Every Pokemon Movie Ranked Worst To Best

For over twenty years, Pokemon has been one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world. But, what people may tend to forget, is that it has also become one of the most proficient film series in the business too.

Last year's Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution, coupled with the live-action debut of Detective Pikachu, has brought it to a whopping twenty-three films in total. That's on par with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and only just behind the Carry On franchise. (Technically, it's twenty-four if we count the fourteenth entry as two separate films, released with minor cosmetic differences.)

Such an achievement deserves some recognition and we can't think of any better way than to dig through the archives and deliver a comprehensive ranking of every entry staring Ash Ketchum, Pikachu and company to date - to separate the very best from the rest, like no-one ever has.

Given this is a film franchise spin-off of a mass-produced anime squarely aimed at kids and intended as a tie-in to help shift merchandise, it's to its credit that it has occasionally transcended its commercial roots on the big-screen to deliver some surprisingly good fare.

With that in mind - and the additional caveat that the franchise has seen diminishing returns on its big animated adventures - this list may not pack too many surprises. But, from the very first step onto New Island through to Ryan Reynolds in a hat, we've caught 'em all - and here's what you should too.

There's little escaping the sense that the relative failures of the XY era's film adaptations - by and large vastly inferior to the corresponding adventures on the small-screen - cost the subsequent Sun and Moon run their own big-screen treatment. If that's the case, then the blame can be laid squarely here, at the franchise's weakest effort.

On paper, it's a mashup of every fan's dream - an effective battle royale of Legendary Pokemon spanning multiple generations. In execution though, it's overshadowed by its title star, whose streak of mischief feels more like irritable petulance than anything else. It's a significant shame, and one that sticks out like a sore thumb even amid the latter-day sponginess of the film series.