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 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?

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Whilst I do feel that the visuals look pretty impressive, for some reason I'm not fully blown away by the trailer.

 

Yep. I'm sold. Let's do this Green Lantern/Deadpool/Pikachu!

 

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.

It's out the week after Avengers so Pikachu has it's work cut out for it.
Being good, competent marketing, media buzz going in and how much the Avengers drops off in it's second week are all going to be factors.

 

I think a lot of us are forgetting that the Pokemon Company likely had a pretty big role in this movie, and probably oversaw it quite a bit... I'd say that this movie is more likely to be at least decent because of it...

 

Live action Mr. Mime is hilariously adorable.

 

The movie honestly looks kinda self-aware and i can appreciate that because Pikachu as a detective voiced by Ryan Reynolds is just very absurd, if they don't take it too serious it could be a decent product.

 

Ryan Reynolds may save this.

 

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.

Jokes aside, the prospect of more Pokémon movies is kind of appealing tbh. If this sells well, it could be in Game Freak's best interest to do a more main series story. Imagine a retelling of Kanto and taking down Giovanni and Team Rocket, or a retelling of the Mewtwo story. Mewtwo's back story has Pokémon action movie with an epic 15 minute fight scene at the end written all over it.

 

I was kind of worried of the visual style at first but now I think I'm okay with it

 

Beyond being enamored by the absolute cuteness of all the Pokémon, this movie trailer looks good. I'm glad it's being made and Ryan Pikanolds is fantastic. Seeing a realistic take on Charizard was way too surreal. I was not ready.

 

wow that looks horrible lol

said no one

 

said no one

Yeah you're right when you ignore all the people who said it nobody actually did say it I guess lol

 

They actually managed to avoid the uncanny valley against all odds.

 

My favorite part of the trailer is the Mr. Mime scene.

 

From now on I think I’m going to refer to Pikachu as Ryan Reynolds. So I really thinking about maining Ryan Reynolds in SSBU

 

Obviously the trailer didn't blow me away, because that would be very rare. But it shocked the hell out of me. I was like "I can't believe that this actually looks decent." I'm fine with the CGI, it's not too different but also different enough so that it can blend into the real world. It's just...wow. All of the jokes we saw, it felt like someone actually sat there and geniunely tried to make something funny. The comedy wasn't safe, cheap potty humor. It was actually pretty good. All in all, one of the most promising things is that they aren't straining too far away from the original source material, like video game movies tend to do. In comparison with Pokemon in general, they changed the world up a bit but not too much. In comparison with the Detective Pikachu game, it seems to almost perfectly tie into the universe. It seems like they actually care about the Pokemon series and actually care about making a movie that properly respects it.

 

Yeah you're right when you ignore all the people who said it nobody actually did say it I guess lol

you are in the minority. I dont what else you would want from a Detective Pikachu movie but this as good as it's going to get.