<p>I watched the movie (English-dubbed). The movie gives no explanation of why Pikachu is suddenly shown speaking a human tongue. </p>

<p>However - and this is just my impression - I don't think that Pikachu <em>actually did</em> speak a human tongue here. The astute <em>Pokémon</em>-watcher will recall that there are many scenes in the anime where a Pokémon is able to convey complex thoughts to its trainer just by making its species' noises. This happens particularly often with Pikachu/Ash. </p>

<p>So this scene felt to me more like a "translation convention" for the benefit of the audience, who, unlike Ash, cannot understand what "pika pi pikachuuuu pika" means. Typically, when the audience needs to be apprised of what Pikachu is saying, Ash will reiterate what Pikachu supposedly said to him (you know, along the lines of "What's that, Pikachu? Team Rocket's giant Meowth-shaped balloon is over thataways?"). But I think that approach wouldn't have worked very well in this particular scene, so we get Pikachu "speaking" a human tongue instead. This works fine here, because the only character who witnesses Pikachu's "speech" is Ash, who would understand Pikachu just as well even if Pikachu were speaking Pikachu-ese. </p>

<p>As supporting evidence, I note that Ash doesn't seem even mildly surprised by this turn of events, which suggests to me that Pikachu was still speaking Pikachu-ese at him. (Though, I suppose, he might have had other things to worry about, like the gang of mind-controlled Pokémon that are about to beam-spam him out of existence.)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-19T23:33:05.230Z
2017-11-20T07:40:10.343Z
2017-11-20T07:40:10.343Z
senshin
<p>In this clip from the new movie <em>I choose you</em>, it appears that Pikachu speaks natural language. </p>

<p>There is a clip of it in English on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5COB13How7U" rel="nofollow noreferrer">YouTube</a> (speaks around 35 seconds)</p>

<p>I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm interested to know how is the ability to speak explained? I remember that there was one time where the Unowns were dubbing the Pokemon, is this something similar?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-18T21:42:28.980Z
Not writing as an answer since I haven't seen the movie as well. However, this scene has been controversial as reported by the Guardian. Not so much in Japan though. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/14/pokemon-fans-shock-pikachu-speaks-english-movie
Arcane
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-19T11:02:49.767Z
Apparently, Pikachu also speaks in the original Japanese release (just FYI in case you want to generalize this question), and... yes, it confused some of the viewers too.
Aki Tanaka
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-19T20:31:28.537Z
@AkiTanaka Thanks that makes sense, went ahead and did that.
giraffesyo
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-19T23:33:48.420Z
By "unknowns" do you mean "Unowns" (Pokémon #201)?
senshin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-20T05:23:07.900Z
@senshin Yep sorry! My phone changed that on me and didn't even notice xD
giraffesyo
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-24T05:36:09.493Z
@SecretEvilRadio Thanks, I changed it out. Probably will continue to get removed, if so I'll probably just remove the reference to YouTube. In the future feel free to edit it if you'd like :)
giraffesyo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-27T08:02:30.827Z
I think basically only the trainer, or someone VERY familiar with said pokemon can understand the pokemon. An example is in the clefairy/mt.moon episode, Pikachu tries to tell ash something and then someone (I forget who) says "You can understand what he's saying?" to which Ash replies "Of course I can! He's MY pokemon."
bubblecrud
<pokemon>
How can Pikachu speak now?
# How can Pikachu speak now?
Posted by: username_0 on 2017-11-18
In this clip from the new movie *I choose you*, it appears that Pikachu speaks natural language.

There is a clip of it in English on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5COB13How7U) (speaks around 35 seconds)

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm interested to know how is the ability to speak explained? I remember that there was one time where the Unowns were dubbing the Pokemon, is this something similar?
**Tags:** pokemon
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Not writing as an answer since I haven't seen the movie as well. However, this scene has been controversial as reported by the Guardian. Not so much in Japan though. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/14/pokemon-fans-shock-pikachu-speaks-english-movie  
> **username_2**: Apparently, Pikachu also speaks in the original Japanese release (just FYI in case you want to generalize this question), and... yes, it confused some of the viewers too.  
> **username_0**: @AkiTanaka Thanks that makes sense, went ahead and did that.  
> **username_3**: By "unknowns" do you mean "Unowns" (Pokémon #201)?  
> **username_0**: @senshin Yep sorry! My phone changed that on me and didn't even notice xD  
> **username_0**: @SecretEvilRadio Thanks, I changed it out. Probably will continue to get removed, if so I'll probably just remove the reference to YouTube. In the future feel free to edit it if you'd like :)  
> **username_4**: I think basically only the trainer, or someone VERY familiar with said pokemon can understand the pokemon. An example is in the clefairy/mt.moon episode, Pikachu tries to tell ash something and then someone (I forget who) says "You can understand what he's saying?" to which Ash replies "Of course I can! He's MY pokemon."  
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## 1 answers
### Answer by username_3 on 2017-11-19. Score: 14 | Accepted answer
I watched the movie (English-dubbed). The movie gives no explanation of why Pikachu is suddenly shown speaking a human tongue.

However - and this is just my impression - I don't think that Pikachu *actually did* speak a human tongue here. The astute *Pokémon*-watcher will recall that there are many scenes in the anime where a Pokémon is able to convey complex thoughts to its trainer just by making its species' noises. This happens particularly often with Pikachu/Ash.

So this scene felt to me more like a "translation convention" for the benefit of the audience, who, unlike Ash, cannot understand what "pika pi pikachuuuu pika" means. Typically, when the audience needs to be apprised of what Pikachu is saying, Ash will reiterate what Pikachu supposedly said to him (you know, along the lines of "What's that, Pikachu? Team Rocket's giant Meowth-shaped balloon is over thataways?"). But I think that approach wouldn't have worked very well in this particular scene, so we get Pikachu "speaking" a human tongue instead. This works fine here, because the only character who witnesses Pikachu's "speech" is Ash, who would understand Pikachu just as well even if Pikachu were speaking Pikachu-ese.

As supporting evidence, I note that Ash doesn't seem even mildly surprised by this turn of events, which suggests to me that Pikachu was still speaking Pikachu-ese at him. (Though, I suppose, he might have had other things to worry about, like the gang of mind-controlled Pokémon that are about to beam-spam him out of existence.)
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