Thread: Pokémon: An international cultural phenomenon: An examination of the franchise in pop

Originally Posted by Sketch

He says Swallows. It's not a Swellow cameo.

You know, that doesn't really disprove anything. Subtitles are wrong all of the time. I've noticed this a lot since I basically have to watch TV with subtitles in order to understand what is being said.

Originally Posted by Soon-kun

During one scene in Tokyo people in Pikachu and I think Charmander costumes were running around. IIRC, there were other brief cameos in some of the deleted scenes too.

Oh, I remember that! Didn't it like deflate or something?

Also in a simpsons episode there was a spoof on bakugan and a kid said it makes digimon look like pokemon.
EDIT:Yah in a Total Drama subtitle it says Explodiva instead of Explosivo. And the subtitlers probaly never watched pokemon.

At all the people who doubt the Swellow cameo: why then, did the writers of the movie choose those particular birds as opposed to pigeons or something? All comedies are carefully scripted and aesthetics are very important in an animated comedy, so "coincidences" like these are more often than not intentional. It seems like an intentional reference to me, albeit one very subtle.

Originally Posted by rockman0

You know, that doesn't really disprove anything. Subtitles are wrong all of the time. I've noticed this a lot since I basically have to watch TV with subtitles in order to understand what is being said.

Of course, because it's the right word for the species it MUST be wrong. It's not a Pokemon reference, period.

They probably wouldn't put "Swellow" in the subtitles because it falls into a sort of grey area with copyrights.

This article makes me so happy. :D

Originally Posted by I am not a he

At all the people who doubt the Swellow cameo: why then, did the writers of the movie choose those particular birds as opposed to pigeons or something?

Swallows are common migratory birds, and were returning to the town, not realising there was a big dome put over it since they were last there, thus they all crashed into it. That was the joke.

And honestly, does this really need to become a debate? Just look at them for crying out loud. They don't even share any of the few features Swellow has that seperate it from any other cartoon swallow in the first place.

This piece of information sure is hard to swallow.

Originally Posted by V Faction

This piece of information sure is hard to swallow.

You mean its hard to swellow.

Why doesn't anyone who has the DVD just listen to what he says considering that the pronunciation of Swellow and Swallow are quite different rather than relying on subtitles that on many occasions, may not be accurate.

I had a Charizard card (sparkles and everything) but then some jerk on my street stole it then threw it down the drain.

Originally Posted by Outrage

Why doesn't anyone who has the DVD just listen to what he says considering that the pronunciation of Swellow and Swallow are quite different rather than relying on subtitles that on many occasions, may not be accurate.

Alright, I'm going to go listen to it, be back with the result soon.

Edit: It was a bit hard to tell, but I listened about 3 times on full volume and I can say he definitely said "swallows".

So we have no evidence that they intended for it to be a Swellow cameo.

Originally Posted by Grave-E

Swallows are common migratory birds, and were returning to the town, not realising there was a big dome put over it since they were last there, thus they all crashed into it. That was the joke.

And honestly, does this really need to become a debate? Just look at them for crying out loud. They don't even share any of the few features Swellow has that seperate it from any other cartoon swallow in the first place.

You're the smartest person in this argument, mostly because you're the only one who knows about the swallow's migratory habits. (Like, seriously, nobody has ever heard of the swallows returning to Capistrano every year? Jeez.)

It's not a Pokémon reference, and those who think it is are either just ignorant, or they're simply fanboying or fangirling over a show making what they think is an extremely obscure reference to their favorite video game. It makes no fucking sense for them to just throw a flock of Swellow into The Simpsons Movie, but it does make perfect sense for them to be regular old swallows. This is a classic case of foolish people thinking they know more than sensible people and only proving themselves to be even greater fools in the process.

It's surprising that this article claims to showcase the "international"-ness of Pokemon but gives references to mostly American shows.

Aren't there any other "foreign" shows that have made references to Pokemon besides the two already mentioned in the article?

All this dissection of that line in the article and no one's pointed out the misplaced apostrophe?

^ I noticed it, but I didn't really think it needed to be brought up.