List of Pokémon films

A Pokémon movie is released in Japanese theaters in July, centering on Pokémon and following, as the main anime, Ash Ketchum and his friends. Typically, the movies' animation is done by Team Koitabashi of OLM (Mewtwo Returns being the only one taken by another, Team Wasaki), and each has at least one hour of footage. The first six movies also have a Pikachu short that was shown before the movie.

Movies, with little exception, center around and feature legendary Pokémon which are either not at all or very rarely seen in the main anime, often with the legendary Pokémon causing some sort of disaster with its powers or being pursued by someone with less than noble tendencies. Ash and his friends will often befriend a Pokémon during the movie and must, at the end, say goodbye to their new friend. The locations in which the movies take place have been, since Pokémon Heroes, based on a real-world location outside of Japan. Topics explored are typically deeper than those explored in the episodes aired on TV, with the battle between greedy people who would use Pokémon for evil and those like Ash who are friends and partners to their Pokémon being a central issue in several movies.

When they open in Japan, they usually gross a large amount of money, typically ranking first for their premiere weekend. A few years ago, one movie drew in a significant crowd despite the fact that it was released in the same weekend as a Studio Ghibli film. In the United States, only the first five movies, those associated with the original series, were released in theaters, however, the movies continue to be dubbed, being released directly to home video and, since Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, airing on Cartoon Network early in the year. Recently the thirteenth movie saw a limited theatrical release as part of the "Pokémon Black Version and White Version Mall Tour". On December 3rd and 4th, 2011, White—Victini and Zekrom received a limited commercial release in US theaters, making it the first movie since Pokémon Heroes to receive a commercial theatrical release.

To date there have been fifteen theatrical Pokémon movies and three movie-length special episodes.