ZA Furries

This has completely blown up.



I still can barely believe this is real. This could be the sort of thing I've been dreaming of for years. A live action pokemon movie with a dark tone, none of that usual Ash and his buddies nonsense. It looks really cool even on its own merits. No growlithe though but maybe we'll still see some with the cops. Sounds like we will see cops.

Who else is eagerly anticipating this release?

I actually kinda like it. It seems like it could be fun.

Why!? It was supposed to be Danny DeVito!
They know too many kids will be watching sooo... in come the Dead-pool.
Might still watch it. (Something tells me its not close to its original vision).

I like it but it also feels very WEIRD. And while it's not Ash+Pickachu, which I'm also fine with, the fact that again it's Pickachu with someone buddying up, as well as there being a girl with a Psyduck gives me too much of an Ash+Misty with their Pokémon feel. They have 100's and 100's of Pokémon and they come up with that exact team. That latter is just a slight annoyance, that doesn't however make me feel weird about the movie.
Unsure whether it's the voice acting or the CGI or all combined. It looks nice but a bit too fake for me. I do think I'll like it, but that weird feeling I won't get rid of any time soon xD

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it looks like a genuinely fun and wholesome movie that I could watch with friends and come out with a smile. On the other hand, they not only took a dive straight down to the middle of the uncanny valley with that Mr Mime, but began digging deeper until they got to China. And with some of the other Pokémon they dance right on the edge of said uncanny valley. But I think that is a problem inherent to taking a simple 2D animation and making it realistic 3D.

Except for the Charizard. I would ride that thing into battle - it looks damn awesome.

I'd still see the movie. Maybe rope a few friends to tag along with me. I just find its setting and rendition of the Pokémon a little... far-removed from the original.

So... Ventus is upset that this is too similar to the animated Pokemon and that they should've branched out while Galahad is upset that it's so different to the original Pokemon and they should've stuck closer to the original? That about right?

And Adagio couldnt be bothered, cause he knows nothing about the pokemon universe

Rakuen Growlithe wrote:… while Galahad is upset that it's so different to the original Pokemon and they should've stuck closer to the original?

"Upset"? Give that straw man a pair of glasses if you want him to look like me. I am not upset; I said I would still go see the movie and even said I think it may be fun and wholesome.

But come on, man. Did that Mr Mime not give you the heebie-jeebies? I now check under my bed and in my closet for it before I go sleep.

I'm just going to take it at face value. I've always thought a live action Pokémon film would be a super cool idea, but never really hoped it would actually happen. And now I hear Pikachu is none other than Ryan Reynolds? Sign me right the fuck up. If nothing else it's sure to be a ton of fun.

the voice acting reminds me of this:

Check this out. Completely new trailer and...



Growlithe! There are growlithe in it at 0:38. Admittedly, they are a bit dirty-looking but they are there! I am hyped! Also since it's a detective movie, I have to think we will be seeing the police more which means a chance for close-up growlithe shots!

More trailers!



My ticket is booked for tomorrow. Hopes are high. I wonder if I'll see this one twice in cinema... I almost went to see Zootopia twice but by the time I'd convinced a friend to see it with me, it wasn't showing any more. The only film I've seen twice in cinemas was Stars Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. I first watched it with a friend and then again with my gran.

10/10

A more detailed set of thoughts will follow in a day or so.

Here's my review of the film, originally published, with links, on Flayrah.
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My first encounter with Pokémon was when I borrowed a friend's copy of Pokémon Red for the Gameboy. I chose squirtle as my starter pokémon and I remember lying awake, wanting my own copy of the game so badly that I could feel it. Pokémon: The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back hadn't been released yet, so this was in 1999 at the latest. For at least twenty years since then, Pokémon has been a part of my life.

Although I never did get a copy of the first Pokémon game, I did get Pokémon Silver, collected the trading cards, watched the anime, memorised the pokérap, saw the films and played many of the spin-off games. But Pokémon's influence was far broader than all that; it gave me a world of creatures and possibilities to imagine. I took to writing Pokémon fanfiction which, in turn, led me to the furry fandom. Pokémon has literally helped create the person I am today, so it was disappointing when I felt myself drifting away from it.

As I grew and changed, Pokémon did not. The anime, over 1000 episodes of it, focussed on the same main characters but with little character development, and almost all episodes followed two or three stock plot lines. The main games, which marked new generations, all played essentially the same as the first. It seemed strange to let the main drawcards stagnate, while creating an unnecessary number of pokémon (currently over 800).



There's plenty of Pokémon fan content to enjoy, but as the first batch of fans matured over the last 20 years, it would've been great to see the franchise maturing as well. When the trailer for Detective Pikachu was released, that hope came back to life. Ash was gone, the anime style was gone, and the cheesy plots seemed to be gone too. We saw CGI pokémon in a darker, grittier world, with a more mature story involving conspiracies and mysteries. Would this give me what I'd been longing for?

The film starts with our main character, Tim Goodman, attempting to catch a pokémon at the behest of his friend. This doesn't quite go according to plan, but is soon overshadowed by a call from the Ryme City police department informing him that his father was in an accident, and has been declared dead. Tim travels to Ryme City, a place where humans and pokémon live as equals, and where pokémon battles are illegal, to sort through his father's belongings. In doing so, he uncovers a vial of strange gas which causes a troop of nearby aipom to go savage, and meets a talking pikachu who has no memory of who he is, trying to find out what happened on the night of the accident. From then on, Tim finds himself pulled into the mystery of what happened to his father. While I won't go further into the details of the plot, I will say that, although it wasn't done ethically, it's very difficult not to want the villain to succeed.



Now having watched it, I can say that yes, it is exactly what was needed to rekindle my interest in Pokémon. Based on the Nintendo 3DS game of the same name, Detective Pikachu is completely different from the previous films, the anime, and - with the obvious exception - the games. The old characters are gone, pokémon battles are gone, and it has a completely new aesthetic.

At the same time, it maintains enough familiarity to keep the original fans happy. Although its featured pokémon come from many generations, there's a strong bias towards the first generation, and the film contains many references to earlier products to elicit nostalgia. The events of Mewtwo Strikes Back are referenced, appropriately, as having happened around 20 years earlier. The credits show the anime style, and in perhaps the best callback, we see Ryan Reynolds (as Pikachu) singing the original, iconic theme song from the anime. I was also delighted to see that growlithe features heavily in the backgrounds, although I do wish we'd gotten a good close-up view.

I thought the film was excellent, and struck a great balance between what it changed and what it kept the same. Perhaps it wasn't perfect, and maybe on subsequent viewings I'll have more critical comments, but it feels like a film that can stand on its own merit. Actors Justice Smith (as Tim Goodman) and Ryan Reynolds (as Pikachu) both did an exemplary job. I would love to see more Pokémon products building off this film. That seems quite likely as a sequel has already been confirmed.