While there are plenty of nods towards other Pokémon titles, there are some other pop culture references as well.
- Home Alone gets a nod when Tim first steps into his dad's apartment, and the movie Angels with Filthy Souls is playing on TV.
- Pikachu asking Tim, "Are you going to turn me into a lampshade?" after looking at his room is refering to serial killer Ed Gein
, the inspiration for the movie Psycho. - When Psyduck starts to panic, Pikachu starts saying, "Serenity now, serenity now" which is a nod towards Seinfeld.
- Pikachu calls Lucy's office "a coffin with pencils" - a pretty apt description of the only setting of one of actor Ryan Reynolds' past films, Buried.
- During Mr. Mime's interrogation, Mr. Mime sits down on an invisible chair, then very deliberately uncrosses and recrosses his legs, similar to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. Fortunately, Mr. Mime is not anatomically correct.
- Word of God says Se7en was the inspiration for the Mr. Mime interrogation.
- There's also a reference to Red Heat during the scene: Mr. Mime says something rude that Pikachu doesn't understand, and Tim offers a Tactful Translation that results in Pikachu reacting violently.
- Ditto has taken the form of the musclebound, four-armed Machamp when Howard Clifford yells "Finish him!"
- The balloons releasing the "R" gas they're filled with onto the streets harken back to the Joker's parade balloons filled with Smylex gas from Batman (1989).
- Pikachu's Battle against Mewtwo was that both are fighting in a Balloon that is in a shape of a Pokemon
- While not included in the film itself, shortly before the film's release Ryan Reynolds "leaked" the full movie on his Youtube channel. But it was really just nearly 2 hours of Pikachu doing aerobics, in an over-the-top homage to Key & Peele's legendary "Aerobics Meltdown" sketch. Which itself was a Black Comedy parody of 1980's aerobics competitions.
