The first trailer for Rob Letterman's Pokémon film aired yesterday and it sent the internet into a downright tizzy. As the first live-action Pokémon adventure, standards are set pretty damn high.
'POKÉMON: Detective Pikachu' is to be released May next year and features 'Deadpool's Ryan Reynolds voicing the titular character – for anyone uninformed (looking at you 'older people'), Pikachu is basically the face of the Pokémon brand.
The movie looks like all my childhood imaginings come to life – except for Deadpool. That one sure threw a spanner among the pigeons.
Which is not to say that I don't love the casting choice, because, let's be honest, Ryan Reynolds can play anyone (and in this case, anything).
But it has proved to be a particularly divisive trailer. Less die-hard fans are excited to indulge their inner child, but fans who lived and breathed/ still live and breathe the Pokémon universe are less than pleased.
The main complaint is that the characters don't live up to standards. Pikachu, perhaps the greatest of all the Pokémon, lacks “magnificence” and looks like a “hamster”. Jigglypuff, too, apparently resembles more of a wet teddy bear than anything else.
But isn't that to be expected from any live-action remake, especially one that features out of this world characters?
The film follows Tim Goodman in his search for his missing father, private eye Harry, which is how Pikachu enters the story.
Pikachu is Harry's former partner and he joins Tim in his search for his father. They hunt for clues in Ryme City – a hyper-realistic, modern metropolis where humans and pokémon co-exist peacefully – and all the while Pikachu looks adorable and cracks sarcastic jokes. Note: a hard-edged, wise-cracking Pikachu is not exactly what I remember, but it's probably a creative choice à la Ryan Reynolds casting.
As a non die-hard fan and purveyor of all things cute and cuddly, nothing's stopping me from getting front row seats when the film releases next year.
