EP046

Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon (Japanese: ふっかつ！？かせきポケモン！ Resurrection!? Fossil Pokémon!) is the 46th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on May 28, 1998, and in the United States on February 27, 1999.
==Blurb==
Our heroes approach Grampa Canyon, famous for the beautiful scenery of its valley. As they approach, however, they find wave upon wave of people also heading for Grampa Canyon. Carrying backpacks, pickaxes, etc. they are all dressed like explorers. Ash has no idea what is so special about the canyon, but he notices a familiar face among the crowd—that of his rival, Gary. According to Gary, fossils from an extinct Pokémon have been discovered, triggering an ancient Pokémon excavation boom.
==Plot==
 and are walking in an area called Grampa Canyon when they see a large group of people walking with picks and shovels. appears and explains that he and the group are here for the Fossil Rush, because of a great discovery. Ash decides to join so that he can embarrass Gary by finding a Fossil before he does. also appears, ready to , but the group leaves without noticing it.
Ash and his friends soon find a large area of the canyon where many people, including Gary, are digging. However, they also stumble across , who accidentally reveals their plan to blow up the canyon and steal all of the Fossils. and run off to alert everyone to the danger, while Ash agrees to handle Team Rocket. As lights the fuse, Ash runs up to Team Rocket and sends out in an attempt to put the flame out. Squirtle, , and Ash chase the fuse, trying to put it out, but Squirtle's keeps missing the flame while Team Rocket try to stop him. Team Rocket then falls and starts rolling, resulting in a ball of people and rolling into Ash, landing right beside the dynamite. As the fuse draws near to the dynamite, Pikachu panics and uses , causing the dynamite to detonate. The blast opens up a giant fissure in the ground, which disturbed rocks soon fill. Ash and Team Rocket are now trapped in an underground cave, with only Squirtle escaping from the rubble. Hearing the explosion, Misty and Brock run over and start digging out rock and soil with Squirtle.
In the cave, Ash and Team Rocket start to argue. However, they soon notice that they are surrounded by mysterious glowing eyes and fall silent. Ash checks his Pokédex for details, and the Pokémon are revealed to be , , , and . and begin to speculate that the explosion must have awakened them from thousands of years of sleep. Regardless, Team Rocket begin to contemplate stealing the Pokémon for , and attempt to them by throwing s at the Fossil Pokémon. A Kabutops blocks the balls, and they are rebounded at Meowth. All of the Fossil Pokémon start approaching the group to attack, so Ash sends out his , but he refuses to help. A chase scene ensues, where the Fossil Pokémon are winning the chase. Then, all of a sudden, the Pokémon run away deeper into the cave. Originally confused, the group soon realizes why, and an swoops in, knocking over Charmeleon. Angry, Charmeleon tries to attack the Aerodactyl but is knocked out before he gets a chance. Aerodactyl then grabs onto Ash with its claws and begins to fly towards the surface. Before the Pokémon can get too far, Pikachu and Charmeleon jump on board.
Back above ground, Brock's Geodude had finally dug a hole through the rubble. The Aerodactyl flies out of the hole in the ground, dropping Pikachu and Charmeleon on its way out, and perches on a cliff with Ash still in hand. Charmeleon wants to the Aerodactyl out of revenge, but the Aerodactyl just taunts him. Fueled with anger, Charmeleon evolves into . Ash is happy, as he thinks that Charmeleon has evolved to rescue him. Unfortunately, he soon realizes Charizard merely wants to battle Aerodactyl for his own pride and has no intention of rescuing Ash.
Meanwhile, Misty sees and tells it to sing its slumber song to make Aerodactyl fall asleep. Jigglypuff agrees and quite happily sings, sending everyone in the canyon to sleep. Aerodactyl, now asleep, falls into the rubble, dropping Ash before plummeting. Luckily, Charizard manages to stay awake by covering his ears and proceeds to catch the sleeping Ash before he hits the ground. However, he also falls asleep after landing. Ash rolls off of Charizard, landing next to a Pokémon Egg. Jigglypuff, seeing everyone has fallen asleep, draws markings on their faces out of spite. After awakening, Officer Jenny announces that the whole incident was a dream caused by Jigglypuff's song, although Ash knows it wasn't. In addition, Jenny announces that paleontological work will no longer be permitted, as any further digging may lead to more cave-ins and the eventual collapse of the entire canyon.
As Ash and his friends leave, Ash takes the Egg out of his backpack, revealing that he had found it at the site. This causes the group to fight playfully about who should get to raise and keep the Egg. Brock takes the Egg and runs away, promising to take good care of it, with Ash and Misty in tow. Meanwhile, Team Rocket and their Pokémon remain trapped in the cave, with the sleeping Fossil Pokémon only a few feet away.
==Major events==
* and encounter again.
* Jessie and James both attempt and fail to a .
* Ash's evolves into , but remains disobedient.
* Ash finds a Pokémon Egg, and decides to be in charge of taking care of it.
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
* Ash's Charizard
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* Nurse Joy
* Officer Jenny
* 
* Gary's cheerleaders
* Fossil hunters
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: 
* ()
* ()
* (; evolves)
* (; newly evolved)
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (×2; debut)
* (×2; debut)
* (×2; debut)
* (×2; debut)
* (debut)
==Trivia==
* There are two references in this episode. First, 's digging clothes are very similar to the titular character's clothes; and later, when is attempting to put out the fuse lit by , they roll into a boulder, similar to .
* The events of this episode will be recounted in Pokémon Paparazzi, as it turns out that Todd Snap happened to be in the area, so he took a picture of the as it was flying off with Ash.
* This marks the second time that Ash had two Pokémon in his team simultaneously. That hadn't happened since Bye Bye Butterfree and won't happen again until Riding the Winds of Change!.
* Three books were at least partially adapted from this episode: Charizard, Go! and of the novelization series, and of the Adventure series.
* This episode is featured on Volume 3: Charizard from Viz Media's series.
* A shot of Aerodactyl performing an , which involves pulling its eyelid down and sticking out its tongue at the same time, is still present in the dub, despite similar shots being removed from Clefairy and the Moon Stone and A Ruin with a View.
* Parts of this episode were reanimated and used for flashback material for The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.
* Some of 's lines can be heard in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee. In Super Smash Bros., one of its lines during the Aerodactyl battle can be heard during that Charizard's Poké Ball summon. In the Japanese version of Melee, its line after it is sent out can be heard during the Poké Ball summon.
* Although it was not introduced at the time, at one point in this episode, is seen using a move that is visually identical to ' depiction of (which Omastar was able to learn by level up upon its introduction in Generation II).
===Errors===
* When Gary comments on Ash being a "loser", his eyelid is colored white.
* During 's , James's belt briefly turns white like his pants.
* When the camera is panning over all of the Pokémon to show their red eyes, is depicted with the colors of its claws and shell inverted.
* When Ash says that still does not obey him, the straps on his bag are colored blue like his jacket instead of green.
* uses an attack on Kabutops; however, the Kabutops is unaffected as if it were a type, despite Kabutops being a / type and weak to Electric attacks. This is most likely because during the first season, it is often incorrectly stated that Rock Pokémon are immune to Electric attacks.
* When Ash and are surprised when Charmeleon starts evolving, the straps on 's bag are the same color as his vest.
* When fires his at Aerodactyl, the undersides of his wings are colored yellow instead of blue.
* When Ash rolls onto the Pokémon Egg, all of its patterns are colored red, instead of half-red and half-blue.
* When everyone is piled up upon each other before the dynamite hits, 's eyes turn red.
* When Ash commands Squirtle to put out the fuse, the buckle on Ash's belt is missing.
** In the same scene, Ash's gloves are covering his fingers, the red dots on his shoes are gone, and Pikachu appears 1/3 of Ash's size instead of 1/4.
* When Jigglypuff notices that everyone fell asleep, Pikachu's tail has its colors reversed.
* When Ash says that Jigglypuff and Charizard saved the day, the bottom of 's shorts is dark-blue instead of light-blue.
EP046 Error 2.png|Gary's miscolored eyelid
EP046 Error 3.png|Kabuto's color swap
EP046 error.png|Charizard's yellow wings
EP046 Error 4.png|The Egg's missing blue shapes
===Dub edits===
* Kanto Pokérap: Day 1 (Version 2)
* The sign at the beginning of the episode states the name of the canyon in the Japanese version. In the dub, the sign is a picture of a pick-axe and shovel.
** Similarly, the writing on the stage in 's fantasy was originally Japanese.
* Gary originally asked what kind of Pokémon the fossil was rather than whether it was a fossilized brain.
* threatening to turn Jessie and James into fossils after emerging from rubble was originally him demanding to know whether they intended to turn him into a fossil.
* The point where Meowth actually lights the fuse is cut in Kids' WB! version of the dub. Instead, the camera zooms in to Meowth's face so the lighter isn't seen. This scene is uncut on the home video and streaming versions, as well as in the foreign dubs.
* When digging through the rocks, Misty says in the Japanese version that Ash had better not die on her, because he owes her a bike. In the dub, she simply says that he still owes her a bike.
* The scene of Team Rocket singing a variation of "Rock-a-bye baby" to the sleeping Aerodactyl was originally them muttering their catchphrase.
Sign EP046 original.png|The sign (original)
Sign EP046 dub edit.png|The sign (dub)
Stage EP046 original.png|The stage (original)
Stage EP046 dub edit.png|The stage (dub)
==In other languages==
046
Category:Episodes written by Junki Takegami
Category:Episodes storyboarded and directed by Osamu Inoue
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Osamu Inoue
Category:Episodes directed by Osamu Inoue
Category:Episodes animated by Shin'ichirō Kajiura
Category:Episodes in which a main character's Pokémon evolves
Category:Episodes in which a main character obtains a Pokémon Egg
Category:Episodes focusing on Jigglypuff
Category:Episodes focusing on Ash
de:Angreifer aus der Urzeit
es:EP046
fr:EP046
it:GA046
ja:無印編第46話
zh:宝可梦 第45集