Review: Pokemon Detective Pikachu Blu-ray

Pokemon Detective Pikachu is the first ever live-action film based on the popular Pokemon video game franchise and animated TV show. Met with mostly positive reviews and box office success, the movie delivered a world that fans of the franchise had only been able to dream about up to this point, and the blu-ray’s special featurettes take us even deeper into the Pokemon world.

The film follows the story of Tim Goodman (played by Justice Smith), an insurance appraiser who travels to Ryme City, a city were humans and Pokemon cohabitate in peace, after the mysterious death of his estranged father, Detective Harry Goodman. While handling his father’s affairs, Tim comes across Harry’s Pokemon partner, Detective Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), a electric-type mouse Pokemon who’s suffering from amnesia, and Tim finds that he can somehow understand what Pikachu’s saying. Realizing the advantages of working together, the two accept their begrudging partnership, and head off to try to solve the mystery of Harry’s death.

While I have a few issues with the film’s story, the movie does an amazing job at bringing the Pokemon world to life. They managed to recreate in the real world something I like to call “Pokemon logic,” which exists in the world of the games. This becomes abundantly clear after the introduction of Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton), who’s over-the-top, cartoonish personality helps the audience understand that they are not in Kansas anymore.

The movie lives in an interesting world of conflicting contrasts. It’s a Neo-Noir film at heart, but at the same time it’s very bright, colorful, and sometimes even ridiculous, which fits perfectly with the backdrop of a modern day, cartoonish detective flick. This contrast is also very visible with the characters as well.

The film however, lives and dies with Detective Pikachu, the mascot and face of the Pokemon franchise. The casting of the naughty Ryan Reynolds to voice the adorable yellow mouse was nothing short of genius. The contrast of the cute, cuddly Pikachu with Reynold’s strong voice and adult sense of humor, make every second he’s on screen nothing short of a delight.

As I mentioned before, my big issues with the film came with the story. And to avoid any spoilers, let’s just say I did not think the live-action Pokemon world was ready for the introduction of a particular Pokemon, and I also didn’t care for the film’s main antagonist. Other than that, the story’s relatively consistent.

As far as the blu-ray featurettes go, there are quite a few gems in there, which I will break down for you. Here’s what the blu-ray includes:

-My Pokemon Adventure.
-Detective Mode.
-Mr. Mime’s Audio Commentary.
-Creating the World of Detective Pikachu: Welcome to Ryme City.
-Creating the World of Detective Pikachu: Bringing Pokemon to Life.
-Creating the World of Detective Pikachu: Action.
-Creating the World of Detective Pikachu: Colorful Characters.
-Creating the World of Detective Pikachu: Uncovering the Magic.
-Outside the Actors Studio
-Carry On Music Video.

In “My Pokemon Adventure” Justice Smith takes us down his personal Pokemon story, where his love for the franchise started, and how it’s been a part of his life to this day. It really is great to see the star’s love of the film is genuine and not something that he’s putting on.

“Detective Mode” is a commentary version of the whole film. However, it has the added element of giving the audience interesting pokedex details about the different Pokemon that pop up on screen, fun facts about the actors, and getting to see how particular scenes were made. Detective mode also made me have a newfound respect for Justice Smith’s performance, particularly in the action sequences, where most of the time he’s reacting to nothing. It was also fun to get a break down of all the film’s cameos, like Diplo and Rita Ora. And seeing the film without CGI also gives you a better appreciation for the work of the special effects and art department in general.

“Mr. Mime’s Audio Commentary” and “Ouside the Actors Studio” are a couple of comedic spoofs added to the blu-ray to keep things light hearted, which are both great in their own way. “Outside the Actor’s Studio” is particularly enjoyable and it’s probably my favorite featurette. In it, Ryan Reynolds flexes his comedic muscles and takes the audience through the journey of becoming Detective Pikachu.

The five “Creating the World of Detective Pikachu” are exactly what that sounds like, a deeper look at how certain things were created. I found it particularly interesting to learn that the movie was shot in England, and how they added a bunch of Japanese style signs to make London feel like a hybrid of itself and Tokyo. It’s a testament to the movie itself that, while watching it, I never even stopped to wonder where the movie was shot, it does feel like they created their own unique world. It’s also fun to see some of the tricks they used to make the movie come off feeling so organic, like having Ryan Reynolds come in for the first few weeks and do his lines his Justice, so they could develop chemistry and get a feel for one another’s timing. Also having Pikachu’s lines be delivered directly into Justice’s ear because nobody else is supposed to be able to hear him was something I found very clever. The creative team behind this movie deserves all the credit in the world, they are an extremely talented group of professionals. Particularly because at no point did I feel that any of the Pokemon felt out of place.

Finally, the last featurette is the “Carry On Music Video,” performed by Rita Ora, whom I mentioned before has a cameo in the film. I had never heard of her before watching the film, but I enjoyed the song, and the video has Pokemon in it, so that’s always cool.

Check out my original podcast review of Pokemon Detective Pikachu below!

Overall, Pokemon Detective Pikachu is a very enjoyable film that managed to bring the vibrant Pokemon world to life. Adding its own cartoonish Neo-Noir style and occasional adult humor, it was a unique entry to the franchise, yet managed to stay true to what the Pokemon world is at its core. A light-hearted, fun adventure with your best friends. While it has some story flaws, all the additional features from the blu-ray actually added to the experience, and made watching the film more enjoyable. It also helped me gain a newfound respect for not only the actor’s performances, but the entire team behind the film as well.