The Lumiose Civil War

The Lumiose Civil War is a 2021 anime superhero film produced by The Pokémon Company, OLM Inc., TV Tokyo, Altitude Film Entertainment, Entertainment One, Legendary Pictures, Vertigo Entertainment, Breakthrough Entertainment, Blumhouse Productions, Arad Productions, BBC Films, CBBC, and Toho and distributed by Lionsgate. It was directed by Daiki Tomiyasu (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Atsuhiro Tomioka, Aya Matsui, Erik Sommers, Kunihiko Yuyama, and Jon Watts. Based on the characters from Satoshi Tajiri's Pokémon media franchise and Pokémon XYZ, the nineteenth season of the Pokémon anime series and the third and final season of Pokémon the Series: XY, the film is a collaboration between production houses from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, the first animated film in the Pokémon franchise to be set in the same timeline as the anime since Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel and the final Pokémon anime film overall. The film features Sarah Natochenny, Ikue Ōtani, Haven Paschall, Mike Liscio Jr., Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, Lisa Ortiz, Dan Green, and Wayne Grayson reprising their respective roles from the anime along with Chris Pine, LeBron James, Florence Pugh, David Tennant, Jared Leto, Ben Kingsley, Alejandra Reynoso, Will Smith, Natasia Demetriou, Giancarlo Esposito, Robbie Coltrane, Christopher Walken, Julie Walters, Chris Sabat, Denzel Washington, and Andrew Garfield voicing new characters. It's plot concerns the superheroes in every region being threatened to come under government control after a mission in Lumiose City goes south, splitting the protesters into two sides: one led by Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum (Natochenny) and Unovan superhero Mighty Accelguard (Green) and the other led by Lumiose City gym leader Clemont (Liscio) and his father, the superhero protector of Lumiose City that is Blaziken Mask (Grayson).

A Pokémon anime film heavily inspired by Captain America: Civil War (2016) was announced to have officially entered development on August 5, 2019, in which Tomiyasu was hired to direct and Tomioka, Matsui, Sommers, Yuyama, and Watts were hired to write the screenplay for. Most of the other crew members and the entire voice cast were publicly revealed the following day alongside an official teaser poster and a few still images from the film itself. On September 6, 2019, one month after the film was entering development stage, the title and premise for the film were finally revealed along with news that Christophe Beck and Kotringo were composing and conducting the musical score. Production commenced in November 12, 2019 and ended on May 5, 2021, with the film's animation being provided by nearly 20 different studios. With a runtime of 175 minutes, The Lumiose Civil War is officially the longest theatrical animated film to date, surpassing In This Corner (And Other Corners) of the World by seven minutes.

Premiering in Tokyo, Japan on October 5, the film was theatrically released nationwide in the United States by Lionsgate on October 13, 2021 before being theatrically released in its home country of Japan ten days later, making it the first Pokémon film to be released outside of Japan first and the third Pokémon anime film to receive a theatrical release in the USA after Pokémon 3: The Movie and Pokémon the Movie: Black - Victini and Reshiram and White - Victini and Zekrom. The film was universally praised by critics, audiences and Pokémon fans alike for its direction, writing, story, characters, voice acting, themes, animation, visual effects, emotional weight, and action sequences, with many calling it a worthy conclusion to the Pokémon anime and deeming it the best Pokémon film overall.