Nintendo is famous for two things: making
games, and suing people. But today, I want to turn the tables. Because in the 1990s, the exact opposite happened. Nintendo themselves were sued, and this lawsuit
lasted a whopping 2 decades! Let me tell you the story of Nintendo's ridiculous 20 year lawsuit. It all starts at the end of 1999, Christmas
of all times. Now, you might have heard of Uri Geller before. How to explain him… Well, he claims he has magic powers. If you call him a magician, he’ll tell you
you’re wrong. And he uses these alleged magic powers to
bend spoons. That’s kinda all he does. He bends spoons. Now, this particular Christmas time, Uri Geller
was in Tokyo, when he decided to pay a visit to the world famous Pokemon Centre: a shop
which sells all things Pokemon. Bags, books, games, cuddly toys; the Pokemon
Centre sells it all. But not long after Uri Geller entered, the
store manager rushed over to him and started furiously bowing. Then, crowds of children appeared, thrusting
pokemon cards towards him, begging him to sign them, while chanting, “Uri Geller!”,
“Uri Geller!” - now it’s at this moment that I will quickly say this story was told
by Uri Geller himself, so perhaps take it with a pinch or two of salt! Anyway, when Geller stopped to actually inspect
the Pokemon cards, his face grew grim. The Pokemon pictured was carrying a bent spoon
- well, that was his thing! He bent spoons - and it was classed as a psychic
- well, again, he himself was a psychic - but the final straw was the name. It was called Yun Geller. Only one japanese character away from Uri
Geller. He was astounded, furious! And that's where the drama began... So, this is the Pokemon that Geller was talking
about. In English it’s called Kadabra, but it Japanese,
it is indeed called Yungeller. A week after Uri geller’s visit to the Pokemon
Center, he contacted a lawyer from Tokyo, and the pair started formulating a lawsuit
against Nintendo. He told newspapers, "They can't just make
money out of my name and image and try to get away with it by changing the name of the
card outside Japan. I've already had several emails from people
asking is it really me on the card and saying how I must have been given a fortune by Nintendo
for using my name. I'm very angry about this. [...] This is not even anything to do with
the old question of whether I'm a magician or a real psychic. It's a straight theft of my persona." Eventually Geller and his lawyer decided to
sue Nintendo for more than £60m. That’s not all. Geller also began assembling legal teams in
Europe, North America, Latin America and Oceania: Really, that’s most of the world. According to one article, his US legal team
planned to sue for more than 100 million dollars! Ouch… So that begs the question: did Nintendo, or
rather Pokemon’s developers, actually rip off Uri Geller? Well, it seems likely that this Pokemon was
indeed inspired by Uri Geller, although it was probably more of an homage than a “theft
of his persona”, as he put it. But looking at the evolutionary tree, we start
with the Pokemon Abra, whose Japanese name is Casey, named after the alleged psychic
Edgar Cayce. Similarly, the Pokemon Alakazam, who Kadabra
evolves into, is named “Foodin” in Japanese, which probably comes from the name of Harry
Houdini, one of the most famous magicians of all time. And so, considering both of the other Pokemon
get their Japanese names from real life magicians, it seems very likely that Kadabra, or Yungeller,
gets its name from the real life magician, or psychic, Uri Geller. It would certainly explain the spoons! Right, so back to the lawsuit. This legal battle continued for the next TWENTY
YEARS, without any real progress at all. How do we know this? Well, in 2008, the director of the Pokemon
anime, Masamitsu Hidaka, was asked about this very issue. And, surprisingly, he didn’t dodge the question,
or skirt around it. He responded that the case had not been settled
and was still going on. When he was asked if the lawsuit would EVER
come to an end, he responded “not anytime soon.” Not anytime soon? That certainly doesn’t sound good. So what did this mean for Pokemon? Well, one simple thing. No new Pokemon cards featuring Kadabra, or
Yungeller, were allowed to be printed. None at all. As Hidaka explained, they “put Kadabra aside
for now,” and no new cards would be printed until an agreement was reached. But of course, that begs the question, WOULD
an agreement ever be reached? Surely that would take a miracle. I mean, Uri Geller wasn’t exactly gonna
drop the lawsuit out of nowhere, was he? Well, that brings us to the year 2020, when
out of the blue, Uri geller tweeted this: I am truly sorry for what I did 20 years ago. Kids and grownups I am releasing the ban. It’s now all up to #Nintendo to bring my
#kadabra #pokemon card back. It will probably be one of the rarest cards
now! Much energy and love to all! Urigellermuseum.com Yeah, so Uri geller DID just decide to drop
the lawsuit after all. After 20 years of legal fighting, no less. What on earth happened? What motivated him to make this descision? Well, I don’t think anyone can say for sure
what goes on in this man’s mind, but a clue can be found in that tweet. Look at the bottom: urigellermuseum.com. Let me just type that in and I'll show you
the website... The museum shop is open! Welcome to the Uri Geller Museum website. For your information, you can already purchase
Uri Geller’s original drawings and art prints of his drawings on fine paper. Additionally, you can also purchase original
comic books that feature Uri Geller as a superhero. And here's a quote from him. "I have been designing drawing and painting
metapsychical symbols since I was a young boy. These creations are my artistic motifs using
the power of imagination. I believe my drawings have archetypal positive
forces and energy. If you desire to acquire my art I will dedicate
my work to whomever you wish." Right so, in 2020, Uri Geller started working
to create a Uri Geller Museum - a museum about himself featuring his art and apparently,
2000 spoons that were bent by Uri and signed by celebrities such as John Lennon, Elvis,
and the Pope. However, I would argue that Uri Geller's career
peaked in the 1970s - that's when he was all over TV the most. Granted, he's still known in the 2020s, but
he's not exactly the pop culture figure he once was. And so, by releasing his lawsuit on the Pokemon
Kadabra, he manged to build up just a bit of goodwill in the community. Plus, I’m talking about Uri Geller again. I mean, in this very video I've said his name
23 times! He’s in my mind again, that’s for sure,
and I’d imagine he’s in yours as well. You’re welcome. Hey, thanks for watching. I’m on twitter at thomas g docs, and patreon.com/thomasgamedocs
if you would like to give me money. Subscribe for more deep dives into the weirder
parts of gaming history. Dankeschon!
