EP046

Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon redirects here. For the book, see Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon (book).

← EP045 : The Song of Jigglypuff

Original series

EP047 : A Chansey Operation →

Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon

EP046   ふっかつ！？かせきポケモン！ Resurrection!? Fossil Pokémon!

First broadcast Japan May 28, 1998 United States February 27, 1999

English themes Opening Pokémon Theme Ending

Japanese themes Opening めざせポケモンマスター Ending ポケットにファンタジー

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 武上純希 Junki Takegami Storyboard 井上修 Osamu Inoue Assistant director 井上修 Osamu Inoue Animation director 梶浦紳一郎 Shin'ichirō Kajiura Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon (Japanese: ふっかつ！？かせきポケモン！ Resurrection!? Fossil Pokémon!) is the 46th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on May 28, 1998, and in the United States on February 27, 1999.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Blurb

Our heroes approach Grampa Canyon, famous for the beautiful scenery of its valley. As they approach, however, they find wave upon wave of people also heading for Grampa Canyon. Carrying backpacks, pickaxes, etc. they are all dressed like explorers. Ash has no idea what is so special about the canyon, but he notices a familiar face among the crowd—that of his rival, Gary. According to Gary, fossils from an extinct Pokémon have been discovered, triggering an ancient Pokémon excavation boom.

Plot

Ash and his friends are walking in an area called Grampa Canyon when they see a large group of people walking with picks and shovels. Gary appears and explains that he and the group are here for the Fossil Rush, because of a great discovery. Ash decides to join so that he can embarrass Gary by finding a Fossil before he does. Jigglypuff also appears, ready to sing, but the group leaves without noticing it.

Ash and his friends soon find a large area of the canyon where many people, including Gary, are digging. However, they also stumble across Team Rocket, who accidentally reveals their plan to blow up the canyon and steal all of the Fossils. Misty and Brock run off to alert everyone to the danger, while Ash agrees to handle Team Rocket. As Meowth lights the fuse, Ash runs up to Team Rocket and sends out Squirtle in an attempt to put the flame out. Squirtle, Pikachu, and Ash chase the fuse, trying to put it out, but Squirtle's Water Gun keeps missing the flame while Team Rocket try to stop him. Team Rocket then falls and starts rolling, resulting in a ball of people and Pokémon rolling into Ash, landing right beside the dynamite. As the fuse draws near to the dynamite, Pikachu panics and uses Thunder Shock, causing the dynamite to detonate. The blast opens up a giant fissure in the ground, which disturbed rocks soon fill. Ash and Team Rocket are now trapped in an underground cave, with only Squirtle escaping from the rubble. Hearing the explosion, Misty and Brock run over and start digging out rock and soil with Squirtle.

In the cave, Ash and Team Rocket start to argue. However, they soon notice that they are surrounded by mysterious glowing eyes and fall silent. Ash checks his Pokédex for details, and the Pokémon are revealed to be Omanyte, Omastar, Kabuto, and Kabutops. Jessie and James begin to speculate that the explosion must have awakened them from thousands of years of sleep. Regardless, Team Rocket begin to contemplate stealing the Pokémon for their boss, and attempt to catch them by throwing Poké Balls at the Fossil Pokémon. A Kabutops blocks the balls, and they are rebounded at Meowth. All of the Fossil Pokémon start approaching the group to attack, so Ash sends out his Charmeleon, but he refuses to help. A chase scene ensues, where the Fossil Pokémon are winning the chase. Then, all of a sudden, the Pokémon run away deeper into the cave. Originally confused, the group soon realizes why, and an Aerodactyl swoops in, knocking over Charmeleon. Angry, Charmeleon tries to attack the Aerodactyl but is knocked out before he gets a chance. Aerodactyl then grabs onto Ash with its claws and begins to fly towards the surface. Before the Flying-type Pokémon can get too far, Pikachu and Charmeleon jump on board.

Back above ground, Brock's Geodude had finally dug a hole through the rubble. The Aerodactyl flies out of the hole in the ground, dropping Pikachu and Charmeleon on its way out, and perches on a cliff with Ash still in hand. Charmeleon wants to battle the Aerodactyl out of revenge, but the Aerodactyl just taunts him. Fueled with anger, Charmeleon evolves into Charizard. Ash is happy, as he thinks that Charmeleon has evolved to rescue him. Unfortunately, he soon realizes Charizard merely wants to battle Aerodactyl for his own pride and has no intention of rescuing Ash.

Meanwhile, Misty sees Jigglypuff and tells it to sing its slumber song to make Aerodactyl fall asleep. Jigglypuff agrees and quite happily sings, sending everyone in the canyon to sleep. Aerodactyl, now asleep, falls into the rubble, dropping Ash before plummeting. Luckily, Charizard manages to stay awake by covering his ears and proceeds to catch the sleeping Ash before he hits the ground. However, he also falls asleep after landing. Ash rolls off of Charizard, landing next to a Pokémon Egg. Jigglypuff, seeing everyone has fallen asleep, draws markings on their faces out of spite. After awakening, Officer Jenny announces that the whole incident was a dream caused by Jigglypuff's song, although Ash knows it wasn't. In addition, Jenny announces that paleontological work will no longer be permitted, as any further digging may lead to more cave-ins and the eventual collapse of the entire canyon.

As Ash and his friends leave, Ash takes the Egg out of his backpack, revealing that he had found it at the site. This causes the group to fight playfully about who should get to raise and keep the Egg. Brock takes the Egg and runs away, promising to take good care of it, with Ash and Misty in tow. Meanwhile, Team Rocket and their Pokémon remain trapped in the cave, with the sleeping Fossil Pokémon only a few feet away.

Major events

Ash's newly evolved Charizard

• Ash and his friends encounter Gary again.
• Jessie and James both attempt and fail to catch a Kabutops.
• Ash's Charmeleon evolves into Charizard, but remains disobedient.
• Ash finds a Pokémon Egg, and Brock decides to be in charge of taking care of it.

For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Ash's Charizard
• Omanyte
• Omastar
• Kabuto
• Kabutops
• Aerodactyl

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Nurse Joy
• Officer Jenny
• Gary
• Gary's cheerleaders
• Fossil hunters

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Kabutops

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Charmeleon (Ash's; evolves)
• Charizard (Ash's; newly evolved)
• Squirtle (Ash's)
• Geodude (Brock's)
• Arbok (Jessie's)
• Weezing (James's)
• Jigglypuff (anime)
• Omanyte (×2; debut)
• Omastar (×2; debut)
• Kabuto (×2; debut)
• Kabutops (×2; debut)
• Aerodactyl (debut)

Trivia

• There are two Indiana Jones references in this episode. First, Gary's digging clothes are very similar to the titular character's clothes; and later, when Ash is attempting to put out the fuse lit by Team Rocket, they roll into a boulder, similar to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• The events of this episode will be recounted in Pokémon Paparazzi, as it turns out that Todd Snap happened to be in the area, so he took a picture of the Aerodactyl as it was flying off with Ash.
• This marks the second time that Ash had two Flying-type Pokémon in his team simultaneously. That hadn't happened since Bye Bye Butterfree and won't happen again until Riding the Winds of Change!.
• Three books were at least partially adapted from this episode: Charizard, Go! and Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon of the novelization series, and Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon of the Adventure series.
• This episode is featured on Volume 3: Charizard from Viz Media's Pokémon All-Stars series.
• A shot of Aerodactyl performing an akanbe, which involves pulling its eyelid down and sticking out its tongue at the same time, is still present in the dub, despite similar shots being removed from Clefairy and the Moon Stone and A Ruin with a View.
• Parts of this episode were reanimated and used for flashback material for The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.
• Some of Charizard's lines can be heard in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee. In Super Smash Bros., one of its lines during the Aerodactyl battle can be heard during that Charizard's Poké Ball summon. In the Japanese version of Melee, its line after it is sent out can be heard during the Poké Ball summon.

Errors

• When Gary comments on Ash being a "loser", his eyelid is colored white.
• During Team Rocket's motto, James's belt briefly turns white like his pants.
• When the camera is panning over all of the Pokémon to show their red eyes, Kabuto is depicted with the colors of its claws and shell inverted.
• When Ash says that Charmeleon still does not obey him, the straps on his bag are colored blue like his jacket instead of green.
• Pikachu uses an Electric attack on Kabutops; however, the Kabutops is unaffected as if it were a Ground type, despite Kabutops being a Rock/Water type and weak to electric attacks. This is most likely because during the first season, it is often incorrectly stated that Rock Pokémon are immune to Electric attacks.
• When Ash and his friends are surprised when Charmeleon starts evolving, the straps on Brock's bag are the same color as his vest.
• When Charizard fires its Flamethrower at Aerodactyl, the part of its wings that were previously colored blue are depicted in a yellow color.
• When Ash rolls onto the Pokémon Egg, all of its patterns are colored red, instead of half-red and half-blue.
• When everyone is piled up upon each other before the dynamite hits, Squirtle's eyes turn red.
• When Ash commands Squirtle to put out the fuse, the buckle on Ash's belt is missing.
  • In the same scene, Ash's gloves are covering his fingers, the red dots on his shoes are gone, and Pikachu appears 1/3 of Ash's size instead of 1/4.
• When Jigglypuff notices that everyone fell asleep, Pikachu's tail has its colors reversed.
• When Ash says that Jigglypuff and Charizard saved the day, the bottom of Misty's shorts is dark-blue instead of light-blue.

• 

  Gary's miscolored eyelid

• 

  Kabuto's color swap

• 

  Charizard's yellow wings

• 

  The Egg's missing blue shapes

Dub edits

• Kanto Pokérap: Day 1 (Version 2)
• The sign at the beginning of the episode states the name of the canyon in the Japanese version. In the dub, the sign is a picture of a pick-axe and shovel.
  • Similarly, the writing on the stage in Jigglypuff's fantasy was originally Japanese.
• Gary originally asked what kind of Pokémon the fossil was rather than whether it was a fossilized brain.
• Meowth threatening to turn Jessie and James into fossils after emerging from rubble was originally him demanding to know whether they intended to turn him into a fossil.
• The point where Meowth actually lights the fuse is cut in Kids' WB! version of the dub. Instead, the camera zooms in to Meowth's face so the lighter isn't seen. This scene is uncut on the home video and streaming versions, as well as in the foreign dubs.
• When digging through the rocks, Misty says in the Japanese version that Ash had better not die on her, because he owes her a bike. In the dub, she simply says that he still owes her a bike.
• The scene of Team Rocket singing a variation of "Rock-a-bye baby" to the sleeping Aerodactyl was originally them muttering their catchphrase.

In other languages

Language		Title
Arabic		هجوم البوكمونات المنقرضة
Mandarin Chinese		復活？化石神奇寶貝 / 复活？化石神奇宝贝
Czech		Útok prehistorických pokémonů
Danish		De Forhistoriske Pokémoner Angriber
Dutch		Aanval van de Prehistorische Pokémon
Finnish		Muinaisten Pokémonien hyökkäys
European French		L'attaque du Pokémon préhistorique
German		Angreifer aus der Urzeit Angreifer der Urzeit*
Hebrew		מתקפת הפוקימונים Mitkefet ha'Pokémonim
Hindi		प्राचीन पोकेमोन का हमला! Prachin Pokémon ka Hamla! *
Hungarian		Támadnak az őspokémonok!
Italian		Avventure preistoriche* L'attacco del Pokémon della preistoria*
Korean		포켓몬 화석이여, 편히 잠들거라!
Norwegian		De forhistoriske Pokémon
Polish		Prehistoryczne Pokémony atakują
Portuguese	Brazil	Ataque dos Pokémons Pré-Históricos Ataque dos Pokémon Pré-Históricos*
	Portugal	Ataque do Pokémon Pré-Histórico
Romanian		Atacul Pokémonului Prehistoric
Russian		Атака доисторического покемона
Slovak		Útok prehistorických pokémonov
Spanish	Latin America	¡El ataque de los Pokémon prehistóricos!
	Spain	El ataque de los Pokémon prehistóricos
Swedish		Förhistoriska Pokémon
Tamil		அட்டாக் ஒப்பி தி ப்ரெஹிஸ்டாரிக் போகிமொன் Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon *
Telugu		పురాతన కాలం నాటి పోకెమోన్ దాడి Puratana kaalam nati Pokémon dadi *
Turkish		Tarih Öncesi Pokémon'un Saldırısı

← EP045 : The Song of Jigglypuff

Original series

EP047 : A Chansey Operation →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.