Starter Squad (film)

**Starter Squad** is a upcoming 2025 directed by Joshua Dunlop. it will be in theatres released in December 25, 2025, The Kanto stated that the movie will take things produced by Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation. In theory to make the movie which could be release in around December 25, 2025.

## Plot

The film starts in Professor Oak's Lab, where the trainer Red is shown deciding which starter Pokémon he should choose. Among the starters are Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur waiting for Red's decision.

Charmander interrupts and begs Red to pick him, saying that he can breathe fire. Squirtle replies that the fire-type starter only knows Scratch move. Annoyed, Charmander scratches the Squirtle's eye, hurting him. Bulbasaur shows Red his skill by unleashing his vines.

Charmander tells Red about the best option, and he compares the other starters to anything worse than him. He even calls himself "walking flamethrower" proudly, hoping to convince the trainer to pick him. But Squirtle tells the trainer not to listen to the latter, as the first gym is a rock-type that counters possibly kill him. He then explains that he serves as a flotation device in case of an emergency. Charmander belittles Squirtle's self-description.

Red chooses Squirtle, making Charmander astonished. Squirtle happily mocks the other two starters as Red carries him out of the lab. Frustrated, Charmander droops down by Red's decision. Bulbasaur, not knowing how to put his vines back, asks Charmander for a help. The latter replies by putting his tail flame on one of the vines, burning it and causing pain for Bulbasaur.

Later that day, Squirtle confronts Geodude in Pewter City Gym. He taunts his opponent and uses Bubble which simply pops on Geodude's face. Then, Geodude tackles him forcefully.

Having left Professor Oak's lab, Charmander and Bulbasaur ventured out into the wild in order to train.

Charmander and Bulbasaur eventually left the Oak's lab and made their way down Route 1. As they walked through the tall grass, Bulbasaur tried to convince Charmander to return to the lab, but Charmander dismissed the idea, arguing that they would not evolve if they did not train. Suddenly, a wild Caterpie named Pablo appeared, picking a fight with Charmander.

Pablo made the first move, attacking Charmander using String Shot. Charmander retaliated using Scratch. However, before Pablo could attack again, Charmander tackled him to the ground and started scratching his face repeatedly. Although Bulbasaur reminded Charmander that Pokémon were supposed to attack in turns, Charmander rejected the idea, saying that this was a fight and he wanted to win. Charmander then ordered Bulbasaur to hand him a wooden shiv on the ground nearby. Fearing for his life, Pablo begged for mercy, but Charmander decapitated him without hesitation.

After killing Pablo and together ventures further, Bulbasaur thought it was a horrifying fight, but Charmander replied Bulbasaur that the battle was a waste of time too, as he hardly gained any XP. In Bulbasaur's bright side, he told Charmander that he got Pablo's head as a hat, Charmander satirically complimented his new hat, took it and threw it away, and tell Bulbasaur that he got nothing, shouting at him. Bulbasaur felt disappointed and worries if Squirtle is okay.

Focusing on Squirtle's side, he questions to Red about the relationship for treating him horribly. His overall ignorance and closed-mindset force him to use Tackle toward an opponent, Gyarados. Squirtle sighs and accepts his order, as Gyarados roars at Squirtle, and Squirtle tells him to prepare to die. Gyarados swallowed Squirtle whole without any hesitation.

Charmander and Bulbasaur wandering around exploring as Charmander says. Bulbasaur says he is hungry and could go for a potion but Charmander tells him to shut up. They find two people and Bulbasaur suggests that they ask them for directions. Unfortunately, people can only talk and gibberish—uttering "human"—and so Charmander calls them really annoying.

Bulbasaur notices Red walking into a wall. Striving for revenge back in the lab, Charmander goes over to give him a piece of his mind. Red tries but fails to catch Charmander using a Pokéball so, during the battle encounter, he sends Squirtle out. Feared about possible foe, Squirtle, however, proceeds to act cocky because he has a type-advantage to counter Charmander and because the trainer had picked him over Charmander. Squirtle uses Bubble on Charmander who easily steps out of its way.

This causes Squirtle to get frustrated because it never works. He asks the trainer why he didn't teach him any other moves. While he is distracted, Charmander tackles him using Bite. While Squirtle is in pain, he yells at his trainer. 'Why are you just standing there?! You're the worst trainer in the world!' Then he gets returned to his ball. Bulbasaur gets captured and is immediately sent back out to fight against Charmander. Bulbasaur then gets severely burned by Charmander's Ember, and Red returns him. Charmander tosses another Pokéball away and says "You don't have enough badges to train me!". He brutally pounces on Red.

Later, Charmander releases Squirtle and Bulbasaur out of their Pokéballs. He tells them that he has burned Red alive, killing him. Squirtle is overjoyed since he is finally free from the awful trainer. Unfortunately for him, Charmander announces his intention to keep Bulbasaur and Squirtle forever as his Pokémon. Additionally, he encourages them that he is better than any other gibbering human trainer and the three will "be the very best like no one ever was." Bulbasaur likes it. The trio ventures down the road in Charmander's adventure.

the starters are in the forest with Charmander trying to kill a Butterfree. Charmander says they'll eat the Butterfree, but Squirtle rejects and decides to find berries. Then, the screen cuts to Leader Caterpie. Later, the leader caterpie commands other caterpies to attack, whereas they comply and attack. The screen cuts to Charmander and Bulbusaur getting hung by web.the leader caterpie states that charmander killed his brother pablo gave it to bulbasaur as a hat,for that the caterpie would tear off charmanders limbs and wear them as fashion,and they would feed on bulbasaurs bulb for generations to come.then squirtle saved the 2 by using a new move,withdraw,charmander then retaliated by using flamethrower.then the leader vowed revenge,then a pidgeotto snatched her from off the ground.

Charmander later on after the defeat of Caterpie's army practice they're training when suddenly they encounters Gavin and his Hitmonchan, after coming out of the Poke'ball he doubts that any of the starter Pokemon could fight as he complains to Gavin until Charmander fights back one or two more turns. Hitmonchan exclaims to him that he could not go more than once, Charmander insults Hitmonchan and faints after Mochan rapidly punches Charmander. With victory Hitmonchan beats bulbasuar by Gavin's command and captures him. Later in the day Charmander wakes up to Squirtle's surprise as he thought that he could make a fire out of Charmanders flaming tail. The two both argue about command and teamwork, until Squirtle leaves Charmanders side. He then apologizes to Squirtle and learns Empathy, but refuses to leave Bulbasuar with the "Corrupt" human. They plan to distract Gavin then attack and snap Hitmonchan's Poke'ball while returning him which causes him to glitch and vanish to be seen in future episodes. Gavin runs away, after being attacked by Charmander. With Bulbasaur returned with a fully learned move in attacking Squirtle with, Charmander satisfied he rewards Bulbasaur with Caterpie Pablo's head as a hat to him.

After one of the Starter Squad is poisoned by Weedle, the two remaining squad members must take an antidote.

Charmander is seen in an encounter with afromentioned Cool Trainer Gavin, and his new Pokémon, Flareon. Gavin can be seen trying to catch Charmander, but fails. Charmander attempts to bite Flareon, whom throws him off his face at Gavin's command. Gavin tries throwing another Poké Ball, which Charmander knocks away. Flareon prompts Charmander to attack him, and Charmander commands Squirtle to use Bubble. Flareon simply dodges the Bubble, and laughs. When he comes to, he notices a missing Charmander, only to be seen with Squirtle in her hands. Squirtle goes in his shell, and is thrown by Charmander, whom commands Bulbasaur to use Vine Whip, a move Gavin taught him. Squirtle is hit with Vine Whip, ricocheting off Bulbasaur's vines and hitting Flareon, leaving him vulnerable. Charmander can be seen running at him with a stick, doing a battle cry as he does so. He pins Flareon to the ground, and sticks the stick in his neck. Charmander commands Squirtle to use Bubble, and is super effective due to Flareon being a fire-type. Flareon attempts to threaten the squad. Commanded by Gavin to use Bite, Charmander commands Squirtle to use Bubble again, Squirtle hesitates, but does so. Charmander prompts Squirtle to use one more Bubble, and Squirtle is met with a text that reads, *"FLAREON used BITE!"* Doing so, he feels guilty for attacking out of turn, and Charmander gets angry at him. Still attempting to Bite, Flareon complains that it's his turn. With Squirtle failing to use Bubble, Charmander instead pushed the sitck further into Flareon's neck, and he screams in pain. Charmander, angry at Squirtle, gets hit by a Poké Ball, and gets stuck inside it, giving a pissed off Flareon a chance to attack Squirtle. Charmander breaks out of the ball, and yells, *"Bulbasaur! Backup plan!"* Bulbasaur complies, and knocks Flareon's Poké Ball out of Gavin's hands, and into Charmander's. Looking intimadating, Gavin runs away, leaving Flareon. Being scared, Flareon begs for mercy, and Charmander scolds him for not being able to look after himself, and sets Flareon free, before destroying his Poké Ball. Charmander tells Flareon to go away, and he complies. Squirtle, being proud of Charmander, praises him, but an angry Charmander goes off at him for not finishing Flareon off with one final Bubble. Squirtle explains the the rules of fighting in the Pokémon world. An angry Charmander goes off at him, saying, *"NO ONE tells ME how I'm SUPPOSED TO FIGHT!"* With that, an argument rises, with Bulbasaur trying to defuse it, but with no avail. Bulbasaur, now backing up, is almost grabbed by a glitched MissingNo. Charmander & Squirtle continue to argue, with Squirtle suggesting they find a trainer to let them be better, Charmander gets provoked and attacks a panicked Squirtle, whom gets in his shell. With a final hit on his shell, Charmander throws his shell at a tree, whom Leader Caterpie and two other Caterpies fall out of. The two of them run off, leaving Leader Caterpie to deal with the three starters. Leader Caterpie throws a Poké Ball at the ground, and a female Nidoran, named Whiskers, emerges out of it. At the sight of Charmander, she freaks out, leading Leader Caterpie to hit her to get her to be quiet. At the mention of using Poison Sting, Bulbasaur gets in the way of Charmander so he could be hit with the move. Bulbasaur gets poisoned then and there, and Charmander starts to chase Whiskers, while Squirtle talks to Leader Caterpie alone, and that leads him to getting caught, which alerts Charmander, allowing Whiskers to poison him. Leader Caterpie calls Whiskers back and sticks to the bottom of a Butterfree, with the afromentioned, deceased Trainer Red's backpack. Poisoned and on the verge of fainting, Charmander falls to his knees, while Bulbasaur goes on trying to "comfort" him. Charmander faints then and there, with his last words being, *"Shut-! Urrkkkhh! Shut up Bulbas- SsSssaaaaghhh..."* Squirtle is taken to the Caterpie tunnels, where he would be trained for the next two episodes. Leader Caterpie gives Squirtle a nickname, being called "Bluey." Squirtle is being poisoned, and Leader Caterpie saying, *"Let us begin."*

Charmander is waking up in a berry field, barfing on a Sandshrew near him, who gives him berries to cure Charmander, then Bulbasaur comes by and tells Charmander the berries here are so delicious! Charmander realizes that Squirtle is missing and criticizes himself for losing Squirtle, the Sandshrew comforts Charmander, saying that everyone makes mistakes and says that they can be useful, then the same Pidgeotto who snatch Leader Caterpie and killed the Weedle from the 2 previous episodes comes by and snacks on berries, Charmander sees him and yells at him for leading him and Squirtle to a fake forest king, the Pidgeotto says that he's hilarious, then the Sandshrew tells Charmander about the Pidgeotto and what he does. The Pidgeotto offers Bulbasaur a shoe to eat, Charmander swipes the shoe off of the Pidgeotto's foot and tries to talk back but uses empathy to control himself, he then acts politely about the green worms that usually get hunted for food, the Pidgeotto answer Charmander by saying that Leader Caterpie trained a Nidoran to poison Charmander, after realizing that the Pidgeotto is smart, Charmander makes a truce with the Pidgeotto and asks him where the caterpies are, the Pidgeotto points to the right but Charmander thinks that the Pidgeotto is tricking him again and chooses to go to the left instead, so he and Bulbasaur head off to the left while the Pidgeotto tries to say to Charmander that he is being serious this time, but Charmander refuses to listen to him. Meanwhile, Charmander and Bulbasaur head to a nearby mansion with a Haunter showing up and controls Bulbasaur to get him and Charmander into the mansion, with that working, the duo head in. Charmander and Bulbasaur make their way to the top, discovering graves, dead bodies of them and a Gastly on their way. Charmander and Bulbasaur make it to the next floor, to see another Charmander trying to escape, only for him to be eaten by a giant scary Haunter, Bulbasaur gets so scared he runs downstairs, Charmander finds a rock and throws it at the giant Haunter, with that happening, the giant Haunter turns into the Haunter from earlier, showing that he is actually pretending this whole time, after a talk, Haunter fades away laughing after saying that he is the fear. Charmander calls for Bulbasaur to come back up, only to find that the door is missing, with a mysterious shape in front of him, Charmander gets a bit startled, then the Gastly from earlier pops out and scares Charmander, Haunter gets upset and yells at the Gastly, he tells Charmander that he was setting up tension until the Gastly ruined everything, Charmander says he wants to go up the tower but Haunter tells Charmander that he has to experience the tower, making Charamander attempting to attack Haunter, only for him to disappear. Bulbasaur comes back, telling Charmander if he defeated the monster, then they go back up to the floor they went up earlier, only to find three things in front of them. Bulbasaur starts barfing, causing Charmander to say that Bulbasaur is not Bulbasaur, revealing that Bulbasaur was actually Haunter, he asks Charmander where is Bulbasaur and asks him why the nearby stool is laughing at Charmander, Bulbasaur heads back up and sees the stool laughing, making Bulbasaur a bit better. Bulbasaur then asks Haunter if he has seen Squirtle and gives him three hints: blue, has a shell, talks in a weird way. Charmander tells Bulbasaur that Haunter is not helping, then a fake Squirtle comes out of nowhere, only for it to be set on fire, revealing it was Haunter again. Haunter gets upset again and tells Charmander he is supposed to engage with the fake Squirtle for horroe experience, Charmander tries to pander Haunter by faking being scared, only for the Gastly to scare him again, making Charmander angry. Haunter gets frustrated, telling Charmander he is by far the most tasteless and unpleasant individual he ever had to dissatisfaction of dealing with, Charmander talks back, saying that all he wanted to do is climb the tower and tells him he is the one responsible for all of the interrupting, and says that what he did is not scary because it is not real. Suddenly, MissingNo. appears again, with Hitmonchan still attached to it, Haunter looks at it, admires it and starts saluting about it. Haunter walks too close to MissingNo. unknowingly, causing him to get fused into the glitch along of Hitmonchan, leaving him controlled my MissingNo. instead of himself. Charmander gets angry and wants to fight Haunter now, he charges right towards him, only for a Mewtwo to come out of nowhere, throws Charmander away and starts attacking MissingNo. After MissingNo. is defeating, Mewtwo sees Charmander and punishes him be choking him, he tells Charmander that his actions doomed everyone else, he also says that Charmander is very lucky because Mewtwo doesn't have the necessary time to punish Charmander, if he did, he would make him suffer for getting lots of work by Charmander to do, and also says he enjoys sleeping as well. Bulbasaur asks Mewtwo if he saw Squirtle anywhere, Mewtwo drops Charmander and teleports to duo to Viridian Forest, the spot where Squirtle is, he then goes back and gets the Sandshrew from earlier and demands him to dig, scaring the Sandshrew and making him dig straight down. Finally, he tells Charmander and Bulbasaur that he will be in Cerulan Cave, and leaves on final note if the duo sees anything that doesn't look real, they better not touch it, after that, he teleports away, leaving the duo on their quest to find Squirtle.

Caterpie explaining a story related to the events of the show, then Yellow (a yellow caterpie) interrupted the story. Then Sandshrew fell from the celling along with Bulbasaur and Charmander, causing the caterpies to run away and warn the others, after they ran off, Bulbasaur names Sandshrew, Dirtle.

The trio went off to find Squirtle and Charmander finds a trap with Bulbasaur unknowingly falling into the trap, causing him to get wet, then a Butterfree comes out of nowhere and kidnaps Bulbasaur in her Pokeball, next to come were some falling boulders. Charmander and Dirtle run away as fast as they could till a boulder blocks their path, leaving them unable to continue, then the same Butterfree that captured Bulbasaur uses a Shellder to stop Charmander, the two argue whether to catch Charmander or kill him, with Dirtle running towards then holding sand in order to attack them, it didn't really work, so the Butterfree uses the Shellder to attack Dirtle, while doing so, Charmander grabs the Shellder and kills it in one stomp.

After seeing her Shellder get killed, the Butterfree takes out a Golbat which only seems to scream due to its big mouth, because of the Gobalt just screaming and being useless, the Butterfree returns her Gobalt back to its Pokeball, then she unintentionally takes out her Beedrill who acts really annoying, after a conversation with her annoying Beedrill, Charmander sets the Beedrill on fire and pulls out his left arm, killing him. The Butterfree still doesn't give up and takes out her Geodude, who starts singing the Rock Smasher song, after some time, Charmander managed to find the trap from earlier and uses it to kill the Geodude, which worked since the Geodude flew right into the trap and sank to the bottom, drowning him.

The Butterfree sees this and takes out her Golem, who unintentionally stomps on her due to his lack of control, giving Charmander a chance to run. Meanwhile, in a room filled with caterpies, most of the caterpies are dining on Bulbasaur by sucking his bulb. While having a nice time relaxing, Charmander and Dirtle make it to the room and Charmander angrily yells at everyone, asking where Squrtile is, this caused all the caterpies to go haywire and charge right at Charmander, causing a giant battle in the room. Charmander uses the Beedrill's left arm he pulled out earlier after he killed the Beedrill in order to attack the caterpies, Dirtle was able to knock out one caterpie, only for him to get stuck in a cocoon made by caterpies, with too much caterpies attacking him, Charmander gets extremely angry and breathes out lots of fire, causing the entire room to get set ablaze and getting a lot of caterpies set on fire to their death, after ripping a caterpie in half, he once again begs for Squirtle, only for Leader Caterpie to show up.

Charmander tries to run to Leader Caterpie to beat her up but gets kicked by Whiskers, who is now a Nidorina, while the two fight, the giant cacoon starts glowing, why? The sandshrew inside the cocoon is turning into, a sandslash! Seeing this, Charmander asks for Dirtle to help him fight Whiskers, but Dirtle left for no dumb reason. After a few attacks, Charmander was able to knock out Whiskers, fainting her. While Charmander was about to kill Whiskers with the Beedrill's left arm until a wave of water comes out of nowhere and knocks Charmander back, as the camera pans, we see that the one who shot out the water was Squirtle! Bulbasaur, who is still stuck in the web, sees Squirtle and thought that Squirtle looked different.

Charmander was glad to see Squirtle but Squirtle keeps shooting water at Charmander because he wanted to get revenge on Charmander for doing all the cruel stuff he did, with the help of the caterpies, he is able to fight back, after shooting loads of water, Charmander is almost about to faint, with his tail's flame shrinking. Just as Squirtle was about to capture Charmander inside his Pokeball, Leader Caterpie tells Squirtle (Bluey because that's the way she says Squirtle's name) to stand down, then Leader Caterpie uses a shiv to kill Charmander, after that, the screen is blocked by a black screen, leaving the film and the film ends on a cliffhanger.

## Motion-capture cast

* Jake Gyllenhaal as Charmander
* John DiMaggio as Squirtle
* Robert Downey Jr. as Bulbasaur
* Sarah-Nicole Robles as Pablo, Leader Caterpie, Eddie, Yellow, Leonard and Other Caterpies
* Zoë Kravitz as Whiskers
* Jared Leto as Hitmonchan
* Kelsey Grammer as Pidgeotto
* Cory English as Weepinbell
* Jason Isaacs as Flareon
* Aaron Pierre as Sandshrew
* Philip Proctor as Haunter
* Alan Tudyk as Gastly, Golbat, & Shellder
* Maxwell Atoms as Stool and Tombstones
* Nicholas Lyndhurst as Mewtwo
* Oprah Winfrey as Butterfree
* Jim Broadbent as Beedrill

## Live-action cast

* Noah Schapp as Red
* Sadie Sink as May
* Emma Myers as Rosa
* Ariana DeBose as Gaven