About

Twinkle Tackle is the Fairy-type Z-Move introduced in the video game Pokémon Sun and Moon. Beginning in 2020, the move was harshly criticized as an example of a bad animation in Pokémon, and a video of the Legendary Pokémon Xerneas doing the animation went viral for its perceived poor quality.

Origin

Pokémon Sun and Moon added the unique gimmick of Z-moves to the Pokémon franchise in which a Pokémon holding a Z-crystal could perform a special, strong Z-move matching that crystal's typing.^[1] A Pokémon holding Fairium Z could perform the Fairy Z-move "Twinkle Tackle" for strong damage (example with Mimikyu shown below). In "Twinkle Tackle," the Pokémon's idle model is thrown around the screen before encroaching on its opponent.

On May 27th, 2020, Twitter user King0fSpiders^[2] posted the in-game animation of the Legendary Pokémon Xerneas performing Twinkle Tackle, calling Twinkle Tackle "one of the stupidest animations on the f---ing planet," gaining over 12,000 retweets and 50,000 likes in three years (shown below).

Twinkle Tackle has one of the stupidest animations on the f---ing planet pic.twitter.com/Q6J0chawFy

— Terry (@King0fSpiders) May 27, 2020

Spread

The tweet became well-known in the Pokémon community over the following years. It was reposted to the /r/Pokemonmemes^[3] subreddit on August 6th, 2021, and to /r/196^[4] on January 2nd, 2023, gaining over 6,000 points in two years and 12,000 points in nine months, respectively. On September 12th, 2021, Twitter user @Swapdoodle reposted the animation with a new caption criticizing it, gaining over 60 retweets and 250 likes in two years (shown below).

If you ever feel self conscious about posting animation that you made online, remember that twinkle tackle is a move in a real Pokémon game from the largest media franchise ever pic.twitter.com/epMW2jGSJ2

— Nikki/Daisy 🌸 (@Swapdoodle) September 12, 2021

The official animation of Xerneas doing Twinkle Tackle led to an offshoot of animations where artists imagined different Z-move or epic animations for the Pokémon. On August 26th, 2023, TikTok user @samtheundying posted a comparison between Twinkle Tackle and the Pokémon knockoff game Pocket Incoming, gaining over 452,000 likes in six weeks (shown below, top). On June 5th, YouTuber BluTwoAnimations posted their reanimation of "Twinkle Tackle," gaining over 2,700 likes in four months (shown below, bottom).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References