Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unown (Japanese: 結晶塔の帝王 ＥＮＴＥＩEmperor of the Crystal Tower: Entei; officially Lord of the "Unknown" Tower in Japan) is the 3rd Pokémon movie, and 3rd of all Pokémon movies. It was first in Japanese theaters on July 8, 2000. It then made its way to North American theaters on April 6, 2001.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Renowned Pokémon researcher Spencer Hale goes mysteriously missing while researching a species of Pokémon, the Unown. He leaves behind his daughter, young Molly Hale. In her grief, Molly unwittingly summons the Unown, who realise her dreams and wishes into existence. The Unown appease her wishes for a father and mother by creating a representation of the legendary Pokémon, Entei to act as a father figure, and for a mother they kidnap Ash's mother, Delia Ketchum.
The Unown transform the mansion where Molly lives into a huge, crystal-like tower, while leaving the surrounding land as a crystallized wasteland. To save his mother, Ash and his friends will have to overcome Entei, Molly and the conspiring Unown, whose dream-like grip on the tower has turned into a stranglehold.
The movie's title, Spell of the Unown, refers to both the fact that the crystal covering much of Greenfield is made by a spell that the Unown have made, but as well that Unown are able to be used to literally spell out words and phrases, which Molly does with the tiles.
Some of the Unown that appear on Professor Oak's computer are, as of yet, unreleased. However, since they're just drawings, it is possible that they don't really exist in Pokémon world.
A picture in Molly's book has similar wings to a Beautifly.
Jessie and James break the fourth wall twice during the movie: first they do so when they sneak past Misty and Molly battling against each other, by asking if they'd have more important a role in the next movie, and again when saving Ash from falling, by saying that without him they wouldn't be in show business.
For some reason, the report from Prof. Hale about the Unown contains numerous mistakes. Not only is the word Unown spelled with k, but there are also other obvious mistakes (e.g. careful with two l, Pokémon without the acute accent on e, a confusion of singular and plural in the second and the fifth items, a misspelling of telepathy, and numerous grammatical errors). It seems to be a rough translation of Japanese. The Unown misspelling doesn't happen again until Journey to the Unknown!, 8 seasons later, with a different dub team. This, however, was fixed in future airings, spelling Unown properly.
Unown is in Molly's book of legendary Pokémon, when it is not a legendary Pokémon. (Although in the Pokémon world, Unown may be considered the characters of legend, similar to Arcanine.)
In the Region 2 DVD commentary, Michael Haigney incorrectly states that Entei can talk due to it being a Fire/Psychic-type, whereas Entei is a pure Fire-type (its ability to talk is a result of it being created by the Unown).
In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Misty states that she was the Vermilion Gym Leader, instead of Cerulean Gym Leader.
Dub edits
Originally, the scene where Spencer Hale returns from the Unown world was part of the end credits. For the dub, this scene was moved after Greenfield was restored and before the scene where Ash, Pikachu, Misty, Brock, Charizard and Molly come out from the mansion after Greenfield's restoration (the 4Kids staff stated that they did this because some kids leave the theaters without watching the credits. Therefore the producers were worried that if the audience did leave before watching the credits, then they would assume the film ended with Molly still being left as an orphan).
In the original, Spencer Hale's wife left him due to his obsession with discovering the secrets of the Unown. However, in the dub, her absence was explained as her having gone missing while studying the Unown.
In other languages
Dutch: Pokémon 3: In De Greep van de Unown!
Chinese: 結晶塔之帝王
German: Pokémon 3 - Im Bann der Icognito
Korean: 결정탑의 제왕
Polish: Pokémon 3 - Zaklęcie Unown
Brazilian Portuguese: Pokémon 3 - O Feitiço dos Unown
European Portuguese: A magia dos Unowns
Italian: Pokémon 3 - L'Incantesimo degli Unown
Spanish: El Hechizo de los Unown
Finnish: Pokémon 3 - Unownien Loitsu/(Kristallitorni)
