Pokémon Live: How Pikachu Nearly Took Broadway | The Art of Failure
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- Опубліковано 8 лип 2024
- This is a documentary that has been nearly a year in the making. Jonii and Jamie are joined by actors Jesse Nager and Patrick Frankfort, along with years' worth of archival footage and interviews, for this look at Pokémon Live - an officially Nintendo-sanctioned Pokémon musical - and how it not only seeped into obscurity but nearly became lost to time. This is the story of Pokémon Live: The Lost Musical.
Presented by Jonii Vee and Jamie D. Elms. This documentary actually has a companion video over on Jonii's channel, which will be linked in the pinned comment. In the meantime, check out the other documentaries made as part of The Art of Failure here: • The Art of Failure
Alternate Title: From Ash to Dust: How Pikachu Nearly Took Broadway
Timestamps:
Intro: 00:00:00
The Creation: 00:01:34
The Show: 00:23:30
The Legacy: 00:52:28
Featuring:
Jonii: / @joniivee
Jesse Nager: www.playbill.com/person/jesse...
Patrick Frankfort: / patrick-frankfort-a51a...
The Cartoon Gamer: / thecartoongamer8000
EllieEllie_OxenFree: / ellieellie_oxenfree
The Golden Bolt: / thegoldenbolt
Plat: / platinumtriforce
RannchanDoesThings: / rannchandoesthings
The Manic Pineapple: / @themanicpineapple8772
Cooldisks101: / cooldisks101
3geese_in_a_trenchcoat: / xander_created
SegaGirlEnby: / segagirlnb
TheGeckoGuild: / thegeckoguild
Trey_JPEG: / @trey_jpg
WingedVoX: / wingedvox
Aficionados Chris: / aficionadoschris
Triple-S: / samuraiedward
Tarks Gauntlet: / tarksgauntlet
Jeff Compass: / @jeffcompass
Ninjastar Compass: / @ninjastarcompass
G to the Next Level: / gtothenextlevel
Jazzie: / jazziestarshine
This Game Informer Interview with Michael Slade: • Writing Pokémon Live!:...
All clips, photos, and audio segments used in this documentary were included for educational purposes and belong to their respective owners.
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#pokemonlive #pokemon #aof
"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."
Thank you for watching this documentaré on the Pokémon Live Musical! - Ігри
"Almost every Japanese child knows Pocket Monsters and it's star; Pakucho" omg three minutes in and I'm dying 😂
22 years later and "Double Trouble" still slaps hard.
Legit it's in my road trip playlist
"these characters have staying power"
No shit. I'm still blown away that it's going this hard 25 years later. It's awesome
Whenever we see something Pokémon related I like to turn to my mom and say “it’s just a fad!!!!”
I adore the random fact that the one lady who does Pikachu’s voice somehow has more power over what happens with that character than anyone else, or at least that she did at that time. I want to do a deep dive into her and how she cornered that market SO HARD.
Whether you like the show or not, I really think Rannells has a shitty attitude about being a part of it. I don't doubt that there were many stressful, rushed, and even traumatic parts about the production, all for the sake of trying to cash in on what was perceived as a big fad for children at the time, but Rannells treating it like a huge regrettable mistake really discredits a lot of the meaningful aspects that the other interviewees bring to light. For instance, trying to genuinely make it a decently scripted and character-driven show that everyone can get something out of, not just kids, or the fact that it brought a lot of passionate new actors together and even launched some of their careers (including Rannells' own theatre career). Not to mention that the show did bring joy to a lot of kids, like the kid who wrote a fan letter to the actor of Giovanni. Gotta give Nager a lot of credit for ultimately looking back on it as a weird, kinda fun, flash-in-the-pan experience that helped him get ahead in life.
It's possible Rannells was playing up his feelings about the musical for laughs, but even still, publicly going as far as he did just feels like he's throwing the rest of the staff/cast under the bus just to make himself look like he's above it all. It takes a bigger man to appreciate the positive sides of a harrowing experience like that, and professional performers like him should feel secure enough to humble themselves and play any kind of character for the entertainment of any demographic. It comes with the job, so at least take some pride in the work you've done to get where you are now.
Glad someone finally said it
I’m not proud to admit this, but if lived near that abandoned theater with the Pokémon props, I would absolutely steal them.
If you go there now and find them I doubt anyone would stop you or otherwise care.
This is the best thing ever! This show has touched me in a very special way. Here is my story: I fell in love with the Pokémon anime series growing up as a child when I was 5 years old. I kind of fell out of it when I was 8 years old and got back into it when I was 10. Then when re-discovering the anime series, movies, manga, voice actors and video games I came across the Wikipedia page of this show. I was bummed to learn that it didn't come to Miami when it was still touring between the 2000-2001 run. I then came across the commercial on UA-cam and the cast album of the show on Amazon Music. My dad then downloaded the songs onto my iPod 2006 (yes that iPod lol). I listened to the Pokémon Live! soundtrack non-stop throughout middle school and high school and looking back, I believe this show sparked my interest in music theater. Growing up diagnosed on the autism spectrum was difficult, as I was very sensitive to sights, loud sounds, smells etc. and live theater was a massive combination of that, and I was beyond scared of going to live children shows (ex: Barney, The Wiggles, Disney on Ice). But learning about this particular show I think it a way helped me overcome that fear because the production was based on something I grew up loving as a child. So then when more different shows (kid shows, live theatre, Broadway shows on tour, Miami City Ballet, Rockettes, Lord of the Dance etc.) came to the South FL area, I begged my family to take me to them, and we went and I was fascinated by them. Then I thought to myself "I want to do that and perform on stage" and then I got involved in concert band, singing, voice lessons, choir, plays and musical theatre in middle and high school. Once I began performing on stage I started to open up more and socialize/talk with other people and made new friends as I didn't have a lot growing up. I suddenly felt a massive boost in my confidence and began expressing my emotions and improving my communication skills. To this day I still sing in choir and I love Broadway shows, anime, Miyazaki, and Star Wars. Using the performance skills I learned in my music theater classes, I now advocate for adults and children with special needs/disabilities. (So sorry for the long comment) but long story short: Even though I did not get the chance to see Pokémon Live! in its original run, I did some reminiscing during this pandemic and I realized how much this show (indirectly) helped me mature into the person I am to this today. Coming across the soundtrack, learning about the show online and watching the original upload from Chris Mitchell during Spring Break of 2012 changed my life and helped me find the confidence inside me that I never knew I had. Thank you so much for bring light to this show with this awesome documentary and to everyone who was involved in this production thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a part of that push that helped me become who I am today. 😊❤
We need this stage show on VHS, DVD, & Blu-Ray The Pokémon Company!!
THEY SHOULD DO THIS AGAIN BUT WITH NEW CAST USING THE SAME CHARACTERS
16:04 "Let's pick and choose..." ... "Let's Pikachu's".
I remember being at the Detroit show and the mics and mucus going out and people started booing. Wild times
I won tickets and a character meet and greet from a local radio show when I was 11/12 years old. I absolutely loved the show as a kid and I'd lowkey love to do a medley for a convention as a performance.
Did you get to meet James?
Crap, does that mean you meet Andrew Rannells?
@@PeterPan54167 Yes I did. I have photos somewhere at my dad's house.
@@doritodorito492 yes! Andrew Rannells before Book of Mormon :P
@@lunaladyoflight That’s cool. It’s a shame he doesn’t care for the part ( he played James very well) but it’s still cool you got to meet him!
What a fascinating piece of what feels like a bygone era, where original rights holders didn't feel the need to keep a total watchful eye on their franchises, so we could get things like "musical produced by the dub company with next to no input from anyone who made the actual show."
Considering it was also basically some of the only content 4kids made directly themselves, it's interesting to see the themes and story beats they wanted to touch on.
(to this day, i still consider giovanni to be the most likely candidate for ash's dad)
Is this probably why we won't get a rerelease at all?
@@bluebaron6858 Probably. Especially since 4Kids stopped doing Pokémon around 2006 or so (I don't really remember the year. Some time around Advanced)
@@CosmicSponge2004 the pokemon company is in possesion of the professional recording
@@sergiorubens8475 That has nothing to do with Pokémon Live
@@CosmicSponge2004 wdym? The pokemon company has the full show in high quality, so they can release it whenever they want.
Just what I was looking for! A documentary about an oddly specific topic that most people don’t know about.
My favorite genre of UA-cam videos.
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I'm still absolutely obsessed with the random Gen 2 Pokemon who just kinda show up in the background of the musical. They feel so out of place.
I'd love to know why they picked those pokemon specifically for the props though. It feels like such random ones when there are so many fan favourites that would have made more sense. Love me that Venusaur tho. He can stay
I'm lowkey baffled that, despite how massively popular it was back in the gen 1 days, there isn't a Charmander or Charizard to be found!
Jonii and I started working on this doc around a year ago, and it was all prompted by us finding that picture of, as we put it, "Jigglypuff with legs." Fast forward through hours of combing through archival footage and images, discovering RAW interview footage that had never been seen before, conducting interviews with both Jesse Nager and Patrick Frankfort, and an editing process that led to me learning how to do basic 3D modelling among other things, and it's finally here.
This documentary would literally have been impossible without Jonii. They pitched the idea of doing a video on Pokémon Live together originally, and it's incredible to see how that evolved into this full-on documentary. Maybe I'll even do some more Art of Failure docs like it sometime!
Along with this doc, we have a follow-up video going into some info that we just couldn't fit here! You can see that on Jonii's channel: ua-cam.com/video/lY7PO1QEkAc/v-deo.html
If you'd like to see all the uncut footage from this doc and/or help me make more big documentary project things, I also have a Patreon page I'd love for y'all to check out: www.patreon.com/stuffweplay
Thank you all for the love and support. I really and truly hope you enjoyed this doc.
@Stuff We Play Ok here are my thoughts:
1. Someone needs to rescue those props.
2. The one thing I don't like is the deaf trainer. Fucking stupid apparently forced "Diversity" was a thing even back then.🤮🤮🤮🤮
3. Godfuck Nintendon't for keeping the footage locked up.😡🖕🖕
4. The Mecha Mewtwo thing was dumb.
5. Giovanni: Your mother never told you what happened to your father.
Ash: He went off to the Pokemon league and went missing on victory road.
Giovanni: No. I... am your father.
Ash: ...No... that's not true... that's impossible...
Giovanni: Search your feelings you know it to be true.
Ash: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
#legglypuff
Insanely underrated documentary.
Awesome video! I love how you got interviews with some of the actors and creators. I was lucky enough to get a cassette of the soundtrack after seeing the show and would play it over and over on the bus. My brother and I still remember Brock's song by heart. I had no idea it was so short-lived and wished more people had the chance to see it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This came out absolutely amazing! This rivals some of the best stuff from Wait in the Wings lol Thank you so much for the opportunity to let me cameo in this! This is probably gonna be on my repeat watch list for a while ^^
It was fantastic having you be a part of this!
This is one of the greatest documentaries published on the internet of all time
This comment honestly really brightened up my day. Thank you tons and tons!
I grew up during pokemainia. I remember my mom bought me a Gameboy color, and the tome figures as well as the cards. And when Pokemon the Movie was released on VHS, I remember the promo they had for the Musical. I was excited but then nothing. Pokemainia was crazy. Kids had underground trading rings on the playground, Kids stole others cards and figures lol kids did pretend pokemon battles on the playground and if you had a gameboy and pokemon. Everyone crowded around you. My elementary school banned all pokemon and digimon. Teachers legit took your stuff and sometimes the teaches never gave it back. It was an interesting time, and I have many memories of it. I am now 31 years old. Not really into pokemon anymore, but I remember seeing the Pokemon Live promo on the VHS tape of the First Movie. I did search for it in the late 2000s cause I was like "Wait I remember. They were gonna do a musical!" but couldn't find it. Maybe one day we will get a release for Pokemon Live kinda like TMNT had for Out of their Shells.
I remember being blown away by this show as a kid and rocked the soundtrack for years after! Lol great retrospective fellas!
Thank you tons!
Absolutely rad guys! I haven’t been this engaged for an hour on UA-cam in a long time. This has been a fucking awesome watch!!
I remember watching a Latin American dub of the show broadcast on a Mexican TV station that was close to my hometown in Texas as a kid. I thought it was really weird and I pushed it to the back of my mind.
Oh that's crazy!
Dub? I think it was a legit version and it had the actors actually wear creepy looking anime faces.
Wait by dub do you mean they dubbed the american show or are you referring to the mexaco performance
Absolutely. Phenomenal. I never got to see this live as a kid, but I'm glad there's been a resurgence of such a fascinating piece of Pokémon history recently. I loved this video, I can tell a lot of time, effort, and love went into its creation. I love you got a hold of people in the original performance, added news videos and articles from magazines/newspapers, provided summary of the show itself (I know there's a compiled recording but I've yet to sit down to watch it), and covered just about every aspect! Great job, definitely subscribing.
Thank you so much for the kind words!
Hope one day we get a clean, multi camera version of the whole show.
This was fantastic! I have been wanting to know more about Pokemon Live since reading Andrew Rannells' memoir in which he talked about his experience in the show.
amazing. this should have so much more views
A little amused to see one of the videos talk about how much worth the Neo Promo Set wil be when now, 20 years later, you can buy it for 40-70 euros
Amazing work! Such a great production! Thank you!
Finally had time to sit down and enjoy this properly, absolutely amazing job, thank you for including me in this! Incredible job everyone:)
It was amazing having you be a part of this dude!
WOOOOOOOOW, well done and thank you so much for doing this man, I hope to see more from you soon :)
Oh wow. Well done. This is amazingly well put together! Thanks for all the hard work ✌🏻
Thank you so so much!
Absolutely LOVE this ❤ I'm a long time collector of merch from Pokemon Live, Love that more people are becoming aware of it 🙌
This is wild. I'm really excited to sit down with this. Thank you for all your effort!
Just finished it. That was incredibly insightful. Just before my time, but it really does show just how pervasive pokemon was in the culture of the times. Kinda crazy to consider the staying power it has had over the years! Really well put together, both the production and this documentary have one thing in common: Great production value! Thanks again for making it!
Thank you tons!
This was great to watch. I’ve had so many questions about this side of Pokémon for the longest time. It’s been great to learn a lot about it. Thank you
If you have any more, I'll try to answer as best I can!
Omg, I remember seeing ads for the US shows in the back of some Pokémon magazines and comics. I DESPERATELY wanted to see it but they never came to the UK in the end. I always wondered what happened and what it was like! Well, now I know haha! Great video!
I haven't heard someone talk about pokemon live in a long time
I hope you enjoyed this look at it!
This was absolutely fantastic to watch!
Thank you so much!
I love Pokemon. My favorite Pokemon is Dragonite. It used to be Charmander, but my brother got me a dragonite plush for Christmas and I became like really attached to him so now it’s Dragonite.
I fully enjoyed this journey taking the plunge into something so wacky that I never knew existed. Keep in mind I'm not a huge Pokémon fan but when I saw the title of this I wanted to know anything about this. I really enjoy and love documentaries like this. Jamie, I kid you not normally I don't stay glued to an hour plus UA-cam video or even ones shorter in length like this. However, I did and enjoyed every moment like this. I forgot that I was watching this on UA-cam and is of quality that could easily be on Netflix. I hope in the future we can see more great documentaries like this. In short well done!
Thank you so so much! The entire experience of making this has really made me crave making more documentaries that tell stories like this!
If you really think about it this thing wasn't weirder than the Wizard of Oz muscial
Hol’ up
I actually got to go to this as a kid. I won tickets to it
THEY SHOULD DO THIS AGAIN BUT WITH NEW CAST USING THE SAME CHARACTERS PLOT AND STORY AND CLOTHING
The editing and clip placement was very magnetic and kept the flow going wonderfully, awesome video.
Thank you tons and tons!
Save those poor props 😭
I rember going to this show as a kid when it came to Toronto it was amazing as far as I remember being about 7 when I went I had a great time and got a new three card or somthing like that that wentwith the theme of the play and I think and ancient mew card or something similar and we got to play gold and silver ethier when it first came out or close to it comming out I made sure I got that game as soon as I could and is my favorite version till this day really left an impression on me as a kid and I’m still a huge fan 😂😅
at least this didn't make Ash forever 10 year old
as well this has things that more modern pokemon anime forgets
This is a great documentary! I am not a fan of the distortion filter added to old footage though.
I tried to do that to make the existing noise less noticeable! If I ever put this on a streaming service or something, I'd probably tone it down a ton, as I've heard a few folks mention it. I think there's no way around that noisiness with old footage haha
@@StuffWePlay I fully understand that. It might also help to drop the audio on the swearing since there isn't much and it helps open it up to a bigger audience.
Is that abandoned theater still guarded in some way? I’m shocked those props remain there. I’m sure plenty of fans would pay big money for just any one of those puppets.
I'm actually unsure! Honestly, if I somehow end up with the money on hand to do so, I'd love to get the okay to actually go to the Tivoli and look around - with all necessary permissions, of course
Good lord this was incredible! Brilliantly done, informative, and genuinely engaging! (And this is coming from a gsl who literally has never had any interest in theater lol)
Thank you so much!
This has me thinking about what other shows have had a cultural impact like Pokemon? In terms of sheer scope and media? Paw Patrol? I'm trying to think of other toy shows that had a stranglehold on Children like Pokemon did
Transformers, Masters of the Universe, TMNT, and G.I Joe I guess
Holy shit Mars 2112!! I went there in 2001. Weird as hell bar/restaurant with gogo dancing aliens inside of giant bubbles
THEY SHOULD DO THIS AGAIN BUT WITH NEW CAST USING THE SAME CHARACTERS
Was so looking forward to this and before it came to the UK it was cancelled. Still annoyed to this day.
I'm still surprised it never reached the US west coast
@Stuff We Play Ok here are my thoughts:
1. Someone needs to rescue those props.
2. The one thing I don't like is the deaf trainer. Fucking stupid apparently forced "Diversity" was a thing even back then.🤮🤮🤮🤮
3. Godfuck Nintendon't for keeping the footage locked up.😡🖕🖕
4. The Mecha Mewtwo thing was dumb.
5. Giovanni: Your mother never told you what happened to your father.
Ash: He went off to the Pokemon league and went missing on victory road.
Giovanni: No. I... am your father.
Ash: ...No... that's not true... that's impossible...
Giovanni: Search your feelings you know it to be true.
Ash NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
THEY SHOULD DO THIS AGAIN BUT WITH NEW CAST
This looks interesting I'm a watch today
Man, those first 6 minutes hit me hard . . .
I sort of remember how Pokemon was wildly popular back in 1999. In retrospect it feels like they milked the franchise for all its worth just as how there was such a thing as a Mortal Kombat live show of all things.
The Pokémania moniker was definitely deserved haha
@Stuff We Play When you showed that bastard pastor the whole time you should've had superimposed over the audio the voices of the grunts in that early scene in Halo 2 chanting "HE-RE-TIC! HE-RE-TIC! HE-RE-TIC!"
Pokemon is even more popular then it was back then, it's the most money making franchise right now of the world. heaving beating both Marvel, Disney and Hello Kitty for a while
@@iso-didact789 So, funny thing about using that clip in particular - my goal for that bit was trying to show just how ridiculously big the series appeared back then. It doesn't matter if Pokémon is money-wise bigger or not now, back then it was THE thing.
Growing up in Texas in the early 2000s, these angry televangelist types were a dime a dozen. I remember that if it wasn't Pokémon that was somehow "satanic", it was Yu-Gi-Oh or Harry Potter or Six Flags or, of course, tried and true source of Christian terror D&D!
@@StuffWePlay Oh trust me they still are. In fact that's pretty much all that's there. It's been that way since 1830 with the founding of the World Council of Churches and the publishing of the Schofield Bullshit Bible.😡
this got loot dropped on Let's Fight A Boss, and i'm really glad i know about this weird show i'd never heard about.
LETS GO
Pokémon Let's Go dive right into it amirite
I never heard of the show until now. It sounds very good though. If it ever gets released to the World again, I would take a crack at it.
neat
Poor mew poor pikachu poor mecha mewtwo
My guess why it didn't get a home video release because Nintendo didn't allow it
THEY SHOUD DO THIS AGAIN BUT WITH NEW CAST USING THE SAME CHARACTERS
Can I Watch Kiro Talks Please
Lost media
I'm going ask this how did Nintendo allow this to happen?
THEY SHOULD DO THIS AGAIN BUT WITH NEW CAST USING THE SAME CHARACTERS PLOT AND STORY
FIRST!
Second!
@@StuffWePlay Third?
That was a good documentary video on the show, but I feel the cursing (mainly from Andrew Rannell’s interview on the show and how he had gripes with it, mainly James’s character) could’ve been bleeped. (I’ve got an undeniable pet peeve against swearing)