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I liked that the movie's ovearching theme was "lies."
Almost every character in the film is lying to themselves or someone else. Callahan lives out a blowhard fantasy to preserve his niece's image of him, Risa lies about the kind of girl she really is and in the process runs away from being a runner, Toren hides from his colleagues' criticism and helps Callahan create his facade at the catch race, and Harriet spends years pretending to hate Pokémon all so she can't get hurt again after losing Snubbull. Even Rick lies to Risa, pretending to send her to Fula City for Eevee when it's really to get exclusive footage for his channel. The mayor and the entire town have been perpetuating one massive lie about what caused the fire years ago to protect themselves. This turns Sudowoodo (Usokkii, "Lying Tree," and a pun on Usotsuki "Liar") into a symbol not just for Callahan's personal flaws but one for the behavior of Fula City's characters as a whole, each and every one of them pretending to be something they're not. But while Sudowoodo lives in constant fear of water, the city fears fire over all else and this is what nearly destroys it.