Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a 2019 urban fantasy mystery film and the first live-action film based on the Pokémon franchise. It is loosely based on the 2016 video game Detective Pikachu. Directed by Rob Letterman, who co-wrote it with Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, and Derek Connolly, the film stars Ryan Reynolds as the voice and motion capture of Pikachu, with Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy in live-action roles. The plot follows Detective Pikachu and his partner Tim Goodman as they attempt to solve the mysterious disappearance of Tim's father, Harry. Filming took place from January to May 2018 in Colorado, England, and Scotland.
Detective Pikachu was released in Japan on May 3, 2019, and in the United States on May 10, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $433 million against a $150 million budget, becoming the fifth-highest grossing video game film adaptation of all time.
Plot Tim Goodman gave up his dream of being a Pokémon Trainer following the death of his mother and his estrangement from his father Harry, a police detective who moved to Ryme City, where humans and Pokémon live together side by side, while participating in Pokémon battles, being a Trainer and having Poké Balls are illegal. Tim is informed by Harry's friend, Lieutenant Hideo Yoshida, that Harry died in a car accident. Tim travels to Ryme City and goes to Harry's apartment to sort things out, being surprised by Harry's Pokémon partner, a deerstalker-clad amnesiac Pikachu, whom only Tim can understand. Tim accidentally releases a purple gas known as "R" from a vial he finds in Harry's office; they are attacked by a group of Aipom who became aggressive under the gas' influence.
Pikachu believes that Harry survived the crash, as the police never found his body. They meet an informant of Harry's, a Mr. Mime, who directs them to an illegal underground Pokémon battle arena. The arena is raided by police and Tim and Pikachu are arrested. They are brought to Yoshida, who reveals footage of Harry's crash, explaining that Harry having survived would have been impossible.
Tim and Pikachu are contacted by Howard Clifford, the founder and former chairman of Clifford Industries and of Ryme City. He uses advanced holographic imagery to show them the crash; the hologram was recreated from police footage and allows them to see what police officers cannot or do not want them to see. The hologram reveals that Harry was abducted by a genetically engineered Pokémon called Mewtwo, who seemingly caused the crash and erased Pikachu's memory of the incident. Howard reveals that his son, the current chairman of Clifford Enterprises, Roger Clifford, is the mastermind of the R gas. Tim and Pikachu recruit junior reporter Lucy Stevens and her Psyduck, and travel to the abandoned genetics laboratory Harry was investigating. Through advanced holographic imagery, Tim and Pikachu discover that Mewtwo's DNA was used to create the R gas and Harry was tasked with capturing him. Roger releases power-enhanced Greninja that attack them. They manage to escape and survive a field of growth-enhanced Torterra, but Pikachu becomes severely injured. A Bulbasaur leads Tim and Pikachu to Mewtwo, who heals Pikachu. Mewtwo begins to reveal how Pikachu helped him escape from the lab, only to be abducted by Roger. Believing that he betrayed Harry, Pikachu leaves Tim.
Pikachu soon comes across the scene of the crash and finds a water shuriken. He deduces that the Greninja were sent to cause the crash and Mewtwo was trying to protect him and Harry from them. Remembering that Howard's hologram included the specific angle of the Greninja attack, which was a detail that police reports lacked, Pikachu realizes that Howard is the true mastermind behind the R gas. Back at Ryme City, Tim goes to Howard's office where Howard reveals his true nature. He uses a neural link headband to transfer his consciousness from his body into Mewtwo. He explains how Mewtwo can fuse humans with Pokémon when they are in a crazed state. He believes that merging humans and Pokémon is the key to future prosperity. He additionally reveals he arranged for Harry to be killed when he learned too much about his plot.
Howard unleashes the gas on the city from parade balloons and starts fusing humans with Pokémon, including Lucy and Yoshida. Pikachu arrives and fights Mewtwo, while Tim discovers that Roger, who appeared to be working in tandem with his father, is actually Howard's Pokémon partner, a Ditto; the real Roger was tied up and gagged because he additionally disapproved of his father's plot. Tim manages to defeat Howard by removing his headset, freeing Mewtwo, who separates the people from their Pokémon. As Howard is arrested, Roger vows to undo his father's misdeeds and tasks Lucy with spearheading the media coverage.
Mewtwo explains that Harry had tried to save him from Howard and helped him escape, but was attacked by the Greninja. He decided to heal Harry's wounded body, which was when Pikachu volunteered to have his consciousness fused with Harry's in order to continue their investigation. As a result, the experience erased both Harry's and Pikachu's memories. Mewtwo separates the two and Tim reunites with his father in his human body. Tim then decides to stay in Ryme City to become a detective and spend more time with Harry and Pikachu.
Cast
Ryan Reynolds as: Detective Pikachu, a world-class detective and exceptionally intelligent talking Pikachu that only Tim can understand. Reynolds provided both the voice and motion capture for the character. Ikue Ōtani provides Detective Pikachu's normal voice as heard by the citizens of Ryme City other than Tim. Ōtani reprises her role from the Pokémon anime and video games. Harry Goodman, Tim's missing widowed father and a Ryme City police detective. Justice Smith as Tim Goodman, a former aspiring Pokémon Trainer and insurance agent looking for his missing father. He is additionally Detective Pikachu's partner and the only person capable of hearing him speak. Max Fincham additionally portrayed the character's younger self in a flashback. Kathryn Newton as Lucy Stevens, a junior reporter who is accompanied by her Psyduck. Suki Waterhouse as Ms. Norman, a female bodyguard for Howard Clifford who is actually his genetically modified Ditto. Omar Chaparro as Sebastian, a Pokémon Trainer who runs a secret Ryme City Pokémon battle arena and is accompanied by his Charizard. Chris Geere as Roger Clifford, Howard's son who is president of CMN and Clifford Industries. Ken Watanabe as Lieutenant Hideo Yoshida, a veteran Ryme City police lieutenant and friend of Harry who is accompanied by his Snubbull. Watanabe additionally provided his own lines in the Japanese version. Bill Nighy as Howard Clifford, Roger's disabled father and the visionary behind Ryme City and founder of Clifford Industries. Rita Ora as Doctor Ann Laurent, a scientist for Clifford Enterprises experimenting on Mewtwo. Karan Soni as Jack, Tim's friend who is a Pokémon Trainer and encourages him to catch a Cubone. Josette Simon as "Grams", Tim's grandmother who took care of him after the death of her daughter, Tim's mother. Kadiff Kirwan as Ryme City's unnamed mayor. Rina Hoshino and Kotaro Watanabe as Mewtwo , a human-made Pokémon that is targeted by Howard Clifford for its abilities. Rachael Lillis as Jigglypuff (via archival recordings).
Additionally, Diplo appears as the disk jockey who performs at Sebastian's Pokémon arena while serving as its master of ceremonies. Abbie Murphy appears as Cynthia McMaster. Simone Ashley and Edward Davis appear as a couple whom Tim attempts to convince he has a talking Pikachu to. Ryoma Takeuchi, who provides the Japanese dubbed voice of Tim, has a cameo as a Pokémon Trainer in a video Tim watches. In a deleted scene, Rob Delaney appears as a co-worker of Tim at the insurance company. Ralph Foody and Michael Guido respectively appear as Johnny and Snakes, characters from Home Alones film within a film Angels with Filthy Souls, via archive footage from the former film.
Production Development Following a bidding war in April 2016 which resulted in Legendary Entertainment's acquisition of the film rights to Pokémon in, a live-action adaptation of Detective Pikachu was announced in July that same year, as a collaboration between Legendary and the Pokémon Company. The Pokémon Company and Rob Letterman wanted to adapt Detective Pikachu because of their interest in making a film that focused on another character besides Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of the Pokémon animated TV series. On the premise, Letterman stated, "The Pokémon Company, they've already made many, many movies of Ash, and they came to Legendary with this idea of using a new character. So when I came onboard, I was pitched this character of Detective Pikachu, and I fell in love with the story behind it." The idea of talking Pokémon originated from an early concept for the 1990s TV series, but was scrapped when the original game developer, Game Freak, was unsatisfied with the concept. The idea was revived for the 2016 Detective Pikachu spin-off game. Letterman said that they "spent a year designing all the characters ahead of shooting so that we could get it all right".
On November 30, 2016, Letterman was officially hired to direct the film, and the studio fast-tracked production to start in 2017. Earlier, on August 16, 2016, Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch were in negotiations with Legendary to write the screenplay. Later revisions were provided by Eric Pearson, Thomas McCarthy, Derek Connolly, Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit and Letterman. Ultimately, Hernandez, Samit, Letterman, and Connolly received screenplay credit, while Hernandez, Samit and Perlman received "story by" billing.
Casting In November 2017, Justice Smith was cast in the lead human role, with Kathryn Newton added to costar after an intense session of reading and testing actresses opposite Smith. Newton beat out Natalia Dyer, Haley Lu Richardson, and Katherine Langford for the role. In December 2017, Ryan Reynolds was cast in the title role, portrayed via motion-capture and voice over. Other actors considered for the role of Pikachu were Danny DeVito, Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg and Hugh Jackman. In January 2018, with production commencing, Ken Watanabe, Bill Nighy and Chris Geere joined the cast, followed by Suki Waterhouse and Rita Ora in February and Omar Chaparro in April. In January 2019, Rob Delaney had previously stated that he had a role, but he does not appear in the final cut of the film.
Filming Principal production began on January 15, 2018, in London, England and Denver, Colorado. Nine days later, Legendary announced that principal photography had officially begun. Much of the on set interaction was provided in the form of puppetry performed by Mikey Brett with on set vocal reference performed by Cornelius Geaney Jr. via in-ear devices, enabling both Justice Smith and the Pikachu puppeteer to hear the dialogue without it being picked up by microphones on set. Some additional temporary vocals for Pikachu were filled in by Jon Bailey. However, all of this temporary dialogue was dubbed over by Ryan Reynolds. Principal photography concluded on May 1, 2018. Some filming took place at Shepperton Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, and Minley Woods in Hampshire, rural areas of Colorado, just outside Denver and Colorado Springs; and Scotland. Filming also took place on Anchor Wharf at the Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent.
The film's cinematographer, John Mathieson, noted that, like his other films, Detective Pikachu was shot on traditional film, in contrast to most other contemporary films which are shot digitally. He said the use of traditional film helps make it "look more realistic".
Visual effects