Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias — Alto Mare, Latios and Latias, and the only French title in the saga without "Pokémon" up front

It's the only feature film in the entire saga whose French title doesn't begin with "Pokémon". Released in Japanese theaters on July 13, 2002, Pokémon Heroes closes out the anime's first cycle with a canal city inspired by Venice and a pair of invisible guardians, Latios and Latias. In France, fans had to wait until July 13, 2005, and a plain DVD release — three years to the day after Japan, and nearly two years before the fourth movie. Here is the complete guide to the fifth Pokémon movie.

Contents

• July 2002: the last movie of the first era
• Alto Mare, a water city modeled on Venice
• The plot: a library break-in, a race and two guardians
• Latios and Latias: a Legendary duo shown before the games
• Ash, Misty, Brock — and two thieves with no affiliation
• Production, music and a French dub in a class of its own
• What the movie adds to the saga
• July 13, 2005: France sees the fifth before the fourth
• The legacy: the favorite movie of the original era
• Pokémon Heroes at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

July 2002: the last movie of the first era

Like every feature film in the saga until 2020, the fifth movie arrived in July: on July 13, 2002, in Japanese theaters. Its original title, 水の都の護神 ラティアスとラティオス, translates as "The Guardian Heroes of the City of Water: Latias and Latios" — a phrasing France didn't keep, opting instead for a short, generic title. The movie belongs to the fifth season of the anime, Master Quest, the one that wraps up Ash's journey through Johto.

Its status as the movie that closes a cycle is far from trivial. It's the last feature film tied to the so-called "Pocket Monsters" period, which runs from the very first movie in 1998 to this fifth installment; from the next one on, the saga moves into the Advanced Generation era, with new companions for Ash and a new region. The overview of the Pokémon movies breaks down this division into cycles, which shapes the entire filmography.

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At the helm is Kunihiko Yuyama, the longtime director of the feature films, along with the Japanese studio OLM. After this movie, the animation team changes: Tsukasa Koitabashi's team takes over from the sixth through the sixteenth movie. At just over seventy minutes long, Pokémon Heroes remains one of the tightest runtimes in the saga.

The movie got a U.S. theatrical release on May 16, 2003, in a limited release by Miramax, and grossed $20,867,919 worldwide according to Box Office Mojo, only $746,381 of it in North America — the lowest North American total in the entire saga. In Japan, where it earned 2.67 billion yen, it was screened alongside the short Camp Pikachu, in keeping with the tradition of opening shorts — a format that, it's worth remembering, isn't counted among the twenty-three films of the franchise.

Alto Mare, a water city modeled on Venice

The story takes place entirely in Alto Mare, a city on the water in Johto, crisscrossed by canals, bridges and narrow alleys. The setting didn't come out of nowhere: Kunihiko Yuyama traveled to Venice to design its architecture, and you can hear the result as much as you can see it. The residents greet each other in Italian, and the movie's two local characters are named Bianca and Lorenzo.

The setting also carries the movie's mythology. Alto Mare is home to a museum that doubles as a defense machine, an ancient device meant to protect the city from dangers coming from the sea, and a secret garden that only the city's guardians know how to reach. Tying a legendary creature to a local belief like this is a constant in the Pokémon universe, as explained in the feature on regional legends and mythologies.

The city also hosts its big annual event: a Pokémon surf race through the canals, where Trainers string together tight turns and jumps over the bridges. That's the sequence that opens the movie on the heroes' side, and it serves as a gentle introduction before the plot takes a darker turn. Alto Mare doesn't appear on any video game map: it's a location unique to the anime, like most movie settings, as noted in the overview of the regions of the Pokémon world.

🏄 Alto Mare's annual surf race strings together tight turns and jumps over the bridges: our Pokémon shorts dress up your own days by the water.

A detail fans often bring up: the city returned to the screen much later, in an episode of the series where another Latios and another Latias fly over it once more. So Alto Mare is part of the series' official continuity, not just the standalone world of the movies.

The plot: a library break-in, a race and two guardians

The movie opens far from Ash. Two young women, Annie and Oakley, break into a library at night to consult an ancient book about the guardians of Alto Mare and a jewel called the Soul Dew. They leave behind a calling card marked with a kiss and a rose — a spy-movie heist, tone and all, in sharp contrast with the usual opening of a Pokémon feature film.

Meanwhile, Ash, Misty and Brock arrive for the surf race. Ash races with his Totodile and gets knocked off course by two invisible creatures playing above the water. The local champion, Ross, then shows them around the city and tells them the story of the two protectors who have watched over it for generations.

What follows hinges on a simple, effective misunderstanding: Latias can take on a human appearance, and Ash helps a girl being chased by the two thieves without suspecting who she really is. He then runs into Bianca, her spitting image, and ends up drawn into the guardians' secret garden, where the welcome is noticeably less warm.

Once the pieces are in place — a coveted jewel, a machine that can command all the water in the city, two creatures who never asked anything of anyone —, the movie shifts into its final act with a night attack, a Kabutops and an Aerodactyl revived from their fossils, and a threat far bigger than the two thieves. We'll stop here: the ending of Pokémon Heroes is one of the most discussed in the saga, and it deserves to be experienced unspoiled.

Latios and Latias: a Legendary duo shown before the games

Latios and Latias are two Dragon/Psychic-type Legendary Pokémon introduced in Generation III. They form a duo in the strictest sense of the word: two twin creatures designed together, one blue and male, the other red and female, as detailed in the feature on legendary trios and duos.

The timing is the most interesting detail here. The movie came out in Japan on July 13, 2002, more than four months before Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, released in Japan on November 21, 2002. Japanese audiences therefore discovered Latios and Latias in theaters before they could encounter them in a game — a tactic the franchise would repeat many times afterward.

For French audiences, the order was exactly reversed. The Ruby and Sapphire games arrived in Europe on July 25, 2003, and the movie only in July 2005: French players had already known the duo for two years when the DVD hit store shelves. It's one of the most concrete effects of the gap between the Japanese and French release calendars.

The movie also features an item that has become familiar to players: the Soul Dew, a jewel that the third-generation games brought back as a held item reserved exclusively for Latios and Latias. The two guardians are Legendary, not Mythical — a distinction that matters, and one clarified in the guide to Legendary and Mythical Pokémon. In fact, it's the last movie in the saga whose poster features no Mythical Pokémon.

Ash, Misty, Brock — and two thieves with no affiliation

The lead trio is the one from the end of the Johto era: Ash, Misty and Brock, along with Pikachu and Misty's Togepi. That's worth knowing to keep your bearings, because the next movie completely changes the crew. Setting aside the 2019 CGI remake, Pokémon Heroes is the last feature film in which Misty travels with Ash; the feature on Ash's journey puts this handover in the context of the whole series.

On the villain side, the movie plays an unusual card. In the Japanese version, Annie and Oakley have absolutely no connection to Team Rocket: they are two independent thieves, in the style of action-movie burglars. It was the Western dub that tied them to the organization, an addition Japanese viewers never saw. How the organization actually operates is described in the feature on Team Rocket.

The two women don't fight empty-handed: Annie relies on an Espeon and Oakley on an Ariados, and the movie gives them one of the saga's rare tech-infiltration set pieces, complete with control screens and a code to crack. Jessie, James and Meowth are there, but reduced to bit parts: it's the first movie in the series in which the comic trio never crosses paths with the heroes.

💻 Annie and Oakley pull off one of the saga's rare tech-infiltration set pieces, complete with control screens and a code to crack: our Pokémon keycaps dress up your keyboard key by key, no break-in required.

Then there are the residents of Alto Mare: Bianca, with her uncanny resemblance to the human form Latias takes, and her grandfather Lorenzo, caretaker of the museum and keeper of the city's history. They are the ones who carry the movie's exposition, telling Ash what the images leave unsaid.

Production, music and a French dub in a class of its own

The movie has a distinction that is rare in the saga: the French version keeps the entire original Japanese soundtrack. Where other feature films had replacement music grafted onto them, this one keeps its original scores, which accounts for much of its highly recognizable atmosphere. Music supervision for the international version was entrusted to John Siegler.

The opening theme is titled Il suffit d'y croire in France. It is also the first movie in the saga not to open with a remixed version of the current season's theme song, both in Japan and internationally: the Japanese version uses a 2002 remix of the series' classic theme rather than the opening then airing on TV. The movie's songs, for their part, were never dubbed into French.

The French dub holds a curiosity for attentive viewers. The first French DVD release is clearly based on the Quebec version — released there under the title Pokémon 5: Les héros —, so several characters go by their English names. The 2012 re-release didn't fix everything: Espeon and Jessie's Wobbuffet still call out their English names rather than their French ones when they first appear.

Finally, the movie marks a technical transition in the saga. The feature films of this period were still made with hand-painted cels, even though the TV series had gone digital as early as 2002; it wasn't until the eighth movie, in 2005, that Pokémon on the big screen made the switch to digital animation in turn.

What the movie adds to the saga

Its most lasting contribution is a production habit. This movie established the tradition of introducing a creature from the next generation in the last feature film of a cycle: Latios and Latias, third-generation creatures, show up while players are still on the second-generation games. The saga stuck to this rule for seventeen years, until the remake of the first movie in 2019.

The fifth movie also introduces an opening that was here to stay: the panoramic sequence that presents the Pokémon world before the story begins, which became a ritual of the feature films that followed. A calendar quirk: it was this fifth movie that produced it first — the Western dub of the fourth, made after the fifth movie's Japanese release, reused it as is, so the two feature films share the same opening in their dubbed versions.

Lastly, it closes a door. It's the last movie in the saga not to feature any Mythical Pokémon: from the next one on, every feature film would have its Mythical creature on the poster, almost always paired with an event distribution in the games of the day. The Gold and Silver games were still the benchmark when the movie came out in Japan; six years later, the event-movie formula would be a well-oiled machine.

One last consequence, an unintended one: it's the last Pokémon movie released in Western theaters before 2011 and the U.S. screenings of the feature film centered on Victini. For nearly nine years, the West saw the saga only on home video and television — while the following movies kept playing in Asian theaters.

July 13, 2005: France sees the fifth before the fourth

In France, Pokémon Heroes never played in theaters. It went straight to DVD on July 13, 2005, three years to the day after its Japanese release. A DVD re-release followed on July 10, 2012. Only three movies in the entire saga ever had a genuine theatrical run in France, on April 5, 2000, December 20, 2000 and June 13, 2001: from the fourth one on, France switched to home video.

That's where the French chronology goes off the rails, and the fifth movie is the textbook case. The fourth feature film, Pokémon 4Ever - Celebi, Voice of the Forest, didn't reach France until May 16, 2007, in a three-DVD box set titled Les Aventures des Pokémon which also included the sixth and seventh movies. The upshot: French viewers saw the fifth movie nearly two years before the fourth.

This jumbled order directly affects how you understand the series. The fourth movie features Misty and Brock exactly like the fifth, whereas the sixth and seventh, released the same day as the fourth, already have May and Max as Ash's companions. A viewer following the French order would have seen the characters disappear, come back, then disappear again.

So the rule to remember is simple, and it applies to the whole catalog: the Japanese date tells you the movie's place in the saga; the French date only tells you when it reached France. The complete guide to the Pokémon movies lists all these dates, movie by movie.

The legacy: the favorite movie of the original era

Twenty years later, Pokémon Heroes still holds a special place in fans' hearts. In a poll run in February 2021 by the official Japanese Pokémon movie website, it was voted the favorite feature film of the series' original era, ahead of the four movies that came before it. Its visual reputation has a lot to do with it: Alto Mare's canals at sunset remain one of the most frequently cited images in the saga.

🌇 Alto Mare's canals at sunset rank among the saga's most cited images: a shot like that deserves better than a desktop wallpaper, and our Pokémon posters take over on your bedroom wall.

The movie also spread into the rest of the franchise. The Soul Dew became a held item in the games, exclusive to the duo; Latios and Latias received their Mega Evolutions in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and each of them even serves as a flying mount in those remakes: Latios in Omega Ruby, Latias in Alpha Sapphire. The feature on Mega Evolutions explains what these forms actually change.

On the anime side, Alto Mare returned to the screen years later, in an episode where another pair of Latios and Latias flies over the city. This reappearance confirms that the movie truly belongs to the series' continuity, and isn't an isolated aside — which isn't the case for every feature film.

Pokémon Heroes at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why doesn't the French title, Les Héros Pokémon, start with "Pokémon"?
  Because the French publisher chose a short title rather than a variation on the usual formula. Les Héros Pokémon (Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias in English) is the only one of the saga's twenty-three feature films whose French title doesn't begin with the word Pokémon: the franchise name is there, but in second position. The original Japanese title, which is longer, literally means "The Guardian Heroes of the City of Water: Latias and Latios".
• When was Pokémon Heroes released in France, and in what format?
  The movie was released in France on July 13, 2005, straight to DVD, without a theatrical run. That's exactly three years to the day after its Japanese release on July 13, 2002. A DVD re-release came out on July 10, 2012.
• Why was the fifth movie released in France before the fourth?
  Because France stopped releasing the movies in theaters after the third one and put the following ones out on home video, without following the Japanese order. The fifth movie came out on DVD on July 13, 2005, while the fourth, Pokémon 4Ever - Celebi, Voice of the Forest, didn't arrive until May 16, 2007, in a three-DVD box set titled Les Aventures des Pokémon that also contained the sixth and seventh movies.
• Which Pokémon are the stars of the movie?
  Latios and Latias, a duo of Dragon/Psychic-type Legendary Pokémon from Generation III. They are presented as the guardians of the city of Alto Mare. Latias has the ability to take on a human appearance, which drives much of the plot.
• Do you need to have seen the previous films to understand this one?
  No. Like nearly every Pokémon feature film, Pokémon Heroes can be watched on its own: all you need to know is that Ash travels with Pikachu and two friends, Misty and Brock. No plot element from the four previous movies is needed to follow this one.
• Was the movie released in theaters in France?
  No. The movie did, however, get a theatrical release in the United States on May 16, 2003, in limited release.
• Where is the city of Alto Mare located?
  Alto Mare is a city on the water in the Johto region. It doesn't exist in any video game: it's a location unique to the anime. Its architecture of canals and bridges was designed after director Kunihiko Yuyama traveled to Venice, which also shows in the residents' Italian greetings and in the names Bianca and Lorenzo.

In short