EP241
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Hocus Pokémon
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First broadcast
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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Hocus Pokémon (Japanese: ポケモンまほうでだいへんしん！？ A Huge Transformation with Pokémon Magic!?) is the 241st episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on March 21, 2002 and in the United States on April 5, 2003.
Synopsis
Ash and his friends are wandering around in a forest on their way to Blackthorn City. Just then a Murkrow approaches them and starts jabbering. Then a girl comes running out from the clearing exclaiming she finally found a Pikachu.
The girl introduces herself to Ash and his friends as Lily, a Pokémon magician. She searches far and wide for bizarre things from different Pokémon such as a Thunderbolt from Pikachu. Of course, Misty asks Lily to perform magic for her because ever since she was little she'd always dreamed about being a Pokémon magician. Lily asks Misty if she'd like a smoother complexion. She says that she would. So Lily puts everything together and says a magic chant and a lot of smoke rises from the pot. When this happens a bunch of Spinarak appear and use String Shot, covering Misty with it. The main reason Misty doesn't like this is that she is afraid of bugs.
Later, Lily announces that she needs Stun Spore from a Parasect. Ash volunteers gracefully to get it for her. He finds one and challenges it to a battle. At first it tries spraying Ash with Sleep Powder but luckily Murkrow blows it away. Then Parasect finally uses Stun Spore and Lily obtains it with a vacuum.
Just then a long mechanical arm swoops Pikachu into the sky. It's Team Rocket, as usual. Lily notices Meowth and wants to get the dirt from its claws, so she sends Murkrow to get it. Instead, it makes a hole in their balloon, sending them blasting off again. Pikachu falls from their clutches and into Ash's arms.
Team Rocket is seen slumped precariously over a rock ledge on top of a tall cliff. Wobbuffet pops out of its Poké Ball and adds more weight, and the ledge starts to crack. Lily, Ash, and his friends catch up to Team Rocket and Lily goes and gets the dirt from Meowth's claws, and as soon as she gets off the ledge, it breaks, and Team Rocket goes crashing into the bushes below.
Later, Brock asks Lily what else she needs and she tells the crew that she needs the tears of an Aipom. Ash then asks if once she has the tears she'll be able to perform her magic and read the minds of Pokémon. She says yes. Ash calls out and tells an Aipom to come out, which actually happens! However, it runs off so the group splits up to catch it. Jessie and James happen to pop out of the bushes behind them after they leave. They heard about the spell, so they set out to capture the Aipom and Lily's bag and book so they can make a lot of money. When Aipom lets its guard down, Ash, Misty, Brock and Lily charge at it. A net grabs Aipom and they smack heads instead. Team Rocket strikes again in their balloon and Meowth uses the long arm to get Lily's bag. Then they recite their motto. She orders Murkrow to get her bag back but Meowth uses the arm and it punches Murkrow knocking it out. Jessie and James then make their getaway.
Team Rocket lands their balloon and Meowth is rooting through Lily's bag and grumbling that it's nothing but junk. Jessie and James are looking at the book which Jessie doesn't understand because it's written in an ancient language. But James understands part of it. Jessie gets fed up, and so, to get Aipom to cry, gets ready to punch it, but James stops her. She asks him what his problem is. He tells her to look at the ancient book and she tells him that she could read tea leaves more easily than reading the book. James goes on to tell her that tears achieved through violence won't work.
So Team Rocket tries to figure out what they can do to make Aipom cry. James starts off by telling a bunch of corny jokes but instead it makes Aipom yawn. Then Meowth tells a story about a boy and his mother reuniting. It makes Meowth and James cry, but Aipom is still bored out of its mind. Jessie tells them they'll never jerk any tears from Aipom using clichéd storylines and overblown dramatics.
During this time Ash and his friends are looking for Team Rocket but turn up nothing but then Murkrow spots something.
Now it was Jessie's turn to tell a story. She tells a story about a prince and princess and if she couldn't be his princess that her end was near. Anyway after her performance Aipom is fast asleep so Jessie gets angry and picks up Aipom to try and punch it again but once again James stops her.
Just then Ash and his friends catch up to Team Rocket and demand that the stolen stuff to be given back. As usual, this is where they start a Pokémon battle. Lily uses Icy Wind against Jessie's Arbok's Poison Sting which sends Arbok flying into the balloon basket. Then it's Ash's Pikachu against James's Weezing. Weezing uses Sludge attack and Pikachu uses Thunderbolt until Weezing runs out of sludge. During this, Brock frees Aipom. Then Lily has Murkrow use Swift against Weezing. Weezing rams Team Rocket into the basket. Pikachu then uses Thunder on Team Rocket and the balloon which makes it blow up and sends them blasting off again.
Of course, Aipom finds this funny, laughing so hard that it produces tears of mirth. Ash quickly grabs a jar and tries to catch a tear but he trips and takes a nose dive on the ground so Pikachu quickly grabs the jar and catches the tear. Both Lily and Ash thank Pikachu.
Now the magic begins. Lily mixes in all the ingredients for the spell and then she asks who will volunteer. Ash begs to be picked, so Lily picks him. He finishes the spell with Pikachu's Thunderbolt. A lot of yellow smoke surrounds Ash and he comments that he felt a little like he's getting into Pikachu's mind. Then Lily, Misty and Brock gasp.
Ash asks what happened. He looks up to his friends and asked them how they got so big. Then the camera cuts to Ash and zooms out to reveal that he was turned into a Pikachu! He wants to know why they were looking at him so funny so Misty gets out her mirror and shows him. Ash sees what has happened, and freaks! Lily explains this wasn't supposed to happen but when she looks in her book, the next page is covered in slop that makes reading the page impossible. Misty asks Lily if Ash will be a Pikachu permanently but she says of course not, just until the spell wears off. Ash calms down and says, "In that case this is awesome! I'm a Pikachu!" He goes off to play with Pikachu, Murkrow, and Togepi. Misty and Brock exclaimed that the spell probably worked; after all, Ash was inside the mind of Pikachu. Brock adds that Ash is certainly thinking like one. The episode closes with Ash, Murkrow, Pikachu, and Togepi playing together.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.
Debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Dewgong (US and international), Murkrow (Japan)
- Pikachu (Ash's)
- Pikachu (Ash Ketchum; newly transformed)
- Meowth (Team Rocket)
- Togepi (Misty's)
- Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
- Arbok (Jessie's)
- Weezing (James's)
- Murkrow (Lily's)
- Wartortle (fantasy)
- Parasect
- Tangela (fantasy)
- Mr. Mime (fantasy)
- Spinarak (×3)
- Aipom
- Bulbasaur
- Dugtrio
- Stantler
- Shuckle
- Miltank
- Jynx (Japanese version only)
Trivia
- This is the first time a human is transformed into a Pokémon. The concept would later be explored further in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game series and its adaptations.
- The English title for this episode is a reference to the magic words "Hocus pocus".
- After the second time Jessie tried to punch tears out of the Aipom, Meowth warned, "No tears for fears!", referencing the band Tears for Fears. The band would later be referenced in the episode of the same name.
- Meowth's puppet theater act appears to be a reference to Isao Takahata's 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother.
- Two nonexistent moves are used in this episode, Pikachu's "Thunderspark" and Murkrow's "Wind" attack.
Errors
- In the scene where Ashachu tells Pikachu, Togepi, and Murkrow to play, when the scene goes back to Misty and Brock, Togepi is seen in Misty's hands.
- Also, Murkrow is seen to come out of nowhere when Ash calls all the Pokémon.
- In the scene where Team Rocket blasts off, Weezing disappears despite being in the balloon in the scene before.
Dub edits
- In the Japanese version, there was a picture of Jynx in Lily's book. The dub replaced it with a flower kissed by a Jynx.
- After Misty was attacked by the Spinarak, there was a short scene cut in the English dub. In this scene, everybody feels sorry for her because she has arachnophobia. The frequently used "clock" transition and part of the first shot of the next scene, a pan down to the main characters are both cut from the dub.
Original Japanese Version
Dubbed English Version
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
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 Bulgarian
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Мамещ Покемон | |
| Mandarin Chinese | 神奇寶貝魔法大變身 | |
 Dutch
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Hocus Pokémon | |
 European French
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Hocus Pokémon | |
 German
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Hokus Pokémon | |
 Greek
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Χόκους Ποκέμον | |
 Hebrew
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הוקוס פוקימון Hocus Pokémon | |
 Italian
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La maga | |
 Polish
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Hokus-pokus pokémon | |
| Portuguese |  Brazil
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Uma Bruxa das Arábias |
 Portugal
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A Feiticeira de Pokémon | |
| Spanish |  Latin America
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¡Hocus Pokémon! |
 Spain
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La maga Pokémon | |
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This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |
