Depending on what era you were born with, you either grew up with newer cartoons like Pokemon or classic cartoons like Looney Tunes. Maybe you even watched both! If you wondered what it would be like if an anime was recreated in the style of early Western cartoons, the Pokemon Company recently released a short called Zuruggu and Mimikkyu (Scraggy & Mimikyu in English) which it refers to as a “Poketoon.”
The short brings to mind classic Warner Bros. cartoons like Tom and Jerry. In this iteration, Scraggy (Zuruggu in Japanese) is chasing Mimikyu not to eat it, but to… eat the candy that comes out of it? As I said, it’s similar to Tom and Jerry, but this is Pokemon we’re talking about here. Even though the short was released on the Pokemon Kids TV YouTube Channel and uses the Japanese names of the Pokemon, it’s accessible to all ages and backgrounds. Older fans can appreciate the callbacks to early 20th century cartoons while the slapstick nature of it means that there’s no language barrier.
It’s so far unclear as to whether this is a one off thing or whether more Poketoons will be made in the future. But it would certainly be fun to see more Pokemon paired up together in Looney Tunes-style cartoons. In the meantime, check out the latest episode of Pokemon Twilight Wings, a “day in the life” short focusing on Oleana from Pokemon Sword and Shield.
