WARNING – There will be spoilers for Detective Pikachu. Also, I havent played the 3DS game where the game was adapted, but I watched a lot of the original anime series and played the original games.
We all have that fantasy of living in a world based on our fave video games. For me, the first that goes to mind, it’s Pokemon.
A few years ago, I was introduced to onepikapi. He’s an artist that draws Pokemon fan art in IRL situations. I just thought it was really cute and creative and it was an introduction to seeing what it would it be like if Pokemon existed in the real world.
I then watched Detective Pikachu and I was blown away on how real it was. I was made aware that the person who did the art was a fan artist who drew realistic Pokemon and that’s really cool to know that fans can get involved in a huge project like this. But after watching the film, it just made me rethink the fantasy if Pokemon was real that I once had before.
Thoughts on the movie
We all know that video game movies are bad as they tend to have something missing, and I know this movie is based on the 3DS game, but this film makes it look like it was a stand-alone film. It references things from the source material (both the anime and video games).
I wonder how much acting and takes it took to make them look and move at the right direction as EVERYWHERE IS FILLED WITH POKEMON.
Nitpick – viewing this in cinema sucked as it was like watching a low-quality film. I watched Avengers: Endgame before this. Oddly enough, at the same cinema number in the movie theater. Comparing my time viewing that and this film, there was a noticeable drop in video quality (IMO).
But who cares?!? (well I do lol)… when you get to see what reality is like if Pokemon were real. And when I mean real, I mean if they actually existed!!!
Pokemon and Augmented Reality
When Pokemon GO was first released, this was our close taste to living in a world where Pokemon existed. The only downside, we never got to “interact” with our Pokemon. We never got to form a bond with them. In my opinion, you can make a much more emotional connection with your Tamagotchi than in Pokemon GO.
My time with that one is quite a short term experience. I remember just putting my fave Pokemon in the device and take it with me whenever I walked to the markets with my parents just to collect steps. Like if you want to lose weight, just use your Pokewalker, its much more accurate than a Fitbit!
The difference between Pokemon GO and the Pokewalker is that you can actually interact with your Pokemon and it sort of feels like it’s there with you.
And that’s what good about Detective Pikachu. It helps relieve the fantasy of having a Poke-partner with you, but also see what Pokemon looks like in the real world.
I also love how each person is only seen with one Pokemon. That’s right, one partner. No 6 Poke-team! It’s a bond between a single Pokemon and trainer.
Wouldn’t it be nice???
I’d love to live in the same universe as portrayed in the film, and I assume many other fans as well. The fact they showed a bond between one partner made it seem like this fantasy is much more simple… like taking care of a pet with superpowers.
Detective Pikachu made this fantasy easier to imagine or just helped re-ignite that fantasy when we were kids. It shows the importance of the bond of humans and Pokemon. Maybe it just made having a pet more appealing.
The film was such an experience to watch. It wasn’t much of a money grab than what people are calling it out to be but it just gave a new perspective on how we view the Pokemon world.
Feel free to follow @onepikapi over in Instagram if you want to see more Pokemon art in the real world.
Leave a Reply