Pokèmon: Detective Pikachu is an upcoming 2019 movie, based off of the Nintendo 3DS game, Detective Pikachu. It will be directed by Rob Letterman and co-written by himself and Nicole Perlman. The film will star Ryan Reynolds (as the voice of Detective Pikachu), Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Kathryn Newton (Gary Unmarried), and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai).
I don’t know if you remember, but at the tail end of 2017, it was announced that Ryan Reynolds would voice Detective Pikachu in an upcoming movie alongside Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton. Honestly, after that I don’t recall hearing much news…until today, when the trailer dropped. As soon as it began, I was excited, then I heard Ryan Reynold’s voice come out of Pikachu’s mouth and it I thought “This. This is perfect”. I know there are people out there who were probably put off by it, maybe its because I already am bias towards Ryan Reynolds, but I was happy with it.
So far what we know about the plot from the trailer is that Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) is looking for his missing father, who was a detective. He becomes Detective Pikachu’s partner in order to find his dad, but also to help Pikachu because he is the only person able to understand him when he speaks.
Now, I know this trailer raises some immediate concerns. For those who have no played Detective Pikachu are probably wondering why Ryan Reynolds was cast as a voice actor to say “pika pika” over and over. Well, that’s because in the game, Pikachu talks. So, it’s not the director taking liberties and making him talk, that’s canon for that game. Next, we have the way the pokèmon look, now I have been playing the Pokèmon handheld games since 1998, when they were first released in North America and it has been one of my favorite game series ever since, so I understand that the appearance of some of these pokèmon is a bit jarring (Jigglypuff). However, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Any time an artist has done any kind of realistic version of pokèmon, they look pretty weird. I mean, yes, they’re cute as cartoons, but of course they wouldn’t look that way in real life and this is a live-action movie. Personally, I think Pikachu was still adorable, Charizard looked awesome, and did you see that marching line of Bulbasaur? The best.
Overall, I was quite pleased with the trailer. While the movie may not be perfect, and it definitely won’t be serious, I think I can pretty confidently say it’s going to be fun and entertaining, and you better believe I’m going to be there opening night.
