Callahan: The Liar Whose Bragging Nearly Cost a Whole Town

Callahan lies as easily as he breathes, and the movie takes him seriously. This character from the feature film The Power of Us goes through Fula City's Wind Festival with a single method: embellish, take credit for what he didn't do, promise what he can't deliver. The story doesn't punish him with a gag; it turns his lying into a family wound: the disappointment of a niece who then refuses to see him.

Contents

• A Braggart Who Lies So as Not to Disappoint
• The Catch Race, Won with a Borrowed Pokémon
• The Day All the Lies Come Crashing Down
• A Rescue That Replaces Words with Actions
• Callahan at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Braggart Who Lies So as Not to Disappoint

We meet Callahan in Fula City, together with his sister Mia and his niece Kellie, as the family heads to the Wind Festival. Kellie asks him for the legend of Lugia, and he tells it while giving himself a role he never played — a gratuitous lie, offered to please a child.

The character profile is explicit about the mechanism: it's low self-esteem that fuels this need to lie, not a taste for deception. The consequence is paradoxical: by constantly playing a part, he keeps people and Pokémon at a distance, including the Sudowoodo that will nonetheless end up choosing him.

His family is the exception that proves the rule. He considers Kellie his own daughter and is more generous with her than with anyone else: it's precisely so as not to fall in her esteem that he keeps embellishing, and that's what will make the truth so costly.

The Catch Race, Won with a Borrowed Pokémon

His embellished version of the legend catches the attention of Toren, a scientist too shy to present his own research and looking for a speaker. Callahan agrees to speak in his place, on one condition: that Toren help him win the festival's Pokémon Catch Race, an event his niece has just talked him into entering.

The deal is struck and Toren lends him a Staryu as a partner, since the character has no team of his own to field. Callahan wins the competition, but with Toren's help — a victory that isn't really his, then, and one more lie, this time on the tournament's record.

It's during that same race that he rescues a Sudowoodo from the clutches of a Golduck. The Imitation Pokémon starts following him without his having caught it, and the movie carefully holds this debt in reserve for its final act.

🌪️ The Lugia of the Fula legend has its own section: check out the Legendary Pokémon.

The Day All the Lies Come Crashing Down

Risa, looking for a specific Pokémon, comes to him for advice. Callahan doesn't know where to find it and sends her to the nearby mountain anyway: the people-pleasing lie becomes a lie that costs someone else a whole day. She sees through the deception and comes back to tell him to his face.

That confrontation, on top of the cleanup of the festival grounds, makes him late for the presentation of Toren's research. The scientist has to take the stage alone, and a video played by accident exposes the two men's trickery during the Catch Race to the whole audience.

In the audience, Kellie sees the footage and, above all, sees her uncle's empty Poké Ball. She realizes he lied to her, and leaves the presentation with Mia. It's the one blow Callahan can't take: the disappointment of his niece, who now refuses to see him.

A Rescue That Replaces Words with Actions

The next day, a fog of spores blankets Fula City and forces the residents to flee. The wild Sudowoodo finds Callahan and brings his Poké Ball back to him: the Pokémon asks to join his team, and becomes the first one he gets without having made anything up to get it.

To stop the spores from spreading, he sets off with Harriet toward the abandoned power plant to purify the air. He carries the elderly woman on his back all the way to the building, helps turn the starting turbine with the other Pokémon, then launches the solution into the windmill with the help of his Sudowoodo.

He then joins Ash and Margo at the stadium to put out the fire, alongside Toren and Harriet. Kellie finds him after the events, proud of him this time, and the family attends the Wind Festival's closing ceremony together — the only ending that proves Callahan right without his needing to lie.

Callahan at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Which movie does Callahan appear in?
  In the feature film Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us. His whole story takes place over the few days of Fula City's Wind Festival.
• Which Pokémon really belongs to Callahan?
  Sudowoodo. Callahan saves it from a Golduck during the Catch Race, the Pokémon follows him without being caught, then brings his Poké Ball back to him during the spore crisis so it can join his team. The Staryu he uses in the race belongs to Toren, who lends it to him.
• Why does Callahan lie so much?
  Out of a lack of self-confidence. Lying lets him play a flattering role, especially in front of his niece Kellie, whom he considers his own daughter. It's also what keeps him at a distance from others, humans and Pokémon alike.
• How does his arc end?
  With actions rather than words: he carries Harriet to the abandoned power plant, helps start the turbine and, with his Sudowoodo, launches the solution that purifies the air, before helping to put out the stadium fire. Kellie then finds him, proud of him.

In short

Callahan is one of the rare movie characters whose flaw drives the plot rather than serving as a gag: his bragging sets off the meeting with Toren, the rigged victory, the false lead given to Risa and the public humiliation that follows. The story doesn't correct him with a speech; it gives him the chance to carry someone on his back and turn a turbine. The Sudowoodo that comes to give him back his Poké Ball says it all: people no longer follow him for what he says, but for what he does.