By: Emma Parry

OwlFeed Journalist

I think everyone these days has heard of Pokemon, or at the very least Pikachu, the little yellow and brown lightning rodent that has taken the world by storm since his creation in the late 90s. However, after the rampant success of ‘Pokemon Go’, The Pokemon Company has decided to make a live-action movie based on a game created in 2016.

Many were taken by storm as earlier this November, The Pokemon Company released the first official trailer for Detective Pikachu. It was the first time almost anyone had even heard a Detective Pikachu movie, with an even more surprising cast. Ryan Reynolds,

famous for playing Deadpool in the MCU, will be voicing the electric type in Spring 2019. The hashtag #DetectivePikachu was trending for a week on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr after the trailer’s initial release.

So what’s so special about a Pokemon movie anyway? Well, for starters, the movie is live-action, which is big for two reasons. For one, live-action movies based on video games are 0 for 33, as almost every live-action movie based upon a video game since Super Mario Bros has been a box-office flop, and a swing-miss with critics, not one of the 33 scoring higher than a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes.

For two, the movie has an insanely high production value on the animated creatures that dwell inside it. Unlike Pokemon Go’s adorable 3D renderings of Pokemon, Detective Pikachu goes in to graphic detail on every single strand of hair on any given Pokemon, which makes many people ask why?

However, The Pokemon Company doesn’t seem to have an answer, other than “This Will Make Us Money.” According to Warner Brothers, the distributor of the film, this is the first ever live-action Pokemon movie. It is unsure who funded this movie other than The Pokemon Company and Warner Bros. Studios. Until the second official trailer is released, the information is limited as neither company has provided any information on the movie, its director, or any further actors who may be in it.

Another fact about the new movie is that the screenwriter was Alex Hirsch, the creator, writer, and head animator of Disney’s Gravity Falls. Though many critics are firm on their distaste on Detective Pikachu, others remain optimistic, and most of that stems from the Screenwriter. Gravity Falls took critical and international acclaim, and is often referred to as one of the best Western cartoons this century, thus some believe his talent in scripting will save that aspect of the movie.

All in all, the movie definitely looks interesting, no matter how good a movie the end product may turn out. A study done on AFHS campus said that 53% of students think that Detective Pikachu will be a fun and fresh new take on a classic video game.

Detective Pikachu comes out on Friday, May 10, 2019, and will be playing in most theaters.