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

Additional 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

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 anime. It was first broadcast 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.

Synopsis

Ash and 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 'Pokémon Discovery'. Ash resolves to join in, so as to embarrass Gary by finding a fossil before he does. Jigglypuff also appears, ready to sing, but the group leave without noticing it. Ash and the group soon find a large area of the canyon where many people, including Gary, are digging. However, they also stumble across Team Rocket, who reveal (accidentally) their plan to blow up the canyon and steal all the fossils. 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, while Jessie, James, Meowth and their Pokémon try to stop him. Team Rocket then fall, and the resulting ball rolls into Ash and right beside the dynamite. As the fuse draws near to the dynamite, Pikachu panics and uses ThunderShock, causing the dynamite to blow. Ash, Pikachu, Meowth, Jessie, and James are left trapped in an underground cave, and only Squirtle escapes from the rubble. Hearing the explosion, Misty and Brock run to the pile of rubble and start digging out rock and soil with Squirtle. In the cave, the four humans and two Pokémon try to find a way to get out, but are soon confronted by Fossil Pokémon that they do not recognize. Ash checks his Pokédex, and the Pokémon are revealed to be Omanyte, Omastar, Kabuto and Kabutops. Jessie and James speculate that the explosion awakened them from thousands of years of sleep. Clearly angry, the Pokémon attack, but suddenly stop and run off. Originally joyous, the group soon realize why the Pokémon ran off: An Aerodactyl attacks, and grabs Ash. At the same time, Brock's Geodude had finally dug a hole in the rubble. A small crowd has gathered to help dig out the rubble, only to see the Aerodactyl fly off with Ash and perch on a cliff. Charmeleon wants to battle the Aerodactyl as Aerodactyl had earlier annoyed him, but the Aerodactyl ignores the request and insults Charmeleon. The anger this causes Charmeleon seems to cause him to evolve, into Charizard. Ash is happy as he thinks that Charmeleon has evolved to rescue him, but then realizes he merely wants to battle Aerodactyl for his own pride and has no thought of rescuing Ash. Meanwhile, Misty sees Jigglypuff and tells it to use Sing to make Aerodactyl fall asleep. Jigglypuff agrees and quite happily sings, of course sending everyone around to sleep. Aerodactyl, now asleep also, falls into the rubble and drops Ash in the process. However, Charizard manages to stay awake by covering his ears, and catches the sleeping Ash before he hits the ground. As Ash and the gang leave, Ash reveals that he had found an egg at the site, causing the trio to fight playfully about who should get to raise and keep the egg. Meanwhile, Team Rocket are still trapped in the cave, with the sleeping fossil Pokémon only feet away.

Major events

Ash's Charmeleon evolves into Charizard, but still retains its disobedience.
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

Characters

Humans

Pokémon

Who’s That Pokémon?: Kabutops

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

Trivia

There are two possible Indiana Jones references in this episode; Gary Oak's digging clothes are very similar to Indiana Jones's clothes and 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 referred to in Pokémon Paparazzi, as it turns out that Todd Snap took a picture of the Aerodactyl as it was flying off with Ash.
This marks the second time that Ash had two Flying-types in the same party. That didn't happen since Bye Bye Butterfree and it will happen again in Riding the Winds of Change.
Two books are based on this episode. Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon is a standard book in the novelization series; however, there is also Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon in the Adventure series.
This episode is featured on the Volume 3: Charizard copy of Pokémon All-Stars.

Errors

When Gary comments on Ash being a "loser", his eyelid is white with his eye.
When the camera is panning over all of the Pokémon to show their red eyes, Kabuto has the colors of its claws and shell swapped.
Pikachu uses an Electric attack on Kabutops; however, the Kabutops is unaffected as if it were a Template:Type2, despite Kabutops being a Rock/Template:Type2 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 Charizard fires his Flamethrower at Aerodactyl, the part of his wings that were previously blue turn yellow.
When Ash rolls onto the Togepi egg, all of the shapes are red, instead of half red and half blue.
When Jigglypuff wrote on the cheerleaders' faces, the alphabet was used. However, the letters on their faces were out of order, going ABCDFE instead of ABCDEF.
- This may not be an error, however, as it may simply illustrate Jigglypuff's unfamiliarity with human written language. It is also possible that the cheerleaders simply stood in a different order.

Dub edits

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.
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 aired uncut on the VHS and DVD versions.
When digging through the rocks, Misty says Ash had better not die on her. In the dub, she reminds him that he still owes her a bike.
The dub hints that Pokémon need to defecate upon mention of fossilized Pokémon manure. However, in the original version, the fossil in question was just an ammonite fossil.

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		復活？化石神奇寶貝 / 复活？化石神奇宝贝
Czech		Útok prehistorických pokémonů
Dutch		Aanval van de Prehistorische Pokémon
Finnish		Muinaisten Pokémonien hyökkäys
European French		L'attaque des Pokémon préhistoriques
German		Angreifer aus der Urzeit
Hebrew		מתקפת הפוקימונים mitkefet haPokémonim
Hungarian		Támadnak az őspokémonok!
Italian		Avventure preistoriche
Portuguese	Brazil	Ataque dos Pokémons Pré-Históricos
Portuguese	Portugal	Ataque do Pokémon Pré-Histórico
Russian		Атака доисторического покемона
Spanish	Latin America	¡El ataque de los Pokémon prehistóricos!
Spanish	Spain	El ataque de los Pokémon prehistóricos
Swedish		Förhistoriska Pokémon