Their new friends include: Callaghan, an older man who lies to impress his young niece Kelly Risa, a teenage girl who's on a mission to catch a Pokémon for her hospitalized brother Margot, the mayor of Fula City's daughter Toren, an anxious Pokémon researcher and Harriet, an older woman with an apparently irrational fear of Pokémon. The core story centers around Ash, Pikachu, and the variety of characters they meet at the Wind Festival. It also leans heavily into the responsibility that we all have to look after the environment around us, which shouldn't be a radical message but in 2018 somehow feels like one. Like any good kids film, The Power of Us has a strong message about friendship, and reasserts the importance of a Pokémon and their trainer being partners rather than owner and possession. The Power of Us does a great job at soft retconning that aspect by more thoroughly exploring the idea of wild Pokémon and looking at the impact that humans and trainers have had on the creatures.

Many of us grew up with Pokémon and have, as the years passed, wondered about the fact that the economy of the world essentially runs off legal dog fighting. Though it may not get into the theological economy of the Pokémon world, The Power of Us does try to look at the place of the mystical creatures that live in this world and their relationships with the people around them. Suffice to say those queries are not answered or explored in this family-friendly film, but it definitely opened up some theories in my head. Lugia's involvement definitely sets up some really interesting questions around the role of Pokémon, because Lugia is essentially worshipped as a god and determines whether or not the city lives or dies when it annually arrives and supplies it with enough wind to fuel the township for another 365 days. Ash and Pikachu venture to Fula City to the famed Wind Festival, a gathering that celebrates the history of the lush seaside town, which was saved from a devastating fire by the legendary Pokémon Lugia, who also blessed the town with its main power source: wind. Animated by OLM and Wit Studio (the team behind Attack on Titan), The Power of Us successfully takes notes from classic nature-heavy anime like the films of Studio Ghibli whilst still sticking to the well-known Pokémon design.

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