'Detective Pikachu' Live Action Pokemon Movie Trailer Released!

Lanstar

The Cutest of Ladies
Member
Realistic CG fur, teeth, skin, and other materials... On Pokemon.

It's indescribably creepy, tacky, campy, surreal, and ridiculous at the same time. I gnashed my teeth though the entire video, wondering how in the world to react to it. :oops:
 

FourteenAlmonds

Helipotile
Member
I'm not sure if I'm in the minority here, but I actually watched a playthrough of Detective Pikachu. It has a killer story, and if Hollywood can't translate that into the movie I'm going to be pissed.

Also wtf is up with Pikachu's eyes? They look really out of place imo.
 

Shishigami

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I can't help but feel that Ryan Reynolds NOT playing as Meowth was a tragically missed oppertunity. I actually think the non gen 1 mon's look better and more natural overall from what we've seen so far (e.g. Morelull, Greninja) but overall I'm still unsure what to think of this, except hope.
 

crystal_pidgeot

Bird Trainer *Vaporeon on PokeGym*
Member
I can't help but feel that Ryan Reynolds NOT playing as Meowth was a tragically missed oppertunity. I actually think the non gen 1 mon's look better and more natural overall from what we've seen so far (e.g. Morelull, Greninja) but overall I'm still unsure what to think of this, except hope.

It really seems like its based on Black and White so far so I might not get my Pidgey line in the movie but I really question how they are picking Pokemon because its gen one and five and then random XY Pokemon in the movie.
 

StarlightSearcher

The Blonde Brainiac
Forum Mod
Advanced Member
Member
Eh, the Pokemon in this movie are a little too close to the Uncanny Valley of designs. I think they tried too hard to make them look photorealistic so that they wouldn't stick so far out when compared to the humans.

However, because they went this route, I think they made things worse. Trying to make them look realistic just makes them even more cartoony than if it was a point-to-point transition from what they looked like in the games.

I think I'll be passing on this. But, I hope Ryan Reynolds acts better in this movie than he did in Green Lantern...
 

MoFoTY86

Aspiring Trainer
Member
This is EXACTLY what us Pokemon Fans need! Let's hope this goes in the right direction and everyone go sees it and give Pokemon the live action movies we deserve. Hopefully our Pokemon League can set up a date to go together and see it.
 

Skeleton Liar

サーナ~
Member
I had no expectations going in, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the trailer! As odd as seeing highly detailed Pokemon may seem to some, it honestly would have looked awful with less detailed Pokemon. Like, suspension-of-disbelief-breaking awful. I think they did the best option that they could have done in this regard.

I really like how the city and little details look. And I love how dark and vibrant that poster looks! I thought the comedy was nice too. It seems silly and fun, and I'm glad this wasn't just full of whimsy and fluffy light-heartedness.

As someone who is usually cynical and pessimistic, I'm surprised to see I'm one of the few people with a positive opinion here this time. lol
The one thing I didn't like about the trailer was how they spend so much time on establishing that only Tim can understand Pikachu. We can totally get the point without spending 33 seconds on it. I'd rather they spend a bit more time on the actual plot of the movie, i.e. his father's disappearance. I know cute Pikachu bring people to the theater, but this is a detective movie so it should have a bit of a suspense element to it, and their trailer doesn't really do much in that regard. What was his father investigating? Why would it (almost) get him killed? All we can see is him crawling out of a burning car and Tim / Pikachu being attacked by two Greninja and a Charizard. There's nothing about the actual plot of the story and we don't even get a glimpse of the primary antagonist.
So you literally wanted the trailer to tell you the plot to a mystery? I'd bet that what Tim's father was investigating and why it almost gets him killed is part of the mystery. Reveal too much plot in the trailer, then there might not be much of a point to the movie if you know everything the first time around.

That's been a major issue with a lot of trailers, especially in recent years. I can think of two examples: Thor Ragnarok (which I love) and Star Wars The Last Jedi (which I despise). In the second Thor Ragnarok trailer, there are two scenes that they focus on in order to build up hype, and they both happen towards the end of the movie. As enjoyable as this movie is, while watching it the first time, in the back of your head, you're thinking, "This hasn't happened yet. Oh, I know what's coming now because I saw that in the trailer." You can also apply that to The Last Jedi, but it's more along the lines of, "Well, this hasn't happened yet, so I guess I have to sit through more of this." There's a point in The Last Jedi that feels like it should be the end of the movie (which was also shown in one of the trailers), but you know it isn't because something else in the trailer hasn't happened yet.

Point is, I think this trailer revealed the perfect amount of information. The main character's father, who is a detective, is missing, and the main character can understand a Pikachu, which is unusual even in this world. They both set off to solve the mystery, and danger follows them along the way. Enough said for a first trailer; I guarantee there will be more trailers. Perhaps the antagonist will be introduced in a later trailer. Space that information out.
 

crystal_pidgeot

Bird Trainer *Vaporeon on PokeGym*
Member
Eh, the Pokemon in this movie are a little too close to the Uncanny Valley of designs. I think they tried too hard to make them look photorealistic so that they wouldn't stick so far out when compared to the humans.

However, because they went this route, I think they made things worse. Trying to make them look realistic just makes them even more cartoony than if it was a point-to-point transition from what they looked like in the games.

I think I'll be passing on this. But, I hope Ryan Reynolds acts better in this movie than he did in Green Lantern...

The thing that bugs me is how the went about doing this. It feels like they went the Pokken Tournament route and just retextured existing models, like for Charmander while redesigning Charizard but stayed on model with Mr. Mime. They could have at least gave it hair. I would care a lot more if the models were all redesigned but what I'm not sure was possible was how I missed Dodrio and Rufflet in the trailer.
 

SmiteKnight

Destroying half the universe one snap at a time
Member
The thing that bugs me is how the went about doing this. It feels like they went the Pokken Tournament route and just retextured existing models, like for Charmander while redesigning Charizard but stayed on model with Mr. Mime. They could have at least gave it hair. I would care a lot more if the models were all redesigned but what I'm not sure was possible was how I missed Dodrio and Rufflet in the trailer.
I think they did give Mr. Mime hair. If you zoom in on his head herehttps://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/com...ulders_are_literally/?st=JOF5IS92&sh=b4621e3a here, you can see very small hairs, almost like a bald spot.
 

Gruffling

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I would love to say I had no expectations but actually I expected it to look god awful. But aside from little design things like those bulbasaur not moving like frogs I was actually pretty impressed by the trailer. It looks like it could be a decent film and I'm loving all the little Easter eggs. They seem to have made a fleshed out world which is great and I think it was a good call not adapting a main series game.
 

Shishigami

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I am so ridiculously hyped. It's actually happening.
Seriously, I dont think anyone could make a CG Mr. Mime without it looking at least mildly unsettling.
Arvalis'es interpretaion of Mr. Mime takes on frog features which add natural details to the depth of changing such a humanoid based Pokémon which makes it work. Still, his work concentrates on focusing on their onset from a natural biological perspective which in turn is more realistic then the TMNT cartoon translated route they decided to keep with, a literal keeping together of the characters' cartoon physical accuracies.
 
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Zero Umbreon

Pyromaniacal sorcerer
Member
I, for one, legitimately love this. Sure, it has some problems (Jigglypuff’s hair!) but what movie doesn’t? I think most of the animations look pretty realistic, and the plot is actually interesting. I don’t think it deserves all this hate.
 

Duke Erebus

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I'm excited! The Pokemon's designs are certainly different from what I'd expect, but I think that no matter what designs they went with, there would be something that felt off -- it's difficult to translate cartoon characters into a realistic style. So though I do have some reservations on the designs, I think they did an overall good job and I'm looking forward to the film!
 

CynderDarkov

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I was at work when this was announced and when I was on my break I saw someone post like a twitter link to this and I was like "haha good meme". I still can't believe this is...real? I can't say I'm the most excited about this, I still haven't even played the game yet, it's been in my backlog for probably too long. I dunno it could be pretty good, I have hopes.
 

Leaf_Ranger

Knight of Nature and Pokémon
Member
At first I thought it was some video from PETA with Pokémon, then I thought it was some sort of Pikachu Christmas toy and then I played the video to realise it's just a movie that seems that at anytime Ted will make a cameo appearence and we have another cop gone story with son looking for it and facing his fears, a setting that seems like the start for some Pokémon distopia that blinks to older fans' nostalgia...the movie it's just creepy, something that I won't give a damn besides this comment and just seems very american...I was already afraid with how some Pokémon fur looked like in Pokken Torunament and this is even worse.
 
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