A young boy wakes up to see a talking Charmander speaking to him. As it turns out, he's been transformed into a Pokemon himself, specifically a Squirtle. The Charmander takes him to his base where he asks the Squirtle to join a Rescue Team with him and his friend, a Chikorita. Squirtle agrees and the three become a Rescue Team: Team Go-Getters.
The first job they volunteer for is to rescue a Pikachu, who has apparently gone missing. However, they also encounter a rival rescue squad known as Team Meanies.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate! is the first animated adaptation of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon spinoff games. This special is based on the original two Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team games. Despite officially being a part of the main anime and using the same style as it, the special is unrelated to the anime and takes place in a separate universe.
This special contains examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: "We don’t need that bumbling bunch of baby bumpkins butching up our rescue raid."
- A Dog Named "Dog": Everyone is called by their species name. Even the formerly-human protagonist is called "Squirtle", with no handwaved reason such as him having forgotten his name.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The prettiness of the bubbles Squirtle makes is enough to (to be fair, briefly) take his mind off how he used to be a human.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- Inverted with Pichu when he sets out in an attempt to save Pikachu.
- Played straight with Pikachu when he expresses remorse at Pichu being put in danger.
- Canon Foreigner: In the original game, the base team is just the protagonist and their friend. In the special, Squirtle is the third member of a team already containing the partner (Charmander) and a Chikorita. Chikorita is the Canon Foreigner.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Team Meanies, it's right in their name.
- Cool Old Lady: Auntie Kangaskhan. She gives the Go-Getters supplies for their mission and encourages them to beat the Meanies.
- Disney Death: Skarmory’s eyes turn to "X"s when she is knocked out by Team Go-Getters, but then she gets up, no longer with malicious intentions and genuinely confused about the current situation. It's nice that they kept the detail from the games' storyline that Pokémon have been acting strange and that's why they’re out to cause harm.
- Distressed Dude: Pikachu and Pichu are held hostage by Skarmory.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Squirtle does manage to learn Water Gun in the end. With how much he talks about wanting to, it’s pretty obvious it will happen.
- Easily Forgiven: When the Go-Getters find Team Meanies unconscious on the mountain, they split up their last Oran Berry and use it to bring them back to consciousness, even though the Meanies had previously depleted most of the Go-Getters' supplies for the mission and sealed Pichu in the cave.
- Forced Transformation: The protagonist is a boy who has turned into a Squirtle.
- Forgot About His Powers: Pikachu apparently doesn’t think to simply shock Skarmory, who has a type weakness against Pikachu (Flying versus Electric). Pichu not so much, since he’d hurt himself.
- For the Evulz: It's never explained why exactly Skarmory kidnaps Pikachu and Pichu, although she supposedly "got knocked on the head" beforehand.
- Furry Confusion: The Shroomish in Sinister Cave only say their name, as in the main story anime episodes, yet all other Pokémon speak.
- Imagine Spot: Squirtle has one in which he uses Water Gun to propel himself backwards to the top of the mountain.
- Kid Hero: It's ambiguous in the games, however the anime shows that the protagonists are child Pokémon due to their voices.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Pichu dropping a Quick Seed out of the treasure bag, followed by Pikachu kicking it, complete with slow motion and saturation effects.
- Mythology Gag: In the Japanese version, TMs are referenced. This is the only reference to Technical Machines in the anime.
- No Name Given: The original name of the protagonist. He is simply referred to as "Squirtle".
- Offscreen Karma: Team Meanies have been brutally defeated by Skarmory when the Go-Getters find them.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Chikorita gathering an entire Toolbox's worth of Berries for the mission. Unfortunately, Gengar instructs "Arbok" (read: Ekans) to eat them all.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: During the fight, Skarmory's eyes are red, and turn yellow afterward.
- Save the Villain: The Go-Getters using their last Oran Berry to revive Team Meanies.
- Skewed Priorities: Charmander and Chikorita humorously dismiss Squirtle’s claims that he used to be a human, but gasp in shock when he doesn’t know what a rescue team is.
- To Be Continued: This caption appears at the end, but over a decade later, this has not happened. It’s possible that this was referring to the main Pokémon anime (which always has this caption at the end), but that would still be a little misleading.
- Too Dumb to Live: If Squirtle had succeeded in using Water Gun to launch himself in the air, as in his fantasy, he would have been sent flying off the mountain since he didn't turn around to face the edge.
- The Unreveal: It's never revealed what caused the human to turn into a Squirtle.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Pikachu and Pichu are held in place by two vines. Which don’t even appear to be that tight.
- You Have Researched Breathing: The special shows that, at least in the case of the Squirtle character, Pokémon need to learn to control their powers. He can initially use Bubble but can't concentrate enough to use Water Gun.
