The Pokémon-loving gang have wound up at a carnival to celebrate the arrival of the Millennium Comet. However, it’s not long before there’s some Pokémon action at the carnival itself, too! Will Ash step in and save the day when a monster goes on the rampage, or will they need help of the mysterious Jirachi? Read on to find out…

We rejoin Ash and his travelling gang at the start of his Advanced Generation adventures. This time they are visiting a carnival that has been arranged to celebrate the appearance of the Millennium Comet. This comet appears in the night sky for seven days once every thousand years. The Pokémon Trainers are soon making friends with a Jirachi – a Pokémon that only wakes up when the Millennium Comet is around so that it can absorb its energy. It’s not long before Max has become firm friends with the Jirachi after hearing it talking from inside a rock at a carnival magic show. He knows that Jirachi will grant wishes so Max wishes for lots and lots of sweets! Suddenly he is surrounded by sweets of all kinds! But there are others about who have their eyes on the mysterious Pokémon.

He may look like a regular carnival magician, but the guy in the snazzy clothes is actually an ex-Team Magma scientist called Butler. He has a plan to use Jirachi’s power from the comet to bring forth Groudon and then use this Ground-type Pokémon to get his revenge on Team Magma!

Ash and his team know that something serious is going down when an Absol appears, as this Pokémon is known to only turn up when a disaster is close! Absol leads the Trainers, along with Jirachi, to Forina to be safe. Forina is a place that grows up from the energy Jirachi places into the Earth. Unfortunately though, Butler is one step ahead of them and sets a trap to get his hands on Jirachi!

Butler does his magic spell, but it fails to bring out a true Groudon and instead a crazed Groudon-like monster is created, hungry for power, and it rampages around, scaring everyone! This mad monster absorbs all the Pokémon around it, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. It doesn’t stop there, though, and it’s not long before the crazed monster has captured Brock, May and DIane – Butler’s assistant in his magic show and the love of his life! Suddenly Butler realises just what he has done in creating this Groudon beast – he has endangered his girlfriend! Butler does everything he can think of to stop the monster, reversing the spell, but as he tries he is captured himself! Now what?

Jirachi realises that its powers are needed and halts the monster by absorbing all the energy from it back into itself. The monster is stopped in its tracks. It does the job and all the Pokémon and humans are released as the monster is destroyed. Sadly for Max, the energy absorbed causes Jirachi to transform too and the Pokémon turns into its stone Forme, saying goodbye to Ash, Max and the gang just before it changes. It will take another thousand years before the gang can see Jirachi again… perhaps they should just continue their adventure?

POKÉMON MOVIE NUMBER 6!
• ‘Jirachi: Wish Maker’ was the first Pokémon Anime movie of the Advanced Generation. It was first shown in Japan on 19 July 2003.
•In Japan this movie is known as ‘Wishing Star of the Seven Nights: Jirachi’!
•This Pokémon movie was the first one in America to go direct to video, missing out on a cinema release.
•The happenings in the film take place between episodes ‘Having a Wailord of a Time’ and ‘Win, Lose or Drew!’
•In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, there are two Ace Trainers on the south of Route 229 that have the same Pokémon as Diane and Butler in this movie. In the Japanese games they had the same name as in the movie, but the English translators obviously failed to see the movie tie-in when they translated the names.
•Strangely, Treecko and Mudkip appear on the DVD box of the movie, but they don’t actually appear on screen at all!