DETECTIVE PIKACHU
Criminals: gotta catch ’em all!
released OUT NOW! PG | 104 minutes
Director rob letterman Cast ryan reynolds, Justice smith, Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy
It sounds like a cheese dream. The first ever live-action Pokémon movie, starring Ryan Reynolds as a wise-cracking talking Pikachu who wears a little deerstalker hat and solves crimes. But not only is Detective Pikachu somehow real, it’s one of the funniest, most visually accomplished and fanpleasing videogame adaptations that’s ever been made.
Our reluctant hero is Justice Smith’s Tim, a former Pokémon trainer who’s travelled to Ryme City – a Poké-metropolis awash in neon and noir – to look for his estranged father, a detective presumed dead after a car crash. What he finds instead is his father’s surviving partner – a talking Pikachu with amnesia, who only he can hear – and a case that needs to be solved.
It’s a masterclass in selling the surreal, with director Rob Letterman’s decision to shoot mostly sans greenscreen (and on film!) proving vital to grounding the CGI Pokémon in a lived-in world.
Tonally, meanwhile, it’s a delight, working both as an edgy parody of detective noir, and a heartfelt family-friendly comedy built around the inherent absurdity of Pokémon.
Think The Lego Movie; think Ryan Reynolds making you sob for a furry yellow rodent. Stephen Kelly
Other actors who were considered to voice the role of Detective Pikachu include Danny DeVito and Dwayne Johnson.