It stars the regular television cast of Rica Matsumoto, Ikue Ōtani, Mayumi Iizuka, Yūji Ueda, Megumi Hayashibara and Shin-ichiro Miki.

The English adaptation stars the regular television cast: Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, Rachael Lillis and Maddie Blaustein.

Forty years later, the elderly hunter is confronted by the Iron Masked Marauder, a cruel and sinister member of Team Rocket, who seeks to enslave Celebi.

Ash, Sammy, Misty, and Brock find the wounded Celebi and decide to take him to the Lake of Life, said to have healing waters.

The next day, the Marauder confronts the group, using a Dark Ball to capture Celebi and uses its immense powers over nature to encase it in enormous draconian-like armour made from the forest.

After Jessie is captured, the Marauder admits he plans to use Celebi to overthrow Giovanni as leader of Team Rocket and take over the world himself.

Ash, Sammy, and Pikachu breach Celebi's armour and convince it to resist the Marauder, regaining his memories and is freed from the Dark Ball's influence.

Later, Tracey discovers Oak's sketchbook and inserts it into a bookshelf for safekeeping, and Jessie reunites with James and Meowth on the lake.

Grossfeld says they adjusted the casting so that the guest characters did not sound too "cartoony" – "and instead had a larger than life tone to fit in with the epic nature of this story and the craftsmanship of the animation".

Still, there are some reasonably pleasing sequences midway through the film when it revels in some of the more pleasant aspects of the forest - its lake of life, for example - and some of the animation actually becomes a little creative".

[14] In a review of the film, Dann Gire of the Daily Herald said that "nothing feels more desperate than a movie that tries to extort emotions from young viewers.

That happens in the animated Pokémon 4Ever, in which colorful characters stand around crying over the shriveling corpse of a magical creature called Celebi.

[15] Tenley Woodman of the Boston Herald said that "Fans 4Ever would be a more appropriate title for the film because Pokémon enthusiasts likely will be the only ones satisfied by the fourth big-screen installment of this Japanimation craze".

[16] Robert Koehler of Variety said that the "script by Hideki Sonoda is thin in terms of levels of action and adventure, and suffers from last minute padding with one ostensible ending following another.

[19] He added that "like most Pokémon tales, this one offers lots of exposition and clunky dialogue, but also counters the expected mayhem with a sweet-sided story about friendship and peaceful creatures who prefer to live far from the madding crowd".

[19] Angel Cohn of TV Guide said in his review that "the story is a bit predictable and the characters given to restating the obvious (presumably for the benefit of very young viewers), but overall this third Pokémon sequel is surprisingly entertaining, and a mystery surrounding Sammy's identity provides an interesting twist.