So why did Lucario get its own movie anyway?

Dogasu

Dogasu

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Yes, I know it's a Gen IV pokemon and they wanted to advertise the new games, but why not do it with one of the actual legendary pokemon instead? Like, the Regis are already in that movie, so wouldn't it have made more sense to have Regigigas be the Gen IV pokemon used? They would have had to dramatically rewrite the movie of course but it would have made a lot more sense promotion-wise than using a non-legendary, non-rare, not-all-that-hard-to-come-across Fighting-Type that has no connection to any of the other pokemon in that movie whatsoever.

Did someone just really really like Lucario's design and have that be what got it its own movie? Or is there some other reason?
 
Isn't Lucario the Pokémon most refer as 'special'? I mean, same story to Zoroark, they both have starred in a movie and aren't legendary at all. Zoroark and Lucario are alike, both have one pre-evolution.
 
But why does Lucario (and oh yeah, Zorroark) even get that "special" treatment in the first place? Just because?
 
I've always figured that they just came together and said "Hey, this thing looks pretty bad ass and the fans will probably freak out over it. Let's star it in a movie to hype them up."

I don't know much about the film, but it's possible they had the whole aura idea beforehand and used Lucario seeing as it's the aura pokémon? Only other reason I can think of other than 'just because'.
 
I just assumed they picked whichever Gen 4 Non-Legendary they thought was the coolest (though in my opinion, it would be Gallade) to introduce the viewers to the then incoming new Gen. And since he was highly well- received, and probably still is, they thought it would be best to milk him for all it's worth.
 
I figured that they wanted to throw a curve ball by not having a movie focus on a legendary Pokemon for once. Plus, I remember that there was some speculation before and after the movie came out regarding whether or not Lucario was a legendary Pokemon. I don't think that we knew that it evolved from a Riolu until a year or so after the movie came out, so maybe they also wanted to create some speculation about the fourth generation by introducing a new Pokemon that they didn't establish was legendary or not. They probably also thought that Lucario was marketable with its design and/or aura ability and decided to give it more attention with a movie.
 
To be fair, the same could be said about Unown in Movie 3.

I also heard that Lucario was also the last Poke created by Satoshi Tajiri, so it might be connected to that.
 
I thought it was just to give people a little glimpse of the next gen Pokemon and what the next gen has to offer. And it's probably the same with Pikachu, if people will dig one Pokemon then plaster it everywhere and get dem monehs. No harm in good business. I know some people's favourite Pokemon is Dustox but why make a movie and lots of merchandise if it doesn't have a huge fanbase already?
It's like Greninja being put in the next Super Smash Bros, people love Greninja and a lot of fans would probably buy the game just because it has Greninja in it. Same for Lucario and Zoroark. But really, who knows?
 
I always wondered that, too. During the time the movie came out, I wasn't really into Pokemon that much, so I assumed it was a legendary. Then I found out it wasn't and was like "Wha?"

I also assumed Unowns were legendary when the third movie came out. ...............Lol.
 
I personally like Regigigas, but there's no denying it doesn't have the same "focus-tested" design as Lucario.

People like canine-style monsters, probably why the Eevees, Arcanine, and such Pokemon are usually really high up on popular Pokemon lists. Same with Dragons.
 
I don't the other perspective - why would they make movies about Pokemon that are basically unobtainable in the games they are supposed to be promoting? The distribution only legendaries - especially Deoxys - are hardly reasons for getting the game and wanting to play through it.

It especially makes sense when dealing with a movie about a Pokemon from the next generation - Lucario was not obtainable in any way at the time of the movie coming out, so why would you make it hard to obtain after waiting for the games? I suppose they did that somewhat with Zoroark being directly unobtainable in Black and White - but being able to breed basically undoes any rarity it had.

Obviously you're not going to have a movie about Patrat, but where they can make a Pokemon as unique as they have with Lucario's Aura, I can't see how that's any less preferable than a legendary Pokemon.
 
fawfulmark2 said:
To be fair, the same could be said about Unown in Movie 3.
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True, but Entei was a huge focus in the movie, too.

Same could be said for the other non Legendary Pokemon movies, they all had a legendary counterpart. With Unown, it happened to be a debut of Entei, but Lucario was with Mew who already had a movie, and Zoroark had the shiny beasts and Celebi.

I could never figure out why Lucario got its own movie, either, besides that maybe they wanted to try something new-ish and was hyping Gen 4 the same way Zoroark was in its movie later in Gen 5. I guess the Pokemon people know what furries like.
 
Dogasu, now I'm wondering, if you're a bit uncomfortable with Lucario being the star of his own Movie, how do you feel about his inclusion in Smash Brothers? I know quite a lot of people feel he's one of the more "frivolous" additions, especially during Brawl when all he had was a Movie and Diamond and Pearl. Quite a few people are still angry he made Smash 4, although by now he's proven to have "staying power" in my opinion.
 
In my opinion I think it was a mix of expecting Lucario to be well received design-wise as well as wanting to present a strong bond between a "normal" Pokémon and Trainer.
 
Unown at least was a plot device that made the entire Entei-related event plausible (in that they made a little girl's imagination real) and were already established as these enigmatic Pokemon tied to an ancient civilization (that they apparently didn't think would be a good enough focus for a movie?).

As for why Regigigas and not Lucario? Perhaps they were trying not to make any implications that Gen IV would be a direct sequel to Gen III? Regigigas itself wasn't even part of the original Sinnoh Pokedex, so I wouldn't call it representative. I also wouldn't consider the Regis as something relatable (and was the least liked trio of the time), so I'm guessing they chose a Pokemon that kids could relate to. People might have also thought Regigigas would be some sort of event given in Gen III given how similar it is in design to the other three.

I wouldn't be surprised if the only reason they used it is because Game Freak designed Lucario in mind to be Gen IV's promotional Pokemon--I doubt its a coincidence that Sir Aaron and Riley have the same design. Someone at Game Freak obviously likes Lucario. I mean, not only does it get a Mega Evolution, but it gets to be the first Pokemon to Mega Evolve in-universe and the species associated with the Tower of Mastery, one-upping even Mewtwo as the first Mega Evolved Pokemon revealed in the franchise.
 
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The forum just bombed my reply so here's a short version. :(

The reason is simple. Just ask yourself "why did they choose Pikachu to be the mascot? Why Ash's Pokemon?"

Nintendo/Game Freak/whatever probably did some marketing research and probably saw some money potential in Lucario and its line. They decided to have the anime plug it into the movie (that would get the kids and the casual viewers to see it more so than just the anime) and see how it was received. It was received well and then they put it in other places like Brawl and other anime specials.

It's the same thing they did with Charizard, Mewtwo, and Greninja this generation. What they tried to do with Zoroark last generation.
 
Poyo said:
It's the same thing they did with Charizard, Mewtwo, and Greninja this generation. What they tried to do with Zoroark last generation.
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Funny how you say Mewtwo when it's the only one that hasn't been revealed in the new Smash Bros. game yet.
 
The Outrage said:
As for why Regigigas and not Lucario? Perhaps they were trying not to make any implications that Gen IV would be a direct sequel to Gen III? Regigigas itself wasn't even part of the original Sinnoh Pokedex, so I wouldn't call it representative. I also wouldn't consider the Regis as something relatable (and was the least liked trio of the time), so I'm guessing they chose a Pokemon that kids could relate to. People might have also thought Regigigas would be some sort of event given in Gen III given how similar it is in design to the other three.
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It's possible, too, that they knew the Regis were going to be in the anime; and the story told with Regigigas in the Anime was better suited as such. I admittedly have never seen the Lucario movie the entire way through (though I've heard it's one of the better movies) so I can't say if I think if it would have worked as a plot within the show or not.

That is something I wonder sometimes, how they decide what plot is going to be a movie and what they can fit in the television show like "there's lots of cool legendaries doing cool legendary things, better make this one a movie, also maybe we can add in more legendaries"
 
Nick102 said:
Poyo said:
It's the same thing they did with Charizard, Mewtwo, and Greninja this generation. What they tried to do with Zoroark last generation.
Click to expand...

Funny how you say Mewtwo when it's the only one that hasn't been revealed in the new Smash Bros. game yet.
Click to expand...

Mewtwo not being in the lineup for the Smash Bros. game yet has nothing to do with the topic at hand, so please don't get off topic.
 
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