Gotta identify ’em all.
The Detective Pikachu trailer released yesterday, and it sort of broke the internet a bit. There is no way that a live-action Pokémon movie, in which Ryan Reynolds plays a wise-cracking detective Pikachu, should work. But it does. It’s kinda brilliant.
There have, of course, been arguments about it online.
Detective Pikachu is furrier than people pictured, for example. Years of a hard black ink outline on the Pokémon anime have left fans entirely unprepared for how adorable and floofy real-life Pikachu is. Real-life in a CGI Who Framed Roger Rabbit? sense, obviously.
People are also unsure about Jigglypuff’s decidedly fuzzy look. According to Bulbapedia, “Jigglypuff is a round, pink ball with pointed ears and large, blue eyes. It has rubbery, balloon-like skin and small, stubby arms and somewhat long feet. On top of its head is a curled tuft of fur”. So while the curl of hair is right, the fuzzy skin canonically isn’t.
The one thing everyone can agree on, however, is that Mr Mime is a disgusting abomination and should be killed by fire immediately.
But just how many Pokémon were given the CGI Roger Rabbit treatment, and did you catch ’em all?
Street scene (0:01)
- Charizard – certain
- Dodrio – certain
- Bouffalant – certain
- Braviary – certain
- Flabébé – unclear (hard to say for certain on the distant, flying Pokémon in this scene)
- Emolga – unclear (same as the above)
- Comfey – unclear (ditto)
- Pidgeotto – unclear (not actually Ditto; we mean ditto with a lower-case ‘d’, ditto the expression, as in, the same as above)
Parade scene (0:07)
- Psyduck – certain
- (That’s it – the Jigglypuff and Greninja here are parade float balloons, so we’re not counting them)
Apartment scene (0:25)
- Pikachu – certain (obviously, he’s the star of the movie)
Market scene (1:05)
- Emolga – certain
- Pikachu – certain (the detective variety, again)
- Venusaur – pretty sure (on the left, under the Emolga)
- Lickitung – uncertain (pink Pokémon with its arms raised in the bottom right; also possibly Slowpoke?)
Wilderness scene (1:32)
- Bulbasaur – certain
- Morelull – certain
Bar scene (1:33)
- Jigglypuff – certain
- (That’s it – also features pictures of Machamp and Primape on the poster)
Battle arena scene (1:36)
- Charizard – certain
Forest scene (1:37)
- Greninja – certain
Back to battle arena scene (1:38)
- Pikachu – certain (again, it’s our detective friend)
- Squirtle – certain
- Rufflet – certain
- Pancham – pretty sure
Interrogation scene (1:47)
- Mr Mime – certain (but god, do we wish we weren’t – he’s the stuff of flipping nightmares)
We also see some more Greninja, Psyduck, and the trailer closes with that very angry Charizard trying to eat Detective Pikachu.
Did we miss anyone? Do you disagree with any of our picks? Let us know in the comments below.