I mean I'm okay with the idea of a Pokemon Cinematic Universe as shown in Detective Pikachu but like... Red and Blue are boring. I get the Gen One nostalgia and everything but couldn't we start with a Black and White movie or something?
This song needs more love.A cinematic universe based on Pokemon isn't a bad idea, as there's a lot of material to be mined from the franchise.
The main concern with adapting Red and Blue (or any of the main games really) is how to condense the story into a 2-hour running time. There have to be a lot of montages to cover the gym battles, a couple fights with Blue, Team Rocket has to be involved, and of course the Elite Four fight as well. The idea works better as a mini-series than a single film.
For example, a Red and Blue film would have to have Giovanni or Team Rocket as the main villains, as it is in the games. But the climax of the game isn't the Gym Battle with Giovanni, it's the final battle against Blue as the Champion. So basically, the final fight with the Big Bad would happen before the true climax that the story had been building up to will happen. It's just odd from a three-act structure standard.
Pokémon Black and White actually would fit a feature film format a lot better, since the final fight with Team Plasma is the climax of the story. The fight against N is what the whole story has been building towards, and the fight against Ghetsis wouldn't feel tagged on because he's the true Big Bad and thus the final challenge that needs to be taken down to save the day.
Following the story structure from any of the other games would lead to the Elite Four suffering from Ending Fatigue. The main villains have been taken care of, so let's deal with a montage of fights that are seperate from the main conflict. Or they could deal with the Elite Four in a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. It'd still have problems, but it could work.
But then it'll be even longer than the Special Editions of The Lord of the Rings.
I'm all for it, if it keeps the drunk grandpa character from Viridian City, and creates a cinematic version of the Lavender Town theme music.
Like creepy stories? Check out my book!I think the writing for a Pokemon Cinematic Universe was on the wall ever since Legendary picked up the rights to the franchise several years ago. Detective Pikachu was going to be a test run for how people would react to a live-action Pokemon film, and given the enthusiastic response so far pre-release Legendary seems to be getting ready to immediately begin production should the movie become a box office success (which isn't guaranteed, given that it has Avengers: Endgame to go up against).
The question, though, is whether or not Warner Bros. would be interested in co-financing more Pokemon movies. It stands to reason they would, but it seemed like they would bury whatever involvement they had in the franchise when WarnerMedia-owned Cartoon Network stopped airing the anime several years ago, and WB didn't really do much with Pokemon after the third anime film underperformed. Plus WB would probably want to have the budget for future films lowered should Detective Pikachu not make as much money as they hope (maybe those lower budget movies will have the New Line Cinema label attached, like Shazam! will).
Edited by Mario1995 on Jan 19th 2019 at 11:10:20 AM
"The devil's got all the good gear. What's God got? The Inspiral Carpets and nuns. Fuck that." - Liam GallagherIt is gonna be very hard to adapt a game that doesn't have a well-defined story. With Detective Pikachu it made sense to adapt to a film. I won't rule it out, I'm just more pessimistic than the Detective Pikachu film. Perhaps it will be more like an anthology film - different stories of different trainers interwoven together to all meet at the Indigo Plateau. Think Rat Race but more serious
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Huuuuuuuuh... I guess this might work as a sports movie with poke-yakuza in the background? The games' story doesn't really lend itself well to adaption and I can't see it being very similar to the source material. Gens 5 or 7 would have been better choices (and being set in poke-America would let them avoid the race issue)
TV show, that's one thing. Movie based on 8 Gym Leaders, 4 Elite Four Trainers, and one Champion plus an villainous team as well as an overpowered legendary (and one Mythical Pokémon to boot)? That's a recipe for Video Game Movies Suck. I've stated this before back when Detective Pikachu was not even named and I still stand by it to this day.
But if such project is in the works, maybe I should consider entering in the early pre-production cycle to make sure they don't screw up with Pokémon Red and Blue.
I would advise them to get a Japanese actor for the main lead, since Pokémon Red and Blue takes place in Kanto, Japan. And for personal preferences, how about actual names instead of the Early-Installment Weirdness naming theme of colors? Satoshi and Shigeru would fine choices for Adaptational Name Change for our hero and rival.
But seriously, if you can't do a Pokémon main game justice with four episodes, you should not do a feature length movie where Character Development battles for screen-time with Gym Battles and the Journey. You'll end up getting neither.
Mewtwo's origin story is a different matter. That has been done before and thus it can work as a live-action movie.
It doesn't seem like a hard film to do: Just do like Pokémon Zensho or Pokémon Origins did. However, things are never that easy. They're so going to change a lot of it.
Kanto is based off Kanto, Japan so the entire cast should be Japanese. I'd prefer if they kept Red and Blue as is, but I'm fine with anything as long as they don't call them "Ash" and "Gary".
Edited by Pichu-kun on Jan 20th 2019 at 10:13:02 AM
Easier said than done. Pokémon Zensho and Pokémon Origins still required a multi-chaptered format to tell their stories. Short stories segmented into bite-size pieces for the audience to easily grasp. But a movie is one uncut feature length story. In order to adapt Red and Blue on the big screen, you'll have to abridge a lot of things out to smooth the narrative. Otherwise it'll be a disjointed narrative that feels like several episodes stitched into one.
And if that's case, should have stick with a Pokémon TV show then.
Yeah, I wouldn't say Pokémon Red and Blue fit into the Three-Act Structure most Hollywood films have. Yes, not all films need to follow that structure, but it's a very good skeleton for a blockbuster to follow.
I think one way to tackle the typical Pokemon formula would be to focus the film entirely on a tournament and frame it like a sports film. Maybe show gym battles in flashbacks to how our protagonist got their start as a trainer, and have the fight with the Elite Four be the main focus, building up to the fight with the Champion.
Again, this is why I think Pokémon Black and White would work better as an feature film. The fight with the Gym Leaders are important, but the entire story is focused on Team Plasma and the battle against N. Pokémon Sun and Moon works too, as the Pokemon League is very much in afterthought in the game's story, as you mostly go around completing trials as the story with Lusamine unfolds.
I think a Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue movie could work if you didn't try to make it a direct adaptation of the games. I'm thinking one of three options:
- Focus on the League: This is basically what the anime does. I'm thinking it can specifically focus on a select few gym battles with references to the rest of the story being mentioned in dialogue. The climax would be the battle with Blue with the major gym battles being against Brock, Surge, Sabrina, and Giovanni. The Elite Four could be a quick montage and like I mentioned before the other gyms and the Team Rocket plot could be referenced via dialogue.
- Focus on the Team Rocket plot: Similar to the last option. The fight against Team Rocket is the main plot with the battle against Giovanni as the climax. Red's gym battles are referenced in the dialogue but never actually shown or if they are, they aren't shown in full.
- Movie original plot: The easiest way to make it work. They take the characters and setting but do their own thing.
Obviously they'd need to make major changes to the storyline for either of those ideas, but it's doable.
I think you kind of have to pick. Either you focus the film around stopping Team Rocket or you just concentrate on the Pokemon League stuff. Doing both in one movie is just asking for trouble because it will seem too disjointed. Personally I'd just focus the first movie around the Pokemon League stuff and only have a very minor appearance by Team Rocket. Then you can introduce Giovanni and Mewtwo in The Stinger.
I'd emphasize the Team Rocket stuff, myself.
Catching Pokemon, filling your Pokedex, challenging Gyms, making your way to the League, and ultimately defeating your Rival. That's all gameplay stuff, when you get down to it. That's why it appears in literally every single game; because it's the game part of Pokemon.
It's obligatory. There's no real plot to it. It's just what you do, because you're playing a Pokemon game. That's not to say you can't tell a story around it, but it'd be a fairly repetitive story more focused on worldbuilding than actual plot and requiring many, many, many more hours than a film has to offer. Something better suited to, say, an anime series, but with the risk that all the seasons will inevitably wind up feeling samey.
What differentiates the various generations in terms of story is all the "Team X" stuff. Who are the "Team" guys this time? What are they about? Who's their leader? What nefarious deeds is he up to? How will you stop him? How do the Legendaries play into their plans?
Gen 1 didn't have a lot to work with in this regard, but there's still something. Team Rocket are Pokemon criminals, they operate out of a casino, they kidnap people of interest and steal precious items, and they ultimately create Mewtwo, a Pokemon WMD that they promptly lose control of. That's not a solid narrative in and of itself but there's plenty of pieces in it to ultimately build a narrative - one that won't take sixty hours of gameplay to tell, no less.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 20th 2019 at 4:07:02 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

Looks like Legendary is currently planning on making a Live-Action movie on Pokemon Red and Blue.
Apparently they are hoping on launching a Pokemon Cinematic Universe. They also mentioned that the Pokemon Red and Blue Movie will be set in the same universe as Detective Pikachu.
Edited by brb1006 on Jan 19th 2019 at 7:50:08 AM