4 Reasons Why Basing the First Live-Action Pokemon Movie on “Detective Pikachu” is Way More Genius than Any of Us Were Willing to Admit
The top comment on the YouTube trailer for “Pokemon: Detective Pikachu” is from a guy named Patterz. He states, “oh my god it actually looks good wtf.” This is the top rated comment by a margin of roughly 40,858 Likes.
Like you, like of all of us, I too am blown away by just how good this movie is looking right now, and I don’t just mean visually. To say my expectations were low is a huge understatement, but upon further thought, “Detective Pikachu” might have been the ONLY way to make a good live-action Pokemon film, at least for a debut of the franchise. Here are my 4 reasons why “P:DP” is a way better fit than any of us initially realized.
#1- Pokemon is Weird, but this Script’s Clear Focus on Setting Lowers the “Cost of Entry”
So as fans of the series, this concept is easy to overlook, but is perhaps the most important. The Pokemon universe is, even on its surface, incredibly strange. The world is co-inhabited by humans and a huge variety of “monsters.” But these monsters can also use magical attacks and abilities. I can already feel my dad losing interest, and we haven’t even gotten to Pokeballs, Team Magma, The Elite Four, Mega-Evolutions, God Pokemon, and a hundred other aspects of the long running series that are familiar to us but totally baffling to the general public. By making the first movie’s story trim a lot of the fat and focus primarily on the wondrous setting, you make it much more approachable to the general public, and thus more watchable overall.
#2- Everybody Loves a Mystery… or Two
If you were to base a Pokemon movie on the plot of any of the games in the main series, you’d essentially need to format it like a sports film, full of montages, a harrowing defeat at the end of the second act, and a triumphant victory right before the credits roll. Not only would this be far too formulaic, there’s a very good chance that the audience would never fully embrace the driving action of the story, as the closest parallel we have to Pokemon battles in the real world is dog fighting. However, by focusing the story on Tim’s missing dad, we are immediately sympathetic to the protagonist and understand the ultimate goal of the story arc. Plus, if it’s anything like the Detective Pikachu game, we will likely be guessing for much of the movie just exactly how Pikachu has gained the ability to communicate with Tim in the first place.
#3- The Grittier Tone Allows for Some Much Needed Adult Humor
A family film is only successful in so far as it can entertain kids and kids at heart. This is a huge part of the “Disney formula”, and what drives ticket sales to both their theme parks and theatres year round. However, the Pokemon animated series is (Origins notwithstanding) incredibly juvenile. There’s nothing wrong with that: Oriental Light & Magic knows their target audience, but I can vividly remember just how relentlessly bored my parents were when they took me and my friends to “Pokemon: The First Movie.” This Ryan Reynolds vehicle, however, looks to be full of playful nods to the adults in the audience, whether its references to the original games that younger kids won’t understand or adult jokes their little minds can’t yet grasp (Mr. Mime telling Pikachu to “shove it” is so un-Nintendo it’s great). I feel like such irreverent moments would have felt out of place in a traditional Pokemon narrative, but through the lens of a buddy cop flick, it’s just right.
#4- Finally, by Avoiding the Main Cast, There’s Less to “Get Wrong”
Nerds are incredibly difficult to please, and if Ghostbusters 2016 is any indication, their ire and disillusionment has the ability to sink a film, regardless of the final product’s actual quality or lack thereof. But by making this film based on a game relatively few people played, you have a much wider margin of error. Make a story about Ash and Brock and Misty and Team Rocket, and we’d be picking apart every decision the director makes, be it casting, costume, or even the way a line of dialogue is delivered. But is anyone worried that they’re going to screw up Tim Goodman? Does anyone even care? Of course not. This leaves us to focus on nothing but the look of the Pokemon themselves, and let’s be honest: they’re nailing it.
In one trailer, a film went from being something I planned on Red Boxing to something I will probably see opening night. If I had thought about it sooner, I probably should have seen this coming, but to paraphrase the world class detective himself, “In my head, I saw that differently.” What about you? Did you also find this trailer super effective?
Reposting to celebrate the release of the incredible new trailer. It’s legit terrifying how optimistic I am for this movie.