Uri Geller, that Israeli-British guy who’s all about bending spoons with his mind or at least pretending to decided to go after Nintendo back when Pokémon was exploding in popularity. It was November 2000, and he slapped them with a lawsuit in a California court, asking for a whopping £60 million, which was like $80 million back then. His beef? He claimed the Pokémon Kadabra was basically ripping off his whole act without permission.
Kadabra popped up in 1996 as this Psychic-type critter, always shown with a spoon that’s all twisted up. And get this in Japanese, it’s called Yungerer, which sounds an awful lot like Geller’s name. To him, it was obvious. He went to the press saying,
“Nintendo made me into this evil, occult Pokémon thing.”
On top of that, he pointed out some symbols on Kadabra that he thought looked like Nazi stuff, which he found super offensive.
A tweet from X.
The lawsuit in the U.S. got tossed out in 2003, but Nintendo played it safe anyway. From that year on, Kadabra just disappeared from the Pokémon Trading Card Game. We’re talking almost 20 years of nothing. Card makers had to get creative, like having Abra jump straight to Alakazam without the middle evolution.
Those old Kadabra cards from before the drama? They became hot collector’s items because they were so rare. In 2008, the director of the Pokémon anime, Masamitsu Hidaka, even said in an interview that they sidelined Kadabra until the legal mess sorted itself out. For fans, it turned the Pokémon into this mythical, off-limits figure.
Fast forward two decades, and Geller had a change of heart. On November 28, 2020, he tweeted .
“I’m really sorry for what I did 20 years ago. Kids and adults alike, I’m lifting the ban. It’s up to Nintendo now to bring back my Kadabra card.”
He owned up to it being his ego that fueled the suit, and he thanked the fans and even his granddaughters for talking him into it. Heck, he set aside a spot in his museum in Israel for Kadabra stuff, saying it was pretty much a nod to him all along.
Then, in June 2023, The Pokémon Company finally brought Kadabra back in the Pokémon Card 151 set, which was all about the original 151 Pokémon. For the first time in forever, people could get the complete Abra-Kadabra-Alakazam line again.
Collectors and die-hard fans were thrilled. Geller himself was over the moon:
“I’m so glad Kadabra’s back. Shoutout to the fans who kept at it.”
This whole saga shows how one celeb’s legal tantrum can shake up a massive franchise like Pokémon. The courts didn’t officially ban anything, but Nintendo’s lawyers basically ghosted the character for a whole generation to avoid trouble.
It also sparks bigger chats about IP rights and when a character crosses into looking too much like a real person stuff that keeps popping up in pop culture.
But for Pokémon lovers, Kadabra coming back was just about fixing a hole in their nostalgia. A piece of their kid days finally clicked back into place.
