AG074
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Hokey Poké Balls
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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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Hokey Poké Balls (Japanese: フシギダネとフシギダネ！モンスターボールを取り返せ！！ Fushigidane and Fushigidane! Regaining the Monster Balls!!) is the 74th episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 348th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on April 29, 2004, and in the United States on April 16, 2005.
Blurb
The kids arrive in a city where May lets her Bulbasaur to enjoy the scenery. Meanwhile, Team Rocket is at the Pokémon Center (PC) making "repairs" to the transporter machine.
Upon arrival at the PC, Ash calls Professor Oak. They decide that Ash's and May's Bulbasaur should meet, so Oak transports Ash's over. Unfortunately Team Rocket has rerouted the machine so they get all the full Poké Balls, and only empty Poké Balls arrive at the PC.
The kids confront Team Rocket outside the PC. James has attached a new engine to their balloon which malfunctions, so the thieves go blasting off. They drop one Poké Ball—Ash's Bulbasaur.
Team Rocket gathers up everything from the crash site and runs, but a hole in James' bag leaves a trail of Poké Balls along the way. The two Bulbasaur quickly pick up the trail to a cabin where the thieves are hiding.
Team Rocket seals up the cabin and begins fending off Ash and friends, using the Poké Balls as projectiles. The two Bulbasaur try to sneak the rest of the Poké Balls out through a window with their vines.
Pikachu breaks down the wall with Iron Tail, and the Bulbasaur team up to battle Team Rocket. Pikachu sends the thieves blasting off.
Back at the PC, Ash talks to Professor Oak again, who begs Ash to send Bulbasaur back. Everyone says goodbye, and the little Grass-type is sent home.
Plot
Ash and his friends arrive at a town. May decides to bring out Bulbasaur in order to check out the sights. Bulbasaur suddenly runs to a nearby store rack and wants to eat the displayed fruit, but May explains the concept of buying items. When Max calls to May, Bulbasaur slips away and climbs into the bed of a pickup truck full of flowers, smelling them. May runs to the truck, but the vehicle pulls away. They pursue the truck, and Ash and Brock speed up, getting the driver's attention and making him stop the truck, allowing May to get Bulbasaur. At the Pokémon Center, Team Rocket is in disguise and working on the Pokémon Transporter. Unbeknownst to Nurse Joy, they are really altering it in order to steal the imported Pokémon. Ash and friends arrive as Team Rocket finishes and leaves. Ash calls Professor Oak and Max mentions May's Bulbasaur. She brings Bulbasaur to the screen and earns the professor's approval. Ash asks about his Bulbasaur, and the professor brings it to the screen. May's Bulbasaur already shows friendliness to Ash's. He asks the professor to send his Bulbasaur through the transporter in order to meet May's Bulbasaur.
Professor Oak agrees and puts Bulbasaur into its Poké Ball before transporting it. The transport appears to be successful and Ash picks up the Poké Ball, but it won’t open. Other children also point out the same problem, as their Poké Balls are empty. Max immediately suspects that the repair guys were fakes. Nurse Joy does not believe so until the real repair guys arrive. Team Rocket is outside the building snatching the Poké Balls as Nurse Joy leads Ash and friends to the back, encountering Team Rocket. They quickly escape in their balloon. Ash and May send out Taillow and Beautifly to stop them, but James fires rocket boosters to evade, even dodging Pikachu's Thunderbolt. However, the engines fail, sending the balloon flying far away. A Poké Ball falls from the sky and May's Bulbasaur grabs it. The ball opens and releases the Pokémon inside, and it's Ash's Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur jumps into Ash's arms and May's Bulbasaur reaches out with a vine. Ash's Bulbasaur matches the vine in a high-five style as May brings her Bulbasaur closer. They decide to allow the Bulbasaur to team up to search while Taillow and Beautifly cover from the air.
Team Rocket begins to gather all the stolen Poké Balls into wrapped sacks. James's bag develops a hole and it drops Poké Balls, leaving a trail. Meanwhile, while Ash and the others are searching, May's Bulbasaur drifts to sniffing flowers. Ash's Bulbasaur explains to May's Bulbasaur and gets it back on track. Taillow and Beautifly find the Poké Ball trail. A wild Shroomish and Nuzleaf lead Ash and friends to the balloon's landing site, where they find one of the Poké Balls. Taillow brings another Poké Ball and leads them to the ball trail. Team Rocket gets to their cabin and Meowth notices that James's bag had a hole and he dropped the Poké Balls. They find Ash and friends outside, but they retreat back inside and James activates a switch, raising steel walls around the perimeter and rendering it impregnable. However, Ash notices an open window, allowing May and the others to go onto the roof and retrieve the stolen property. Meowth throws Poké Balls and James uses the skis as a makeshift baseball bat to send them outside, using the Pokémon inside, a Golbat and a Primeape, to attack Ash. May orders the two Bulbasaur to send their vines inside and attempt to grab the sack of Poké Balls. James tries to tie the vines together, but the Bulbasaur smack James back with the vines. Brock recalls the attacking Primeape and Golbat while Pikachu attacks the wall with Iron Tail, forcing Team Rocket out.
Jessie and James send out Seviper and Cacnea. Seviper's Poison Tail and Cacnea's Pin Missile put down May's Bulbasaur. Although May calls for a Razor Leaf attack, Cacnea's Pin Missile is too strong for May's Bulbasaur. Ash's Bulbasaur steps in and stops the attack with Vine Whip. Seviper and Cacnea attempt to attack with Poison Tail and Needle Arm, but both Bulbasaur use Vine Whip to push them back and seize the stolen Poké Balls. They try to attack again, but Pikachu stops them with Thunderbolt and sends them flying. The Bulbasaur give a Vine Whip high five. Ash and the others return the Poké Balls. Professor Oak calls back and asks for Ash's Bulbasaur to return and stop the water and grass Pokémon from fighting. Ash sends his Bulbasaur back to Professor Oak's Laboratory as May's Bulbasaur appears to have made a positive change. Ash and friends leave the Pokémon Center and hit the road.
Major events
- Ash temporarily brings his Bulbasaur from Professor Oak's Laboratory to meet May's Bulbasaur.
- For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Pokémon Trainer's Choice: Combusken
- Pikachu (Ash's)
- Meowth (Team Rocket)
- Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
- Bulbasaur (Ash's)
- Taillow (Ash's)
- Torchic (May's)
- Beautifly (May's)
- Skitty (May's)
- Bulbasaur (May's)
- Seviper (Jessie's)
- Cacnea (James's)
- Golbat (stolen by Team Rocket)
- Primeape (stolen by Team Rocket)
- Oddish
- Gloom
- Poliwhirl
- Hoppip
- Jumpluff
- Nuzleaf
- Shroomish
Trivia
- The episode's English dub title is a pun on the dance name "hokey pokey".
- This is the first time since beginning his travels in the Hoenn region that Ash has called up any Pokémon from Professor Oak's lab or used any of the Pokémon he caught before arriving in Hoenn other than Pikachu.
- Advance Adventure and music from Mewtwo Strikes Back can be heard in this episode.
- The Trainers that appeared in Hypno's Naptime reappear in this episode.
Errors
- In the original Japanese version, when Shroomish and Nuzleaf talk to the Bulbasaur, they use the wrong voices. This error is fixed in the English dub.
- After Professor Oak returns Bulbasaur to its Poké Ball, he puts it on the transporter upside-down, but in the next shot, it is upright.
- Since Team Rocket finished corrupting the Poké Ball transporter only when Ash and others entered the Pokémon Center, not many people could have used it before Ash, if he was not the first. As such, Team Rocket could not have stolen three large bags of Poké Balls.
- When Team Rocket gets in their balloon and take off, the pipe that is connected to the Pokémon Center is cut off.
- In the scene where Ash and his friends find Team Rocket's balloon, Poké Balls can be seen in the basket even though Team Rocket took every single one of them.
- When Seviper uses Poison Tail for the first time, the outlines around the purple markings are light-purple instead of black.
- In the English dub:
- The title card incorrectly formats Poké Balls as Pokéballs.
- Beautifly is pictured where Nuzleaf's name appears in the Pokémon Trainer's Choice.
- Additionally, Combusken would be the worst choice of the three, as it is part Fighting-type, weak to Psychic-types. Beautifly would instead be the best choice, as it is part Flying-type, which is effective against Meditite, a part Fighting.
The title card error
The cropping error
Dub edits
- When Primeape punches Ash, the English dub uses an impact star in place of the actual punch.
Pokémon Trainer's Choice
- Question: Trainers, which Pokémon is the best choice to battle Meditite?
- Choices: Beautifly (Nuzleaf), Combusken, Heracross
- Answer: OK, Trainers! If you chose Combusken, you were right!
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
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| Mandarin Chinese | 妙蛙種子與妙蛙種子，搶回神奇寶貝球！ | |
 Danish
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Hokey Pokéballs * Hukkede Pokéballs * | |
 Dutch
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Wel alle Pokéballen! | |
 Finnish
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Poképallot hukassa | |
 European French
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Un plan génial | |
 German
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Das nennt man Pech! | |
 Hebrew
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צוות באלבאזורtsevet Bulbasaur | |
 Hindi
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टीम Bulbasaur Team Bulbasaur * | |
 Italian
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L'imbroglio | |
 Korean
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이상해씨와 이상해씨 몬스터볼을 되찾아라 | |
 Norwegian
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Tomme Pokéballer! | |
| Portuguese |  Brazil
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Pokébolas de Hóquei! |
 Portugal
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As Pokébolas Desaparecidas | |
 Russian
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Фальшивые поке-боллы | |
| Spanish |  Latin America
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¡Pokébolas locas! |
 Spain
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Falsas Pokéball | |
 Swedish
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Försvunna PokéBollar! | |
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This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |
