Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue movie by Legendary

Pokemon don't need to talk to be good characters. Plenty of movies feature non-verbal animals and the anime does just fine with what it has. The problem is that the movie has to split its time between 6+ Pokemon. One or two will likely get all the attention. Origins was terrible with this. Didn't Red outright say it was useless if he won the battle without Charizard? When poorly done, it comes off as annoying favoritism.

(x5) Red's signature Pokemon is his Pikachu. It's his highest level Pokemon. I expect him to catch one.

Edited by Pichu-kun on Jan 23rd 2019 at 10:01:49 AM

So what will it be for Pokemon? Pikachu, Charizard and maybe Vaporeon?

Pokemon Origins was actually quite entertaining, if rushed. Curious how they'll handle Red/Blue in Live Action.

I think pretty much everyone agreed that Red and Blue or Silver and Gold were the weakest games in terms of story. Which ones do you think were the strongest?

I think Gen 5 wins in that regard. The whole thing with N was really epic.

Edited by Forenperser on Feb 10th 2019 at 4:03:06 PM

Pokémon Black and White definitely have the best story out of the main games. I'd say Pokémon Sun and Moon would come in second, as I really like the character arc for Lillie, the introduction of the Ultra Beasts, and of course the final showdown with Lusamine.

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon had the epic post-game with Team Rainbow Rocket. We need more stuff like that from later Pokémon games.

x2

Eh. I'd say SM has the strongest story with BW being a close second, personally.

Pikachu was just added post-Yellow, originally it was any of the Kanto starters.

Anyway I can't see how it'd work without pissing certain people off. I can definitely see them rushing through gyms and that will step toes. Not that I honestly care since Red and Blue is one of the last Pokemon you should make a film of.

Pikachu is considered to be Red's definitive, signature Pokémon because the Kanto Starters are always ambiguous. Charizard and Venusaur have all been top contenders for Red's most iconic Pokémon but Pikachu is indisputable. All the Reds have a Pikachu at some point.

And really, Pikachu was chosen to be the starter Pokémon for Ash because it helps prevent starter bias if Ash were to choose the actual Kanto starters.

As for Red and Blue's story, there's not much to be said. They are not movie material. TV series, yes, but never movie material.

If we're talking about throughout the franchise, the Mystery Dungeon games for the most part have the best stories in my opinion.

But only after Yellow. And even before then they kept rotating his starter. Honestly they just wanted Pikachu to market.

Yeah, usually when Red is given a starter, it's usually either a Bulbasaur (like in Pokémon Adventures or Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Eevee!) or a Charmander (like in Pokémon Zensho or Pokémon Origins) if he doesn't have a Pikachu. In fact, I can't think of any version of him that explicitly has a Squirtle as his starter.

Maybe they might go the route of the Let's Go games and give him an Eevee as a starter. Or maybe go with the original idea for the Anime and give him a Clefairy.

The starters (yes, all three) + Pikachu + Eevee seems likely to me. Maximum marketability!

Edited by Zeromaeus on Feb 11th 2019 at 2:07:16 PM

Nah he was given pikachu in other places even before let's go, but like I said it's mostly because "wait pikachu is our mascot we should put him with Red!" and then using Yellow, a gen 1 game using anime influence, as an excuse. Cue game only purists claiming shit about anime not being an influence.

Edited by Ookamikun on Feb 12th 2019 at 3:11:22 AM

The real reason why Pikachu was chosen is fairly simple:

“In the game you choose one of Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur, but if Satoshi chose one of those three as his partner [in the anime] it would’ve created a gap with the kids who didn’t pick that Pokémon”

— Sugimori

That and the fact Pikachu is popular with Japanese children, and hard to find in the original games.

And for the record, Game Freak didn't really need Yellow as excuse to give Red a Pikachu. The anime is all the excuse they need since, after all, Satoshi is anime Red.

In fact, I often wonder what exactly would Red offer as a protagonist if he has no partner Pikachu as companion... Pikachu has that charm that neither Venusaur nor Charizard have.

I still don't think they're going to give Red a Pikachu for his partner Pokemon in a film that's supposed to be a sequel to Detective Pikachu. Having to explain to kids that this plot-important Pikachu is a completely different Pikachu from that plot-important Pikachu introduces needless complexity to the storytelling. Also the marketing, which would now have to differentiate Detective Pikachu toys from Red's Pikachu toys.

Pikachu already got his movie, and there are literally hundreds of other Pokemon that the protagonists of each game adaptation can have.

Besides, Ash can get away with never evolving his Pikachu because he's a dumbass who never learned how to Pokemon and constantly fails, but there's going to be an expectation that Red is a good Trainer who can win the day by story's end. Which means facing the climax with an evolved team of capable Pokemon.

Separating Pikachu out into his own film where he doesn't have a Trainer gives them an out from having to evolve him away from his iconic form and into Raichu, while still avoiding making his Trainer look as incompetent as Ash is all the time.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 12th 2019 at 8:17:01 AM

>Ash

>Incompetent

Ash is only "incompetent" in that he's never won a League that's canon to the games. Aside from that, he's still a very good trainer in his own right.

Yeah, the Ash bashing comes mostly from Red fanboys.

Detective Pikachu has a Deerskin Hat and Magnifying Glass. Regular Pikachu does not. That's why no one confuses Detective Pikachu for Ash's Pikachu. Plus, regular Pikachu can't talk.

Going on to whole Ash debacle:

I guess you haven't seen the anime in recent years (either that or you bought the old, outdate mantra of the Internet). The rules of the movies and shows are different from the games. As the late Stan Lee puts it, a character only wins if the writer deems it so. Like if we want to show how badass Giovanni is, he uses Thunderbolt on Jolteon and that's enough to take it out. Volt Absorb? What Volt Absorb?

As for Pokémon Red and Blue movie adaptation, I heard that it's actually just gossip and rumors since apparently the site that gave this news isn't exactly a dependable source (and tends to be clickbaity with their titles).

Speaking of that site, they also claimed that a fourth live-action movie is in development featuring Ash and friends.

Well, I can definitely say that has a better chance of being actually good compared to the hypothetical Red and Blue movie.

Edited by Shadao on Feb 12th 2019 at 1:46:37 AM

I can't see how any live-action movie starring Ash has a chance to be better than literally any other Pokémon movie idea.

Because unlike Red and Blue, it is easier to make a standalone movie about Ash than it is to make movie adaptation of a game with sparse story and long journeys.

Adapting the Pokémon League is a nightmare for a movie. If Red's goal to become Pokémon Champion, his movie story would either be crammed with too much stuff (and not a lot of time to settle in) or be stripped down to an extent it's no longer an adaptation of the games. And that's not going into the logistic of establishing Red as a character (who has the infamous reputation of being a Featureless Protagonist who doesn't speak, and that's not going into the fact that Red tends to have Ash's personality in various adaptations like Pokémon Adventure).

But Ash Ketchum's story? It's quite simple. Take his encounter with Ho-Oh from the first episode and make it into a movie-length journey to find that Legendary Pokémon. Distill the padding, know what Pokémon he would have based on the actual show (so we wouldn't need to see him capture Pokémon on screen), and give meaning to Ash's quest to find Ho-Oh. It has the basis and potential of a good Pokémon movie. And a second attempt won't hurt.

Edited by Shadao on Feb 12th 2019 at 2:03:44 AM

That's literally the plot of Pokemon: I Choose You!

Why did you think I said, "A second attempt won't hurt."

Like it or not, I Choose You has a foundation to work off of.

Edited by Shadao on Feb 12th 2019 at 7:59:59 AM

On Ash being incompotent: the reason for that thought is most likely his characterization in Best Wishes and beyond. Before that anime, Ash did went through significant character development going from newbish trainer who does not know the basic to an experience Pokemon League competitor who basically manage to get in the finals in every iteration of the series. Post BW, since its a soft reboot and all, basically just hit the reset on all of his compotency, and repeat this for every new generation of Pokemon to the point where he is now apparently in school learning Pokemon in the recent season instead of the usual formula of collecting badges and enter the league (I didn’t watch enough Sun & Moon to get the big picture of that show).

So I can’t really blame the Red fanboys for such thought; especially after seeing Red (and Blue) again in Sun & Moon.

Now as for adapting the games into a standalone movie; yeah that’s trickey as I would imagine it as more of a film trilogy.

The League is basically unfilmable, but that's fine because each generation has plot stuff with the regional Team to work with.

Yes, that includes Gen 1. Between Team Rocket being a Pokemon mob who rob and even besiege towns, a government corruption angle via their leader being an actual Gym Leader, and their role in developing Pokemon WMD Mewtwo, there is plenty to work with in terms of writing a story.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 12th 2019 at 10:16:15 AM

I recommend XY and XY&Z then. You'll find Ash to be quite, how do I put it, familiarly awesome.

For regional teams in a post-Team Rocket setting, I can see that. However, Team Rocket is far more tricky as trying to tie both the plot of Team Rocket and Mewtwo together runs the risk of the film being about them rather than, say, the protagonist.

Pokémon, at its core, is about the trainer and their Pokémon. Everything else is window dressing. If you don't have the core down, your Pokémon movie is DOA.