EP041

← EP040 : The Battling Eevee Brothers

Original series

EP042 : Showdown at Dark City →

Wake Up Snorlax!

EP041   おきろ！カビゴン！ Wake up! Kabigon!

First broadcast Japan April 23, 1998 United States October 28, 1998

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 大橋志吉 Yukiyoshi Ōhashi Storyboard 鈴木敏明 Toshiaki Suzuki Assistant director 小川浩司 Kōji Ogawa Animation director 志村泉 Izumi Shimura Additional credits

Wake Up Snorlax! (Japanese: おきろ！カビゴン！ Wake up! Kabigon!) is the 41st episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on April 23, 1998 and in the United States on October 28, 1998.

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

Synopsis

Ash, Misty, and Brock are heading for another town, with Pikachu fast asleep. They run into a hippie, who plays a song on his Poké Flute (which wakes up Pikachu). He then asks them for food, but they don't have any, so they continue on their way. Then the hippie says, "Oh, well. Another free concert." Shortly after, Team Rocket arrives, and are rude toward the hippie when he plays them a song and asks them for food. After they walk away, he mentions that they should learn to respect their elders.

Ash, Misty, and Brock reach the town, only to find that there is no food, as there are no ingredients for cooking any food. The mayor of the town gives them food and tells them that the village is unable to get any food because the river has dried up, killing all the produce. So, Ash and his friends head upstream to check it out. They run into thorns, and Misty gets cut by one of them. With the help of Ash's Bulbasaur and its Razor Leaf, they get through the thorns to find that the flow of the river is being blocked by a Snorlax, which is very big and weighs close to 1000 pounds.

Ash, Misty, and Brock try to wake Snorlax up. Then, Team Rocket arrives. Team Rocket tries to steal Snorlax, which Ash and his friends try to help them with, as it will unblock the flow of the river. However, their attempt to steal Snorlax by attaching cables to their hot-air balloon doesn't work, so they decide to wake up Snorlax. After an alarm clock and a bucket of water prove unsuccessful, they decide to try the Sleeping Beauty approach, and get a Pokémon to kiss Snorlax. Misty tries to have Horsea kiss Snorlax, but Psyduck does instead. Team Rocket forces Meowth to kiss Snorlax, but even this doesn't wake it up, even though Snorlax seemed to flinch when this happened.

Then Snorlax rolls over, revealing a card that tells them that only the beautiful music from a Poké Flute will awaken a Snorlax. They remember the hippie had a Pokémon flute, and run over to him to ask him to wake up Snorlax. However, Ash, Misty, and Brock get into an argument with Team Rocket, and eventually Jessie tries to attack with Arbok, but a Gust attack from Pidgeotto sends them blasting off again.

Ash, Misty, and Brock take the hippie to Snorlax. As it turns out, the hippie owns the Snorlax. He wakes Snorlax up with his Poké flute, but the river is still blocked. The real source of the blockage is more thorns, but the thorns are Snorlax's favorite snack item, and it eats all the thorns, unplugging the river and saving the town.

After eating enough food, Snorlax goes back to sleep again. Team Rocket soon realizes that they won't be able to steal Snorlax, and then Snorlax rolls over on top of them.

Major events

• Ash tries and fails to capture a Snorlax.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Snorlax

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Hippie
• Mayor

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?: Snorlax

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Pidgeotto (Ash's)
• Bulbasaur (Ash's)
• Horsea (Misty's)
• Psyduck (Misty's)
• Arbok (Jessie's)
• Weezing (James's)
• Snorlax (debut)

Trivia

The scene where Misty was shown bleeding.

• This episode was the first time that a main character (Misty) was seen bleeding. The next time this happened was in Ignorance is Blissey, and after in Tears For Fears! where Ash was shown bleeding. Riolu is also shown bleeding in Pokémon Ranger and the Kidnapped Riolu! Part One.
• This is the first episode where two Pokémon are shown to be kissing each other: both Psyduck and Meowth kissed Snorlax directly on its mouth.
• This is the one of the few episodes whose English title is simply the Japanese title, translated.

Errors

• Ash appears not to have a mouth when the Snorlax first wakes up and walks away.
• The Pokédex says that Snorlax is a Sleepy Pokémon, not a Sleeping Pokémon.

Dub edits

• When Misty was shocked that there wasn't any bread left in the town, there was originally Japanese text behind her. This background was replaced in the dub.
• The town was actually a village in the Japanese version.
• The messages on Snorlax's card originally said "Do not wake up." and "If you need me, please wake me up with a Poké Flute."
• The amount of food that Snorlax eats in one day was originally 400 kg (which rounds up to about 882 lbs), instead of 900 lbs like in the dub.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		醒來吧！卡比獸！/ 醒来吧！卡比兽！
Czech		Vstávej, Snorlaxi!
Dutch		Wakker Worden Snorlax!
Finnish		Snorlax, herätys!
European French		Sommeil sans faim
German		Relaxo im Tiefschlaf
Hebrew		התעורר סנורלקס hit'orer Snorlax
Hungarian		Ébredj, Snorlax!
Italian		Il Pokémon addormentato
Portuguese	Brazil	Acorde, Snorlax!
	Portugal	Acorda, Snorlax!
Russian		Снорлакс, просыпайся!
Spanish	Latin America	¡Despierta Snorlax!
	Spain	Despierta Snorlax
Swedish		Vakna Snorlax!

← EP040 : The Battling Eevee Brothers

Original series

EP042 : Showdown at Dark City →

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