The Power of One
Going strictly off of air/release dates, M02 gets listed immediately
prior to EP105 where Ash’s Charizard finally becomes obedient. The
problem with this is that in the movie, Charizard shows no signs of being
disobedient. At one point Charizard even ends up pulling a sled being ridden by
Ash. These actions taken together make more sense if Charizard is already
obedient, which can be fixed by pushing M02 back one episode.
However there’s some speculation that the original airdate placement is correct, based on the geography of the Orange Archipelago. Ash and friends visit Trovita, Cleopatra and Ascorbia islands in that order. While the movie takes place on Shamouti Island which is logically visited while travelling between Trovita and Cleopatra islands.
While this argument makes sense, the reason given in the movie for them visiting Shamouti at all is being dragged there by anomalous bad weather seen all the way to Palet Town. It’s therefore not beyond the realm of possibility for this to have occured just after leaving Cleopatra rather than before, so for now at least Charizard’s behavior wins out.
Unfortunately there is another continuity error introduced by Prof Oak’s and
Tracey’s meeting at the end of the movie. In subsequent
episodes Tracey expresses excitement at meeting Prof Oak in person.
This is unresolvable (by reordering) as attempting to place the movie after
these episodes leads to other errors. Namely that Lapras, who appears in the
movie, is released during EP113 and that Ash and friends leave the
Orange Islands (the location of the movie) at the end of EP114.
Seemingly the best explanation available for this is simply that Tracey didn’t get much chance to speak to Prof Oak immediately following the movie, and that his excitement is more about that than merely meeting the professor in person.
Source: GameFAQs Pokémon Message Board