Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini and Reshiram and White—Victini and Zekrom: one movie, two dragons

One film in the saga, but two posters and two dragons. On July 16, 2011, Toho simultaneously brought to Japanese theaters Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini and Reshiram and Pokémon the Movie: White—Victini and Zekrom. Same plot, same dialogue give or take a few lines: what changes from one version to the other, starting with the dragon that answers Damon's call, comes down to a handful of details. The idea, borrowed from the paired versions of the games, has never been tried again since — and the setting was drawn from the French Riviera.

Contents

• July 2011: the Unova era opens with a double bill
• Two versions, one film: what actually changes
• The title trap: Black and White were swapped
• The story, without giving too much away
• Victini, the smallest Mythical Pokémon of the fifth generation
• Who travels with Ash, and who stands in his way
• A Pokémon film drawn from the French Riviera
• The Victini given away in the games, and what made it special
• The French release: two films in a single box set
• The reception, and what the film left behind
• Black—Victini and Reshiram and White—Victini and Zekrom at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

July 2011: the Unova era opens with a double bill

On July 16, 2011, Toho brought the saga's fourteenth feature film to theaters — or rather the two halves of a single fourteenth film. Kunihiko Yuyama directed, Hideki Sonoda wrote the script, and the production brought together an unusual team for the occasion: the OLM studio, its OLM Digital branch, plus Production I.G and Xebec, two outside studios brought in to lend a hand. Our overview of the twenty-three feature films counts it as a single entry, and that's exactly how it should be read.

This film opens the Black and White era, which would span three feature films in three years. Ash has just changed teams and continents: he now travels with Iris and Cilan, no longer with Dawn and Brock. The film builds on the world of the games Black and White, released in Japan in September 2010 and in Europe on March 4, 2011: for once, audiences already knew the creatures on the poster.

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The release was a clear success. The film grossed 4.33 billion yen at the Japanese box office, both versions combined, making it the second-highest-grossing Japanese film of 2011 — fifth among all films — and the saga's first rebound at the Japanese box office after three straight years of decline. The double bill played its part: the same moviegoer could buy two tickets.

Two versions, one film: what actually changes

The principle is borrowed from the games: the story is exactly the same, only the dragon is swapped. In the Black version, Damon is chosen by Zekrom; in the White version, it's Reshiram that answers his call. Ash, mirroring him, sets out to find the stone that will awaken the opposite dragon — the Light Stone in the Black version, the Dark Stone in the White version.

The differences don't stop at the legendary casting. Two supporting characters are exclusive to one version: Ohdo appears only in the Black film, Sayd only in the White film. The Shiny Pokémon glimpsed on screen also change from one version to the other — a Golurk in the Black version, a Hydreigon in the White version — modeled on the version exclusives of the games.

A detail few people notice: the two versions don't even share the same composer. Shinji Miyazaki, the series regular, scored the Black film; Akifumi Tada and Kazuhiko Sawaguchi scored the White film. Two scores for a single screenplay is a refinement few double releases have ever allowed themselves. Finally, it's worth noting that neither version is canon for the TV series: a later episode shows Iris hoping to meet Zekrom, even though the film had already brought them face to face.

The title trap: Black and White were swapped

It's the film's most counterintuitive subtlety, and it comes from the games. In Pokémon Black Version, the legendary on the box art is Reshiram, the white dragon; in Pokémon White Version, it's Zekrom, the black dragon. The colors in the titles don't describe the creatures: they designate the version, and the two dragons are deliberately swapped.

The Japanese titles, however, followed the opposite logic. The film released as ビクティニと白き英雄 レシラム literally translates as "Victini and the White Hero: Reshiram", while ビクティニと黒き英雄 ゼクロム means "Victini and the Black Hero: Zekrom." So the color described the dragon, not the version.

🎬 In Japan, the color described the dragon — "White Hero: Reshiram," "Black Hero: Zekrom" — and it was the export that flipped those labels. A Pokémon sticker has the opposite advantage: you're the one who chooses where it goes, and nobody's going to move it.

When the films were exported, the titles were renamed to match the box art of the Western games. In the West, the Japanese "White Hero: Reshiram" became Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini and Reshiram, and the "Black Hero: Zekrom" became Pokémon the Movie: White—Victini and Zekrom. So the labels flipped between Japan and the West. The rule to remember: outside Japan, the Black film features Reshiram and the White film features Zekrom, just like the two game cartridges — Victini, for its part, never switches sides.

The story, without giving too much away

It all starts in Eindoak Town, a peaceful little place built around a castle, as it hosts its annual tournament. There, Ash racks up strangely easy wins: his Tepig knocks out a Samurott with a single Ember, then his Scraggy wins with one Headbutt against Carlita's Hydreigon.

The explanation comes down to one name: Victini, the Victory Pokémon, whose mere presence tips the battles. Carlita is the first to realize what's going on, and the little Mythical Pokémon's secret is out. Carlita's family then enters the picture — her mother Juanita, and above all her older brother Damon, who is pursuing a plan nobody asked for.

A thousand years earlier, the Kingdom of the Vale stretched not far from Eindoak Town, ruled by a king and his Victini. The king's two sons, one in pursuit of ideals, the other in pursuit of truth, turned their dragons against each other and brought about the kingdom's fall. To restore the flow of the Dragon Force, the old king had to call on his friend Victini — at the cost of his life, and by confining the creature within the town.

Damon wants to fulfill his mother's dream: to give the People of the Vale back the land they lost. To do that, he has to move the Sword of the Vale — the castle itself — and therefore draw on Victini's power. The film then becomes a race against a man who isn't a villain, but an idealist who no longer listens to anyone — and how the Dragon Force turns against him is something to discover on screen.

Victini, the smallest Mythical Pokémon of the fifth generation

Victini is No. 494 in the National Pokédex, opens the fifth generation, stands forty centimeters tall and weighs four kilograms. A Psychic- and Fire-type known as the Victory Pokémon, it barely fights at all: it grants victory to others. It's the only Mythical Pokémon in the series to hold the first slot of a regional Pokédex, a distinction that our guide to Legendary and Mythical Pokémon covers in more detail.

The film makes it a character rather than a powerhouse. Victini has never seen the sea, having been confined to the town's boundaries for a thousand years, and its all-consuming love of macarons serves as a running gag throughout. Its signature move, V-create, only appears the moment the film truly needs it, and not a second sooner.

Facing it are two perfectly symmetrical dragons: Reshiram, the Vast White Pokémon, a Dragon- and Fire-type, and Zekrom, the Deep Black Pokémon, a Dragon- and Electric-type. They embody truth and ideals, the two halves of a single mythology also told in our feature on regional legends and mythologies. The film treats them as estranged brothers rather than adversaries.

🐉 Reshiram the Vast White and Zekrom the Deep Black embody truth and ideals, the two halves of a single mythology that the film treats as brothers rather than adversaries. A pair of Pokémon earrings works the same way: one on its own doesn't mean a thing, you need one for each ear.

Who travels with Ash, and who stands in his way

This film marks the arrival of a new team: Ash travels with Iris and Cilan, no longer with Dawn and Brock, who appeared in the previous film. His team is his early Unova lineup — Pikachu, Oshawott, Tepig, Snivy, Scraggy and Swadloon. The full story of his companions is traced in our feature on Ash Ketchum.

Iris fields Excadrill, Axew and Emolga; Cilan relies on Pansage, Dwebble and Stunfisk. Team Rocket is reduced to a bit part, with Jessie and her Woobat and James and his Yamask, a far cry from the role other films in the saga give them.

The real interest of the cast lies elsewhere: Damon is not a typical antagonist. He doesn't want to conquer the world or capture a legendary for glory; he wants to right a thousand-year-old injustice and restore dignity to a scattered people. His mother Juanita and his sister Carlita spend the film trying to talk sense into him, which gives the film a family tone that's fairly rare in the series.

A Pokémon film drawn from the French Riviera

It's the most delightful production anecdote for a French audience: Eindoak Town and its surroundings were drawn from location scouting in the Alpes-Maritimes. The team visited Nice, Gourdon, Tourrettes-sur-Loup, Èze, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Sainte-Agnès, Peillon and Cagnes-sur-Mer — a full tour of the hilltop villages in the Nice hinterland.

The trip didn't stop there. The French Riviera, Normandy, Paris and Mont-Saint-Michel were also among the places visited to feed the setting. Once you know the sources, the silhouette of the castle perched on its promontory stops being an invention and becomes a barely disguised quotation. The previous film had done the same thing in the Netherlands and Belgium: by then, the saga had gotten into the habit of looking to Europe for its settings.

On the music side, the two-sided concept is taken all the way: the Japanese ending theme is a double A-side single by the group Every Little Thing, titled Sora/Koe, with "Sora" accompanying the Zekrom version and "Koe" the Reshiram version.

The French version was produced in Belgium by SDI Media. Aurélien Ringelheim voices Ash, Béatrice Wegnez voices Iris, Maxime Donnay voices Cilan and Nicolas Matthys voices Damon, and the songs become Noir ou Blanc for the opening and Ta bonne étoile for the ending.

The Victini given away in the games, and what made it special

Like almost every feature film, this one came with an event distribution — but this Victini was not the same as the one given away at the games' launch. It came with moves it can't learn in normal gameplay, which made it a collector's item in its own right.

The detail is worth a closer look: this Victini knew V-create, its signature move, but also Fusion Flare and Fusion Bolt, the moves unique to Reshiram and Zekrom. A single Pokémon thus carried both of the film's dragons in its moveset, a neat way of turning a story of reconciliation into game data. The distribution followed the local release dates, and a second wave, in spring 2012, gave out a level 100 Reshiram or Zekrom depending on which version you owned.

The French release: two films in a single box set

Like almost the entire saga, this fourteenth film never played in French theaters: only the first three feature films had a real theatrical run there, between 2000 and 2001, and the saga has returned to the big screen only twice since — I Choose You! from November 5 to 17, 2017, then Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel on November 22 and 23, 2025. The full French release schedule, often lagging several months or even several years behind, is detailed in our guide to the Pokémon movies.

The first French broadcast took place on April 18, 2012, on Disney XD, nine months after the Japanese release. The home video release followed on June 6, 2012, on DVD and Blu-ray, bundled with a Pikachu card from the Trading Card Game — an item collectors still hunt for, as noted in our feature on the TCG.

🃏 The Pikachu card bundled with the June 6, 2012 video release is still hunted by collectors. If you get your hands on one, it deserves better than a drawer: a sleeve all its own in one of our Pokémon card binders.

Two points are worth noting. First, the French edition brings both versions of the film together in a single release: French viewers never had to pick a side, unlike Japanese and American audiences. Second, it was the first Pokémon product released on Blu-ray in France — a format detail that places the era rather well.

The reception, and what the film left behind

In the United States, the big event wasn't where you'd expect it. The White version got a limited theatrical release in American movie theaters on December 3 and 4, 2011, organized by Cinedigm: it was the first commercial release of a Pokémon film in American theaters since Pokémon Heroes, more than eight years earlier — the thirteenth film had only been screened there during a promotional tour. Both versions then aired on Cartoon Network, Black on December 10, 2011 and White on February 11, 2012.

The two-poster idea, for its part, was never repeated. This fourteenth film remains the only one in the saga released in two distinct versions: the concept requires an audience willing to pay twice, which only makes sense in a very dense theatrical market. It's also the only film of the Unova era to have brought in Production I.G and Xebec alongside OLM, the next two having returned to a much leaner in-house production.

Finally, it firmly planted Victini in players' imaginations. The little Mythical Pokémon No. 494 would long remain hard to obtain legitimately, since it could only be found through event distributions. To place this film among the other legendaries of the Unova era, our feature on legendary trios and duos puts Reshiram, Zekrom and their third wheel in their respective places.

Black—Victini and Reshiram and White—Victini and Zekrom at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does the fourteenth film count as one Pokémon movie or two?
  Just one. Black—Victini and Reshiram and White—Victini and Zekrom are two versions of the same fourteenth feature film, released on the same day in Japan, July 16, 2011. The saga has twenty-three films in total, and this double bill takes up only one slot.
• What's the difference between the Black version and the White version?
  The plot is identical; only the dragon changes. In the Black version, Damon is chosen by Zekrom and Ash awakens Reshiram; in the White version, it's the other way around. Two supporting characters are also exclusive, Ohdo in the Black version and Sayd in the White version, and the Shiny Pokémon that appear on screen differ.
• Why does the Black film feature Reshiram, the white dragon?
  Because the titles follow the games, not the color of the creatures. In Pokémon Black Version, the legendary on the box art is Reshiram, and in Pokémon White Version it's Zekrom. The Japanese titles did the opposite, referring to the White Hero Reshiram and the Black Hero Zekrom: so the labels were flipped when the films were exported.
• Was the movie released in theaters in France?
  No. It first aired in France on April 18, 2012, on Disney XD, then came out on DVD and Blu-ray on June 6, 2012.
• Do you need to watch both versions to understand the story?
  No. Each one tells the entire story and stands on its own. Watching the second one only adds the fun of comparing them, since the dialogue and scenes are essentially identical. The French edition actually brings both versions together in a single release.
• Who travels with Ash in this movie?
  Iris and Cilan, his companions from the Unova period. Dawn and Brock, who appeared in the thirteenth film, have left the group. Jessie and James make a brief appearance, with a Woobat and a Yamask respectively.
• How could you get Victini back when the film came out?
  Through an event distribution tied to the film, different from the one offered at the games' launch. This Victini knew V-create, as well as Fusion Flare and Fusion Bolt, the moves unique to Reshiram and Zekrom, which it couldn't learn any other way.

In short

One film, two posters and two dragons: the saga never tried it again, and that's what makes this fourteenth installment memorable well beyond its plot. Behind the marketing trick lies a story of siblings and opposing ideals, carried by the smallest Mythical Pokémon of the fifth generation.

And for French viewers, there's a special pleasure: recognizing the hilltop villages of the Alpes-Maritimes in a Japanese feature film. To place this film among the twenty-two others, our complete guide to the Pokémon movies puts every release in the right order.