: Sword and Shield: From Here to Eternatus!
When it went back to Sinnoh, Meowth lost his ability to speak human languages, while Wobbuffet devolved into Wynaut, due to Dialga and Palkia distorting time and space, much to Jessie and James' shock and confusion. Moments after the Alternate World Team Rocket was defeated, Ash, his friends, and their Alternate World counterparts, along with some help from Cynthia, Alternate World Professor Rowan, Jessie, James, and Alternate World Nurse Joy, prayed for Dialga and Palkia to stop fighting and pleaded them to turn their Pokémon back to their normal forms. Just then, a bright golden silhouette of Arceus appeared, calmed the temporal and spacial Pokémon down and destroyed the Red Chain that the Alternate World Team Rocket had them binded by. Dialga and Palkia then fixed the damage their fighting caused and returned everyone back to their respective dimensions, while also granting their wish to reverse the devolution effects on all of their Pokémon, helping Meowth regain his ability to talk again and returning Wynaut back to Wobbuffet.PJ090: Showdown at the Gates of Warp!
After the Masters Eight tournament concluded, Meowth went with Jessie and James to Paldea in the hopes of catching new Pokémon. They ran into a Sprigatito but failed to capture it after Meowth accidentally alerted it to their presence when they nearly fell asleep from Sweet Scent. He and the others would later try to catch a Quaxly, Fuecoco, Miraidon and Koraidon to no success either.
==Known moves==
===Improvised moves===
*Fury Swipes of Love: When smitten by a Glameow in "For The Love Of Meowth!", Meowth used an extremely powerful variant of Fury Swipes made of heart shaped claw marks.
*Tickle: Used on a Rhydon in "Bound For Trouble!". However, Tickle was not an official attack until Generation III.
*Scratch Fake Out: Used on a Bulbasaur in "The Grass Route!" Meowth claps his hands to startle Bulbasaur and then kicks it. Worked similarly to Fake Out, however, Fake Out also was not an official attack until Generation III.
* Meowth has also been shown using variants of Jump Kick and Headbutt while fighting in episodes "The Ninja Poke-Showdown", "Jumping Rocket Ship!" and "What Lies Beyond Truth and Ideals!", though they have never officially been termed as such.
==Voice Actors==
*Japanese: Inuko Inuyama
*English: Nathan Price (Season 1; TB002-TB017, TB019-TB031, A Sneak Peek at Pokémon) (4Kids) Interestingly, the voice actor change happened part-way through the episode.
**Maddie Blaustein (Seasons 1-8; TB018, TB032-RS146, Movies 1-8, Pokémon Chronicles, Mewtwo Returns, Pokémon Snap) (4Kids)
**Jimmy Zoppi (Season 9-present, RS147-present, Movie 9-present, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon-present) (PUSA/DuArt)
*Greek: Charis Grigoropoulos
*German: Gerhard Acktun
*Danish: Peter Zhelder
*Dutch: Jan Nonhof (TB002-RS104)
**Bas Keijzer (RS092-BW048, BW062-BW097, M08-M14)
**Fred Meijer (BW056-BW060, BW109-present, M16-present)
**Unknown voice actor (M04-M07)
*Latin American Spanish: Gerardo Vásquez
**Gabriel Cobayassi ( and )
**Ignacio de Anca ( and )
*European Spanish (Castilian): José Escobosa
**Mario Arenas (M03 and Mewtwo Returns)
*Italian: Giuseppe Calvetti (TB002-RS040, M01-M05, Pokémon Snap)
**Pietro Ubaldi (RS041-present, M06-present, Pokémon Chronicles, TPCi redubbing of TB002-TB157)
*Hindi: Damandeep Singh Baggan (Cartoon Network dub) (seasons 1-2)
**Sandeep Karnik (Cartoon Network dub) (season 3-present)
**Saumya Daan (Hungama dub)
*European French: Nessym Guétat (EP002-AG145; M01-M05, M07)
**Philippe Tasquin (AG146-first half of season 21)
**Patrick Pellegrin (M06)
**Didier Colfs (rest of season 21-present)
*Canadian French: François Sasseville (M01-M07 only)
*Catalan: Joaquim Sota
*Basque: Josu Mitxelena
*Norwegian: Tommy Karlsen Sandum
*Persian [Soren studio]: Alireza Varasteh/علیرضا وارسته (M20 only)
*Slovak: Roman Matisko
*Ukrainian: Pavlo Skorokhod'ko/Павло Скороходько
*Russian: Dmitriy Filimonov/Дмитрий Филимонов
**Dmytro Zavadskyi/Дмитро Завадський (NTN)
**Anatoliy Zinovenko/Анатолій Зіновенко (Pilot Studio)
*Bulgarian: Georgi Todorov/Георги Тодоров
**Ivan Balsamadzhiev/Иван Балсамаджиев (M01-M04)
*Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua/Mainland China): Wáng Chéng-Guāng/王晨光 (M12)
**Xíng Kǎi-Xīn/邢凯新 (M19)
*Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan): "Kaithyn Lin" Lín Kǎi-Líng/林凱羚 (episodes 2-104)
**"Sylvia Wang" Wāng Shì-Wěi/汪世瑋
**Yáo Mǐn Mǐn/姚敏敏 (episodes 105-208)
**Léi Bì-Wén/雷碧文 (episodes 209-260)
*Cantonese Chinese: Pasu Leung Wai Tak/梁偉德 (TVB; theater version)
**Eva Wang/王夢華 (ATV; no theater DVD)
*Filipino: Julius Figueroa
*Icelandic: Sturla Sighvatsson (M03)
**Hallgrímur Ólafsson (M05)
*Romanian: Sebastian Lupu (original series)
**Ernest Fazekaș (Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon)
*Valencian: César Lechiguero
*Macedonian: Unknown
*Albanian: Vasjan Lami (Pokémon 4Ever: Celebi - Voice of the Forest)
**Lorenc Kaja (Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction, Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!, Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution, Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us, Pokémon: The First Movie, Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions)
*Arabic: Adel Abo Hassoon/عادل أبو حسون (series)
**Hassan Hamdan/حسان حمدان (M22)
*Croatian: Pero Juričić (season 5)
**Sven Šestak (season 6-present)
**Zoran Gogić (seasons 1-4, films 1-3, Mewtwo Returns)
*Czech: Zbyšek Pantůček (EP002-EP209, M01-M03)
**Marek Libert (DP001-present)
**Maxmilián Hornyš (M04)
**Ladislav Cigánek (M06-M07)
*Polish: Mirosław Wieprzewski (EP002-AG040, DP053-present, all dubbed movies)
**Łukasz Lewandowski (DP001-DP052)
*Serbian: Mladen Andrejević/Младен Андрејевић (season 7)
**Goran Jevtić/Горан Јевтић (Pokémon Chronicles)
**Đorđe Simić/Ђорђе Симић (season 14)
**Marko Janjić/Марко Јањић (seasons 1-5)
**Dušica Sinobad/Душица Синобад (Pokémon 4Ever: Celebi - Voice of the Forest & Pokémon the Movie: Destiny Deoxys)
*Indonesian: Agung (Kanto saga)
**Jack Hamzah (Johto saga-Pokémon the Series: Black and White, M02-M13 & M16, Indosiar dub)
**Iphie Lubis [real name: Ahmad Zulkifli Lubis] (DP160-DP161, M11)
**Wiwiek Supadmi (Pokémon the Series: XY)
**Salman Setiono (Pokémon the Series: Black and White, Disney dub)
**Hari Suseno (Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon)
**Jajang Noerjaman (M22)
*Malay: Ismadi Jamil (Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle)
**Cicik Aidil (Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel)
**Shahil Zairi (Pokémon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened)
*Brazilian Portuguese: Armando Tiraboschi (EP002-EP051, EP103-XY093, M01, M06-M18)
**Marcelo Pissardini (EP052-EP102, M04-M05)
**Márcio Simões (M02-M03)
**Sérgio Stern (XY094-JN002, M19-M22)
**Gustavo Berriel (JN003-present, M23-present)
*European Portuguese: Rui Luís Brás (EP002-EP093, M01-M04)
**Pedro Carneiro (EP094-AG092, DP001-DP052)
**Rui de Sá (Pokémon Live!)
**Tiago Castro (M07)
**Luís Barros (PK03, PK08, Pokémon Chronicles, AG093-AG192)
**Mário Santos (DP053-present, M10-present)
*Tamil (Cartoon Network dub): Kannan Ruthrapathy
*Tamil (Disney dubs): Shyam Kumar (S01 to S09 and S17), Dinu Vairapathi (S10-present)
*Telugu (Hungama TV & Disney dubs): Vishweshwar Rao
*Thai: Apinan Teeranantagun/อภินันท์ ธีระนันทกุล (DP054-present)
**Graiwan Watthanagrai/ไกรวัล วัฒนไกร
**Thanthorn Kirakachinda/ธันธร กีรกะจินดา
*Vietnamese: Thái Minh Vũ (BW001-BW097, M22)
**Anh Tuấn (full name: Nguyễn Anh Tuấn) (EP002-EP080, BW109-present, M19-present)
**Nguyễn Kim Anh (M10-M18)
*Turkish: Murat Keskinoğlu (M01, M04; TV)
**Fatih Özkul (SM001-present)
**Ziya Kürküt (M03)
**İlham Erdoğan (M04 DVD version & M05)
*Hungarian: Minárovits Péter (seasons 1-3)
**Szokol Péter (Advanced saga-present)
**Seszták Szabolcs (M03)
*Swedish: Linus Wahlgren
**Sebastian Karlsson (S23)
*Finnish: Pauli Virta (EP002-AG092, M01-M03, Pikachu shorts, Mewtwo Returns)
**Mika Ala-Panula (M04)
**Arto Nieminen (AG093-present, M10-present, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon-present)
*Korean: Choi Won-Hyeong/최원형 (original series, all original movies up to M09)
**Park Jo-Ho/박조호 [real name: Park Ji-hoon/박지훈] (Advanced Generation series)
**Oh In-Seong/오인성 (later Advanced Generation series - present, and all re-dubbed movies)
*Hebrew: Yossi Tzabari/‎יוסי צבר (EP002-EP121, M01-M03, PK01, PK04, PK07)
**Yaron Malachi/ירון מלאכי (EP122-EP262, Mewtwo Returns, M04)
**Ido Mosseri/עידו מוסרי (EP263-AG096)
**Yoav Ne'eman/‎יואב נאמן (AG097-AG145, Pokémon Chronicles)
**Dor Srugo/דור סרוגו (AG146-present, M12)
==Trivia==
*Meowth, Gastly, and Slowking are currently the only Pokémon that can talk without using telepathy.
**Meowth is currently the only self-taught talking Pokémon.
*Because Meowth used up so much energy into learning how to speak human language and walk on his hind legs, he is unable to learn his species' signature move Pay Day. It can also be assumed that due to the same reasons, Meowth can’t evolve. 
*Team Rocket's Meowth represented his species in both of their "Who's That Pokemon?" appearances in the US dub. Curiously it took until Capacia Island UFO!, the 790th episode in the series for them to appear in the US segment.
*Meowth is among the few characters in the anime to repeatedly break the fourth wall, a tendency that is shared with Jessie and James.
*It has been revealed that Meowth is still a wild Pokémon as Poké Balls are able to grab him, however he has broken free from all Trainers' attempts to catch him.
**In one of the early episodes, Meowth referred to an "owner who wasn't around" but this seems to be an early-episode mistake.
*Throughout his entire run in the series, Meowth has won only six battles he's participated in alone.
*The first time that he said Ash's name was in when he was translating Pikachu.
*A trend Meowth had in the anime was that he would fall for female catlike Pokémon; in Kanto, before he met Jessie and James, he was in love with a female Meowth named Meowzie. In Hoenn he fell for May's Skitty, in Sinnoh he fell for a Glameow, in Unova he and Oshawott fell for a Purrloin, until it was revealed to be male and later fell for a Leafeon and a Glaceon.
**Later on in the series he falls in love with a Lopunny and "a very cute" Gardevoir, which both turned out to be illusions conjured up by Gastly and its evolved forms after Meowth looked into Mimikyu's costume in the Sun and Moon series.
*Meowth doesn't seem to know much about type matchup, as in Gotta Catch Ya Later, he tried to attack a bunch of Haunter with Fury Swipes, which would have no effect, and then, was scared by Night Shade, which would not affect him as a Normal type.
*In contrast to the ever-present running gag of Ash's Pikachu electric shocking him and his team since their first appearance, it took until (876 episodes after his first appearance) for Meowth himself to land a single attack on Pikachu (Fury Swipes in that instance).
*Despite Meowth's constant feud with Ash's Pikachu, the two are shown to have some traits in common:
**Both hate being confined in Poké Balls, though in Meowth's case who is still a wild Pokémon refuses to be captured and be contained in one.
**Both have refused to evolve, though Pikachu refusing to evolve into Raichu is just so he can prove that he is powerful enough without evolving. While Meowth simply dislikes Persian due to a stigma that he has developed upon constant gags of him being rejected in favor of one. He is shown to have a strong hatred and jealously towards Giovanni's Persian particularly.
*** Though interestingly, since he is revealed to be a Gigantamax Meowth! That actually makes him a lot more rare than a Kantonian Persian ever will be. Technically and ironically making him Giovanni's Persian's superior!
**A lead suggestion to this is that rumors has it that the trio are the main reasons why Team Aqua, Team Magma and Team Galactic had minor roles in the anime, which could be the possible reason why Team Rocket was given a smaller, serious role in Best Wishes which was later given to Team Plasma.
*Meowth is one of the only Pokémon who can speak in the Pokémon series, besides a Slowking from "The Power of One" and the Gastly from "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak". The other voices which came from other Pokémon are telepathic messages.
*It is unknown if Meowth can use the attack Thunderbolt like other Meowth, particularly Tyson's Meowth whom he once had a rivalry with, but he can attack using his claws and used it sometimes.
*Meowth being possessed by a Giant Tentacruel and Beheeyem to fully communicate with humans with their language may have inspired the concept of Calyrex's talking in Pokémon Sword and Shield in which Calyrex takes control of Peony in order to talk with the player.
==Gallery==
==References==
de:Team Rockets Mauzi
pl:Meowth (Zespół R)
Category:Male anime Pokémon
Category:Pokémon movie characters
Category:"Pokémon that can Talk"
Category:Main characters
Category:Gigantamax anime Pokémon
Category:Antagonist Anime Pokémon
Category:Antagonists