Japanese Title: Poppo and the Enormous Poppo! Towards the As Yet Unseen Sky!!
Original Air Date: August 16, 2001
US Air Date: September 21, 2002
A Tiny Bird with a big dream.
Ash and his crew encounter an island with a flock of Pidgeys that had gotten pudgy and no longer desired to fly, save for one normal Pidgey, named Orville, that desired to fly all the way to the Sun. Meowth, inspired by its story, decides to help the Pidgey live out its dream.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Averted. Orville gets high enough that the sky is black, making it look like he's in space, but loses consciousness because the air is too thin, and descends again. Orville also remarks to Meowth about becoming numb before his descent. Meowth immediately gets Orville an oxygen mask when it goes through the balloon and lands in the basket.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Team Rocket's balloon (from which Orville's flight was staged) gets a hole and starts crashing, the pudgy Pidgeys gang up and use Headbutt to soften its landing.
- Forgot I Could Fly: The pudgy Pidgeys. Initially, Professor Oak thinks it's just dietary. But it turns out they stopped flying because the skies over their island were terrorized by a Fearow.
- Magical Defibrillator: Pikachu uses Thundershock to revive Orville after he's recovered.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Team Rocket initially decides to steal Pikachu and Orville. But after helping Orville, a rocket malfunction blasts them off before they could execute their plan.
- Pet the Dog: Meowth's efforts to help Orville pursue his dreams were genuine. Orville even caught up to Meowth after they were blasted off, and they discussed him possibly trying to go to the Moon.
- Shout-Out: Orville's trainer is named Wilbur. This is an obvious play on the Wright brothers.
- Very Special Episode: This episode is about a Pokémon who has a dream many considered impossible.
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Written by Cast Member: The dubbed version was written by Maddie Blaustein, the voice of Meowth.
