POKÉMON Detective Pikachu (Japanese: 名探偵ピカチュウGreat Detective Pikachu) is a live-action Pokémon movie focusing on the character Detective Pikachu, who was first introduced in the Nintendo 3DS game of the same name. It was released in Japanese theaters on May 3, 2019 and in North American theaters on May 10, 2019. The film was produced by Legendary Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. outside of Japan and Mainland China, where it was distributed by Toho and Legendary East, respectively.
The movie was first revealed in July 2016. Filming took place in London from January to May 2018. The logo and title for were revealed during the opening ceremony of the 2018 World Championships on August 24, 2018.
The story begins when ace private eye Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokémon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokémon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokémon universe.
Plot
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The rights to distribute the film outside Japan were initially won by Universal Pictures, but were eventually taken over by Warner Bros., a distributor of previous Pokémon movies.
This is the first Pokémon film to be officially rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America. All previous films were either rated G or not rated.
As of June 2019, this film has the highest rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes of any Pokémon film, with a "Fresh" rating of 66% out of a total of 265 reviews.
This is one of two Pokémon-related movies to be released in 2019, with the other being the twenty-second anime movie. Coincidentally, both movies prominently feature a Mewtwo and heavily use CGI.
While the movie takes liberties with the original plot of the Detective Pikachu video game, it does reveal the ultimate fate of Tim's father, which was not addressed in the source material.
The Jigglypuff shown in the coffee shop wielding a microphone/marker is a reference to the Jigglypuff in the Pokémon anime.
The gangster movie playing on the TV when Tim enters Harry's apartment for the first time is the movie that Kevin McCallister watches in the 1990 film Home Alone. The movie in question, titled "Angels with Filthy Souls", is not a real one, and was made specially for use in Home Alone.
When attempting to calm Psyduck, Detective Pikachu yells "Serenity Now!". This is a reference to the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Serenity Now", in which Frank Costanza is told to yell the phrase whenever he is angry, in order to lower his blood pressure.
This is the first Pokémon product to be dubbed into:
Flemish Dutch; all previous Pokémon products that were released in Dutch in Belgium used the dub from the Netherlands instead.
This is also the first Pokémon product of the entire franchise to:
be introduced at all with subtitles in Azerbaijani, Estonian, Latvian, Mongolian, and Slovene languages.
be subtitled in Croatian and Serbian since the anime was dubbed in 2012, Icelandic since the anime was dubbed in 2004, Macedonian since the anime was dubbed in 2002.