Miramax 'Pokémon' Movies Join Monthly Twitch Movie Night After Rights Reversion

It’s a wish coming true for many American Pokémon fans over 20 years in the making

It’s been long enough since last checking in on Pokémon’s more volatily growing streaming presence that Pokémon TV is nine episodes into posting season 3 The Johto Journeys while the Pluto TV channel just started another cycle through the full original series sometime Sunday morning. The Twitch channel on Tuesdays and Thursdays can vary between linear batches (currently in season 18, XY Kalos Quest) or variety packs built around a theme that tends to stretch all the way to Sun and Moon. However, there’s one Saturday a month where it shows a movie at 9 PM EST. I learned Saturday something happened at the very start of March: The movie that night was Pokémon 4Ever, the fourth movie. The late discovery was upon finding the channel was running Pokémon Heroes, the fifth film, that night. Excitement reigned, and answers had to be found.

Why? Infamously, The Pokémon Company International had complete rights to every Pokémon movie except for the fourth through seventh, the latter two being Jirachi: Wishmaker and Destiny Deoxys, thanks to Miramax being the American distributor. Owned by Disney until 2010, it’s what allowed those movies to be aired on Toon Disney for a time that overlapped with Jetix, the block that had Digimon and its newly-dubbed OVAs. It also meant now-disgraced founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein got Special Thanks credits in each movie. Hoooooray. Both Miramax ownership and home video distribution rights to Miramax films jumped around quite a bit, with Miramax itself over the last decade becoming half-owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount respectively, which is how it currently stands. The first two movies are the last two of the Johto era, and thus the last to star Misty. The latter two are the first of the Advanced/Ruby & Sapphire era, traversing the Hoenn region with May and Max along.

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So for all this time, whatever movies were running for Movie Night or available for streaming on Pokémon TV or Watch Disney XD and DisneyNOW, it was never these four. They couldn’t even use clips, and it’s best exemplified by a movie montage released in 2017, which doesn’t seem to be under anniversary circumstances but starts by showing clips from the films in order. It jarringly jumps from Spell of the Unown to Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, the third and eighth films. It has over 14 million views. While this specific montage will likely never be extended, whatever is produced like it should such an occasion arise will have all 23 movies (only up to I Choose You! existed on that one).

Dates for the Jirachi: Wishmaker and Destiny Deoxys movie nights haven’t been confirmed, but if the first Saturday of the month continues, it should be May 3 and June 7, respectively. As for whether they’ll hit Pokémon TV, neither of the movies that would’ve been posted by now are on the channel, so the wait continues overall.

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Source: Bulbapedia