Pokémon Detective Pikachu's striking vision of what a world with real-life Pokémon could be like, is a dream come true for Pokémon fans.
If you’re a Pokemon fan, I can’t imagine if you haven’t watched Pokémon Detective Pikachu. Well okay, apart from school exams only just ending, I can think of some reasons .
Big E, eight, and Little E, six, are both fans of Pokemon Go, the Niantic game, and the Pokemon TV animated series. When they first saw the trailer of #detectivepikachu, I asked them if they wanted to watch it and they gave me a big fat NO. “Pikachu sounds terrible!” “Who’s that guy in the movie, it’s not Ash.” Those were their reasons.
Much as they were Pokemon fans, it was hard for them to identify with the movie trailer as they were not familiar with the video game the movie was based on. For the uninitiated, the movie’s about Tim, the son of ace detective - Harry Goodman - who teams up with Harry’s former Pokemon partner - a wise-cracking talking Pikachu - to investigate his father’s mysterious disappearance. Doesn’t feel quite related to the animated series with Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu sidekick huh?
So I explained to the girls that the movie is based on a video game and hence different from the TV cartoon series. They shouldn’t see the movie’s Pikachu as Ash’s Pikachu – the character they are so familiar with - but as another Pikachu. There are more than one Pikachu after all in the Pokemon universe right? And after watching the movie's cute casting trailer that featured more CGI-generated Pokemon, they became more receptive to the movie.
So with that, we caught the show recently. And I must say, despite mixed reviews for the movie, we thoroughly enjoyed it.
I’m not a movie critic so I’m not going to analyse the plot and acting [though I thought they were all pretty decent]. But from the perspective of a mum of young Pokemon fans, there were much to enjoy about the show.
I’m not a huge Pokemon fan myself but I’m familiar with the characters as I watch the animated TV series with my kids. Like my kids, I got pretty excited watching the various CGI-generated Pokemon on the big screen. The fun lies is in spotting the various Pokemon, seeing how they’d look like in real life and imagining what it’d be like to live in Ryme City, a location in the movie where Pokemon live alongside humans. Pokemon fans would also appreciate the many inside jokes that only Pokemon fans would get.
I was initially concerned if there could be scary scenes - the Charizard in the trailer did look rather daunting and the movie is rated PG. My girls are not ones for scary movies but Big E said she didn’t find anything frightening about it. Little E mentioned that Charizard and Mewtwo looked a bit scary and Gengar was creepy, but they weren’t anything she couldn’t handle. But if you have younger pre-schoolers who might be more familiar with the TV series' cartoonish characters, they might find some of the movie characters a bit dark. That said, I think some children movies had far scarier characters like Te Ka, the fire and magma demon in Moana.
If you’re a Pokemon fan, you have to watch Pokémon Detective Pikachu. The movie’s striking vision of what a world with real-life Pokemon could be like, is itself the biggest draw of the show and a dream come true for young Pokemon fans [and not very young ones like myself].
Debuting on May 9, Pokémon Detective Pikachu is still showing at major cinemas in Singapore at the time of this post.
Have you watched #detectivepikachu? Did you like it?
Disclaimer: We paid for our movie tickets, and my opinions and reviews here are strictly my and my family’s own.
©Vivian Teo. All content and photos are copyrighted to Vivian Teo unless otherwise specified.