Don’t Touch That ‘dile – Pokémon Season 3, Episode 1

Plot episodeSeason premiereProfessor Elm & Suicune debut

Don’t Touch That ‘dile is the 1st episode of Pokémon: The Johto Journeys, the third season of the Pokémon anime, and the 117th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 119, Bulbapedia code EP117). It first aired in Japan on 14 October 1999 and in the United States on 14 October 2000. It falls within the season’s Arrival in Johto stretch (EP117–EP121).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Ash and friends find themselves lost in the forest on the way to the Johto region when they see a Pokémon that they’ve never seen before; Suicune. The Pokémon flees into the woods when it realises its been spotted and Ash gives chase.

Team Rocket turn up to a lab in the middle of nowhere (belonging to Professor Elm), the scientist who works there doesn’t even look up from his work and assumes them to be Nurse Joy, instructing them to give the Totodile in his lab a full checkup, Team Rocket duly take the opportunity to steal the Totodile.

Ash and friends spot a sign for New Bark Town “Where the Winds of New Beginnings Blow”. The group head to the Pokémon Center to register Ash for the Johto League but on arrival they find Nurse Joy isn’t there, she’s left a message saying she will be back no later than 2pm, but its already 3.30pm. Brock assumes Nurse Joy to be in some sort of terrible danger and the group head out to look for her.

The City’s Officer Jenny directs Ash to the lab of Professor Elm (where Nurse Joy said she was going in her message), there they find Joy berating Professor Elm for allowing Team Rocket to steal the Totodile because he couldn’t even be bothered to look up from his computer to see who it was in his lab earlier. Officer Jenny comes in and explains that Totodile was supposed to be a young girls starter Pokémon but has been stolen.

Professor Elm explains that trainers who start out in New Bark Town get to choose a Cyndaquil, Chikorita or Totodile as their starter Pokémon, Elm then reveals himself to be a former student of Professor Oak, and one of his top students.

Ash remembers how excited he was to get his first Pokémon and feels bad for the girl whose starter Pokémon was stolen, as such he and his friends volunteer to help get the Totodile back. They accompany Officer Jenny and her Growlithe who quickly gets a scent of something and starts running, the group follow. A few moments later they catch up to Team Rocket who are arguing between themselves about who will tell the boss the good news that they finally stole a Pokémon.

Officer Jenny states that she’s placing Team Rocket under arrest (Totodile can be seen visibly stuck to Jessie’s hair at this point) but they make a run for it, only to be lassoo’d by Bulbasaur’s Vine Whip. James sends out his Weezing and uses its smokescreen, Ash responds by blowing away the smokescreen using Charizards powerful wings. Bulbasaur grabs the Totodile with its vine whip and rescues it and then Officer Jenny sends Growlithe to arrest Team Rocket, but Weezing manages to hit it in the face with sludge, Jessie sends Lickitung to finish it off but is repelled by Squirtle’s water gun. They then send all of their Pokémon to attack but are beaten by a combination of Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charizard’s attacks. Totodile steps forward to send Team Rocket blasting off with it’s water gun.

Officer Jenny thanks the group for their help with retrieving Totodile. Ash calls Professor Oak to tell him about the days events and mentions they met Elm. Elm then hijacks the call and bores Oak. Nurse Joy arrives and registers Ash to the Johto league, once he earns eight badges he’ll be eligible to battle in the Johto Pokémon League.

Ash and friends head out to Violet City to take on the first gym in the Johto region. Joy, Jenny and Elm wave them off.

Major Events

• Johto/Gen II begins
• New OP *OK!*, ED *Meowth’s Party*, dub OP *Pokémon Johto*, *Karaokémon* begins
• Professor Elm debuts
• Suicune, Totodile, Cyndaquil debuts
• Ash registers for the Johto League
• First episode without Tracey since his debut
• Victreebel’s Vine Whip revealed

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Suicune#0245 · EP117
• Cyndaquil#0155 · EP117
• Totodile#0158 · EP117

Trivia

• The English title plays on the TV-era slogan "don’t touch that dial!", plus Totodile.
• The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Johto storyline.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Fearow in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Chikorita in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• Writing on Professor Elm’s book spines and on the pay-phone coin slot erased.
• The dub adds the League “entrance fee” question, Oak’s soap-opera line, Gary as Ash’s rival, “Totodile’s trainer tomorrow morning” and a female pronoun for the unnamed new Trainer (gender-neutral in Japanese); it drops Elm’s remark that the starter trio were Pallet Town’s starters and Oak’s condescending “Utsugi-kun”.
• New Japanese opening OK! (Rica Matsumoto) and ending Meowth’s Party; new English opening Pokémon Johto (PJ Lequerica) and the first Pokémon Karaokémon segment.
• Score cues from Pikachu’s Vacation and Mewtwo Strikes Back.
• Pokémon Karaokémon: “You & Me & Pokémon” (Élan Rivera & PJ Lequerica).

Part of our Pokémon: The Johto Journeys guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.