A Sneak Peek at Pokémon is an English promotional video released to promote the then-upcoming Pokémon franchise. It was released in limited quantities in the United States and Canada during the summer of 1998 through Nintendo Power and some stores.
The video was made to drum up hype for the upcoming Pokémon Red and Blue, Pokémon: The Series, Pokémon trading card game, and the rest of the franchise (but especially the anime). It was already becoming a Cash-Cow Franchise in Japan and Nintendo wanted to make sure the franchise would be a hit internationally as well.
A Sneak Peek at Pokémon is especially notable for featuring several of the original voice actors from the English dub voicing lines in the video.
A Sneak Peek at Pokémon provides examples of:
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable:
- The scene with Mr. Carlson has a sketch of Pikachu on a blackboard with its pronunciation, "Peck-uhr-choo", underneath. This, however, isn't how Pikachu is actually pronounced (it's "Peak-ah-choo").
- Aunt Hilary keeps on mispronouncing "Pokémon".
- Canon Foreigner: The live-action segments features a bunch of characters made up for the video: Ash's aunt Hilary, Ash's cousins Trey and Troy, Ash's science teacher Mr. Carlson, and Misty's best friend Amy.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The film shows a game cap of Pidgey using its prototypical Dub Name Change, Pidge. It also contains Poké Ball written as "PokéBall" on a blackboard.
- There's a scene of James with his original voice actor. The actual episode uses
The Other Darrin.
- Theme Twin Naming: Ash has two cousins named Trey and Troy.
- Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change: The segment milks the mukokuseki designs of the anime's characters and makes it seem like Ash is American instead of from a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Japan.
