Are the Pokemon Movies canon?

[PokemonLotty]

This has probably been discussed before but, I didn't see a thread on it so...whatever I'm posting this. I hope this doesn't turn into a flame war T_T....
I personally think that they are, what about everyone else, what do you think and why???

 

[JennaJayfeather]

I like to think that the movies 1-13 are canon ^^; but as for 14...erm I don't want it to be canon, and it's hard to think of it being canon especially with two of them.

 

[Data_Error]

I remember that Ash's ability to use aura was featured briefly in the DP series, and that the movie version of Mewtwo was seen in two episodes near the end of season one.

So yes, the movies are definitely canon. The two just tend not to overlap very much.

 

[CommanderPigg]

Search harder ;D Haha, just kidding, this is perfectly fine. In fact, please don't bump the previous thread. Just posting in case people wanted past opinions.

In my opinion, they are canon. If I remember correctly, weren't Ash and Brock knowledgeable about Aura during DP?
EDIT: I just now realized that I was seriously ninja'd XD

I think it'd be cool if we got more evidence on this once Zorua appears again. I'd love to see a bit more continuity.

 

[The Puppetmaster]

I also think the movies are canon. In addition to the examples others have listed, Ash recognized Latios at first glance when battling against Tobias in the Lily of the Valley Conference even though he had only seen one from Pokémon Heroes, and Dawn had a Lunar Wing in DP104 Sleepless in Pre-Battle! that she purchased during Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai.

 

[Miar]

MST3K Mantra
Movies 1, 2, 8, and 10 undoubtedly are. The others may or may not.

With that, they appear to be zigzagging between canon and not. For the rest, at least there's a believable place you can put them which makes them still possible.
In short, I say yes.

 

[Afrojisiac-19]

I've heard this word repeatedly used through the years, but I've never knew exactly what it means...What exactly doesn "canon" mean?

 

[CommanderPigg]

I've heard this word repeatedly used through the years, but I've never knew exactly what it means...What exactly doesn "canon" mean?

Canon means "within the context of the official work." Although technically, all movies are "official works," it's debatable on whether or not they are continuous with the anime story line. In that case, there'd be two canons: the anime canon and the movie canon.


Another example, in terms of shipping, when something is called "canon," it means that that couple had officially been realized in the media, and it's not just "fanon" (popular with the fandom, generally accepted as true without much debate, regardless of the canon)

 

[Kip]

I've heard this word repeatedly used through the years, but I've never knew exactly what it means...What exactly doesn "canon" mean?

Canon pretty much just means that its official, true, real. In this case, it means that what happens in the movies actually happened in regards to the rest of the anime.

I think they are. People have cited some of the reasons from Diamond and Pearl, and Mewtwo appeared in a couple of episodes. And I remember in Johto during the Lugia arc in the Whirl Islands James said something about it being "A lugia! Like the one we saw at the orange islands."

Edit: The canon question was answered while I was typing out my post.
Even if all the others haven't been referenced, I believe the movies are, so far, all canon. I mean, we see all the time in the regular anime how bad Ash's memory is, so the fact that he doesn't mention something isn't always a strict guarantee.

 

[matt0044]

I think they are but it's sometime hard to figure out how they fit into the series sometimes. Like I wish that a movie started where an episode ended.

 

[Adamant]

The movies have been referenced to multiple times. Why on Earth would anyone believe them not to be?

The only parts of the anime that's kinda dodgy canon-wise are the later Pichu Bros shorts and a couple of the ANA shorts, which tend to toss Nyarth into positions that don't really match the regular series.

 

[kantoskies]

They are definitely canon.

As said in the other thread that was linked earlier, just because the events of a movie aren't commented on in an episode doesn't mean it's not canon. On that logic, most filler episodes wouldn't be canon.

 

[Afrojisiac-19]

Hmm...Well I'd have to say that I think they are, that is if they do in fact have relationship with the anime...

In the Whirl Cup Islands Arc, Lugia was shown there, and the group remembers seeing the one in the Orange Island from the 2nd movie.

And uhh...let's see, what else is there...Dawn got this Lunar Wing thing I think in one of the movies, and if I'm not mistaken, I believe she took out a similar item in the Cresselia VS Darkrai episode.

 

[PokemonLotty]

Whoops, ahaha, sorry I didn't see that XD!

But, yeah it's nice to see a lot of people agree with me.

 

[Cybersai]

They're all canon. People also forget The Great Butler from Movie 6 was a Team Magma member and the beginning showed a flashback of him presenting a Groudon meteorite to Team Magma.

Ash recognized Deoxys and Rayquaza after first seeing then in Movie 7. Same with Munchlax when May caught hers, they remembered the Munchlax from Movie 7.

Movie 9 had no reference, but what do you expect? A Manaphy never appeared in an episode and with May gone, that was the entire point of the movie.

 

[Piplup]

I always laughed at that "canon" word and about the idea of the movies somehow not being counted as part of the plot... it's really ridiculous to think this way... even if they didn't have any references to the movies (which they DO as proved in the posts above) they also never referenced 325235 "fillers" - so with that logic, half the show didn't happen because half the eps were never referenced again

 

[Kyuuketsuki]

They are canon. Not being referenced doesn't cancel that, think of all the fillers; they are just as canon as those.

 

[Froakie]

They are all canon, apart from the one coming up. Many of the previous ones have had mentions, but this one is split into two completely different movies - not canon. Unless Ash is a photon.

 

[Lilac]

They are all canon, apart from the one coming up. Many of the previous ones have had mentions, but this one is split into two completely different movies - not canon. Unless Ash is a photon.

if it is it would be something from both movies

 

[Piplup]

They are all canon, apart from the one coming up. Many of the previous ones have had mentions, but this one is split into two completely different movies - not canon. Unless Ash is a photon.

The upcoming one can be "canon" too... they can reference in the episodes something that happened in both versions of the movie and not just in one of them
It'd make at least one of the movie's versions "canon" without telling us which of them
We can say that this movie's one version is in the TV show's world while the other version is in some different universe... we'll just probably never know which version is the one of the TV show's world... so the movie itself will be "canon", with a mystery being around which of the versions is the one set in the TV show's world (also, that won't make the other version "not canon", since even if they were to say Reshiram's movie is the TV show's world, then the Zekrom movie will still be "canon" since it DID happen, just in a different world, which is a possible way to explain the Mystery Dungeon episodes: they're "canon" because they DID happen and have continuity between themselves, they're simply in a different universe than the regular TV show episodes)