According to The Hollywood Reporter , “on Wednesday, Legendary and The Pokemon Co. announced that they will launch the first Pokemon live-action film franchise based on the game Detective Pikachu , a new character in the Pokemon universe”. The hastening of this previously-rumored deal was likely due to the wide success of Pokemon Go . Still, I believe this new live-action film can successfully compliment the app, especially if Legendary stays true to the source material of Detective Pikachu .
For those that don’t already know, Detective Pikachu was released in Japan only on February 3 of this year. The game follows a peculiar talking Pikachu who, despite not being as powerful and nimble as other Pikachu of his kind, is rather intelligent and claims to be a great detective. One day, Pikachu encounters a boy named Tim Goodman, who is able to understand what he is saying.
Thus, the two begin working together to solve various mysteries revolving around Pokemon in the city. Pikachu’s character is so unlike that of any of the previous games or movies, it goes straight past odd into interesting. Though we must keep in mind that we don’t have any details of the plot yet, and the movie could end up going completely off the rails, like some video game movies do. Nonetheless, if Legendary stays true to the game Detective Pikachu , I think the film will be quite successful – even without the current success of Pokemon Go .
Will this movie be any different from previous Pokemon films? Well, adhering to a story centered around a Pikachu that is so out of character from all the other games is actually a really cool idea. It will bring new flavor to the franchise and introduce a new audience without having to explain the source material at all. The Pokemon franchise has had variably high success in all markets, so Legendary can’t really go wrong with another film. But I do think it would be best if it stuck to the core of the Detective Pikachu game. This Pikachu is so new, so different that I admit I’m very excited to see a kind of Who Framed Roger Rabbit relationship develop between him and Tim.
In addition, it might be difficult to make a movie that can go above and beyond Pokemon Go . As we’ve seen, Pokemon Go has invoked an unprecedented nostalgia by bringing the little pocket monsters into our everyday lives. The app is, essentially, the live-action version of the game where you quite literally get to be the protagonist. Needless to say, trying to go beyond such an experience is impossible. Complementing the app, however, is quite possible. For example, in Detective Pikachu , the player explores the city and interacts with various Pokemon as they go (the main idea of Pokemon Go ). If Legendary studios can create a movie like the aforementioned Who Framed Roger Rabbit and also invoke the feelings inspired by Pokemon Go , it will probably be one of the best game to movie adaptions we’ll have seen in a long while.
I certainly hope we don’t have to worry about this project being made too quickly at the cost of quality. Still, a new live-action Pokemon film can’t really go wrong in light of the extreme success of previous films. Just the same, I think it will be positively amazing if the film both complements Pokemon Go and stays true to the game it’s based on, Detective Pikachu .