Hollywood adaptation of games and Japanese media has always gotten a bad reputation. Think of Dragonball Evolution, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, Super Mario, Assassins Creed and so many more. These movies are often really bad or just mediocre at best, so when Detective Pikachu was announced, everyone was understandably skeptical and worried if their favourite yellow electric mouse will get the Hollywood treatment it deserved?
The short answer? HELL YEAH IT DID!!
Detective Pikachu may have done just about everything right. The animation of the movie might look odd at first, but just about 10 minutes into the movie, you will slowly ease into the look and feel of the CGI animation. In fact, at some point in the movie, everything looks just right in the movie, the Pokémon looks like a part of the breathing world, especially Pikachu which takes some getting used to, especially if you didn’t like its fuzzy / furry character model, but I can assure you, the animation done on Pikachu is just top notch.
The story and writing isn’t anything worth writing home about, but it has its moments, the story had some plot twists that would catch you off guard unless you were actively trying to figure out how the story will go. All of the characters are pretty fun, Pokémon and humans alike. The interactions between these characters are filled with energy and oftentimes witty, but that’s to be expected with Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu. Not to mention the acting of Justice Smith who plays the main character, Tim Goodman, is really well done, he nailed the timid, anxious nature of the character.
Now, I’ll discuss a bit about what this movie got going for the hardcore
Pokémon fans aside from great animation, great acting, fun story (which is just about everything you need to be honest). This movie successfully brought in so many different Pokémon into the movie. You would think that the producers or executives will only try and include the famous Pokémon like Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Charizard and so on, but they managed to cramp in around 65 Pokémon into the movie.
In fact there were plenty of new Pokémon that I couldn’t even name, and also plenty of shots of “blink and you miss it” Pokémon. That just goes to show the dedication of the team behind this movie to present the world of Pokémon the best that they can. There were also several callbacks / references for some of the more avid fans to enjoy, and in my opinion the frequency of these references hit the spot.
All in all, Detective Pikachu is a game-inspired movie done right. It’s fun, fast paced, humorous, there’s something for everyone, and most importantly, it respects the media it is adapting. If you are still considering whether or not you should watch it, I highly recommend you to watch if you are down for a fun movie.
