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Information

• Member: Scott A Melzer
• Studio: NoN.D.E.
• Title: Pokemon Fight Club
• Premiered: 2000-08-05
• Categories:
  • Comedy
  • Parody
• Song:
  • Fight Club Trailer
• Anime:
  • Pokémon (TV)
• Participation:
  • Otakon 2000, Otakon 2000 (2000-08-10)
• Comments: This is a movie TV-Spot/Trailer type Parody.
  
  I had the idea of doing a commercial for Otakon's awesome "Mystery Anime Theatre 3000" show, and I contacted Matt Pyson (Cybermat) and asked him if we could do a commercial. He said, "Sure, that saves us from having to make one!" The actual idea was Lukas'. He came to me with the idea of using a trailer from Fight Club, which was about 3 minutes long. However, he wanted to use EVA and had some ideas. I told him that I thought that the idea was about 30 seconds funny, so we should keep it at that. Also, I didn't think that Eva would work very well. After listening to all of the TV spots on the Fight Club DVD, we came up with the one with the most talking, sound effects, most bits that could be funny, etc. I have NO idea how I came up with the idea of using Pokemon, but it happened.
  
  I'd also like to say that while both of us had worked together on many AMV projects, neither of us had ever heard of using a movie trailer or commercial for a parody. We hadn't heard of Brad DeMoss' way cool "Episode One" Eva trailer, or any of the others that would follow. The idea was completely Lukas'. We thought that we were being really original, and I honestly have no idea which came first. Ours was made in June of 2000. It's funny that now there are dozens of trailers. Guess we weren't that orignal after all.
  
  The commercial was made over the course of one weekend. A VERY intense weekend. Lukas had borrowed a bunch of Pokemon tapes from me during the week and watched them to get some ideas, and then we got together over Saturday & Sunday to put the whole thing together. I think that the ideas for what actually made it in were about 50/50 Lukas and I. I remember that the "Rated R" and "Dynamic Women" ideas were his, while the "Good job" and "That hurt" were mine. Everything else is a maze of 25 hours (at least) of marathon crazy hair pulling, tape scanning, and laughing.
  
  As per usual, we tried to have some continuity. Our idea was that if this were a trailer, then it should look like there actually WAS a movie that this was made from. So we tried to hint at a story. At least, to us there is one. The gist is: "Ash (he's Ash in our version because it's dumber to use the English version) enjoys the good life as a member of Team Rocket, working in a SonMay plant bootlegging Pokeballs in a copy machine. He then meets Pikachu and his life goes to hell. He cross dresses, gets his face burned, is beat up, etc."
  
  Also, I really HATE Togepi. He's the dumbest Pokemon. Yeah, that's saying something. He's an egg. He evolves into... an egg. ARGH! I'm not jealous because Kasumi carries him around hugging him. No, that's not it. It's an egg that turns into an egg!!!! GAH! So, we turned him into an omlet. Unfortunately, it looks like Brock is the one talking in the shot instead of Pikachu. It's supposed to look like Pikachu talking while pouring ketchup on his new Togepi Omlet, but stupid Brock flaps his lips. We REALLY looked for another shot, but in desperation we kept that one. If I knew what I now know about image masks, I'd have sealed his lips. Oh well.
  
  We had a lot of problems too. It seemed that one out of every four tapes just wouldn't capture. I'd find out a year later what the problem was, and that using a different VCR would have fixed it. *sigh* But at the time we just cursed our technical problems and tossed the tapes that wouldn't work on the side. It was infuriating. But... time wasn't on our side. Matt needed the video ASAP to guarantee its showing.
  
  I was extremely excited during the MAT3K showing. It was absolutely awesome (as usual). When they went to their commercial break, we all held our breaths. Funny thing was that another guy had also sent in a commercial. Tim "Link" Park of Doki Doki fame had sent in his "Anime Mascot's Day Off." Then ours came on. I took a photo of Pikachu with his boxing gloves (and another during the credits) which barely came out, but was pretty cool nonetheless. The reaction was great. People loved it. Lukas and I were ecstatic.
  
  But... it was still kind of sad. It was about 30 seconds long and was there and gone. A LOT of people saw it at the showing, but we thought that there'd be no place for it to be shown again. When we started working on our parody, "This Is Otakudom" I included it as a "Preview" at the start of the tape. Since it was created a year earlier, and for a separate reason, I thought it deserved a separate writeup.
  
  ...all that, for 30 seconds of Fight Club and Pokemon. Lukas and I hope you like it!