While it’s no real surprise that a live-action Pokémon movie would eventually be made–it being a billion dollar franchise and all–its doubtful anyone truly expected it would not be based on the main series of games but rather on the mystery spin-off Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. But even more surprising than that is that this film not only reconstructs the overly camp world of Pokémon perfectly but delivers a noir-style detective mystery full of excellent twists, turns, and legitimate family drama as well.
Ryme City, the setting of the film, is an interesting mix of the expected and unexpected. It is most certainly a city in the Pokémon universe–Pokémon are as plentiful as humans and are ingrained within every aspect of normal life. However, Ryme City has one major twist that makes it different from the larger world we see again and again in the games: pokémon battles are illegal.
Inside the film, this is explained as one man’s attempt to make a utopia where pokémon and humans are truly equal partners. Pokémon are not pets to be utilized however the owner sees fit. Rather, both are people who have come to a deeper understanding that transcends words and work towards a common goal. However, that doesn’t mean that a pokémon can’t live and work a job just fine without a human partner–or vice versa. It is an interesting concept and one that ties in well with the similar themes explored in Pokémon Black/White.
It also lets the film dodge the most problematic aspect of Pokémon as a whole: the ethics of the situation. If pokémon are animals, then pokémon battles can be viewed as akin to dog fighting in our world. If pokémon are people, then they are basically slaves fighting in Django-style slave fights. Ryme City is set outside of this moral dilemma (at least in theory) which allows us to focus on the other aspects of the story–namely the mystery and human drama.
Image source: POKÉMON Detective Pikachu on Twitter
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is the story of Tim–a lonely young man who travels from the boonies to Ryme City after the death of his estranged father. While trying to put his father’s affairs in order, he is confronted by Lucy, an intern reporter who is trying to make a name for herself by investigating the murder of Tim’s father, Harry. Tim also comes across a talking pikachu in a detective’s hat that only Tim can seem to understand.
Tim is, for the lack of a better term, a man with serious father issues. With a workaholic detective father and a mother who passed away when he was still a kid, he has felt abandoned and alone for the majority of his life. While he clearly has a good relationship with his grandmother who took him in and raised him, he’s not made the connections most other people have. He has few friends, no ambitions, and no pokémon to share his life with. He has convinced himself that he is fine being alone.
However, with the death of his father, Tim is forced to confront the fact that Harry was not the demon Tim set him up to be in his head. Harry had tried in the past to get Tim to move to Ryme City with him but was rebuffed by a child too hurt to trust him. Tim even discovers that his father was preparing to send him a second invitation upon his 21st birthday, hoping to bridge the gap even after all these years.
This leaves Tim emotionally compromised–especially when he meets his father’s pikachu and realizes that his father wasn’t as alone as he had been in the years they had been apart.
As Tim and Pikachu investigate Harry’s murder, however, the two begin to bond. Both Tim and Pikachu are horribly isolated. Tim due to the aforementioned father issues and Pikachu due to amnesia and the fact that only Tim is able to understand him. Yet, as the two work their way through the mystery, they come to rely on each other as they learn little by little what kind of man Tim’s father really was and what it means for both having lost him.
While Tim and Pikachu’s relationship–and the resulting drama in regards to Harry–is played completely straight, Lucy–and pretty much every other character in the film–chew the scenery like they’re feasting at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Lucy is a brilliant kid with an ego to match her brains. Not content with her entry level job she is hot on the heels of a big scoop–even if its not technically what she was assigned to do. She is brash to the extreme and willing to break laws without a second thought to further her goals. The thing is, she’s every bit as good as she thinks she is and makes a great foil for the timid and confused Tim–even if they almost seem like characters out of two different films.
The reason the over-the-top characters work even with all the seriousness in the personal story between Tim, Pikachu, and Harry, is because Detective Pikachu is largely a comedy. While kids will be laughing at the slapstick (and occasional potty) humor, adults are treated to Ryan Reynold’s trademark Deadpool-style running commentary. Pikachu has something to say about the absurdity of every situation they encounter–something doubly funny when you realize that only Tim (and the audience) are privy to his jokes. Now, that’s not to say that all the jokes hit by any means, however, this is shotgun humor: as long as you blast out enough jokes in a wide enough spread, you’re bound to hit most of the time.
Surprisingly, even though Detective Pikachu works as both a drama and a comedy, it also works as a mystery. From the start, we are given a tantalizing list of suspects: Howard Clifford, the creator of Ryme City; Roger Clifford, Howard’s adult son and heir; Detective Yoshia, Harry’s liaison with the police; and Mewtwo the artificially created, ridiculously powerful, psychic pokémon. Then we are given twist after twist as the mystery unfolds.
As with any good mystery, the film dishes out the clues in such a way so as to keep you on the same page as Tim and Lucy. Better still, as more clues appear older clues are put into a new context drastically changing how you (and Tim) interpret what has been uncovered so far.
The film also does a great job of tricking you visually into making assumptions–especially when it comes to the mystery surrounding why Pikachu and Tim are able to talk to each other.
**Massive Spoilers Begin**
Just before Tim and Pikachu meet for the first time, Tim is exposed to a mysterious chemical. While we see how pokémon react to the drug (they go into a berserker rage), it’s quite a while before we see how humans react to it. Thus, we are led to believe that the chemical is the cause of their communication–and forget why we made that assumption (thanks to constant action scenes and comedy) by the time we see that the drug actually has no effect on humans whatsoever.
Now in other films, you’d likely have a much easier time guessing the real reason why both thematically and narratively that Tim and Pikachu can communicate: Pikachu, at least as we get to know him, is actually Harry’s soul in Pikachu’s body. However, it’s much harder to make that logical leap in this film for one major reason: you’re a racist.
Now of course, I mean this jokingly. What the film does is use your real world knowledge to make you shy away from the conclusion that Pikachu and Tim are father and son. Simply put, Tim is black and Ryan Reynolds, the voice of Pikachu, is white. Thus, it’s quite possible for you to make the subconscious assumption that, due to the difference in skin color, Ryan Reynolds won’t be Tim’s father. But in the end, its simply shown that Tim’s the child of an interracial marriage.
It’s a great twist that both further normalizes the idea of interracial couples and helps to erase one of the more archaic ideas that still floats around in the collective consciousness.
The only other major thing to point out in the film is that it is filled with easter eggs–like every single frame is simply bursting with them. They’re fun, enjoyable, and do not distract from the overall plot in the slightest–but that’s all to be expected.
What I didn’t expect is that this film is actually a stealth-sequel to Pokémon: The First Movie. The Mewtwo present in Detective Pikachu is the Mewtwo from that film. It’s stated that those events took place 10 years before this film. (The Japanese cut of Detective Pikachu even ends with a trailer for the upcoming remake of that film: Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution.)
This adds a staggering amount of depth to Mewtwo as a character and explains why, even though he believes humanity to be evil, he would go out of his way to help Harry, Tim, and the citizens of Ryme city even after all that is done to him in the film.
**Massive Spoilers End**
In the end, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is a surprisingly good film. It has great comedy, a good mystery, and a strong dramatic core about the strained relationship between a father and son. While aimed at children, there are more than enough Ryan Reynolds zingers to keep the adults happy–regardless of whether they are Pokémon fans or not. And if you are a fan, this film is most certainly true to the spirit of the franchise and is filled with enough easter eggs to keep you captivated for many a rewatch in the future.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu was released in Japan on May 3, 2019. It will be released in North America on May 10, 2019.
Top image source: Warner Bros. Pictures on YouTube
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