Detective Pikachu

***Pokémon: Detective Pikachu*** is a 2019 science fiction action comedy mystery film directed by Rob Letterman, who co-wrote the screenplay with Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, Derek Connolly, from a story by Hernandez, Samit, and Nicole Perlman, based on the 2016 video game *Detective Pikachu*. The film is an American and Japanese joint venture produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, and The Pokémon Company, in association with Toho and the forty-eighth Warner Animation Group film. It is the first live-action/animated film in the Pokémon franchise, and represents a separate continuity from the mainline video games and anime series. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as the voice and facial motion capture of Detective Pikachu, with Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe, and Bill Nighy in live-action roles.

It is scheduled to be released in RealD 3D and Dolby Cinema on May 10, 2019 by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States, making it the first Pokémon film to be distributed theatrically by Warner Bros. 18 years since Pokémon 3: The Movie in 2001.

## Plot[edit]

In the Pokémon universe, Tim Goodman is a 21-year-old insurance adjuster who gave up his dream of being a Pokémon trainer following the death of his mother and his estrangement from his father Harry, a police detective. Tim is contacted by the police of Ryme City, a city where humans and Pokémon live together in harmony and Pokémon battles are illegal. He is informed by Harry's friend, Detective Hideo Yoshida, that Harry was killed in a car accident. Tim goes to Harry's apartment to sort things out and meets Harry's police partner, a deerstalker-clad amnesiac talking Pikachu whom only Tim can understand; all others simply hear him say "Pika-Pika." Tim accidentally releases a mysterious purple gas, "R," from a vial he finds in Harry's office; they are then attacked by a party of Aipom who became rabid under the gas's influence.

The pair escape and Pikachu explains that after losing his memory following the crash, he believes that Harry also survived the crash as the police never found his body. They meet an informant of Harry's, a Mr. Mime who directs them to an illegal underground Pokémon battle arena. The arena's owner, Sebastian, recognizes Pikachu as the Pokémon who injured his Charizard in a previous battle and demands a rematch. He doses Charizard with R, stirring him into a violent rage and Pikachu is unable to summon his electrical powers to fight back. While attempting to save Pikachu, Tim knocks Sebastian over and breaks several gas vials in his jacket, sending the arena's Pokémon into a frenzy. The arena is raided by police and Tim is brought to Yoshida, who reveals footage of Harry's crash, explaining that it is impossible for Harry to have survived.

Tim and Pikachu are contacted by Howard Clifford, the wheelchair-using founder of Clifford Industries, who created Ryme City as a utopia for Pokémon and humans. Howard reveals that he was Harry's last client and that Harry was abducted by a genetically engineered Pokémon called Mewtwo, who erased Pikachu's memory. He warns Tim that his son Roger is behind the creation of the R gas which he requested Harry to look into. Tim and Pikachu recruit aspiring journalist Lucy Stevens and her Psyduck and travel to the abandoned genetics lab Harry was investigating. The lab's personnel had been experimenting on Mewtwo and synthesized R from his genes. They are attacked by genetically enhanced Greninja and Pikachu is gravely injured. Tim begs a Bulbasaur to help Pikachu and it leads them to Mewtwo, who heals Pikachu before being captured by Roger. Pikachu remembers that he helped Mewtwo escape from the lab and believes he was responsible for betraying Harry. Not trusting himself, he leaves Tim.

Pikachu comes across the crash site and finds evidence that it was the Greninja, not Mewtwo, who were responsible for the crash. In Ryme City during its Anniversary Parade, Howard reveals the captured Mewtwo to Tim, exposing himself as the true mastermind by taking control of Mewtwo's body using a neural-link helmet that places his mind inside Mewtwo while his human body remains in the wheelchair. He explains that Mewtwo can fuse humans and Pokémon, allowing humans to evolve as Pokémon can and become one with them, but this can only be done if the Pokémon is in a confused state, thus the need for "R". Believing this is the future of humankind, Howard releases R across the city using parade balloons and begins fusing humans with their Pokémon. Pikachu summons his electrical powers to battle the Howard-controlled Mewtwo while Tim fights Howard's genetically modified Ditto, who had been impersonating Roger; the real Roger had been tied up and gagged by his father. Tim manages to remove Howard's helmet from his body, freeing Mewtwo from his control.

Mewtwo restores the city inhabitants to normal, Howard is arrested, and Roger hires Lucy as a full-time reporter, vowing to fix his father's mistakes. Mewtwo explains that Harry tried to save him from Howard and helped him escape, but was attacked by the Greninja. Pikachu had volunteered to have himself fused with Harry to save his life, the experience erasing both their memories. Mewtwo separates the two and Harry reunites with Tim in his human body. Tim decides to stay in Ryme City to become a detective and spend more time with his father and Pikachu.

## Cast[edit]

* Ryan Reynolds as:
	+ Detective Pikachu, a world-class detective and exceptionally intelligent talking Pikachu whom only Tim can understand. Reynolds performed both the voice and facial motion capture for the character.
		- Ikue Ōtani provides Detective Pikachu's normal voice as heard by the citizens of Ryme City other than Tim. Ōtani reprises her role from the *Pokémon* animated series and video games.
	+ Harry Goodman, Tim's missing father and a Ryme City police detective.
* Justice Smith as Tim Goodman, a former aspiring Pokémon trainer and insurance agent looking for his missing father. He is also Detective Pikachu's partner and the only person capable of hearing him speak.
	+ Max Fincham as Young Tim Goodman.
* Kathryn Newton as Lucy Stevens, a junior reporter who is accompanied by a Psyduck.
* Suki Waterhouse as Ms. Norman/Ditto, Howard's genetically-modified Ditto who poses as a female bodyguard while hiding her eyes with sunglasses.
* Omar Chaparro as Sebastian, a Pokémon trainer who runs a secret Ryme City Pokémon battle arena and is accompanied by a Charizard.
* Chris Geere as Roger Clifford, Howard's son who is president of CMN and Clifford Industries.
* Ken Watanabe as Detective Hideo Yoshida, a veteran Ryme City police lieutenant and friend of Harry who is accompanied by a Snubbull. Watanabe also voiced his own lines in the Japanese version.
* Bill Nighy as Howard Clifford, Roger's father and the disabled visionary behind Ryme City and founder of Clifford Industries.
* Rita Ora as Dr. Ann Laurent, a scientist for Clifford Enterprises experimenting on Mewtwo.
* Karan Soni as Jack, Tim's friend who is a Pokémon trainer and encourages him to catch his own Pokémon.
* Josette Simon as "Grams", Tim's grandmother who took care of him after the death of her daughter (Tim's mother).
* Rina Hoshino and Kotaro Watanabe as Mewtwo, a man-made Pokémon that was targeted by Howard Clifford for its abilities.
* Rachael Lillis as Jigglypuff (Via archive voice recording)

Additionally, Diplo appears as the DJ who performs at Sebastian's Pokémon arena. Ryoma Takeuchi, who provides the Japanese dubbed voice of Tim, has a cameo as a Pokémon trainer in a video Tim watches. In a deleted scene, Rob Delaney appears as a co-worker of Tim at the insurance company.

## Production[edit]

### Development[edit]

The film was officially announced in July 2016, although Legendary Pictures were reported to be in talks as early as April of that year. The Pokémon Company and Letterman wanted to adapt *Detective Pikachu* because of their interest in making a film that focused on another character besides Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of the *Pokémon* animated TV series. On the premise, Letterman stated, "The Pokémon Company, they've already made many, many movies of Ash, and they came to Legendary with this idea of using a new character. So when I came onboard, I was pitched this character of Detective Pikachu, and I fell in love with the story behind it." The idea of talking Pokémon originated from an early concept for the 1990s TV series, but was scrapped when the original game developer, Game Freak, was unsatisfied with the concept. The idea was revived for the 2016 *Detective Pikachu* spin-off game. Letterman said that they "spent a year designing all the characters ahead of shooting so that we could get it all right".

Rob Letterman was hired to direct the film on November 30, 2016, and the studio fast-tracked production to start in 2017. On August 16, 2016, Nicole Perlman and *Gravity Falls* creator Alex Hirsch were in negotiations with Legendary to write the screenplay. Later revisions were provided by Eric Pearson, Thomas McCarthy, Derek Connolly, Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit and Letterman. Ultimately, Hernandez, Samit, Letterman, and Connolly received screenplay credit, and with Hernandez, Samit and Perlman receiving "story by" billing.

### Casting[edit]

In November 2017, Justice Smith was cast in the lead human role, with Kathryn Newton added to costar after an intense session of reading and testing actresses opposite Smith. Newton beat out Natalia Dyer, Haley Lu Richardson, and Katherine Langford for the role. In December 2017, Ryan Reynolds was cast in the title role, portrayed via motion-capture and voice over. Other actors considered for the role of Pikachu were Danny DeVito, Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg and Hugh Jackman. In January 2018, with production commencing, Ken Watanabe, Bill Nighy and Chris Geere joined the cast, in February 2018, Suki Waterhouse and Rita Ora were additionally, with Omar Chaparro joining in April. In January 2019, Rob Delaney had previously stated that he had a role, but he does not appear in the final cut of the film.[*citation needed*]

### Filming[edit]

Principal production began on January 15, 2018, in London, England and Denver, Colorado. Nine days later, Legendary announced that principal photography had officially begun. Much of the on set interaction and vocal reference for Pikachu was filled in by Jon Bailey. However, all of his dialogue was dubbed over by Ryan Reynolds. Principal photography concluded on May 1, 2018. Some filming took place at Shepperton Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, and Minley Woods in Hampshire, rural areas of Colorado, just outside Denver and Colorado Springs; and Scotland. Filming also took place on Anchor Wharf at the Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent.

The film's cinematographer, John Mathieson, noted that, like his other films, *Detective Pikachu* was shot on traditional film, in contrast to most other contemporary films which are shot digitally. He said the use of traditional film helps make it "look more realistic".

### Post-production[edit]

The film's visual effects were provided by the Moving Picture Company (MPC), Framestore, Image Engine, Rodeo FX, and Instinctual VFX. Much of the visual effects were provided by the same team behind *The Jungle Book*, *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*, and *The Lion King*. Letterman compared the visual effects to the character of Rocket Raccoon from *Guardians of the Galaxy*: "They're technically, some of the most high-end visual effects in the world... It's completely photo-realistic, like they are alive and in the movie." Additional audio recording of a fight between Detective Pikachu and Charizard was recorded during the 2018 Pokémon World Championships.

## Release[edit]

### Theatrical[edit]

#### Japan[edit]

Initially, Universal Pictures was due to handle distribution outside Japan, while Toho would handle the Japanese distribution. On July 25, 2018, Warner Bros. announced they had taken over worldwide distribution duties (except in Japan and China) from Universal, with the release date unchanged. Warner Bros. also got the film rights for the Pokémon franchise for 30 years. The film received a PG rating from the MPAA, it is the first *Pokémon* film released in the United States not to receive a G rating.

When the film's Japanese release was announced on November 29, 2018, Ryoma Takeuchi was confirmed to voice Tim Goodman in the Japanese version. Takeuchi also has a brief cameo appearance in the film itself as a Pokémon trainer. On March 20, 2019, it was confirmed that Marie Iitoyo would voice Lucy Stevens and Ken Watanabe would reprise his role as Detective Yoshida, in the Japanese dub. When the film premiered in Japan on May 3, 2019, Hidetoshi Nishijima was confirmed to have voiced Detective Pikachu in the Japanese dub.

#### International[edit]

The US premiere was held on May 3, 2019, in New York and featured a yellow carpet. Detective Pikachu released shortly after on May 8, 2019, in Europe May 9, 2019, in South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia, and May 10, 2019, in the China, UK, Ireland, Canada, and the US, in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, and ScreenX formats.

### Home media[edit]

*Detective Pikachu* was released on Digital HD on July 23, 2019, and was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD on August 6, 2019.

The film debuted at the DVD and Blu-ray charts upon the week of its release, and was the second top-selling home video title in August 2019 (after *Avengers: Endgame*). As of August 2020, the DVD and Blu-ray releases of *Detective Pikachu* have earned more than $30 million in the United States.

## Reception[edit]

### Box office[edit]

*Detective Pikachu* grossed $144.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $288.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $433 million, against a production budget of $150 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside *Tolkien*, *Poms* and *The Hustle*, and was projected to gross $50–70 million from 4,202 theaters. The film made $20.7 million on its first day, including $5.7 million from Thursday night previews, both records for a film based on a video game. *Detective Pikachu* went on to debut to $54.4 million, finishing second at the weekend box office behind holdover *Avengers: Endgame*, though it did top the Friday box office on its opening day. At the time, it was the best-ever opening for a video game film, (the record was broken the following year by *Sonic the Hedgehog* with $58 million) and was also the sixth-highest total for a film that did not debut number one at the box office. In its second weekend, the film made $24.8 million, finishing third behind *John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum* and *Avengers: Endgame*, and then made $13.3 million in its third weekend, finishing fourth.

In other territories, the film was projected to debut to $90–120 million from 62 countries, including $40–60 million in China. Prior to its worldwide release, the film grossed $21 million from openings and previews in several international markets, including Japan, through Thursday. The film had an international opening weekend debut of $103 million (and a five-day debut of $112.4 million), dethroning *Avengers: Endgame* at the top of the international box office. *Detective Pikachu* topped the international box office again in its second weekend. Despite breaking records, the film fell below expectations due to the high budget.

In Japan, the film opened at number three (behind *Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire* and *Avengers: Endgame*), grossing ¥948 million ($8.6 million) in its opening weekend, before topping the box office in its second weekend, with a cumulative ¥1,465,395,700 ($13,327,837). In China, *Detective Pikachu* had an opening day gross of $16.4 million, and topped the box office with a weekend debut of $40.8 million. It topped the Chinese box office again in its second week, with a cumulative $69.3 million. In the United Kingdom, it topped the box office with a £4.9 million ($6.6 million) debut. As of May 26, 2019, the film's largest international markets are China ($84.4 million), Japan ($21.2 million), the United Kingdom ($13.6 million), Mexico ($10.4 million), and Germany ($9.5 million).

### Critical response[edit]

The design of Detective Pikachu and Ryan Reynolds's portrayal of the character received critical praise.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on 310 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "*Pokémon Detective Pikachu* may not take its wonderfully bizarre premise as far as it could have, but this offbeat adaptation should catch most – if not all – of the franchise's fans." It was the first international theatrical live-action video game adaptation to maintain a "fresh" rating and it was the highest rated video game adaptation on the site, until it was surpassed by *The Angry Birds Movie 2*. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on reviews from 48 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while general audiences polled by PostTrak gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Scott Mendelson of *Forbes* called the film "the best video game movie ever" and wrote, "*Detective Pikachu* works because it's a good movie first and a promising franchise-starter or a brand cash-in second. It's a real film, rooted in character arcs and narrative twists with just enough raw emotion and personal stakes to make the significant special effects moments matter beyond spectacle." CNET's Sean Keane called it the best film ever based on a video game, saying it achieves the balance of appealing to existing fans as well as potential new audiences. Keane praised Reynolds performance and called the film "an entertaining romp with plenty of heart".

Writing for *The Hollywood Reporter*, Michael Rechtshaffen said, "Although the script ... tends to compartmentalize the comedy, action and emotional bits rather than organically blending them all together, Letterman's energetic direction manages to hold everything aloft." Alonso Duralde's mixed review for *TheWrap* describes the film as feeling "both ambitious and lazy, frenzied and sluggish". Peter Debruge of *Variety* was critical of the plot and the special effects: "Though consistent with the game ... the story of *Detective Pikachu* doesn't allow nearly enough Pokémon-related action, while the quality of the computer animation ... falls far short of the basic level of competency audiences have come to expect from effects movies." Debruge is also critical of the central pairing of Pikachu and Tim Goodman, saying the relationship lacks chemistry. Kate Erbland of Indiewire gave the film a mixed review, praising the "awe-inspiring" visuals but criticizing the messy plot, saying that "no amount of technical polish can detract from a thin narrative that confuses far more than it amuses", and complaining that many of the best jokes were in the trailer.

## Triviaedit | edit source

* This is Warner Animation Group's twelfth live-action/animated hybrid film, after, *Space Jam*, *Osmosis Jones*, *Scooby-Doo*, *Looney Tunes: Back in Action*, *Happy Feet*, *Yogi Bear*, *Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Happy Feet Two*, *The Lego Movie*, *The Lego Ninjago Movie* and *The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part*.
* This is the second live-action movie based on a Nintendo property, the first being the 1993 *Super Mario Bros.* movie distributed by Hollywood Pictures.
* This is another non-WarnerMedia movie distributed by Warner Bros.