Pokémon decides to make its own version of Destroy All Monsters.
Pokémon: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages is the eighteenth Pokémon: The Series film, and the first to be written by Atsuhiro Tomioka, coming out on July 18, 2015.
During their journey, Ash and friends stumble upon the mythical Hoopa, who is on a journey with its childhood friends Baraz and Meray to Desert City in order to purify its confined powers within the Djinn's Bottle. As fate has it, however, Baraz discovers that the sealed bottle houses a violent spirit born from Hoopa's confined Unbound form, which spirals into a clash between Legendary Pokémon as the heroes race against time to calm Hoopa Unbound down.
Hoopa and the Clash of Ages provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Hoopa's Pokédex entries reveal it to be a kleptomaniac that abuses its rings to steal anything it likes and take them to a secret hoard, up to and including whole palaces and islands. In this movie, Hoopa's thieving qualities are almost entirely absent.
- Adaptation Expansion: The manga Adaptation of this movie has expanded into 187 complex total pages, while this movie version only lasted for 79 minutes long.
- Advertised Extra: You might spot Arceus in the middle of the poster shown above. It doesn't make an appearance until the last few minutes of the movie where it makes everything better before promptly leaving the film.
- Anti-Villain: Ash discusses this with Hoopa and muses that Shadow Hoopa can be reasoned with since it's angry at being sealed away for so long. Hoopa shares with Shadow Hoopa its memories after being forced into Confined Forme and how happy he was able to become despite not having all of that power. It was enough to get Shadow Hoopa to let go of its anger and perform a Heel–Face Turn and reunite with Hoopa without turning it evil.
- Artifact of Doom: Hoopa's Prison Bottle in this continuity. It can confine its Unbound form, though it somehow acquired the side effect of confining its bottled-up anger and giving it physical form.
- Artistic License – Geography: Dahara City, inspired by Dubai, seems out of place when you remember that it's located in the otherwise France-inspired Kalos region.
- Award-Bait Song: "Every Side of Me". The synth, the soothing notes, its placement in the credits, lyrics that can apply to many people's situations- it's all there. Its Japanese equivalent "Tweedia" is quite similar in that respect.
- Awesomeness Is Volatile: The distortion of space and time consuming the tower was supposedly the result of a large concentration of Legendary Pokémon in one area. Though this may have more to do with the way the Pokémon were summoned, and not the Pokémon themselves.
- Big Bad: Hoopa Unbound becomes the main driving source of conflict after escaping the Prison Bottle and becomes Shadow Hoopa.
- Breath Weapon: All except for 3 species of the Pokémon summoned by Hoopanote are shown firing attacks from their mouths
- Call-Back:
- At one point during an exposition dump, a necklace designed after Arceus is shown. Ash thinks he recognizes it. Arceus apparently lent the Ground, Fire, and Water Plates to Baraz and Melty's grandfather to forge the Prison Bottle much like he did for Damos to restore the Michina Town.
- Lugia is the same one from Pokémon 2000 and Ash immediately recognizes him.
- During the opening montage, the Eon Duonote and Kyurem are seen at their homes of Altomare and Kyurem's castle mines, respectively.
- The Space-Time rift near the end is suspiciously similar to what's happened to Alamos Town because of Dialga vs. Palkia.
- The Cameo: Hoopa first demonstrates his power to Ash by summoning dozens upon dozens of Pikachu. Amongst them are the Cosplay Pikachus.
- Catchphrase:
- Hoopa loves to say "Were you surprised?" It says this over a half-dozen times throughout the movie, sometimes as an Ironic Echo.
- "Alléhooparing!" (or "Appear!" in the Japanese original) is a secondary one done when it summons Pokémon.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In some desert shots, a herd of Hippopotas and Hippowdon are seen. Later, to recreate the Prison Bottle, the heroes need Pokémon that can generate fire, water and earth. With Braixen and Frogadier supplying the former two, Bonnie would request aid from a Hippopotas for the last element.
- Combat and Support: Latias and Latios spend most of the clash of ages abusing their high speeds to distract and evade the other legendaries while Rayquaza does most of the fighting. They also are reduced to the supporting role while defending Dahara Tower, using Psychic to enhance Rayquaza's Twister.
- Conveniently Empty Building: Justified. A lot of the fighting is not showing anyone in sight because people are actively shown to be evacuating. Egregiously, way too many places where the group goes in the city are conveniently deserted despite not being in the buildings.
- Cool vs. Awesome: At several points Hoopa and its Unbound Forme summon other Legendary Pokémon to fight each other with.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Rayquaza, the most ferocious-looking of the Gen III Legendaries (not to mention that it's sporting its black, "Shiny" look), is one of the three (the other two are the Eon duo) Legendaries summoned by Hoopa Confined to help fend off Hoopa Unbound, protecting Ash and Hoopa numerous times during the climax. Hoopa itself is full of mischief and a bit of a prankster, but not overly malicious.
- Deflector Shields: Mega Latias, Latios, and Rayquaza use Psychic and Twister to create a shield to protect Dahara Tower.
- Demonic Possession: Hoopa Unbound can possess others to force them to do its bidding, which it uses on Meowth to get released from the Prison Bottle after Team Rocket steals it.
- Deus ex Machina: Quite literally, too - just when it seems Hoopa and Baraz are going to be killed by the space-time distortion, it's suddenly halted by a golden light, with a similar glow around the Arceus charms. This allows Hoopa to get over its seal that prevents it from jumping through its own hoops,and escape certain doom. The light is then revealed to be coming from Arceus itself a minute later - who until now has never been seen or heard from in the movie itself although its presence was mentioned in the backstory and three of its plates were used to create the original Prison Bottle. It then takes all the legendaries away and puts an end to the conflict before disappearing as suddenly as it came.
- Diabolus ex Machina: At no point in the movie is stated that letting either Hoopa play too much with their ring powers to bring Legendaries to battle at the same location can cause a spatial black hole from consuming the tower where the Prison Bottle was created. It becomes much weirder when you realize the only population that evacuated the city went to that point.
- Disproportionate Restitution: Inverted. Dahara City was a simple desert village when Hoopa made its first appearance stealing food. After being told by the food stall owner to pay up, Hoopa floods the settlement with riches, way more than the sale price of the food Hoopa ate. The village's newfound wealth enabled its development into a major metropolis a hundred years later, and its residents were more willing to give Hoopa food feely in exchange for wishes. Until they asked him to test his strength against other powerful Pokémon.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: The Prison Bottle. Of course, Meowth has to touch it, thinking he can power himself up with it, and unleashes Hoopa's Superpowered Evil Side.
- Drunk On Power: Hoopa Unbound was entirely in control of its ring powers, until the townsfolk he dotted in exchange for food asked how strong it was. What follows is Hoopa Unbound loudly boasting about its power until it goes nuts with it. Even after being reformed, it still likes to boast its powers.
- Enemy Without: The power of Hoopa's Unbound Forme developed a personality of its own, embittered at its imprisonment and resentful of Hoopa Confined's existence. When it is released for a second time, Hoopa successfully resists being reunified with it so its personality wouldn't get consumed by its other half. However, since there's nowhere for the power to go, it becomes its own entity and starts to cause trouble.
- Evil Is Hammy: Hoopa's shadow chews the scenery all while destroying it.
- Excuse Plot: Despite being the main source of conflict, the feud between Hoopa and his shadow is barely touched upon and is resolved in less than a minute once the former shares his memories with the latter. The result is that a good chunk of the movie revolves around the two Hoopas summoning waves of legendary Mons to participate in an unending parade of no-consequence battles, evolutions and action scenes, without much of a plot to hold it all together.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The region of Dahara City and the historical wear of its citizens is modeled after Dubai in the Arabian Desert, fitting Hoopa's modeling after djinni.
- Fire-Breathing Diner: Hoopa is introduced sneakily stealing one of Serena's donuts and leaving a Tamato berry in its place. Chespin unknowingly grabs the berry, and...
- Foreshadowing: As Hoopa Unbound is summoning six Legendary Pokémon, there is a brief cut to the sky where a black hole is forming as each one is conjured. This ends up being important later.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Legendary Pokémon summoned by Hoopa Unbound all sport glowing red eyes, a clear sign that they have been brainwashed by it.
- Gone Horribly Right: The people of Dahara wished to see more of Hoopa's power, so he decided to show off by battling Pokémon he summons. Things go out of hand when Hoopa, desiring stronger opponents, decided to summon Legendary Pokémon.
- Grand Theft Me: Hoopa Unbound possesses anyone who tries to physically handle the Prison Bottle whenever it's trapped inside. Victims include the Beraz, Meowth, and finally Ash.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: After Ash grabbed the affected bottle and got possessed, Pikachu and Hoppa tried to reach out to him but to no avail. However, Hoppa was able to save Ash when it showed the other side of itself the good times it had shared for the last one hundred years, which worked as it calmed down and freed its friend.
- Immortal Immaturity: For all its power and age Hoopa is by nature in both its formes very immature emotionally and mentally, to the extent that once sealed it took a long time for it to even understand why the destruction it caused was wrong. He's also convinced that there's nothing in the world that he can't obtain using his ring powers, and has a mild comical freakout when Ash points there are some things (particularly conceptual) in the world you can't just reach out and grab, such as Ash's goal of becoming a Pokémon Master.
- Jerkass: Hoopa's pranks border on jerkassery, despite it trying to have fun. That's not to say its whole attitude.
- Merchandise-Driven: A twofer. First off, the promotional material in Japan emphasizes the appearances of the Legendary Pokémon over the movie's human characters, to the point of several giveaways beyond Hoopa. Second, Lugia is the only pre-Generation III Legendary in the movie and he gets removed from the fight before anyone else, while focus is placed on newer Legendaries and any new formes they've obtained.
- Methuselah Syndrome: The Arcay siblings' great-grandfather, who sealed away Hoopa's darkness 100 years before the movie, was still alive when the siblings were children, even though he would have had to have been around 120 years old by that point.
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Team Rocket manages to unwittingly put everyone in the city in danger when their machinations led to the Prison Bottle getting destroyed.
- Mind Manipulation: Hoopa Unbound can inflict this on the Legendary Pokémon that it summons, in order to force them to battle for it.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Braixen uses Flamethrower using her mouth instead of her wand. While she always used Flamethrower with her mouth as a Fennekin, she switched to using her wand following her evolution to Braixen.
- Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: Done twice. The first case was a hundred years ago where Hoopa's liberal abuse in summoning Legendaries caused havoc. The second was causing a massive distortion of time and space from summoning nine Legendaries in rapid succession.
- Revenge Before Reason: At one point during the clash, Primal Groudon accidentally blasts Kyurem with its fire breath, both of them under Hoopa Unbound's control. A few minutes later, Kyurem intentionally returns the favor, even though Groudon had a clear shot at an opponent.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Hoopa Unbound's power was sealed in the Prison Bottle because it was being too destructive when showing off.
- Serial Escalation: Deconstructed in Hoopa's backstory. One of the villagers goaded Hoopa into battling other Pokémon to prove his power and he did just that by curb stomping fully-evolved ones like Dragonite. It was when he decided to conjure multiple legendaries that things got out of hand.
- Shell Game: During their first meeting, Hoopa summons a large number of Pikachu and tests Ash if he can tell which one among them is his partner. To Hoopa's surprise (and disappointment) Ash makes a correct guess almost instantly.
- Shirtless Scene: Ash gets a lengthy one early on in the movie when the gang first meets Hoopa miles away from a pool.
- Shown Their Work: Hoopa is basically a Pokémon djinn. At the beginning, the demonic-looking Hoopa is stopped by a stranger bearing a symbol of Arceus who he claims is the source of his powers and sealed away in a bottle. This is the general story of how Djinns got sealed into their cans for the same reasons.
- Spanner in the Works: Team Rocket indirectly causes the second half of the movie to happen for once.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: This movie is more kind to Ash than the rest of the humans of the cast by putting him right in the middle of the clash. Even before then, the focus was more on him than Baraz and Meray, Hoopa's childhood friends.
- Suddenly Speaking: Inverted for some of the returning Legendaries; while it's implied that they're the same individuals as in earlier movies (where they had full voice acting), they have no dialogue in this one beyond a few roars.
- Talking the Monster to Death: By virtue of Hoopa coming to terms with his inner darkness. Oddly, enough, Hoopa's doing it while his darkness was possessing Ash.
- Third-Person Person: While Hoopa calls others by their actual names or nicknames, Hoopa refers to Hoopa as Hoopa. This seems to stem from Hoopa's speech combining Talking Pokémon with Pokémon Speak.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Hoopa's favorite food is doughnuts, presumably because they're shaped like rings.
- Trailers Always Lie: The trailers for this movie lied about Ash looking up to Shadow Hoopa Unbound and the moment where he's supposedly possessed by it and flashing a very scary Slasher Smile to his friends. He does get possessed, but it only lasts about a minute near the end.
- Truer to the Text: While the Cosplay Pikachu are depicted as being 5 Pikachu each wearing one of Cosplay Pikachu's outfits like in the special movie-making episode, all five are female Pikachu whereas the special episode had Rock Star and Libre being male Pikachu.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Hoopa summons Lugia to help fight off and distract Shadow Hoopa long enough to recreate the Prison Bottle. When Shadow Hoopa sends it back to the ocean, Hoopa summons Latios, Latias, and Black Rayquaza. In response, Shadow Hoopa summons Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, Kyurem, Giratina, Dialga and Palkia to have a numerical advantage. While it seems that Shadow Hoopa has the advantage, he didn't foresee the trio Mega Evolving...
- Uncatty Resemblance: Meray has a ponytail that resembles Hoopa's and when she's older has tied her longer Girlish Pigtails in rings that resembles the ones on Hoopa's horns.
- Unexplained Recovery: Latios shows up here, and it's hinted that it's the same Eon Duo from Altomare despite Latios having performed a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Uniqueness Decay: Zigzagged all over the place.
- Latios, Groudon and Rayquaza play this straight. The original member of the former died to save his home, though there were two others briefly visible, flying with Latias at the end, the middle wasn't actually real, and the latter is an alternate color from the last time its species was in the movies.
- Latias, Kyurem, Arceus, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina avert this. The former two are shown in their homes in the opening, the third is- well, Godnote , and the anime hasn't given an explanation detailing alternate ways to create the Sinnoh Dragons, in light of one they have in the games.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight. Averted. The cityfolk quickly are aware the fighting between legendaries and begin evacuating.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Arcay sibling's great-grandfather locked away Hoopa's ability to pass through its portals. Unfortunately this prevented Hoopa from escaping and almost died.
- Vocal Dissonance: In the Japanese and English versions of the film, Hoopa possesses a soft feminine voice in its Confined form (it can also be interpreted as a Cross-Dressing Voice of a young boy). In it's Unbound form, it suddenly possesses a bold masculine voice.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Since Lugia gets removed from the battle long before Hoopa's reform, Lugia is still probably trying to make its way back, not knowing that by the time it returns, the conflict will already be over.
- The other village kids who were friends with the Arcay siblings in the past (from the opening short) are nowhere to be seen in the present of the movie proper, despite some of them being quite developed in their own right.
- The Worf Barrage: Following Shadow's defeat, the space-time around the prison altar starts breaking and imploding. None of the legends, even the two responsible for keeping space-time in check are capable of slowing the destruction down. It takes a literal Deus ex Machina in order for Hoopa to escape.
