PIKA PIKA

November 12, 2018 3:44 PM

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu - Official Trailer The first-ever live-action Pokémon movie, “POKÉMON Detective Pikachu” stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular character in the first-ever live-action movie based on the iconic face of the global Pokémon brand—one of the world’s most popular, multi-generation entertainment properties and most successful media franchises of all time.
posted by Pendragon (82 comments total)

i'm distressingly excited about seeing this.
posted by poffin boffin at 3:52 PM on November 12, 2018 [27 favorites]

So... Detective Pikachu was the friends we made along the way?
posted by betweenthebars at 3:54 PM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

And I was right about Pikachu being a better detective than BBC Sherlock.
posted by betweenthebars at 3:58 PM on November 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

can someone please do with Ryan Reynolds's voice the thing that someone did with the Age of Ultron trailer, where Ultron's voice clips were replaced with clips of Robert California from The Office
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:02 PM on November 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

I am somehow here for this.
posted by dinty_moore at 4:02 PM on November 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

I still want Danny DeVito.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:04 PM on November 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

The best movies based on Nintendo properties have been the weird dark gritty ones. First the Super Mario Brothers movie, now Detective Pikachu.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:05 PM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

I am genuinely conflicted about this movie in ways I don't think I can fully describe yet. I'm getting older. I played Pokémon Yellow as a teen. I'm preparing to put down Pokémon Go. Too much commodification of captured Pokémon. Too much focus on meta of defending gyms, and not enough forming a bond with your Sandshrew named Bernice Sandy (renamed once they added genders). Can this movie capture that sense of friendship? Like Ash and his Pikachu formed in those Kanto region days?

I found myself laughing at this trailer... was it because I found it funny or because it seemed absurd? Or was the laughter at the sadness of a fading childhood earnestness?

Will I tell my eldest about this? His favorite Pokémon is Bellsprout. How much of the Pokémon phenomena will he be exposed to in his lifetime? Will he hear about this movie at school? It just... what. I don't know.
posted by Mister Cheese at 4:08 PM on November 12, 2018 [10 favorites]

Pika pika.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:11 PM on November 12, 2018 [11 favorites]

I am SUPER here for this. I like the look of the Pokemon. The only thing I'm slightly worried about is that this is going to come off like a g-rated Deadpool with Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu. But it's a small worry at this point. Still very excited to see this.
posted by Fizz at 4:13 PM on November 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

But, can it unseat Rampage from the title of Best Video Game Movie, with its nearly insurmountable Rotten Tomatoes rating of *checks notes* fifty-two percent?
posted by ckape at 4:16 PM on November 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

Network Executive: We at the network want a Pikachu with attitude. He's edgy, he's "in your face." You've heard the expression, "let's get busy"? Well, this is a Pikachu who gets "biz-zay!" Consistently and thoroughly.
Ryan Reynolds: So he's proactive, huh?
Network Executive: Oh, God, yes
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 4:22 PM on November 12, 2018 [35 favorites]

I honestly thought this was an Internet meme. It's a real movie?

I am so old.
posted by Mogur at 4:34 PM on November 12, 2018 [24 favorites]

Network Executive: We at the network want a Pikachu with attitude. He's edgy, he's "in your face." You've heard the expression, "let's get busy"? Well, this is a Pikachu who gets "biz-zay!" Consistently and thoroughly.
Ryan Reynolds: So he's proactive, huh?
Network Executive: Oh, God, yes

Just as a reminder, Detective Pikachu is a video game in the franchise already. This reboot takes the game some places, but the franchise has been there already.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:36 PM on November 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

I unashamedly love this and I can't wait. My three and a half year old seems interested so that's a bonus.
posted by Twain Device at 4:37 PM on November 12, 2018

Yes yes a thousand times yes
posted by Going To Maine at 4:42 PM on November 12, 2018

As I get older, I find that a dumb idea lovingly executed is a thousand times more appealing than a good idea executed with compromise.

Applies pretty much just to like art and stuff, though. Not politics.

Anyway, this looks a lot like a dumb idea lovingly executed. I'm down.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:52 PM on November 12, 2018 [40 favorites]

This looks…good
posted by silby at 4:52 PM on November 12, 2018

I don’t know anything about Pokemans but I do know that I am gonna get super high and watch this on HBO someday.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:57 PM on November 12, 2018 [25 favorites]

Brandy Jensen @BrandyLJensen

Detective Pikachu, vaping inside a 97 Camry that is parked outside a Marriott suites, where he hopes to document an insurance executive banging his mistress. he writes and deletes three different texts to his daughter.

posted by chappell, ambrose at 5:07 PM on November 12, 2018 [29 favorites]

Pika pika.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:11 PM on November 12

An interesting premise, but I don't think this movie is actually about deconstructing the grammar of pokémon battles.
posted by ursus_comiter at 5:10 PM on November 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

Pika pika!!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:20 PM on November 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

Pika pika, pika pika!

....pika?

Pika.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:22 PM on November 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

So they’re taking the roger rabbit track? Not bad.

My social media feed is exactLY 50/50 THIS IS SO WERID/THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’ve ALWAYS WANTED
posted by The Whelk at 5:43 PM on November 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

So they’re taking the roger rabbit track? Not bad.

It's just drawn that way.
posted by Celsius1414 at 6:01 PM on November 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

There is no more reliable way to sneak past my critical judgment than to make more of an effort than the dictates of profit strictly require. And it doesn't even have to be a lot more. Just enough to be visible.

So, I'm here for this.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:05 PM on November 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

Okay, I'm finding this uniquely horrifying but I loved Justice Smith in The Get Down. So I'm conflicted but I will probably watch this via streaming at 2am and then have disturbing dreams once i fall asleep.

Thank god they made the jigglypuff fuzzy instead of fleshy.
posted by Mizu at 6:21 PM on November 12, 2018 [9 favorites]

> My social media feed is exactLY 50/50 THIS IS SO WERID/THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’ve ALWAYS WANTED

That's my brain in a nutshell, but I'll probably still go see this with the friends I play Pokémon Go with when it comes out.
posted by invokeuse at 6:23 PM on November 12, 2018

As far as I'm concerned, this is a Deadpool side project.
posted by KHAAAN! at 6:27 PM on November 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

I'm too old to have caught the Pokemon fever in the eighties, but I am powerfully addicted to Pokemon Go. I'm super in for this.
posted by gladly at 6:27 PM on November 12, 2018

I'm 50. I never understood the Pokeman thing. I feel like if I was born a year later I'd be all over this.
posted by dobbs at 6:31 PM on November 12, 2018

I'm stuck somewhere between "This is my happening and it freaks me out!" and "What the what?"

I had a pocket Pikachu but now that I think about it, that may be the only actual Pokémon thing I have ever owned. Looking around, I see one of the writers did Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and is attached to M.A.S.K., so call me cautiously optimistic. Pika.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 6:36 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Thank god they made the jigglypuff fuzzy instead of fleshy.

He's so angry! And there's a Mr. Mime! A Mister Mime!
posted by Going To Maine at 6:41 PM on November 12, 2018

Wait. So, Detective Pikachu is a private detective (like Holmes) and not a police detective (like Tutuola)? Then I guess we won't be getting any scenes like:

CAPTAIN RAICHUYou're a loose cannon, Pikachu.

DETECTIVE PIKACHUBut I get results.

CAPTAIN RAICHUStill, you can't be tearing up the city from Tahnti Station to the Botanical Garden, especially live on GNN. It doesn't look good for the department.

DETECTIVE PIKACHUScrew your optics, Captain. We got a serial killer on the loose in Ryme City and --

CAPTAIN RAICHU
(interrupting)I'm sorry, Detective. It's coming from the top brass. It's out of my hands. I'm gonna have to suspend you. Turn in your gun and your badge.

posted by mhum at 6:47 PM on November 12, 2018 [22 favorites]

The one thing I will say against this is that the trailer feels very workman-like. It hits predictable beats, and there are predictable one liners. I might be here for this because I love a cute Pikachu in a hat, but tonally it feels like if you've seen the Lego movie, or Deadpool, or any other movie that both loves its franchise and also pokes at it, you've also seen this movie as well.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:47 PM on November 12, 2018 [5 favorites]

My 5-year-old is just starting to get into Pokemon, so I showed him this video and we both agreed we are going to see this ASAP.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:06 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow; Hollywood is making their very own Deadpool Pokemon Fusion AU. Fanfic really is going mainstream.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 7:12 PM on November 12, 2018 [18 favorites]

[reaction video]
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:18 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

DETECTIVE PIKACHU (V.O.): I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. But he was the kind of guy to call his Squirtle a Squoitle, so I didn't think much of it.
posted by Aznable at 7:19 PM on November 12, 2018 [8 favorites]

Mhum, that's very reminiscent of the version of Little Bunnie Foo Foo I came up with to amuse my daughter, in which the part of the good fairy is played by character actor Simon Oakland, who made a whole career out of yelling at loose cannon cops and various other TV heroes.

It goes pretty normally, hopping through the forest, bopping field mice, until,

Along came the GOOD FAIRY!
And he said....

(all pretense at melody is dropped in favor of angry shouting)

Foo Foo! My office! Now!

SLAM

What do you think you're doing out there, Foo Foo?
I got the field mouse union screaming for blood!
I got reporters camped outside the station asking me which side of the law you're on!
I got a call from the mayor this morning...he got a call from the GOVERNOR!
This vendetta of yours ends now, do you hear me, Foo Foo?
I'll give you three chances, and then I'll bust you down to parking enforcement so fast your head will spin.
Now get out of my office!

So the next day...

This reduces her to hysterics, mainly because I think she thinks it's hilarious to see me bellowing red-faced at a rabbit hand puppet.
posted by Naberius at 7:25 PM on November 12, 2018 [61 favorites]

STARES BLANKLY WHILE TRAILER PLAYS


GOES BACK TO WATCHING ICHI THE KILLER
posted by alex_skazat at 7:50 PM on November 12, 2018 [7 favorites]

I chatted my husband, "wow, i am going to see detective pikachu ten times in the theater!!! who framed roger rabbit with pokemon!!"

I showed the trailer to my 5yo and she doesn't want to see it because "I was very concerned that something bad might happen to Pikachu, who I like" which is pretty on brand for her. Sooo guess I'm going 10x by myself, which sounds magnificent.
posted by potrzebie at 9:11 PM on November 12, 2018 [15 favorites]

I'm 50. I never understood the Pokeman thing. I feel like if I was born a year later I'd be all over this.

More like a decade. I'm 45 and never got the appeal, was after my time. This looks...well, the CGI looks pretty good. That's about all I can say.

Any 40-year-olds grow up on Pokemon?
posted by zardoz at 9:21 PM on November 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’m 34 and i still feel like I was just a few years too old. My little cousin had the game boy game but I would have paid attention more if I thought it was something that would help me connect with people in the future. Same thing with Harry Potter.
posted by bleep at 9:34 PM on November 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

34 isn't the cut-off - there were older kids than me into Pokemon, and I'm 33 - but the key to understand the pokemon thing is that despite all the hoo-hah around the franchise, it's built around a pretty good JRPG.
posted by Merus at 10:15 PM on November 12, 2018

As someone who never played Pokemon, but loves the cuteness and would probably like this movie, how should I ramp into this? My exposure is basically this video of Despacito with all the lyrics replaced by Pokemon names.
posted by batter_my_heart at 10:23 PM on November 12, 2018 [4 favorites]

I am 40 and while I was a bit old (20ish) when my friends and I got into Pokemon, we REALLY got into it. And here I am, 20 years later, screaming over this live action Mr. Mime, the living nightmare we knew he was destined to be. To say I'm excited for this movie would be an understatement. CHAR!
posted by dual_action at 10:27 PM on November 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Forget it, Jake; it's Ryme City.
posted by Samizdata at 12:34 AM on November 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of Vermilion City? You were dead, you were sleeping the big snorlax, you were not bothered by things like that. Grass and water were the same as bug and dragon to you. You just slept the big snorlax, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now.
posted by juv3nal at 1:12 AM on November 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

I am going to have the ketchup song stuck in my head until May, aren't I?
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:20 AM on November 13, 2018

On Friday night, a Charmeleon died in Ryme City. Somebody knows why. Down there, somebody knows.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:40 AM on November 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

41, also too old (I think I was at university when it started in the UK), but I'm pretty sure this is the film for which a street near my office in Shoreditch got dressed up as a pseudo-Japanese alley ("Did we miss a street market today? How have I failed to notice all these hole-in-the-wall Japanese places before? Wait, that katakana spells out... Lime City. Weird"), and I might have to go and see it just for that.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 2:49 AM on November 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

I am 52 and all you "I'm forty and I never got into Pokémon," people, it's not your age, it's where you were looking.
posted by Hogshead at 3:41 AM on November 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

I'm too old to have caught the Pokemon fever in the eighties

They say memory is the first thing to go. The 80s was Pac-Man Fever. Pokémon didn't debut until 1996 in Japan, and it took until late 1998 for the North American and Australian releases and 1999 in Europe.

But it's not for everyone. If it were, the technique described in this XKCD would be much less effective.
posted by radwolf76 at 4:02 AM on November 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

Ryme City 1-5-0.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:04 AM on November 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

As far as I'm concerned, this is a Deadpool side project.

Pikapool
posted by zakur at 6:35 AM on November 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Saw the title of the post and hoped for a moment that it was about these adorable little guys, which are both the cutest creatures in creation (wait for it, 55 seconds into video, tongue blep at 2:17) and sentinel species for the effects of climate change. (Though there may be hope.)

OK, I got a little indulgent for a comment. I have so many, many pika links (they're MQ Blank Jr.'s favorite critters, and we saw them in person this summer at RMNP.) Sigh. Maybe I need to make my third-ever FPP?
posted by martin q blank at 6:46 AM on November 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Another voice of someone just old enough to have missed the Pokemon craze despite being generally into video games. Partnered with someone who is decidedly more in the appropriate age demographic but who was never into video games.

We both watched this trailer and said "That looks ... like it might actually be really good?" So I guess we'll be seeing it at some point.
posted by solotoro at 7:15 AM on November 13, 2018

Dead Growlithe in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:35 AM on November 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

i mean? i know nothing about pokemons. was there a card game? trading cards? i know there are video games, none of which i own or have ever played. presumably there have been cartoons from which gifsets have been made? idk? they are monsters who live in your pocket and do fights, that is what i know. and i will see this movie, paying real human money to see it outside in the world where the people are.
posted by poffin boffin at 7:38 AM on November 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

also pidgey is my favourite pokemon bc from what i can tell its primary goal is to become fat and live on an island
posted by poffin boffin at 7:39 AM on November 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm in my mid 40's and I didn't get into Pokemon because when someone explained that the premise was that people would go around and capture these intelligent, sentient creatures and force them to fight/compete for them and would sell or trade them to each other I was all like "no, fuck no, you are literally talking about slavery" and then they're like "but ash and his pikachu have a great relationship" and i was all "tell it to sally hemings" so i'm guess what i'm saying is if there's an AR "Pokemon Underground Railroad" MMO sign me up but until then this franchise can blow
posted by phooky at 7:40 AM on November 13, 2018 [14 favorites]

was there a card game?

It is the most successful collectible card game of all time! WHY AM I SUDDENLY SO IRRATIONALLY ANGRY.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:43 AM on November 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

people would go around and capture these intelligent, sentient creatures and force them to fight/compete for them and would sell or trade them to each other I was all like "no, fuck no, you are literally talking about slavery"

At least in Pokemon Go, I can also grind them into candy and feed them to superior members of the same species to improve them!
posted by gladly at 7:52 AM on November 13, 2018 [13 favorites]

The sky above the port was the color of a console, stuck on a loading screen. "It's not like I'm using," Pikachu heard someone say, as he shouldered his way through the crowd around the door of the Red Gym. "It's like my body's developed this massive poffin deficiency." It was a Ryme City voice and a Ryme City joke.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:54 AM on November 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

I will see this but damn that fur is bothering me. Pikachu should have sleeker fur, like a mouse or a rat. It's all frizzy and fuzzy like something else. The furred tail is also throwing me off.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:43 AM on November 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think that my favorite has to be Slowbro, an evolved form of Slowpoke. Slowpoke is this dinosaur/teddy-bear thing with a big dopey beatific grin; Slowbro is the same, but with this big spiral mollusc biting its tail, but still with the grin. There's also Slowking, only the shell is biting its head, see.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:43 AM on November 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm sneaking up on 40. I bought two Gameboys and Pokemon Red and Blue back in 1999 because I was informed I had to catch them all. Well I caught them all and when Pokemon Go came out I knew all the first gen Pokemon and their evolutionary paths despite an almost 20 year gap and I need to know WHAT WAS THAT PART OF MY BRAIN SUPPOSED TO BE REMEMBERING INSTEAD?!

I think I knew CPR at one point, maybe? Or European capitals? Sedimentary rock identification? But no - Dratini becomes Dragonair becomes Dragonite. Rolls off the tongue.

(Also, team Grimer)
posted by Molesome at 9:25 AM on November 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

I took earbuds into a theatrical screening of the Pokémon black and white movie my kid wanted desperately to see so I could listen to WTF instead of watching the movie.

It was one of the few times I felt like I really got the parenting thing right.

This, however, looks really fun.
posted by jeoc at 9:43 AM on November 13, 2018

There you go, Pikachu. Givin' a fuck, when it ain't your turn to give a fuck.
posted by FJT at 10:34 AM on November 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Pikachu should have sleeker fur, like a mouse or a rat. It's all frizzy and fuzzy like something else.

Like say, this Manx Mouse?
posted by radwolf76 at 11:49 AM on November 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

help I finally watched the trailer and I genuinely do not know how to feel

it looks like it might actually be sort of decent

also I am confused partially by how they seem to have used a time machine to cast Young Lawrence Fishburn as the lead
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:40 PM on November 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

That's actually a good point, about the fur sleekness. These Pokemon are all fuzzy in a way real animals are not, which is why they have an uncanny valley bad taxidermy vibe. Pikachu's cheek spots look like they're dyed on rather than naturally that color, and I don't have a problem with Jigglypuff being furry but it's not too much to ask that jigglypuff's fur be smooth and close, kinda like how the fur is around a cat's nose.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:15 PM on November 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is just wrong... why do I need to see it so bad.
posted by cirhosis at 7:45 PM on November 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

That's actually a good point, about the fur sleekness. These Pokemon are all fuzzy in a way real animals are not, which is why they have an uncanny valley bad taxidermy vibe.

There's actually an uncomfortable triple split here - the bulbasaurs are quite shiny, as are some of the others I can't recognize. Charizard is leathery. And Pikachu and Psyduck and Jigglypuff are plush. Maybe eclecticism is the only way that you can approach a universe with this many creatures, but I think they could have done better.

All that said, I like the plush Pikachu as a standalone.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:19 PM on November 13, 2018

Jigglypuff went from happy with a mic in hand to scowly and angry in about two-tenths of a second, and that's all I need to make me want to see this movie. If she's got a magic marker under that microphone, even better.
posted by PearlRose at 12:10 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm 54 and I got into Pokemon because my (adult) kids were so excited about Pokemon Go. I ended up playing it about a year longer than they did and have played a couple of the other games now as well. I find it amusing that I have to wear reading glasses to play on my DS, and now Switch.

This new Pikipool movie looks decent.
posted by feersum endjinn at 1:12 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

One thing is constant in the trailer, unless you're German.

(I'm 34, played Red when it was new, only got two gym badges and haven't played any other mainline games since, but who doesn't love Pokémon?)
posted by brett at 1:42 PM on November 14, 2018

Foo Foo! My office! Now!

Where is your Kickstarter I will personally kick in $100 for this project
posted by scrump at 3:20 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Forty seven here, I only know Pokemon because of my nephew (born in 1992) and my 14 year old son. Our son happens to think Pikachu is overplayed (it's basically his only teen foible), so my wife and I planning on seeing the movie with or without him.
posted by mollweide at 7:11 PM on November 14, 2018

was there a card game?

It is the most successful collectible card game of all time! WHY AM I SUDDENLY SO IRRATIONALLY ANGRY.

To try and explain my stupid shockedness, I'd like to note a bit of trivia that I learned a few years ago but is apparently still true: Pokémon is the highest grossing franchise of all time. (Apparently all the Marvel properties edge it out if you combine them.) That is NUTS to me, and it breaks me whenever I remember it.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:38 PM on November 14, 2018

I'd like to note a bit of trivia that I learned a few years ago but is apparently still true: Pokémon is the highest grossing franchise of all time.

There’s something sublime about the brazen transparency of having their slogan be “gotta catch em all”

“Oh right of course how foolish I’ve been! I thought I could be sated with a single movie/plush toy/videogame, but now the brilliant beacon of consumerism has shown me the error of my ways”
posted by juv3nal at 3:26 AM on November 15, 2018