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| Season | Pokémon: Johto League Champions (Season 4) · Westward with Todd: Snowtop Mountain & Articuno arc (EP184–EP191) |
| Episode | Season 4, episode 30 · English episode 187 · Japanese episode 189 · Bulbapedia code EP187 |
| English title | Moving Pictures |
| Japanese title | こおったヒマナッツのなぞ!! Kōtta Himanattsu no Nazo!! — “The Mystery of the Frozen Himanuts!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 1 March 2001 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 26 January 2002 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Junki Takegami |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | OK! – Rica Matsumoto · Boku no Best Friend e (To My Best Friend) – Hiromi Iwasaki |
| English opening | Born to Be a Winner – David Rolfe |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Pineco (US) · Sunkern (Japan) |
| Previous episode | UnBEARable (EP186) |
| Next episode | Spring Fever (EP188) |
Plot episodeTodd returnsSunkern evolves
Moving Pictures is the 30th episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions, the fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 187th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 189, Bulbapedia code EP187). It first aired in Japan on 1 March 2001 and in the United States on 26 January 2002. It falls within the season’s Westward with Todd: Snowtop Mountain & Articuno stretch (EP184–EP191).
Synopsis
Todd Snap rejoins the gang, and Ash uses his Sun Stone to evolve a Sunkern so an elderly couple can take their golden-anniversary photograph. The click of a camera reveals Todd, who is hunting Articuno, just before a frozen Sunkern drops from the sky; thawed in a basin at the nearby Sunflora Lodge, it revives. Owners Sophia and Marcello have posed with hundreds of Sunflora on every anniversary for 49 years, but this unseasonable cold has driven the flowers away.
The couple insist on the tradition regardless and lead everyone to the south slope (Sophia spinning tall tales all the way), where snow begins falling from a Team Rocket snow machine. The blizzard buries the group and chills Pikachu and Bulbasaur so badly they cannot fight, letting Arbok carry Pikachu off, until Sunkern’s Sunny Day melts the snow and a revived Bulbasaur’s Solar Beam destroys the machine. Pikachu drops free and a Thunderbolt sends the trio off.
With no Sunflora to be found, Brock suggests the Sun Stone Ash won at the Bug-Catching Contest. Sunkern evolves and calls its kin, the slope turns yellow, and Todd takes photo number fifty. As he lowers the camera he glimpses a blue shape he swears is Articuno, and the group head for the mountains together.
Major Events
- Todd rejoins the group
- Sunkern debut
- Articuno’s TV debut
- Ash uses his Sun Stone to evolve a wild Sunkern into Sunflora, the only time he uses an Evolution stone
Pokémon making their anime debut
Articuno#0144 · EP187
Sunkern#0191 · EP187
Captures and evolutions
Sunkern → Sunflora#0192 · Wild · Ash’s Sun Stone
Trivia
- The English title plays on the Rush album and Discworld novel "Moving Pictures".
- The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Johto storyline.
- The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Sunkern in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Pineco in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Changes in the English Dub
- Todd’s surname Snap is dropped on TV, reportedly over legal issues involving Kellogg’s; the VHS and DVD keep it.
- A string-cheese line is added.
Part of our Pokémon: Johto League Champions guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.