Good afternoon trainers the first trailer for the live action Pokémon noir like film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu is out in the wild. Based upon the Pokémon Company and Nintendo’s Detective Pikachu game this will be the franchises first foray into live action in the west as a big Hollywood prodcution. Check it out below and our break down.
Our first look at Rhyme City is a shot following Justice Smith’s character Tim as he enters a bustling outdoor area.
Pokemon: DuDrio, Pidgey,Vespiquen among other flying or bug types flying about in the background. Also Pokémon are all over the buildings as signage.
Next we have a shot of Rhyme city again but focusing on Kathryn Newton as her character Lucy and a Psyduck. In the games Tim’s love interest/leading lady was a reporter named Emilia Christie. So we have our first diversion from the game. They seem to be standing in front of some inflatable ballons of Pokémon. In the game Rhyme city has festivals with huge attractions featuring Pokémon. The voice over notes they are celebrating the harmony between humans and Pokémon.
Pokemon: Psyduck, Gengar (balloon), Jigglypuff (balloon), guys dressed up as Squirtle.
The next few shots show Tim in a office as Ken Watanabe’s character Detective Yoshida talks about Tim’s detective father, Harry Goodman. In the games Tim comes to Rhyme city seeking his father who has gone missing while on a case. Tim distances himself from his dad as he says he’s not like his great detective dad as the next shot shows Tim in a office setting with a headset on looking flustered leaning far back in his chair.
The exposition by Detective Yoshida seems to continue behind the next couple of scenes as we see Tim leave the street and enter into an apartment then a room filled with pokémon posters as Yoshida says, “I remember when, you wanted to be a pokémon trainer.
So there is a lot to unpack here. From left to right on the top: Championship poster with Blastoise, a picture of who I assume is Tim’s mom, behind the door is poster for ” Johto Rayquaza live weekly football”, an advertisement for a Dragonite vs Hypno battle that’s 16 poké dollars, a championship featuring Charizard at Cerulean Arena. The next two posters are very intsting in that they confirm some long thought about topics from the games. First is the poster for Johto Sport Club featuring bout between Steelix and legendary Pokémon Articuno! In the games legendary Pokémon are rare and most of their entries into the pokédex and lore around them detail their importance to being in nature. It was assumed that there were one of each even though there have been some cameo’s in animated movies where multiple are seen as once, even young versions of legendary’s so this is big news that this carries over into the live action film that there is a Articuno fight. Next is a poster featuring two mega evolved Pokémon, Mega Charizard Y and Mega Blaziken. The final items on the wall is a wall cling of Rayquaza extended a god bit of the wall above most of the posters and a poster for Johto Bowl 13.
The next images is above the bed behind what I assume is a Pikachu headboard. It’s a poster for the Sinnoh Championship 24. Next to that is a poster for the legendary’s from Pokémon Black and White, Reshiram and Zekrom.
The scene transitions to Tim taking a seat on the bed and pulling out a birthday card. Tim is 21 years old. Just a year shy of the the franchises 22 years of existence.
The text of the card is obscured but the rail ticket is clear as day. This scene seems to take lace before the first shot of the trailer as he is home is Leaventown, ha leaving town I get it, as most of the game and movie take place in Rhyme city. The QR code is kind of superfluousness as it doesn’t have any info in regards to the film.
As Tim sits in the room he hears pitter patter in the next room, something yellow and fuzzy seems to be running around the the office space. Lo and behold its the titular Detective Pikachu voiced by Ryan Reynolds.
They worked so hard to translate Pikachu to a realistic model. it surely is adorable but man it’s just weird to see it look so “realistic”. I’ve seen tons of fan art online of what these pocket monsters would look like in our world, most verge on horror (that Jigglypuff man whew), this is gonna be interesting to say the least. Tim realizes that Pikachu can talk, not unlike that conversational moment in the last years Pokémon film – it was a moment where Satoshi aka Ash could understand Pikachu this just is the same concept but for a whole movie and only one person can here it talk.
The next few scenes are Tim trying to reconcile the fact that he has a Pikachu that talks but no one can understand but him.
Pokémon: Emolga, Dudrio, Unknown (on hanging neon signs).
The trailer pushes through more of the plot as Tim doesn’t want a Pokémon partner, but Pikachu volunteers his services as a detective to help Tim find his father, similar to the events in the game.
The theme song, Happy Together by the Turtles goes in full swing as we see Tim carrying a clearly out of it Pikachu a long a stream with Bulbasaur and Morelull.
Next is one of the unintentional funny moments of the trailer. Jigglypuff. It appears to have sung its song and sent somebody to sleep, which is normally hilarious in the cartoon but here those big eyes, fur, and flipper like feet just make me wonder about its physiology. As I’ve mentioned before there is fan art of such things and they are never the most settling things to see. Man oh man the arms are just killing me lol.
The nest are quick cuts of what looks like a cage match with a Charizard, then a team of Greninja’s in an open area space, Tim, Lucy, Piakchu and Psyduck in a car driving to a far off area. A horrific encounter with a Mr. Mine who uses barrier, those Greninja from before seem to be after Pikachu – maybe they are trying to keep Tim and Pikachu off the trailer of a lead. It’ll be interesting to see how pokémon could interact with people in a real world non animated seating where folks could get “burned” electrocuted by their cuddly friends.
I guess well find out May 11th 2019 when Detective Pikachu rolls into theaters. All i’m hopping for is cameos from characters from the anime or better yet cameos from the games. Who would you cast as Red or Blue?
Kaos Blac
Kaosblac@comicattack.com
Twitter: kaosblac
