History Film / PokemonDetectivePikachu

* AdultFear:
** Tim's whole situation. His mother died when he was a child, and his father abandoned him to work in the city. Tim refused to forgive his father for years even when the latter invited him to live in Ryme City, gave up his dream of Pokémon training, and took up a boring day job that isn't bound to disappoint him. Then his father disappears and is presumed dead, and Tim has to go to Ryme City to give a statement and clean out his father's apartment. He freezes on seeing that his father didn't make his bed that day, and was going to send him a birthday card with a train ticket. The scene is remarkably mundane, which makes it sadder.
** Lucy's story is more mundane, that she wants to be more than an unpaid intern and realizes there is a strange story about a potentially dangerous conspiracy. Yet no one believes her except Tim until it is nearly too late.
** In the end, [[spoiler:Roger says he blames himself for his father going off the deep end. Thing is, he did nothing wrong, apart from being abrasive]].

*** It's established that most Pokémon cannot understand human language. Only Mr. Mime seems to have a grasp on English. Pikachu can read and understand people even though they can't understand him, and he has a notion of human concepts like an address, yet his cap has info in case he goes missing. Why would that be necessary if he's smart enough to get there by himself? [[spoiler:That's because Pikachu wouldn't be able to get back, he only does it because of Harry's consciousness within him.]]

'''Previews:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roy4o4tqQM Trailer 1,]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOvwcxtMaNk "Big,"]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bILE5BEyhdo Trailer 2,]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=198gzllaumo "Casting Detective Pikachu"]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmnkAOO6Qo4 "What a Pikachu World,"]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRSAJdwiNcg "Destiny."]]

* AdaptationDistillation: The movie strips away all the side cases and focuses on tracking down Harry Goodman and what happened to Detective Pikachu's memory. Unlike the game, it actually answers this mystery [[spoiler:with the reveal that Harry had been inside of Pikachu the entire time]].
* AdaptedOut: Most of the Pokémon in the original game as well as any human character aside from Tim, Harry, and Roger get left out, and Keith Norman is [[GenderFlip reimagined]] as Ms. Norman, [[spoiler:and while she fulfills the same role of assisting the BigBad, she's [[AdaptationSpeciesChange very different]]]].
* AdultFear:

* ApocalypticLog: At the PCL ruins, Tim and Pikachu replay holographic diary entries made by Dr. Laurent detailing the experiments done there with Mewtwo, [[spoiler:including the creation of R and [[{{Foreshadowing}} the Neural Link completed]]]].
* AmbiguousSituation: At the end, it's unclear if [[spoiler:Harry remembers being inside his Pikachu's body and is trying to hide the trauma for his son's sake. He makes a joke about craving coffee all the time, but doesn't reference the whole amnesia episode]].

** If you weren't aware of who's voicing him or what Detective Pikachu sounds like in the source game, you'd expect him to be voiced by Creator/IkueOtani… only to be greeted by the completely different-sounding Creator/RyanReynolds. If you're not Tim, [[spoiler:or Harry is not in Pikachu’s body]], then you'll hear Ikue.
** The ending shows Tim sitting on a bench. [[spoiler:Detective Pikachu's voice calls to him and we see a familiar Pikachu in a detective hat, implying Harry's still ''fused'' with Pikachu.]] Then a further pan out shows [[spoiler:Harry distinctly standing beside Pikachu]].

* BigNo: As Tim [[spoiler:removes the Neural Link from Howard's comatose body, Howard-as-Mewtwo lets one out that continues from his "real" body at its end, knowing he was finally beaten]].

* BittersweetEnding: It turns out that [[spoiler:Harry was in Pikachu's body all along, and after being restored to his real one, he seemingly retains no memory of their adventure together. (Even if he did, it still stands that the titular "Detective Pikachu" is virtually gone.) But Tim still remembers, and stays with him in Ryme City to become a detective, their relationship at last on the mend]].

** [[spoiler:The real Roger]] is tied and silenced with duct tape while [[spoiler:his father has Ditto impersonate him]].

* CastFromHitPoints: Volt Tackle is a very powerful move, but it damages the user by a lot. When Tim suggests Pikachu use Volt Tackle on Charizard in the underground battle ring, he refuses. During the climax, [[spoiler:Pikachu hits a possessed Mewtwo with a Volt Tackle hard enough to send the latter crashing into a building, nearly knocking Pikachu out, too]].

* CreativeClosingCredits: The first part of the credits is a tribute to the ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' manga, featuring the main cast and all the Pokémon shown in the movie in the Sugimori-esque style that the manga uses, all over a rapidly-flipping background of manga pages. Lucy in particular looks as though her pose is based off of Green's from volume 25's cover.

** Detective Pikachu interprets Mr. Mime's miming as "I push people away and then get mad at them for leaving". This is ''exactly'' what Detective Pikachu does to Tim after [[spoiler:Mewtwo's incomplete vision reveals he helped it escape]].

* IronicEcho: Howard Clifford's comments as he replays the holographic recreation of the car accident where he can control what others can see are again repeated in a much more serious light [[spoiler:when Pikachu realizes that Mewtwo wasn't responsible for the car crash, but instead the lab's own Greninja were responsible, which means that Howard made a forgery and is secretly controlling ''everything'' behind the scenes]].

* MagicGenetics: PCL reveals it made experiments on Pokémon and evolution such as [[ProfessionalKiller hyper-aggressive Greninja]], [[spoiler:[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever mountain-sized Torterra]]]], and [[spoiler:[[MasterOfDisguise a Ditto capable of morphing into humans and Pokémon it's not currently facing]]]].
* MagikarpPower: Detective Pikachu's plan to stop [[spoiler:the rampaging R-boosted Charizard was to get an R-boosted Magikarp that had broken out of its tank to evolve into Gyarados and counter it with water attacks. He tosses the Magikarp into a puddle of water for it to breathe... and all it does is just splash around. After a moment of nothing happening, it does evolve just after Charizard's R has worn off, with the resulting Gyarados [[GoneHorriblyRight still under the effects of R]], [[OhCrap much to everyone's horror]]. It's the only time Charizard has looked scared]].

** Pikachu has one when he realizes [[spoiler:he was responsible for short-circuiting Mewtwo's stasis pod and allowing him to break out]], thinking this was a bad thing. Then he has a different one when he realizes that [[spoiler:Howard was the one responsible for the car crash, and Detective Pikachu just left Tim to go run to Howard and warn him about Roger]].

* MyGreatestSecondChance: At the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Tim decides to stay with his father in the city or a while, and considers taking up his career. Given Harry's smile when Tim tosses the train ticket, he's making sure not to abandon Tim again]].

* NeverSayDie: Averted. There's a part in the movie that has Pikachu saying that they need to play chill music in order to [[PowerIncontinence stop Psyduck's head from killing everyone with his psychic powers.]] This is significant because it's coming from a ''Pokémon'' film, and the ''Pokémon'' games usually play NeverSayDie straight.

** The shot of Mewtwo bursting out of the Pikachu balloon has been altered so that [[spoiler:Mewtwo isn't wearing the headset that allows Howard to control him]].

** Dr. Laurent gets one [[spoiler:posthumously when she realizes Mewtwo's stasis pod is going to break down and the very irate Pokémon is going to break free in a very explosive payback]].

* ParentChildTeam: [[spoiler: Harry and Tim while working together to solve the mystery, although they didn't realize it until the end of the film because Harry was in Pikachu's body and had amnesia]].

** For most of the movie, [[spoiler:Roger Clifford is shown in a negative light and plays a HateSink character while his father Howard plays a WoundedGazelleGambit]]. It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Howard is the villain and Roger is not involved in his father's scheme at all, and the Roger we've seen acting evil is actually a Ditto mimicking him]].

* RunOrDie: A captive [[spoiler:Mewtwo]] screams at Tim to run for it before [[spoiler:Howard takes over its body]].

** Pikachu tries to calm down Psyduck by saying "[[Series/{{Seinfeld}} Serenity now, serenity now]]."

** Played straight when [[spoiler:Ditto nearly kills Tim by tossing him out of a broken window. Tim isn't scratched up that badly. However, the window had already been broken by a psychic blast from Mewtwo]].

* ThatsNoMoon: Tim and Lucy escape from the Lab via the Torterra Garden into the forest… [[spoiler:which is actually a colony of ''mountain-sized'' Torterra]].
* ThisBearWasFramed: [[spoiler:The opening scene and the holographic reconstruction of the accident make it look as though Mewtwo is the cause of the car crash.]] When Pikachu accidentally revisits the scene of the crime, [[spoiler:he finds a piece of a Water Shuriken, causing him to realize that it was the laboratory's Greninja squad that was responsible for the crash and not Mewtwo, proving that Howard Clifford was not as innocent as believed]].

* TurtleIsland: Torterras are already big enough to be mistaken for small hills, but [[spoiler:genetic experimentation on them can make them mountain-sized]].
* UndyingLoyalty: It's revealed that Pikachu was this to [[spoiler:Harry. When he was begging Mewtwo for help, it was to save Harry, his human. He willingly took Harry's consciousness even while knowing it would wipe his memories]].

* VictoryByEndurance: Pikachu and Tim win over [[spoiler:Howard-as-Mewtwo]] not by physically beating him, but by Pikachu distracting him in battle for long enough so Tim can [[spoiler:remove the Neural Link from Howard and give Mewtwo control back over its body]].

* VoodooShark: A variation in that they HandWave something that never needed any handwaving. ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'' already confirmed that [[spoiler:Ditto can transform into humans, making the film's HandWave of "genetic engineering" redundant. That being said, this Ditto is also capable of using human tools and texting, which is not something seen before, and it can transform into any Pokémon at will, unlike regular Ditto, who need to be physically present around the Pokémon they transform into. It also transforms into a human while almost literally under a spotlight in a television studio to move Howard Clifford's wheelchair and nobody finds it strange]]. These skills may be what the genetic experimentation was for.

* WeWillNotUsePhotoshopInTheFuture: When Tim meets Howard, he shows him a holographic presentation of what happened at the car crash that his father was in, which showed him getting taken away by [[spoiler:Mewtwo. However, Tim later learns that Howard left out the "footage" of Harry's car getting attacked by Greninja and Mewtwo placing Harry's soul into Pikachu's body]].

** When Tim, Lucy, Pikachu and Psyduck escape from the lab, the earth around them seems to bend and shake… and then, [[spoiler:a group of absolutely ''gargantuan'' Torterras are revealed to be the cause of it]].
** When [[spoiler:Fake Roger transforms into Miss Norman, then removes her sunglasses and reveals her beady eyes, exposing herself as a Ditto]]. And before that, [[spoiler:the ''real'' Roger stumbling out of a closet, bound and gagged]].
** TheReveal that [[spoiler:Harry Goodman was actually Ryan Reynolds all along, as earlier scenes hid his face so as not to spoil that Detective Pikachu was actually Harry in Pikachu's body]].

--> '''Pikachu:''' Okay. Worst parade I've ever seen.

* TurtleIsland: Torterra are already big enough to be mistaken for small hills, but [[spoiler:genetic experimentation on them can make them mountain-sized]].

* BelatedLoveEpiphany: After seeing footage of Harry's car crash and concluding he couldn't have survived, Tim begins to regret the fact that he and Harry never reconciled and acknowledges for the first time in a decade that he really did love his dad.

* TooDumbToLive: Lucy, ownes Pokémon that practically explodes when under a great deal of stress. Decides to bring said bomb on journeys that could get you killed... like in the lab with tons of booby traps.

A sequel is currently being developed.

* FingerExtinguisher: Mr. Mime puts out the imaginary match with it’s fingers.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Yoshida says this almost verbatim after showing Tim the surveillance footage of Harry's car crash. [[spoiler:He would have been right had Mewtwo not intervened.]]

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Detective Yoshida mentions the unlikelihood of Harry surviving the crash after he shows the footage to Tim. The way the car flipped, he says this particular phrase. [[spoiler:It turns out Harry ''would'' have died if not for a grateful Mewtwo saving his life.]]

* RealityEnsues: Detective Yoshida mentions the unlikelihood of Harry surviving the crash after he shows the footage to Tim. The way the car flipped, he says NoOneCouldSurviveThat. [[spoiler:It turns out Harry ''would'' have died if not for a grateful Mewtwo saving his life.]]

** Despite the fact that Pikachu are notoriously quick and agile, Detecitve Pikachu is frequently shown struggling to move and climb. [[spoiler: This is because he's actually a human and doesn't have experience controlling Pikachu's body.]]

** The Japanese dub takes it one step further as Tim Goodman is dubbed by [[Series/KamenRiderDrive Ryoma Takeuchi, whose best-known character is not only a police detective, but he also lost his father in a past case]].

* BlackComedy: The whole interrogation with Mr. Mime, which quickly escalates into Tim miming a ''very'' sinister interrogation technique.

* CanonCharacterAllAlong: Downplayed, as we're led to believe that this is the old "Scientists create Mewtwo, he breaks free and sees humanity as an evil to be destroyed" tale, but it turns out [[spoiler:this is actually a Mewtwo created 20 years ago in the Kanto region, and a Pikachu and his trainer taught him that humanity is not all evil and deserves a chance. Just like the one in the first anime ''Pokémon'' movie]].

** The trailers heavily imply that Tim is a rookie cop following in his detective father's footsteps, as his scenes with the lieutenant aren't framed in the context of him arriving from out of town to pack his dad's apartment. Instead, Tim is an insurance appraiser ([[spoiler:though the movie ends with him considering joining the police force after all]]).

** When [[spoiler:Fake Roger removes his sunglasses and reveals his beady eyes, exposing himself as a Ditto pretending to be Roger]]. And before that, [[spoiler:the ''real'' Roger stumbling out of a closet, bound and gagged]].

''Pokémon Detective Pikachu'', often referred to as just ''Detective Pikachu'', is a 2019 Video Game {{Action}}-{{Adventure}} film based on the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' SpinOff game [[VideoGame/DetectivePikachu of the same name]], and the first [[LiveActionAdaptation live-action]] entry in the ''Pokémon'' franchise. The plot of the film is the same as the game: Tim Goodman, the son of a famed detective in Ryme City who has gone mysteriously missing, must join forces with a wise-cracking Pikachu in order to find his father and get to the bottom of the strange incidents plaguing the city.

* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage:

* DarkerAndEdgier: Literally, as in most of the lighting is darker, fitting its Noir-esque motifs. Content-wise, it includes outright swearing and open violence (though the latter is, of course, always implied in the games). In general, previous ''Pokémon'' movies had always fell under this trope, but were still considered safe for young children. This film pushes that envelope UpToEleven in ways never seen before. It's the first ''Pokémon'' film to be rated PG rather than G, and also above almost all the Pokémon games which are rated E.[[note]]Except for the ''VideoGame/PokemonRumble'' games and ''VideoGame/PokkenTournament'', which are rated E10+ (although the former is generally agreed by fans to be rather undeserving of any rating above an E).[[/note]] Nonetheless, it doesn't go as far as other widely-derided Hollywood movie adaptations and still retains plenty of lighthearted comic relief.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Literally, as in most of the lighting is darker, fitting its Noir-esque motifs. Content-wise, it includes outright swearing and open violence (though the latter is, of course, always implied in the games). In general, previous ''Pokémon'' movies had always fell under this trope, but were still considered safe for young children. This film pushes that envelope UpToEleven in ways never seen before. It's the first ''Pokémon'' film to be rated PG rather than G, and also above almost all the Pokémon games which are rated E.[[note]]Except for the ''VideoGame/PokemonRumble'' games and ''VideoGame/PokkenTournament'', which are rated E10+ (although the former is generally agreed by fans to be rather undeserving of any rating above an E).[[/note]]

It was released on May 3 by Toho in Japan, and released worldwide by Creator/WarnerBros on May 10. It is Warner Bros.' first ''Pokémon'' theatrical release in over 18 years, having last been involved in the franchise by releasing ''Anime/Pokemon3'' worldwide outside Japan, which was also the franchise’s last wide release in North America.[[note]]Warner's television outlet, Creator/TheWB, continued to air the ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' through Creator/KidsWB until 2006, while Time Warner (now [=WarnerMedia=])-owned Creator/CartoonNetwork aired the anime from then on until the end of 2016.[[/note]] It is the first in the franchise to receive ''any'' major theatrical release in North America since ''Anime/PokemonHeroes''.

It was released on May 3 by Toho in Japan, and released worldwide by Creator/WarnerBros on May 10. It is Warner Bros.' first ''Pokémon'' theatrical release in over 18 years, having last been involved in the franchise by releasing ''Anime/Pokemon3'' worldwide outside Japan, which was also the franchise’s last wide release in North America.[[note]]Warner's television outlet, Creator/TheWB, continued to air the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime through Creator/KidsWB until 2006, while Time Warner (now [=WarnerMedia=])-owned Creator/CartoonNetwork aired the anime from then on until the end of 2016.[[/note]] It is the first in the franchise to receive ''any'' major theatrical release in North America since ''Anime/PokemonHeroes''.

* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: The film's [[DarkerAndEdgier more violent and crass tone]] and unexpected profanity made it the first ''Pokémon'' movie to be given a PG rating. Before then, all [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime]]-based ''Pokémon'' movies were rated G, not counting the films released straight-to-video.

* MoodWhiplash: Shortly after [[spoiler:Pikachu, believing that much of the events and failures were caused by himself, tearfully abandons Tim]], he poorly warbles the original ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' theme song while making goofy half-hearted gestures.

* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage:

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Lucy is implied to be one, as she's annoyed by the fact that she has to do a "Top 10 Cutest Pokémon" listicle when they're all cute. Keep in mind the multitudes of Poison-types that are based on pollutants, the Dark-types that are just downright mean-looking, the Ghost-types that delight in scaring people, and Mr. Mime, [[UncannyValley whose semi-human appearance is eerie]], to say the least.

* NamesTheSame: A newscaster named [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Cynthia]] appears.

* AscendedFridgeHorror: The "Pokemon battles are glorified cockfights and Pokeballs are like keeping Pokemon in cages" criticisms are played with here - Pokemon battling and Pokeball usage are illegal in Ryme City. The Pokebattle we see is more or less a glorified dogfight, complete with shady criminal dealings, and there's an implication with the announcements that Pokeball usage is illegal in that Pokemon and humans are seen as equal in Ryme... [[spoiler:which points towards the villain's grand plan.]]

** Tim's whole situation sums up issues with a {{Mons}} society that mainly gets glossed over. Because battling is essentially the be-all-end-all profession, anyone that fails as or didn't become a trainer immediately falls to the lower tiers in society unless they manage to pick a profession that has something to do with Pokemon. For every one Red, there are a hundred Youngster Joeys. More clarification [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEXxKujtEdA&t=9m50s here]].

-->'''Lucy:''' I work for the CNM Blog, making Pokemon lists all day, okay? "Top 10 Cutest Pokemon".\\

''Pokémon Detective Pikachu'', often referred to as just ''Detective Pikachu'', is a 2019 action-adventure film based on the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' SpinOff game [[VideoGame/DetectivePikachu of the same name]], and the first [[LiveActionAdaptation live-action]] entry in the ''Pokémon'' franchise. The plot of the film is the same as the game: Tim Goodman, the son of a famed detective in Ryme City who has gone mysteriously missing, must join forces with a wise-cracking Pikachu in order to find his father and get to the bottom of the strange incidents plaguing the city.