Detective Pikachu Movie Discussion Thread

[Kutie Pie]

I honestly like what I see. I feel like they're just recycling poses from previous card art (Psyduck especially), but it looks nice. My favorite's Mr. Mime, because reasons and not just because it's exploitable.

 

[Prof. SALTY]

Looking at the close-up images, I'll still stand by what I said. Slaking and Arcanine look kind of "realistic," but most of the others just don't look like they come straight out of the movie. The clearest example of this is Jigglypuff and Mr. Mime, since we saw both them clearly in trailers already. Their cards seem to have way less detail than what we saw in the movie. Given, they don't quite look "drawn" like I stated earlier, but the models still seem to be lower quality.

With that said, I really like that Arcanine. I think it may be the Pokémon that made the best transition so far. I'm also liking that view of Charizard. Magikarp doesn't really seem to have changed much at all.

I must have JUST missed the edit including the higher detail pics... dang.

I'd very much disagree about them being different models... they just look like they've had after effects applied. The backgrounds are all so weird too... like heavily edited photos. Jigglypuff looks pretty much the same as the model we saw in the trailer while Mr. Mime looks like it's had a smoothing tool applied with added highlights after the fact. Arcanine and Slaking are very much the best looking of the cards currently shown but they also look the most heavily edited with after effects added to the fur. There's a similar technique used in editing fursuit photos.

 

[Dragalge]

I don't mind how all the Pokemon look in the movie but I will say that my favorite so far is Morelull. I guess it's not a difficult thing to accomplish but it really does match its official artwork nicely. And it still looks adorable all the same too!

 

[shoz999]

I wonder how the music will turn out. I don't know about you guys but it's been a long tradition of Pokemon movies to have absolutely phenomenal music and I feel like this is one detail the west is definitely going to miss considering their track record of adapting films in-general recently. There's a certain tone Pokemon music has and it's actually rarely cartoony, if anything it seems like it tries to avoid anything cartoony. It can range from magical, to adventure, to a freaking epic. Not "HOLY CRAP THIS IS EPIC", I mean like epic as in the genre where games like Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda fit in. To get an idea what I mean by music, look up Jirachi Wishmaker's "Make a Wish" song. It sounds like folktale song sung by the most loveliest voice you've heard in a while.

Actually better yet, here's the video.

 

[Kutie Pie]

I wonder how the music will turn out.

I've thought about that, too, because we know a soundtrack will be released, but is it going to just be your typical soundtrack that's inspired by the movie, or will we get the original score out of it as well? All we know is Henry Jackman is involved, so it should be a solid soundtrack.

Like I'm half-expecting us to get a rendition of the Pokémon theme, both the game theme and the 4KIDS theme song, but I honestly hope it's mostly original with some music from the Detective Pikachu game.

 

[BCVM22]

Releases of the original score are mostly standard these days, with digital distribution making it even easier and more common. Given what this movie is, a separate “music from and inspired by” soundtrack release is also possible.

That tiny hit of the main theme we got in the trailer was probably not there by accident and I imagine the score will be primarily generic original work by Henry Jackman, incorporating some music from the games. I would similarly not be surprised to eventually learn that Warner Bros. commissioned a pop song to go with the film’s marketing that similarly incorporates game melodies.

All of this is stuff that generally comes about closer to or even as the movie releases, so stay tuned.

 

[mockingjay]

So apparently a new TV Spot has aired that has showcased a few new Pokémon - no online upload just yet though.

Kind of weird that they would debut new Pokémon in a random TV spot that doesn’t get instantly uploaded online. The TV Spot with Snubbull received a lot of attention online.... wish they left new Pokémon footage for a new trailer before a TV Spot.

 

[greninjamaster]

That Kalos easter egg and I love the way Lickitung looks. This movie really looks like something special.

 

[Jangobadass]

Say, Bulbasaur looks pretty good!
Lickitung is accurate, but still freaky (though we should've known...)
And it looks like Mr. Mime's trying to warn them, but they're not getting it.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

Really love it so far . The Bulbasaurs are adorable, Lickitung is creepy and Pikachu cracks me up.

 

[shoz999]

Here's the Gamexplain analysis. One of the Pokemon featured here may surprise you.

 

[Bguy7]

One again, Lickitung proves that the Pokémon without fur look the best in this movie. Also interested in getting a better look at Ludicolo.

That Kalos easter egg

Kalos Easter egg? Are you referring to the "Frenchman" thing? I don't think that was meant to be a reference to Kalos. Yes, in-universe it could be, but it probably wasn't purposefully written to be that. Just a coincidence.

On that note, that line is actually opening a huge can of worms. While many citizens of Kalos speak French, implying the language exists in-universe, it has never been called French, and in all likelihood, is not called French in-universe, as France does not exist. It would likely be called "Kalosean" or something like that. That now begs the question, does Detective Pikachu take place in the Pokémon World of the games? Or in a version of the real world that has Pokémon? We've already seen Sinnoh and Unova directly mentioned on posters and signs, so the assumption was that this was the game world, but both France and Kalos cannot exist within the same world, so this seems to be some sort of strange hybrid world. The other possibility is that this is the game world, and somehow the term French came into existence to describe the language of Kalos in a completely different way than the real world.

Yes, I realize I'm over-analyzing and random throw-away joke line.

 

[Kutie Pie]

I wonder if that's actually in the script or if it's one of Ryan's ad-libs and Justice is playing along with it. I'm going to assume it's in the script, but I'm not going to be shocked at all if there was any ad-libbing going on on-set or in between recording Ryan's lines that a scene needed to be re-shot. Far as I can tell, Ryan was never present on-set, his presence was only in the recording booth, but this is one of the many reasons why I cannot wait to see the making-of special feature, as well as the commentary track (I love commentary tracks, so I hope one's made).

 

[greninjamaster]

Lt.Surge spoke of South America in Red/Blue. The countries in the world do exist in the games.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Lt.Surge spoke of South America in Red/Blue. The countries in the world do exist in the games.

Before it was retconned and his title was changed to "Lightning Lieutenant."

 

[Monster Guy]

Lt.Surge spoke of South America in Red/Blue. The countries in the world do exist in the games.

Yeah, but that was way back in Gen 1, when they were still establishing the game's world. There were also references to real world animals in Gen 1, but now all you see is Pokemon...

 

[Jangobadass]

So why is Toothless cosplaying as a herd of Bulbasaur.

Must be his favorite Pokemon

 

[RileyXY1]

Yeah, but that was way back in Gen 1, when they were still establishing the game's world. There were also references to real world animals in Gen 1, but now all you see is Pokemon...

Yeah. The mentionings of the real world in the older games are, in TVTropes terms, Early Installment Weirdness.

 

[Kutie Pie]

Yeah. The mentionings of the real world in the older games are, in TVTropes terms, Early Installment Weirdness.

I honestly wonder how much of the lore was made while they were making the games. Maybe they didn't expect there to be a lore, or perhaps the use of real world references were just placeholders they forgot to replace. They occasionally still use older PokéDex entries, so either it's just laziness or the hidden lore is that the Pokémon world is post-apocalyptic (pretty much was the backstory to Kalos, after all). And apparently Pokémon come from space, so you could say Pokémon literally being an invasive species is what replaced all the real-world animals and humans learned to coexist with them because mankind is resilient.

Really is too bad we never got more of it, I think it'd make for some interesting world-building.

Meanwhile I had a small talk with a brother a day or two ago when he asked what region Ryme City is in, and I answered that it's not known, but given the cameo of Ash's Pikachu in the game that it may be in the anime-verse for all we know. For a spin-off game it stands on its own very well otherwise, but that and the "It's not French" line everyone's been freaking out over is bringing up questions about geography.

 

[Bguy7]

They occasionally still use older PokéDex entries, so either it's just laziness or the hidden lore is that the Pokémon world is post-apocalyptic (pretty much was the backstory to Kalos, after all).

It's worth noting that Let's Go replaced all of Kanto's strange real-world references with more generic ones. Arcanine's Pokédex description mentioning China became "the East," while the Mew journal now says "the jungle" instead of Guyana. That's all the evidence I need to say that they those mentions should be considered non-canon, and that any later mentions of real-world locations were from a combination of mistakes, laziness, and misplaced attempts to reference classic material.

I think it's safe to assume that they just weren't thinking about the implications of those real-world references back then.

Meanwhile I had a small talk with a brother a day or two ago when he asked what region Ryme City is in, and I answered that it's not known, but given the cameo of Ash's Pikachu in the game that it may be in the anime-verse for all we know. For a spin-off game it stands on its own very well otherwise, but that and the "It's not French" line everyone's been freaking out over is bringing up questions about geography.

For what it's worth, I think that the Sinnoh League poster in Tim's room, which was shown right as the trailer is talking about how Tim failed as a trainer may be evidence that Tim tried to compete in the Sinnoh Region, which might suggest that he lives in the Sinnoh, which also might mean that Ryme City is in Sinnoh. That's an extremely shakey theory, but it's the best I can come up with.

And, for the record, I absolutely loved the cameo by Ash's Pikachu, and I am fully convinced that Detective Pikachu takes place in the anime universe. I really hope we get a similar cameo in the movie.