Recap / Pokémon S1 E46 "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon"

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Japanese Title: Resurrection!? Fossil Pokémon!

Original Airdate: May 28, 1998

US Airdate: February 27, 1999

The one where... Charmeleon enters his cynical adulthood.

Ash and company have reached the Grampa Canyon on their travels, which conveniently has lots of explorers searching for fossils the exact day they arrive. Prompted by Gary's appearance at the canyon, Ash decides to search for his own fossils, but things go astray when Team Rocket present their scheme to blow up the canyon and steal all of the fossils. Eventually the canyon does blow up and Ash, Pikachu and Team Rocket get stuck underground with all of the fossil Pokémon.

The fossil Pokémon fight back against the new intruders, and things eventually go From Bad to Worse when an Aerodactyl joins in with the fun. Ash gets captured by the angry Pokémon but his Charmeleon manages to fight back when it evolves into Charizard. Jigglypuff eventually arrives and puts all the Pokémon to sleep, saving Ash but forever trapping Aerodactyl and the other Pokémon yet again. Ash manages to find a rare Pokémon egg, and then the journey continues.

This episode contains examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptation Deviation: The novel adaptation has the egg hatching into Togepi straight away and promptly imprinting on Misty.
• Adventurer Outfit: Gary dresses up in the archaelogist style for this episode.
• All Just a Dream: Of course, this is what Officer Jenny wanted the people who fell asleep because of Jigglypuff to think.
• Always a Bigger Fish: The initial four types of Fossil Pokémon suddenly stop attacking Ash and Team Rocket when they realize what part of the cave they're in: Aerodactyl's.
• Ash Face: The newly-evolved Charizard recklessly launches Flamethrowers at Aerodactyl as it carries Ash in its claws, roasting Ash's face in the process.
• Berserk Button: When Aerodactly makes a face at Charmeleon, it is completely triggered which causes it to evolve into Charizard!
• Bowdlerize: When this episode aired on Kids' WB!, the shot of Meowth lighting the dynamite fuse was cropped so his lit Zippo-type lighter wasn't visible. The shot of Meowth lighting the fuse is left unaltered on cable airings, streaming and home video releases of the English dub.
• Call-Back: Whilst shoveling the rocks trying to save Ash, Misty once again refers to the fact that he owes her a new bike.
• Color Failure: The reaction of Pikachu (and everybody else) when it electrocutes the dynamite.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The fossil Pokémon easily defeat Pikachu, Arbok, and Weezing. Later Charmeleon for once is willing to fight against Aerodactyl only to get knocked aside in one attack.
• Didn't Think This Through: Pikachu quickly realizes why it's not a good idea to use an electric attack on a dynamite fuse.
• Dirty Coward: When Aerodactyl notices that the Charmeleon it pushed around has evolved into a very pissed off Charizard, it flies away as quickly as it can without even trying to fight back.
• The Dreaded:
  • The prehistoric Pokémon start running away once Team Rocket run close to Aerodactyl's lair.
  • Later on, Aerodactyl runs away when Charmeleon evolves into Charizard.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Ash finding the Pokémon egg, for two reasons - Pokémon eggs wouldn't appear until Generation II, and neither would the Pokémon that it eventually hatches into, Togepi.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The plot of this episode revolves around fossil Pokémon being rare and undiscovered. Fossil Pokémon will become progressively less and less fabled in this way, to the point where Trevor having one in XYZ is not treated with any reverence outside of it being a formidable opponent.
  • In the original Japanese version, Gary digs up an ammonite fossil, a real-life animal. In future episodes, Ommanyte and Omastar would take on this role.
• Egg MacGuffin: Ash escapes the episode with an egg.
• End-of-Episode Silliness: Twice over.
  • When Ash reveals the egg that he found, Brock immediately swipes it from him and refuses to give it back to Ash, stating that he will take care of it, with Misty siding with him by shamelessly accusing Ash of being too clumsy and untrustworthy with it. Ash winds up chasing after them when Brock refuses to give the egg back.
  • As Ash chases after his friends off into the sunset, the scene then cuts to Team Rocket still trapped underground surrounded by the sleeping prehistoric Pokémon, including the carnivorous Aerodactyl. The episode ends with them singing a lullaby to keep the Pokémon asleep only for James to sneeze at the last moment, waking up Aerodactyl.
• Enemy Mine: Charizard's first fight essentially amounts to this.
• Everything Sensor: Ash's Pokédex veers into this territory by being able to scan four fossil Pokémon at once, and later Aerodactyl. While having their data entries is reasonable enough, unless a trainer were to use it on museum exhibits (which would have information plaques anyway), there's no practical reason for it to be able to recognize them from a scan.
• Exit, Cornered By Sleeping Prehistoric Pokémon: Team Rocket is last seen trapped underground, accidentally waking up the slumbering (and hungry) Aerodactyl next to them. Of course in the next episode, Team Rocket is back alive and well.
• Eye Catch: The Who's That Pokémon? this week is Kabutops.
• Eyelid Pull Taunt: Aerodactyl to Charmeleon. This pisses off Charmeleon so much that he promptly evolves.
• Face Doodling: After putting everyone to sleep Jigglypuff angrily draws on everyone's faces. Again.
• Face Plant: Gary's reaction when an archaeologist tells him he unearthed fossilized Pokemon manure.
• From Bad to Worse: The Omanyte and Kabuto lines begin attacking Ash and the others, but then halt and run away when they realize exactly where they are. Cue Aerodactyl, who grabs Ash for a potential dinner before Charmeleon intervenes after it evolves into Charizard.
• Hidden Depths: Charizard, despite being a Hot-Blooded Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy, is smart enough to shut his ears when Jigglypuff starts singing and saves Ash's life.
• Hope Spot: After Charmeleon evolves into Charizard and chases after Aerodactyl, Ash takes it to mean that Charmeleon evolved so that it could save it's trainer and is finally obeying him at last. However, after receiving a face full of Flamethrower, Ash then realizes Charizard only wants to battle Aerodactyl.
• Hot-Blooded: Charmeleon, who gets so enraged that there's an asshole Aerodactyl taunting him, that he evolves.
• Idiot Ball: Pikachu uses ThunderShock to stop the Dynamite Candle from going off. The reaction on the faces of everyone present just sells it.
• Ill-Timed Sneeze: Team Rocket becomes trapped underground, and the Aerodactyl wakes up due to James sneezing.
• Kidnapping Bird of Prey: After the prehistoric Pokémon living in the canyon are riled up, an Aerodactyl — a monstrous pterosoaur slash wyvern — carries off Ash. Charmeleon, angry at not being able to fight it due to being stuck in the ground, evolves into his final, winged form as Charizard and battles it, causing it release Ash in the process.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: You'd think that Charmeleon evolved into Charizard to save Ash from Aerodactyl. Turns out all Charizard cared about was kicking its butt, with no regard for Ash's safety when it blasts fire at Aerodactyl.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When fantasizing what to do with the fame of discovering prehistoric Pokémon, Meowth fantasizes that he could perhaps get his own cartoon. For added hilarity, in past episodes he's made reference to the fact that he is in a cartoon!
• Let's Get Dangerous!: This is the only episode where Charmeleon actually fights on Ash's behalf (but only to battle Aerodactyl, not to save its trainer). When he's outmatched by Aerodactyl, he basically gets enraged enough to evolve into Charizard.
• Lost in Translation: In the Japanese episode, Shigeru (Gary) unearths an impressive discovery which turns out to by an ammonite. Since one of the Prehistoric Pokémon is the similar sounding Omanyte in the dub, to avoid questions of why Gary is embarrassed to discover the remains of an ancient Pokémon like he wanted, it was changed to “fossilized Pokémon manure” to create a different gag.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Ash, Squirtle and Team Rocket have this reaction when Pikachu tries to stop the dynamite by electrocuting it, knowing what was about to happen. Even Pikachu realizes the mistake he just made.
• Never My Fault: After ending up buried underground, Team Rocket blames Ash for the predicament for trying to put out the fuse (and possibly Pikachu for detonating the dynamite). Ash rightly says it wouldn't have happened if they hadn't planted the dynamite in the first place.
• No-Sell: Pikachu's Thundershock attack has no effect on Kabutops. This is curious since the anime is the cause of the misconception that Rock Types are immune to Electric Type moves, and with Kabutops, as well as all five Fossil Pokémon present in this episode, they are Rock/Water Type, with the exception of Aerodactyl who is Rock/Flying Type. With the anime mixing up type matchups regarding what Rock's actual weaknesses and resistances are, in reality, all of the Fossil Pokémon in Kanto are not only the sole Rock Types in Kanto to not be immune to Electric, but all five of them are incidentally outright weak to it, too!
• Oh, Crap!: Pikachu tries to stop the dynamite from exploding by electrocuting it. It immediately realizes how spectacularly idiotic this is.
• Pet the Dog: Despite still not liking Ash, Charizard is still good enough to block his ears and catch him after sleepy Aerodactyl drops him, lasting long enough to safely land on the ground.
• Powder Trail: Team Rocket has a long fuse to the dynamite they planted, so they won't get caught in the blast. Unfortunately, Ash and Squirtle race after it to put it out while Team Rocket chases him to ensure he doesn't put it out. They end up racing all the way down the canyon and find themselves in the vicinity of the dynamite.
• Pre-Explosion Glow: Naturally, when Pikachu accidentally sets off the explosives Team Rocket planned to use to blow up the canyon and steal the fossils.
• Properly Paranoid: Brock has reservations against digging up fossils and risk disturbing them. When Ash, Pikachu, and Team Rocket fall into the caverns thanks to the explosion from Team Rocket's dynamite scheme, they find fossil Pokemon who are a little agitated from being disturbed.
• Shared Mass Hallucination: Officer Jenny announces that the excavation is canceled and claims this at the end of the episode to attempt to assure everyone that Aerodactyl and the other Pokemon never existed. Then again, everyone fell asleep to Jigglypuff's song in the chaos, and Aerodactly and the other fossil Pokemon return to their slumber in the caves. At the very least, Ash's gang and Team Rocket remember what they saw.
• Shout-Out: Gary's outfit in this episode resembles Indy's.
• Shown Their Work: Oddly enough, the "fossilized Pokemon manure" joke—fossilized fecal matter does indeed exist, referred to as "coprolites" in scientific circles.
• Something We Forgot: While Ash and Pikachu manage to get out of the underground cave and escape the prehistoric Pokemon, Team Rocket is still trapped with them by the end of the episode.
• Terror-dactyl: Aerodactyl, a Pokémon that is based on a classical pterosaur, catches Ash with its claws.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Everyone reacts this way when Pikachu electrocutes the explosives in a panic, even Pikachu!
• Took a Level in Badass: Literally. Ash's Charmeleon evolving into a Charizard, giving it extra fire power and the ability to fly. This also means there's zero way for Ash to actually reprimand it because of how huge it now is.
• To Serve Man: Aerodactyl is said to be a carnivore and the first thing it goes after is Ash.
  Pokédex Entry: Aerodactyl, an extinct Flying Pokémon. Its hard fangs suggest that it was a carnivore. Its sharp claws were probably used to capture prey.
• Wham Shot: Ash finds a mysterious egg from the site on their way out of the dig site, which plays a big role in the next few episodes.