Director: Rob Letterman
Cast: Justice Smith, Ryan Reynolds (voice), Kathryn Newton, Karan Soni, Ken Watanabe, Omar Chaparro
Rating: PG
Running time: 104 mins
Release Date: 10/05/2019
1996, collecting and finding blue and white backed Pokémon cards, in particular shiny Charizards’ and Blastoises’ and showing them off to all of your mates on the playground.
1999, playing Pokémon Red or Blue on your beaten and battered grey Gameboy for hours on end, using a cheat to create as many candies as possible to evolve all your Pokémon to their highest levels.
2000, watching Ash Ketchum on Pokémon, I Choose You be given his new yellow furry friend named Pikachu and seeing his first encounter with a Pidgey (or two).
2016, trying to walk around new places to find any rare type Pokémon before swiping 20 times on your iPhone making you seem like an absolute nutcase in front of a bystander nearby using Pokémon Go.
All the memories and the emotions it brings back from childhood to now, it is a lot of what makes Pokémon Detective Pikachu great, especially how it takes what we love so much about these characters and the worlds they live in and makes them feel real. It’s what we imagined it would be like to be a real Pokémon trainer out hunting for our newest friend.
Tim (Justice Smith) a young man who travels to the neon-filled Ryme City to settle his Fathers’ dealings, happens to meet our titular hero, Pikachu voiced by Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds. Pikachu, in this world is a masterful detective hell bent on figuring out what happened to his human companion, forming a weird partnership. Twists and turns like a classic noir movie await. All of the performances are what you expect from a Pokémon based film: it takes the Reynolds style of humour through pop culture references, ad libs and quick fire jokes that charm and bring a likeability only he can pull off but at times a real emotional connection that adds depth. It’s got a thread of a boy losing his Father and dealing with loss whilst in a world of joy and fun that Pokémon fans have been dying to see.
Related: Watch Pokemon Detective Pikachu trailer
Taking the blueprints of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? it constantly throws up mysteries and what ifs to the plot and keeps at a really great pace and set up. It sets about having the animated and real life merge so effortlessly; at times, you’ll forget they aren’t real due to the way the world has been built around them. And in a world where video game adaptations are always recognised as being one of the worst regarded genres of film, this looks to have come out in a stronger state than say, a blue haired, fast running garden animal. As a character, Pikachu is the mostly adorable creature cinema may have ever produced, and may even turn a die hard critic of the franchise into a human version of a Snorlax.
The CGI work here is top notch, it’s a marvel to watch every frame to see how many Pokémon they can fit into the world and their interactions. They take a handful of well known Pokémon and pull out their best qualities of what makes them funny and memorable. From interrogation scenes with Mr Mime, a Lickatung incident and seeing how cute Bulbasaurs can be in the wild, this is clearly the direction Pokémon want to go; and this will kick start a franchise that will likely grow and grow. A special mention to go to the music of Henry Jackman, a highly impressive composer who has worked on animated films, Marvel movies and even award-winning video games. He fills the world with the right tone, the right vibe, similar to that of Blade Runner and Tron in a futuristic and playful city.
And with audiences having felt distraught and tearful due to the sudden loss of, he-who-must-not-be-named, this light and airy picture will bring back joy and happiness once more.
Pokemon Detective Pikachu is in cinemas May 10th.
