A somewhat insubstansive entry into the ‘Pikachu Shorts’ This one opened ‘Pokemon 4Ever’ (though, this is technically the 10th Pikachu short, and for folks wondering why I havent bothered looking at 6 of the shorts, Im doing the movie ones first, and the 6 i’ve missed are all christmas short films that were grouped together and released as two compilations in the US and EU…So, im gonna save those till christmas because I think i’ll appreaciate them more…but I digress…)

‘Pikachu’s Pikaboo’ is a bit of a step down on the ‘shorts’ front. We get basically no setup, no real plot development or act structuring. This is a 22 minute short film split between two plotlines, the first is Pikachu and the gang hanging out at a random mansion (No mention of how they got there, why they’re there, or where Ash, Brock or Misty are…In fact…thinking about it, only Ash’s Pokemon, Togepi and Psyduck are in this short…so…where are Brocks and the rest of Misty’s pokemon?)

Anyway; they’re all just chilling at this mansion, when we’re introduced to a Larvatar, a Granbull and a Kekleon who are all acting as groundskeepers for the mansion. Pikachu suggests a game of hide and seek, the gang take part and hilarity ensues.

The second half of the short is Meowth and Wobbuffet taking up gardening duties at the mansion, but when their fancy lawnmower breaks and takes on a mind of its own taking out Meowth and Wobbuffet and disrupting the hide and seek game, its down to Pikachu and the gang to stop the rogue mower so the fun can continue!

And…thats the short basically, a 22 minute runaround that isnt really as fun, smart, cute or clever as the other shorts. Meowth is as underused as he has been in all the other shorts, but now Wobbuffet gets to ALSO be massively underused and ignored as well! The animation feels a little rough around the edges, the character interactions arnt as fun, there isnt as much humour here as there has been in previous shorts. It kind of feels like they took elements of ‘Pikachus Vacation’ and ‘Pikachus rescue adventure’ and mixed them up with the lawnmower being the only really new element to this whole thing.

The narrator is back again, only here he’s explaining things that are obvious, but doesnt really do much to open, close or establish anything…which is weird. This one really didnt do much for me.

Like; it’s still cute, and I guess as a little opener to the main feature its fine enough, but I think the TA for this is probably VERY very young kids, younger than they’ve ever tried to reach before…and the result is a short thats kind of too basic for its own good.

Probably the first short that I dont think i’d actively rewatch if im honest…its just kind of a nothing short. Not inherently bad…just kind of bland and generic.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pikachus-pikaboo/