The third Pikachu short (and, I believe the last time a pikachu short would consistently play before a mainline pokemon movie outside of Japan) ‘Pikachu & Pichu’ essentially takes the ‘silent film’ styling that the last two films prominently featured and takes it to its logistical conclusion. By essentially bringing the comedy prat falls to the big city and playing it like some kind of buster keaton by way of Laurel and Hardy pic.

The plot picks up with our gang (presumably) in Goldenrod city, the big shopping town of Johto, Ash, Misty and Brock have put some time aside for a little retail therapy, and essentially take their pokemon to a rooftop playground so that they can chill and have fun for a few hours, while the gang go shopping.

Unfortunately for Pikachu, a couple of rowdy Pichu start antagonizing him by making faces and spanking themselves (…sure okay why not…)

One thing leads to another, and Pikachu ends up falling off the rooftop, and, while he survives the fall, he has NO idea how to get back to the top! THAT is where the Pichu brothers come in! they agree to help Pikachu get back up there, but when an aggressive Houndour threatens to throw the plan off track, the gang have to deviate into the side allys of Goldenrod leading to near scrapes AND a visit to the Pichu brothers home! a wonderfully charming tyre village housed almost entirely by baby pokemon and 1st stage evolution pokemon. As you can imagine chaos, comedy and more ensues!

This thing comes so close to being my favourite one of these. We, once again have a clear 3 act narrative, the pacing is lively and to the point, the characters are animate and genuinely fun to be around. The art style is top tier, I love how flowing and effortless this all looks and even the CG blends into the production relatively seamlessly. Even the soundtrack is solid with a mix of modernised ragtime sounding pieces and a few instances that play on the tones of ‘Rhapsody in blue’ it all works pretty effortlessly for me honestly…The shorts at this point really are as good, if not better than the features. With only 2 issues with this one really stopping it from claiming the top spot.

The first is Meowth, who…Once again is seemingly just here because he is. Hes crammed into this special under the guise that Jessie and James have got him a job working in the city. But he gets 2 scenes in this, neither particularly funny and both just feel forced and a bit weird. they could have cut them and noone would have noticed honestly.

And the other is the introduction of a ‘narrator’ who essentially overclarifies whatver we’re seeing on screen to a painful degree…if a Pichu is hanging off a ledge, the Narrator will say ‘Oh no! Pichu is hanging off the ledge!’ mercifully it doesnt happen TOO often in this short, but it totally kills the atmosphere and really pulled me out of the short…I hear this happens more and more frequently as these shorts go on…So as you can imagine…im thrilled.

‘Pikachu & Pichu’ Is once again, a pretty solid short. It would have been my favourite had it not been self sabotaged by the narrator and just a couple of moments that went a little *slowburn* for me. Otherwise, this one is still fun and cutesy and I recommend checking this out if you enjoy Pokemon, the series, the movies, the games or just cute animal cartoons honestly…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pikachu-pichu/