Yes.

231: Phanpy

The lack of an elephant was yet another gaping omission from Gen 1's animal representation, but they fairly quickly rectified that with Phanpy here. Elephants are probably all around some of the most impressive land mammals, with their size, highly dexterous nose, and capacity for being cute to boot.

And Phanpy certainly fits that bill, being about the most precious baby elephant-adjacent thing we can reasonably think of. It's even a cartoonish baby blue with bright redish-orange bits that MIGHT run the risk of making it look a bit toyish, but given how popular elephants are with toddlers that almost feels like the intention. It definitely feels nostalgic in a Winnie the Pooh-esque "colorful animal plush doll you played with as a very small child."

That's Donphan over there!

232: Donphan

While all that is probably a bunch of conjecture, Donphan is most definitely a cool take on an elephant design. Notably more stout than anything, Donphan is more like an elephant built like a rhinoceros, with a low-to-the-ground figure and somewhat stumpy proportions. Even its trunk is a little understated, but all this is in service to a cool visual gimmick.

Donphan has a tire-esque pattern going over its head and back, which means it can curl up into the shape of a tire and begin rolling around! That's such a neat and unique idea for an elephant creature! Perhaps the only part we don't really like about it is that its tusks have nowhere to go when it does this so they 're just kind there. They could've made the tusks look like the spikey spokes some hardass monster car enthusiasts have on their vehicle, but we digress.

Our one bit of criticism is how the trunk doesn't look all that natural, especially in poses where it does the iconic trunk-blaring pose and it's hard to unsee some lump of a poor animal that has a tire stuck to its head. We much prefer the one appearance the sprite to the right made in the Japanese Silver version, which has its trunk looking way more like a natural part of its body. Sad that apparently didn't stick.