Starring: (voice of) Ryan Reynolds, Justice Smith, Bill Nighy, Ken Watanabe, Chris Geere, Kathryn Newton
Director: Rob Letterman
Release date: 10th May 2019
In a world where humans and Pokémon live side by side, a young man named Tim receives some terrible news… his dad, a police detective, has died in a horrific accident. Devastated by the news, Tim travels to Ryme City to put his dad’s affairs in order. When he arrives at the apartment, he discovers the place in disarray and is shocked to find a Pokémon hiding in one of the rooms. The small yellow creature named Pikachu begins speaking to Tim and both are shocked when they find that they can understand one another. After some deliberation, the pair decide that they must work together to find out exactly what happened to Harry, Tim’s dad and Pikachu’s partner.
Created in 1995 by Satoshi Tajiri, Pokémon is a huge media franchise started in Japan. Nintendo are currently the sole owners of the Pokémon trademark. The basic premise is that humans (Trainers) catch and train Pokémon creatures to battle against each other for sport. The game was originally released for the Nintendo Game Boy back in 1996 and currently, Pokémon is the largest grossing media franchise of all time.
If you are not familiar with the Pokémon phenomenon, it would be a little surprising in this day and age but it could be something that has passed you by. On first watch of the trailer and hearing the voice of Ryan Reynolds, you expect this to not be in any way a kids movie. Surprisingly though, it’s actually a well written and acted story. The CGI is pretty spectacular too and you almost believe that these creatures are real and actually exist. It’s the wise-cracking Detective Pikachu though who pretty much steals the whole movie, with his observations and asides.
Rated PG, your kids/ nieces and nephews will definitely want to see this movie. It’s always surprising how the longevity of these things seems to run. It almost feels like Pokémon have been around forever in a variety of forms, with the last big craze being the ‘Pokémon Go’ phone game, where people could hunt for Pokémon in the real world.
Don’t assume that this is solely a kids movie, because it really isn’t. There’s lots for both adults and kids alike and you could even go and see it with your buddies on a night out. There’s probably a whole different cut of this movie somewhere, more geared towards an adult humoured audience and hopefully that will see the light of day at some point.
Overall: 8.5/10
