Detective Pikachu Movie Releases its First Trailer

Warner Bros. Pictures’s trailer for the Pokémon: Detective Pikachu movie recently dropped on November 12th, 2018 with a new, fluffier take on everyone’s favorite electric rodent.

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is the first live-action Pokémon film and follows the story of the titular Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) and Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) on their quest to find Tim’s missing father. Unlike every other human, Tim can understand what Detective Pikachu says, hearing him speak as if he were another human.

Detective Pikachu isn’t alone in a live-action world of humans either, the film’s very realistic style of animation is also showcased by many of the other Pokémon we’ve grown to love over the years. Some of the Pokémon you can see in the trailer include Psyduck, Greninja, Jigglypuff, Charmander, Mr. Mime, Bulbasaur and Charizard. Don’t just listen to me though, go see for yourself and watch the trailer below!

Author’s Note: So, what do you think about this trailer? Do you like or dislike the visual direction the film took? Let us know in the comments below!

 

I am so pumped for this.

 

alright chief this right here is where i draw the line

no realism in my pokemans

 

I've always been a bit hesitant on how Pokemon would look in real life, but this movie seems to still do them justice, which has me hyped. It's a pleasant and welcome surprise.

 

Greninja hype!!!

 

This is like, great! It works so well. I love the designs of Greninja and charizard especially. And pikachu, god that thing is cute.

 

wow that looks horrible lol

 

What have they done to my main!?

 

What in the LORD's name

 

Let's talk about how Mr. Mime is god-tier in his design, while everyone else ranges from 'Alright' to 'Dear god what is with that Jigglypuff!?'

 

I’m sorry but this is gonna bomb...

But if it doesn’t, it’s gonna rock.

This is a pretty big gamble on Nintendo’s part.

 

This is hilarious, i got used to Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Dotrio and Mr Mimes realistic designs but the Greninja one not sure. It's nice to see a real life Pokemon movies, the last few years were the same animations to the anime.

 

Imagine those weird disturbing YouTube videos that say “What Pokémon Would Look Like in Real Life.” Now imagine they made a movie about that.
You just imagined Detective Pikachu

 

View attachment 177604
What have they done to my main!?

I swear when they were jumping they looked like Power Rangers Villains

 

I’m sorry but this is gonna bomb...

But if it doesn’t, it’s gonna rock.

This is a pretty big gamble on Nintendo’s part.

Putting money on it not sucking


I have my reasons

 

I’m sorry but this is gonna bomb...

But if it doesn’t, it’s gonna rock.

This is a pretty big gamble on Nintendo’s part.

Nah. This is not going to bomb at all. This is going to be box office gold.

Risky was pre-production. What has been shown so far is very promising. If a trailer is good, and the IP is popular, it's going to do well. So it will.

 

Imagine those weird disturbing YouTube videos that say “What Pokémon Would Look Like in Real Life.” Now imagine they made a movie about that.
You just imagined Detective Pikachu

Funny thing is, this guy is the concept artist.

 

I suppose we don’t live in the world of piss-poor movies based on games anymore. Aka Mario Bros.


Oh wait.....




Warcraft.....

 

I think all the Pokemon shown look fantastic. I can't wait for this.

 

After hearing how terrible the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie was, I feel that this will end up being a total disaster. Pokemon really isn't meant to go the live-action route anyway.

 

Not gonna lie this movie has some potential...
Sure, some of the Pokemon like Greninja and Jigglypuff look a bit off,
But they managed to nail others like Pikachu, and the story and execution interests me...
Also, someone in the development staff definitley played the games, tons of references and such
Pretty excited for this...

This is a pretty big gamble on Nintendo’s part.

Nintendo really doesn't have anything to do with this movie. The greenlighting of this movie was done by the Pokemon Company... In fact, Nintendo's name isn't the the trailer at all

 

is just as creepy as ever, still one of my favorite Pokémon though.

 

Pikachu to the rescue!

 

I think Arlo said it best: "I am ANNOYED at how much I want to see this." XD

 

I suppose we don’t live in the world of piss-poor movies based on games anymore. Aka Mario Bros.


Oh wait.....




Warcraft.....

One could also say that remaking an animated movie or TV special into a live-action movie is a bad idea. I suppose it could work if done properly, but when talking about animated TV special classics like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original TV special will always be better than the live-action remake.

 

This is gonna either be really hilarious, or really awful...

 

This is gonna either be really hilarious, or really awful...

Or both

wow that looks horrible lol

Compared to most video game movies, I think it looks pretty decent

 

Garbage.

Not even Ryan Reynolds can help it from tanking.

 

I have not been this hyped to see a movie in years.

 

I think it looks fantastic.

Especially Pikachu.

 

This is gonna either be really hilarious, or really awful...

I'm probably guessing the latter. I can at least look at the 3DS version of Detective Pikachu without feeling disturbed.

 

I’m more excited about the idea and maybe it’s implications if it is successful than the movie itself.

 

View attachment 177604
What have they done to my main!?

When Sakurai nerfs you again

 

I suppose we don’t live in the world of piss-poor movies based on games anymore. Aka Mario Bros.


Oh wait.....



Warcraft.....

Legendary, the studio behind Warcraft, is also the studio behind this movie...

Putting money on it not sucking


I have my reasons

Yeah, it looks pretty faithful to be honest with you...

 

It's very unusual, but I'd pay to see it. Jigglypuff looked cute. <3

 

If this does do well, I see a future in the PKMNCU.

I’m calling it now...

Detective Pikachu (Crime detective thriller, 2019)

Pokémon Snap (Survival adventure, 2021): A apprising photojournalist finds himself stranded on a deserted island with four other members of his crew (a military type, a cool beauty type, token minority, and geek type) while trying to escape from dangerous Pokémon. Turns out that Harry Goodman was one of the members of the crew.

Team Rocket (Heist thriller, 2022): Jessie and James are down and out petty thieves who attempt to break into a place called Giovanni’s. While they ultimately fail, they manage to impress Giovanni and he insists them into TR. They work together with a ex-com, aspiring comedian Meowth to pull the greatest heist: kidnapping Detective Pikachu from Tim Goodman.

Oak House (Coming of age/Animal House, 2024): Gary Oak grew up with his brother in an abusive and neglectful household and ran away at a young age. Working hard, he managed to save up enough and, through a scholarship, get into university where he learned that partying was more fun than studying. It wasn’t until a young lass by the name of Delia who changes his course in life.

Detective Pikachu 2 (2025): Tim Goodman and Detectuve Pikachu are full-fledged detectives though there hasn’t been much work lately. However, a string of Pokémon pokenappings and dissapeances of wild Pokémon on the area leads the duo to a mysterious organization who think they are freeing Pokémon from thier owners. They also discover a Pokémon created Fromm genetical resurrection.

 

Interesting. I like how they constructed the world of Pokémon and humans, and Detective Pikachu is pretty funny. Still, it looks more like an action film than a psychological thriller. I think I'll wait until GameSpot has to say about it.

 

To be fair, the Pokemon have a good mix of "this is what they look like if they were real" and their anime counterparts. Have you read some of the Pokedex entries? Like, most of these guys are horrifying nightmare fuel by default. The Pokemon who look super cute and are generally harmless in the anime/game still look super cute in cgi so that's OK. It'll probably be a typical action film with the qtpi touching moments and buddy-cop teamwork. Nothin' wrong with that. For some reason I'm thinking this is basically Eliza Thornberry in the Pokemon world lmaoOOPST.

As for the voice choice, I like Ryan, but he wouldn't have been my 1st choice. I was hoping for Danny Devito because he'd be the perfect detective-anything. Although it would've been so much funnier if the voice was deep and stoic (like Morgan Freeman or Travis Willingham). But let's face it. Not even Nintendo could afford to hire Morgod Freeman.

 

I don't know why people often compare these modern video game movies to old ones, like Mario Brothers, etc. Yes, those movies sucked, but how can one justify that as a reason that Detective Pikachu would be just as bad? All these movies were made by different casts and directors; just because they share the same genre doesn't mean anything. It's just like saying that Wonder Woman the movie is going to suck because Green Lantern from 2011 was bad - they're both movies based on superheros, but we all know how Wonder Woman did compared to Green Lantern...

 

I don't know why people often compare these modern video game movies to old ones, like Mario Brothers, etc. Yes, those movies sucked, but how can one justify that as a reason that Detective Pikachu would be just as bad? All these movies were made by different casts and directors; just because they share the same genre doesn't mean anything. It's just like saying that Wonder Woman the movie is going to suck because Green Lantern from 2011 was bad - they're both movies based on superheros, but we all know how Wonder Woman did compared to Green Lantern...

I think people forget the main reason why video game movies suck:

1. The crew/cast do not care about the source material and try to create something 180 degrees from what the games are
2. The cast/crew love it so much that they are TOO faithful and fall into the trap of trying to recreate a video game story in movie time, which is borderline impossible due to video games allowing for a LOT more freedom throughout the medium than a movie could ever give

Basically we have two extremes. Firstly the people who don't care at all, and secondly the people who care so much that they forget that video games are vastly superior to movies as a medium in general due to their intrinsic nature of freedom within the story (hence why it's far easier to adapt a movie into a video game than the other way around).

Detective Pikachu dodges both of these to me, which is why I can't write it off immediately. It dodges the second hurdle because this is NOT a story from the games, at least 1 to 1, and the game it is based on was more story driven rather than gameplay driven as is (from what I've heard). It dodges the first hurdle just through the trailer and all the love put into the references and pokemon themselves. They kept the silhouettes of all the pokemon while making the realistic and they are easily recognizable.

But I think the biggest showing of how much they actually care was the Mr. Mime scene in the trailer, because that entire scene looks like something I'd expect a fan of the franchise to do, somebody who knows not only about Mr. Mime's powers, but how to use them to comedic effect.

I'm telling you guys, if this thing bombs, I don't think it will be because it's a video game movie... it'll bomb solely because it's just bad; not because it had to stay in the shadow of the games or because of a lack of care put into it. I know that seems like a strange roundabout way to go through my reasoning, because someone can easily say "that's why video game movies are bad, because they just are bad movies", but I doubt people would disagree with my idea of the main hurdles that ALL video game movies have yet to overcome fully, right?