Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Geekery Edition

Detective Pikachu is a movie with a fuck-ton of Easter Eggs, and, unfortunately, until we get the Blu-Ray and I can slowly pause and soak in every frame of Ryme City, I probably won't be able to pick out and analyze every single set piece and random background Easter Eggs. Hell, even the two or three trailers would be enough for me to make entire articles picking out every single background sign and noting what Pokemon is seen in them. Hell, even some of the posters have a not-insignificant amount of wacky little nods and winks fitted into it. It really does show the sheer amount of love and care that the showmakers put into the show, though, something that not every live-action adaptation could say about.

So while I'm going to stay away from actually doing a too in-depth talk about "oh look a Steelix vs Articuno poster in the background of this scene" or whatever, I'm going to go through some of the larger Easter Eggs in the movie, and then talk about most of the Pokemon featured in this movie.

Also, obvious spoiler warning is obvious. I'm going to spoil some major plot points in the story, so... yeah.

Easter Eggs:

A relatively significant amount of the plot behind Detective Pikachu, Tim Goodman, Mewtwo and the Cliffords are all taken from the Detective Pikachu 3DS game. Even the encounter with the Aipom is the first 'case' in the Detective Pikachu game... albeit the Aipoms were thieves instead of a berserk, angry horde. The character of Lucy Stevens is original to the movie, but clearly meant to be an Expy of Misty, a spunky main female character partnered with a comedic Psyduck. 

Apparently "Compound R" is taken from that game, and is in fact drawn from that game's main story as opposed to being an Easter Egg to Team Rocket as most people thought it would be. It's likely to organically lead to a connection with Team Rocket, though, and I can definitely see sequels capitalizing on this. The idea of Pokemon being driven to lose their mind brings to mind the plot of the Pokemon Ranger spinoff games, and using drugs and experiments to enhance the power of Pokemon is Team Rocket's modus operandi in the first arc of the Pokemon Adventures/Special manga, albeit neither of these have any sort of "combine humanity and Pokemon" themes going on.

The idea of a corner of the Pokemon world where humans don't carry around Pokemon in Pokeballs but still have partner Pokemon has been explored in some individual episodes of the anime, but most heavily in the Pokemon Ranger series of games where all three games showcased regions where trainers are in the vast minority. 

Some other elements of the main plot also borrows from other, more obscure Pokemon game elements, although their integration is... a bit suspect. The idea of fusing a Pokemon body and a human mind slightly borrows from the accident that happens to Bill in the Kanto games (and its various remakes and adaptations), where Bill was accidentally fused with a Pokemon thanks to a transporter machine accident. It's also the plot of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon side-games, except that was more mystical and more "human gets transformed into a Pokemon through unknown means" than a straight-up fusion.

(I can't show screenshots from the movie that aren't from the trailers, at the moment, so I'll have some stand-in pictures.)

The original Pokemon Theme (Gotta Catch 'Em All) opening for the English broadcast of the anime is heard in the very first CNM studio scene with the Cliffords when they record their program, and a depressed Detective Pikachu sad-sings a bar from it in the third act.


Speaking of music, a remix of the original Red and Blue game theme plays over the credits, which itself features Ken Sugimori style illustrations of all the human characters in the movie, as well as brief Generation I style Game Boy graphics depicting some of the battles that took place in the movie.

We don't get a whole ton of proper fight mechanics, with fight scenes being more of a display of powers than anything, and clearly we're not dealing with any sort of levels or whatnot, but Tim and Detective Pikachu lists off only four moves that Pikachu can use, which is the amount of moves a Pokemon can use at any one time in the games. Pikachu's moves are Quick Attack, Volt Tackle, Electro Ball and Discharge -- although Sebastian mentions that Pikachu used a Thunderbolt in a previous bout with Charizard. Volt Tackle is, of course, Pikachu's signature move in the games.

Pikachu notes that Volt Tackle is the strongest move, but it'll also knock himself out. This is true to the games, where Volt Tackle is pretty powerful, but will deal recoil damage to its user. Indeed, when Pikachu uses it against Mewtwo in the climax, he does look pretty dazed. While not named, Pikachu clearly uses Electro Ball in his first exchange of attacks against Mewtwo. 

During the cage-match between Blastoise and Gengar, the announcer for the fight name-drops the move Shadow Ball, while the screens show some of the moves being used, particularly Gengar's Double Team, as well as the oft-quoted game declaration of "Critical Hit!".

Pikachu is also able to recognize Greninja's Water Shurikens, name-dropping the attack, and apparently in this continuity Water Shuriken leaves behind a crystallized version of itself.

The movie shows off the fact that Mewtwo is heavily involved in it, but instead of being created by Clifford's organization, we learn that this Mewtwo was created 20 years ago... specifically and explicitly noted to be a Mewtwo that's captured from Kanto, the setting of Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow and their various remakes, which features a meta-plot of Mewtwo's creation. There's a fair bit of red herring about Mew remains being found sprinkled throughout the movie as well. 

Mewtwo having a distasteful opinion of humanity, but eventually warming up to them, and having a soft spot for the plights of other Pokemon, is taken mainly from the anime's portrayal on Mewtwo, which itself would codify most other appearances of Mewtwo in other appearances. 

Incidentally, this movie is released in the 20-year-anniversary of Mewtwo Strikes Back, Mewtwo's cinematic debut in Pokemon's very first movie. Between the shots of Mewtwo in a tank, and the usage of technology (are those Magnemite? I'm genuinely not sure) to suppress his psychic powers, this movie features a fair amount of callbacks to that movie's plot. 

Mewtwo has two voice actors that speak simultaneously in this movie, a reference to how in the anime's continuity, there were two Mewtwos -- a male one that was the start of Mewtwo Strikes Back and Mewtwo Returns, and a female-voiced, mega-evolving one that was relatively poorly-received that co-starred in the Genesect movie. 

There was a montage of random ruins showing how Pokemon and human co-existed in the past. One of the hieroglyphics (the usage of Natu in said hieroglyphics is a great Easter Egg, too) features a human throwing a fruit at the Pokemon. It's unclear if it's just throwing a berry to befriend the Pokemon, as is seen in the various Safari Zones and in Pokemon Go, or if it's a deliberate reference to how in the Pokemon games, old, traditional Poke-balls are crafted from special fruits called Apricorns, prominently featured as ingredients of special Poke-balls in Pokemon Gold, Silver & Crystal.

The apartment building that the missing Harry Goodman lives in is actualyl called "OAK" after the Pokemon professor, although the letters are so stylized and the signage is a bit dilapidated that I didn't realize this until it was pointed out to me.

There is a gigantic amount of Pokemon cameos in posters and signage, which I won't try tobdo without access to the Blu-Ray, but notable location ones include references to Cerulean City and a Sinnoh region tournament in the posters in Tim's room.


Jigglypuff specifically holding a marker with a green cap as a microphone, and standing next to a sleeping person, is a reference to the specific Jigglypuff from the anime, who keeps causing people to fall asleep when she tries to perform with her singing, and always ends up causing trouble and hijinks, and when people invariably fall asleep thanks to her singing, she will use her microphone-marker to doodle on the sleeping people (and Pokemon).

Rachael Lillis, Jigglypuff's original English dub voice actor, reprises her role as Jigglypuff, and sings the Jigglypuff song. She's one of the two people to reprise Pokemon voice roles in this movie, the other being Ikue Oani, Pikachu's voice actor in all versions of the anime, who voices Pikachu's "pika pika's" in the multiple scenes whenever Ryan Reynolds is not talking.


In Howard Clifford's office are statues of the Generation IV "creator" legendaries, namely Dialga and Palkia, with Arceus in the center. (Giratina, being the devil, is obviously absent). Statues of Dialga, Palkia and Arceus dot the land in the Generation IV games, and it's sort of been the fandom "canon" that these, moreso than any other legendary Pokemon, are the equivalent of deities in the Pokemon world. It also serves as a subtle hint to Howard's desire to play god.

When Lucy scratches under Detective Pikachu's chin, he makes the Pokemon-friendly euphemism "MOTHER OF ARCEUS". It's never something that official Pokemon material (until this one) has ever done, but a lot of fan works really, really love substituting legendary Pokemon names, particularly Arceus, in lieu of real-world swear words or religious figures. "Mother of Arceus" flows off the tongue so much better than "Holy Arceus" or "Arceus Christ" that the fandom really love, too. Detective Pikachu also utters a couple of "oh my god"s in this movie, so make that what you will.


During Howard's little speech to our heroes, Pikachu briefly walks past a bunch of stones ("that's very twisty") that are most certainly evolution stones or maybe a bunch of other obtainable items... the appearances of these stones have always been a bit inconsistent from game to game. The general consensus is that these are a Water Stone, Icy Stone and either a Shiny Stone or Old Amber.


Speaking of regions, we never really learn what region Ryme City is in. During the initial "welcome to Ryme City" video segment we get a brief shot of what seems to be the region, but its terrain certainly does not match any of the main series games' regions. I actually did a brief look through all the known regions, and none of them match the look of the series of interconnected mountainous islands we see in the movie. Then again, the Detective Pikachu games don't actually offer any region name for where Ryme City is located either.


The whole giant Pokemon balloons is, on first glance, a reference to things like Macy's Day parades and whatnot, which has been known to feature Pokemon balloons before, but the fact that a fight takes place on top of it is a bit of a nod to one of the Pokemon-themed stages in Super Smash Bros Melee, which took place on top of a float of Pokemon balloons.

I'm not a huge Smash Bros player, but all five Pokemon that have featured recently in the latest iteration of Smash Bros -- Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Charizard, Mewtwo and Greninja -- all make major appearanes.


The Detective Pikachu CG model has a small patch of whitish fur in his belly, a feature that is only seen in the earliest Generation I Game Boy games and some very early manga artwork, but was eventually phased out by the time Pikachu's appearance is finalized in the anime.


The Ditto in the movie is noted to be unable to change it creepy, beady dot-eyes despite its otherwise perfect imitations. This is a trait that the Duplica's Ditto exhibited in the anime, and while in said episode it's noted to be a quirk specific to this Ditto in particular, the beady-eyed imperfect copies have been so prevalent that they've seeped into merchandise, trading cards and manga, and clearly this movie as well.

Ditto is noted to be an "imperfect genetic experiment" in this movie, which is a nod to the popular fan theory that Ditto is an imperfect prototype Mewtwo that was only able to copy Mew's Transforming ability, thanks to the areas that Ditto is found in the original Generation I games are all areas that wer connected to Team Rocket's experimentation on Mew and Mewtwo. Since Ditto isn't treated as a 'new' species in this movie, it's likely that the experimentation in this case is either the ability to pose as humans, or to transform into different Pokemon at will instead of having to see it in battle.

Some people also note that "Ms. Norman" is a visual reference to Jessie, the Team Rocket member from the anime. Which is stretching it a little, but okay.


Takeuchi Ryouma of Kamen Rider Drive fame plays a trainer that participates in a huge league battle, dressed in a red hoodie, white shirt and red cap that vaguely resembles (but doesn't 100% match) Red, the character protagonist of the original Red/Blue/Yellow game, star of the Pokemon Adventures manga, and someone who has made various re-appearances throughout the game as a returning champion. While his identity is left ambiguous, everyone quickly jumped on the wagon of Takeuchi's nameless cameo character being Red, which... yeah, I'll buy it.

Speaking of potential trainers, while it's likely that it's just a little wink-and-nod, the senior reporter that Lucy ends up 'borrowing' credentials from is called Cynthia, and is a long-haired blond lady with a black suit. This is similar to Cynthia, the champion and final boss of the Generation IV games set in Sinnoh, but it's likely that it's just a coincidence than the hcmapion of Sinnoh's league becoming a reporter randomly in Ryme City.


The scene where Pikachu kicks a Magikarp and causes it to evolve into Gyarados and rampage is a reference to Gyarados's debut in the anime, "Pokemon Shipwreck", where Team Rocket member James kicks a Magikarp, and the resulting impact causes it to evolve into Gyarados.


The police officers in the background are accompanied by Growlithe, while Ken Watanabe's character is partnered with a Snubbull. Growlithes are the signature Pokemon used by a vast majority of the anime's police officers, being the equivalent of a police dog, whereas a lot of the policemen in the Pokemon Sun/Moon games are partnered with Granbulls as the police department's mascot. Granbull is Snubbull's evolution, for those who aren't as well-versed in Pokemon lore.

Also, we see some ads showing a group of Squirtle helping out in firefighting operations. Early on in the anime, a gang of Squirtle ne'er-do-wells, the Squirtle Squad, end up being reformed and turned into firefighters. This seems a reference to that.


I did say that I don't want to list every single picture of a Pokemon in the movie, but one cameo that's pretty evident because our main character wears it on his chest is Unown, the letter Pokemon. After spending a night chased around by Aipoms, the next day Tim changes into a shirt with the H-variant of Unown prominently featured in front of it. In the day after that when he and Lucy goes off to investigate the laboratorium, Tim switches for a shirt with the O-variant Unown.

There's also a crap-ton of posters in Tim's room (including a bunch of legendaries, most prominently Rayquaza, Reshiram and Zekrom) but an Easter Egg of note is when Pikachu is rifling through the room looking for clues, he briefly motions to a Pokemon TCG Binder, which is a little nice nods to one of the biggest non-video-game merchandise in the franchise.

Gotta Catch 'Em All - Major Faces

There are somewhere around 60 different types of Pokemon featured in this movie, out of the 800+ Pokemon that currently exists in the franchise. It's kind if inevitable considering the amount if work that's going to be required to create so many unique CGI models, but the movie does highlight a particular few pokemon species and gives them more screentime, a couple that are reused a lot as background characters, and a couple that only show up briefly in a couple of scenes.

And a fuck ton of cameos in signage and stuff. I'm going to talk avout mostly the Pokemon that physically make an appearance, splitting it into two segments based on the importance of the species, then a brief quick talk about the non-appearing cameos.


Pikachu: I mean, he's the main character. He's in all the posters, he's in 90% of the movie, he's voiced by Ryan Reynolds and Ikue Otani, he shoots lightning bolts, he's addicted to caffeine, he's amnesiac, he's got a cute hat and he's secretly the soul of Harry riding around the body of an electric rat. Not a whole ton to say here -- Pikachu's been the mascot of the franchise for more than two decades now. I guess him sitting on Tim's shoulder (or attempting to) is a nod to how Pikachu often sits on its partner's shoulders whether it's the anime, manga or games?


Psyduck: He (She?) doesn't do much, but Psyduck is one of the most iconic Pokemon thanks to his role in the anime as Misty's trouble-making partner. This one doesn't pop out of Pokeballs or get into fights he doesn't have to, and honestly seems a lot more well-behaved. The headaches are still there, though, and it's a running gag that they have to keep Psyduck calm or his headache will unleash a massive psychic blast that will "kill us all". Of course, this property of Psyduck is completely based on the anime's portrayal.

He's also adorable and the best and rides around on a cute little baby-booster thing.


Mewtwo: Perhaps the big plot device in the movie, Mewtwo is seen in the beginning of the movie in a shot that's a direct homage to how he woke up from his experimental tank and began wreaking havoc at the beginning of his own debut movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back. The twist for most Pokemon fans, of course, is that this Mewtwo isn't actually created by the mysterious shady laboratory featured here, but is captured from Kanto and is noted to be created 20 years ago -- exactly the amount of years since his debut movie.

Mewtwo's origin as a mutated abomination of a Mew Clone is briefly touched upon by Howard, and Pikachu gives him the moniker of the "most powerful Pokemon", a title he (rightfully) styles himself as in his debut movie. We've already covered the origin of his combined, androgynous voice up above, as well as the plot nods to Mewtwo's original portrayals. The whole "R" compound that they extracted from Mewtwo is a reference to the "Berserk Gene" held item, an item found in Pokemon Gold, Silver & Crystal in the ruins of Cerulean Cave where Mewtwo used to reside in the previous games. It's a held item that will increase a Pokemon's strength but also confuse it, similar to how it enrages Pokemon in this movie.

Mewtwo displays a couple of powers that aren't normally associated with him -- restoring Pikachu to health after his injury, and the whole "put a human's soul into the body of a Pokemon" bit is completely original to this movie, although it does bear note that the fourth-generation legendary Pokemon Manaphy is actually able to do this.


Ditto: Huge huge spoilers, but Ditto takes turns impersonating... well, basically anyone with sunglasses and not speaking, really, in a well-foreshadowed twist as he moves around under the guise of Ms. Norman (something that a lot of people thought was supposed to be live-action Jessie, but nope, it's just pink ol' Ditto) and briefly as Roger Clifford. We've covered the little beady eyes and "experiment" nods to aspects of Ditto's history in the fandom, so... yeah, there's not a whole ton to say except that this is an amazing twist and I will not stop acknowledging that.

Over the fight against Tim, Ditto prominently transforms into Loudred, Machamp, Cubone, Braviary, Bouffalant and Charizard, although briefly cycles through a bunch of others (Mr. Mime, Squirtle, Charmander) when Tim overloads poor Ditto with R.


Charizard: Prominently featured in trailers and Sebastian's partner in the underground fighting ring. The final evolution of the original fire starter, Charmander, and one of the most popular and recognizable Pokemon, Charizard still retains his pot belly and stumpy feet although being a lizard, he's got a massive texture of scales all over his lizard body.

Also, despite the rampage that Charizard does during the cage-match, between the staring contest with Pikachu and the "meep" he does when he sees Gyarados, this Charizard's apparently just the equivalent a huge big puppy.


Greninja: The Greninja are the main antagonists of the second act of the movie, and is revealed to be involved in the early parts of the movie as well. The highly-popular final water starter evolution in the sixth-generation games, X & Y, Greninja has seen a massive surge in popularity thanks to its portrayal in the anime, as well as being included in Smash Bros as a playable character.

In addition to adapting its ninja-like skills of darting around, the movie also shows the Greninja using their signature move, Water Shuriken. The Greninja also use their scarf-like tongue to wrap up poor Lucy and Psyduck at one point, and those tongues are gross on close-up, man. Other than the Greninja squadron in employ of Howard, we also get to see several calmer Greninja walking around in the Ryme City scenes.


Snubbull: Moving into "one scene wonder" Pokemon now. The partner of Ken Watanabe's character, Inspector Hide Yoshida, is an irate Snubbull that is grumpy all the time but enjoys scritches to the head. This is actually true to Snubbull's pokedex entries over the years. To quote the Gold and Crystal entries: "Although it looks frightening, it is actually kind and affectionate." and "In truth, it is a cowardly Pokemon. It growls eagerly in order to hide its fear from its opponent." So it is just being a scary-looking bulldog to intimidate Tim.


Magikarp & Gyarados: Gyarados is perhaps one of the few CG designs that I am not completely in love with as far as the "main" Pokemon that received the most screentime goes, but I know that Gyarados is supposed to be a big serpentine fish monster and I recognize this is what we get if we extrapolated the realism from reptile!Charizard and mammal!Pikachu into Gyarados. I guess it's the lips and not-so-prominent fangs that bothered me a bit?

Regardless, I absolutely enjoyed the random Magikarp fish tank in the underground arena, I absolutely loved the joke about Magikarp flopping around and splashing about, and while Gyarados only showed up for that one scene and I kinda-sorta hoped the hydro pump was a bit more forceful, the awesomeness of the evolution and Charizard's "meep" reaction was pretty damn hilarious. Probably one of the jokes that any purely-blind-to-Pokemon members of the audience would be the most confused about, I think, but eh, I don't care, this sequence was fantastic.

Another Gyarados showed up earlier in the movie, under the ownership of "Red"'s opponent.


Pidgeot & Pidgeotto: It's really hard to tell Pidgeotto and Pidgeot apart when they're constantly moving, and especially considering how there's a lot of them in the background. I can definitely confirm that some of them are the colourful-tailed short-plumed Pidgeotto, and some are the long-plumed short-tailed Pidgeot. Pretty neat to see them basically be in a lot of the background, filling in the skies and flying about -- it seems like they share dominance over the air around Ryme City alongside the Rufflet line, but then we get an unexpected bit in the climax where Pikachu commandeers a friendly Pidgeot, at least for a while, in order to give him some air advantage against Mewtwo. Definitely a pretty neat little role for our good bird!


Bulbasaur: LOOK AT MY PRECIOUS CHILD

LOOK AT HIM

HE IS THE MOST PRECIOUS CHILD

I LOVE HIM. THIS MOVIE IS PERFECT.


Aipom: Y'know, I've always gone on record in saying Aipoms are one of the more unintentionally creepy-looking Pokemon. Mostly because I am not a huge fan of monkeys, but mostly... look at that face! The designers knew exactly what they were doing when they made Aipom look hideously monstrous. Don't worry -- for the most part, Aipoms are actually pretty cute, it's just when they're driven mad by R and their ears flatten up against their head and they show off this creepy set of only-incisors that they become hideous monstrosities. Oh, and those surprisingly human-looking tail-hands... those are pretty disturbing too.

And I'm not exactly sure what those moves are, when the swarm of feral Aipoms were launching blue lightning balls at poor Justice Smith, but jeez, they really sell the fact that these damn rabid monkeys just racing down bearing down upon him as he scrambles for his life... Pokemon's always got a sense of implied danger here and there, but it's different when it's cartoon people being zapped by an electric rat to these maniacal frenzied Aipoms. They definitely toe the line between creepy and cute very well, and the preceding scenes where the Aipoms were just hanging out on the side of the building, and the following scenes where two Aipom return Tim's pants to him while using their tails as "legs"... it's adorable.


Mr. Mime: I would go to say that Mr. Mime is a lot less creepy than Aipom, honestly. It's... it's interesting. They really commit to the mime interrogation scene and it lasts a fair bit longer than what was shown in the trailer, and it's... it's interesting! I wasn't the biggest fan of the scene, but boy howdy they certainly try their best to make it work. Some neat usage of background sound effects to make Mr. Mime's mime segments really end up working a lot better than they would've otherwise. I did personally think the Mr. Mime scene went on for a wee bit too long, but it's not to the movie's detriment.

Interestingly, I don't think I see any other Mr. Mimes filling in the crowds of Ryme City. I guess it's a pretty unpopular species, huh.


Cubone: Cubone is another adorable one, oh my god, and while there are a bunch of Cubones that hang out in the background of Ryme City, Cubone's biggest and most prominent scene was as the first Pokemon that Tim encounters in the movie, as he is egged on by his friend to try this Pokemon Trainer business, and try and catch the Cubone with a Pokeball. The whole "slavery" bit is downplayed with the revelation that it's pretty hard to catch a Pokemon and that it must "choose you" as well...

And I really love just how sad Cubone is. They had a fair bit of in-jokes, working in Cubone's speies name of "the Lonely Pokemon" into the dialogue smoothly, as well as cracking a joke about Cubone's dead mother (well, 'dead relative') without making it feel mean-spirited. Cubone also ends up nearly fucking killing poor Tim when he attacks him and lobs that Bonemerang at him. See, kids, this is why Professor Oak wants you to have a Pokemon before you enter tall grass!


Torterra: Oh man, I love the character model for Torterra. It just looks so rugged, so badass, yet still also undeniably faithful to its original design. This hgue turtle with a small bonsai garden on its back ends up getting a bit of a cool little upgrade, because apparently the movie interprets them as using this walking garden as camouflage. We initially see like two or three Torterras in the PCL laboratory as part of a "growth experiment" as they rise up from a garden in the facility... only to reveal that the actual growth experiment Torterras have grown into basically Godzilla-sized, and the huge gigantic shifting tectonic plates from the trailer wasn't Mewtwo's psychic powers, or an illusion, or Groudon dropping in to say Hoenn Confirmed... it's these giant Torterra moving around and basically literally reshaping the terrain as they do so.

It's honestly something that's a wee bit out there, speaking in Pokemon terms, but at the same time it's also such a pretty awesome visual and such a neat little upgrade for Torterra, making these larger variants of the species literal walking landscapes. I really wished we'd seen more of these giant Torterras, maybe see what it means for them to be genetically modified into titanic size, or have them play out as more prominent antagonists instead of just sort of being an environmental hazard... but I dunno. This is perhaps one of the least expected additions into the movie, and I am definitely a huge, huge fan.


Loudred: A relative majority of the Pokemon that are primarily featured are indeed first-generation Pokemon, but we do have a fair amount of representation from other generations, which I definitely do appreciate! Loudred here is the most prominent third-generation Pokemon in the movie, and it's not the most important role, admittedly. They were pretty prominent in the promotional material just screaming all out and apparently being used as the speakers for the underground cage-match, but I dunno... I felt like they received a lot more screentime than I expected they would (i.e. just in the background wub-wub-wubbing it up) but the random techno-electro music they unleashed when they got dosed up on R was such a fun detail that I feel like the Loudred in this movie end up feeling a lot more prominent than they really are, and probably are the exact segue between being prominent and not-quite-as-important as we move onto the second category of Pokemon...


Gotta Catch 'Em All - Spot Me In The Background

These are Pokemon that are sort of just... there in the background, showing up here and there but not having an especially important role in the overall plot.


Eevee & Flareon: We see this dude exactly once, in Howard Clifford's office, when he evolves an Eevee into a Flareon (presumably with a Fire Stone, though we don't see this explicitly) just to give this huge speech about how Pokemon can evolve into their best selves and yadda yadda yadda. It's kind of a surprisingly minor role for what you think would be one of the Pokemon they would want to cash in on... but Eevee itself doesn't even appear in the backgrounds of Ryme City that often, which is a wee bit surprising to me! Although Meowth doesn't even show up, so clearly the movie makers aren't trying to check off all of the Generation I "must-haves" list.


Jigglypuff: Jigglypuff is adorable! Jigglypuffs show up in the background a fair amount of times, just chilling out and hanging out in the Ryme City establishing shots, or during the final parade sequence, so I'm sure Jigglypuff is one of those models that the movie animators are convenient about animating. I love Jigglypuff's model. She looks so fluffy! Her spotlight scene, of course, is the one singing the anime's song with Rachel Lillis's voice with that marker-microphone. Again, mark Jigglypuff under "I expected this species to do more."


Ludicolo: Ludicolo's got an... interesting design, and is probably among the last Pokemon I'd expect to be on the shortlist on a live-action movie cast. But here we are, with Ludicolo the barista. Her scene is basically exactly the same as what we saw on the trailer, plus a wee bit of short cameos of her walking around the cafe, and another Ludicolo showing up in the final scene... but I absolutely love the absurdity of the pineapple lotus duck.

The Ludicolo barista is actually from the 3DS Detective Pikachu game, if I'm not wrong!


Lickitung: Basically one of the earlier Pokemon we meet, the Lickitung basically grosses out Tim in the train to Ryme City and licks his face. It's just sort of a gag and another hee-hee-a-Pokemon... and I think it's another one of the "grosser" Pokemon that they are comfortable with animating? Because there's definitely a lot of Lickitungs in the background of Ryme City's scenes.


Charmander: I won't lie, I wouldn't complain if the original Generation I starters were showacsed a wee bit more, but only Bulbasaur and Charizard get a properly prominent role, and even then only as supporting cast members. That's honestly a bit unexpected, but I definitely welcome it! Charmander himself actually show up a lot, apparently being pretty popular as one of the more common Pokemon to see wandering and waddling around the streets of Ryme City, showing up on practically almost every scene where there's more than one Pokemon. Charmanders are adorable as shit.


Squirtle: Also adorable as shit are the Squirtles. None are as adorable as this one from the "casting" trailer that chases out the bubble it burps out, but we get to see Squirtles helping out to put out fire with fire-fighters, we get to see a Squirtle help as cleaning service in GNN, and, like Charmander and Bulbasaur, is a pretty common sight all over Ryme City. And they are adorable!


Treecko: None of the other Hoenn starters made it into this game except for Treecko, and they basically kept him faithful to his original design... but played up the gecko qualities. Sure, when they walk around they still walk on two legs, but most of the time you see Treeckos in the background just sticking to walls and surfaces like a gecko. Most prominently in Harry's apartment complex, but also in various places like the underground fighting ring or hanging out on their human friend's body. Pretty amazing stuff, and such a small little detail ends up making Treecko so, so much more charming and he already is a pretty charming little lizard boy.


Blastoise & Gengar: I'm lumping these two together because they sort of share the same scene, and almost don't appear anywhere else. A trio of Blastoise do show up during the parade, helping lift up balloons and shit, but for the most part, their screentime is as one of the battles in the underground fighting ring. And it's a battle I gloss over in my previous review considering just how little it mattered to the overall plot... so let me describe this fight a bit more.

Gengar using double team to just make copies of itself around Blastoise, while lobbing shadow balls? Oh, and Gengar just looks absolutely gross, like he's an extra from Ghostbusters and is Slimer's understudy. I'm not in love with how Gengar looks here, but short of basically being a smooth CGI copy-paste of his 3DS model I'm not sure how I would've handled Gengar in live-action. Blastoise, meanwhile, looks badass as shit, and that sequence where he spins around on his shell and just cannon-shoots the Gengar doubles with shots of water? Just a beautiful scene all around.


Sneasel: A pretty unexpected entry into the movie's roster of Pokemon, but a pretty obvious one -- Sneasel just looks amazing in 3D, with the fur looking realistic like an animal while the design of the Pokemon remains basically unchanged, even moreso than any of the others on this movie. It's just a cool model, and the larger hand-claws makes him look a lot cooler. Sneasel doesn't do anything in this movie, but there's a lot of him. Particularly in the final parade scene, Sneasel seem to be one of the default go-to scene-fillers.


Emolga also show up a lot, most prominently in the market scene where they cluster on top of many stalls and just giggle around in the background and act cute. A couple even show up helping out their human friends! Again, another one of those Pokemon that just help to fill out the crowd, particularly in the market and parade scenes. Not much to say here, at least we do get to see at least one fly off near the end of the movie.


Pancham : A pair that hails from the sixth generation, they really end up playing up the bear qualities of these two, huh? Again, none of these guys really do much. Panchams show up everywhere in Ryme City, from the park to the cafe to the underground ring to the parade, and we do get a close-up of one playing on a bamboo tree and a pair climbing up and down its Pangoro "big brother" while the Pangoro just catches a falling Pancham.



Pangoro himself doesn't really look as surly or angry as this trailer picture implies, although it is one of the Pokemon we briefly focus on when R gets unleashed to the underground ring crowd. Pangoro's pretty badass, and it makes me happy to see him in live-action.


Joltik: Being little tiny friends, Joltik is the Pokemon that's the easiest to overlook in this movie. But they are there. From scuttling in a neat line over the forest floor in the opening countryside scene, to scuttling across the power lines (how in-character!) outside the Oak building, to hopping around and sitting on the tables of the market or the underground ring, Joltiks are everywhere, and I absolutely love looking for these little buggers in the background. I fucking love Joltik and they are adorable.


Dodrio & Doduo: Doduo and Dodrio is another pair that show up a lot in background scenes, and they are sort of just... everywhere, without really doing much. They just sort of bob around in the background of the crowd, neither cool nor cute nor creepy enough for the movie to really focus on. I did remember a lot of these showing up, though, particularly in panning shots in the final scene... but never as the focus of the movie, because they don't emote particularly as well as the Jigglypuffs and Emolgas and Charmanders.

Venusaur: In contrast, Venusaur only shows up for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, and I only realized because I love Venusaur and I was actively looking out for a giant flower-toad. He shows up in the background int he final conversation between Harry and Tim.


Rufflet: These show up a lot too! Rufflets basically sit on every single scene, except it's just never straight-up front and center. The barn at the beginning of the movie, the market scene, the panning shots of Ryme City, the final scene with the parade... Rufflets are everywhere, and I don't think I've ever realized just how FUCKING ADORABLE this baby eagle is. LOOK AT THAT BABY FUZZY WUZZY.


Braviary: Another one that shows up a fair bit, Braviary's biggest and most prominent bit was definitely this scene showing one delivering a handbag while flying around a huge construction crane. And there's another one in the foreground during the whole human-and-pokemon combine scenes. Generation V sort of got the short end of the stick among its representatives, huh? Everyone from Generation V is sort of relegated to background cameos. At least Rufflet and Braviary shows up a fair bit.


Bouffalant: My least favourite Pokemon! Who... looks a bit less stupid in live-action CGI, and actually fairly threatening! I guess it's because of how the afro is proportioned and how it melds into the horns a bit better? Bouffalant shows up briefly in the opening scene near the ranch, before only appearing near the end when it's one of the forms Ditto takes to fight Tim.


Growlithe & Arcanine: It's a lot easier to relate to Pokemon and I do approve of the showmakers making more usage of Pokemon with recognizable real-life counterparts. Like Growlithe and Arcanine, who are just cool-looking fire-breathing dogs! Another one that they use to fill up the crowd a fair bit, particularly in the panning shot towards the police station where the Growlithes definitely also fulfill the role of police dogs in this continuity. Arcanine is seen a couple of times, like this screenshot, as well as the parade scene. Most notably, though, we get a zoom in of one under the ownership of Red's opponent.

Golurk: These gigantic statue-like golems show up a fair bit in the background of huge panning shots, seemingly working as security, but never got any sort of close-up or prominent scene. Still, I'm glad that Golurk of all things gets made into a live-action Pokemon before a significant amount of others, and how great they look (granted, with minimal motion, but still) is just phenomenal.



Purrloin: Purrloin don't actually appear much, but they do show up here and there, most prominently in the cafe scene where one sort of looks at Detective Pikachu and Tim talking disapprovingly. I do love that we've reverted back into the quadrupedal pose of Purrloin from Generation V, instead of the randomly bipedal version we've got in subsequent games.


Audino: Audinos show up a fair bit, and a particularly scary angry Audino is perhaps the most hilarious looking R-berserking Pokemon during the parade scene. A couple also appear earlier in the movie in panning shots.


Slaking: A couple of Slakings show up here and there just sleeping and slacking about, most prominently in GNN's recording studio and in the cafe. A Slaking stands up and starts smashing shit up in the underground cage match area, though, when he gets infected with R, and basically ends up being one of the scary bigger Pokemon that could snap humans in half alongside Pangoro.

Morelull: The only Generation VII Pokemon to make an appearance is the little flock of Morelull that accompany the Bulbasaurs as they lead Tim and the wounded Pikachu to a healer Pokemon. The Morelulls are adorable, they glow in the dark, and one even sits on a Bulbasaur friend's head! I love the implication that they act sort of like little jellyfishes, and the little ring that the Morelulls make to indicate Tim should put Pikachu there is just precious.


Flabebe & Comfey: Flabebe appears flitting about in the sky in some shots of Ryme City, but a huge cliffside is just filled with Flabebe flowers and little Comfey rings hanging off of a tree when the huge Bulbasaur/Morelull pack leads Tim to meet Mewtwo. We get to see the Flabebe and Comfey fly around the little crowd of grass-types, but neither one of them get any camera or story focus.

Snorlax & Machamp: Despite this show showing up practically everywhere, neither of these two actually do much outside of this scene. Snorlax only really shows up here, blocking a part of the street with his fat-ass, while Machamp at least shows as one of Ditto's guises, and briefly in the backgrounds of some scenes. I feel like the Machamp model seems to be missing some textures? Either way, the Snorlax bit is hilarious, and Machamp as a street policeman seems particularly hilariously appropriate.


Graveler: Graveler shows up exactly once, rolling around and knocking over Loudreds during the underground cage fight rampage, before the Graveler also rolls away to escape the chaos. Notable that we never see Graveler's face, just its rolling body and its arms.


Octillery: A surprising addition, Octillery is most clearly seen in the night market scene cooking and manning a stand (top right in picture). Let's hope he's not doing Takoyaki! Another Octillery could later be seen in the panning show when the Bill-Nighy-Mewtwo gives his huge speech before he enacts his doomsday plan, and another one among the crowd watching the Pikachu/Charizard fight.


Rattata: Rattatas show up a couple of times, and I appreciate it! We see a couple in the night market, one scuttling away when Tim and Pikachu arrive at the docks, and another one spectating the cage match.


Togepi: Togepi appears being cradled by a pink-haired lady in the underground arena when Sebastian and Charizard challenges Detective Pikachu. What an irresponsible Pokemon owner, bringing a baby to an underground cockfighting ring!


Totodile: Totodile shows up exactly once, a trio posing with Howard in the "welcome to Ryme City" segment as we get a brief biography of Howard Clifford's life. They're static and unmoving, so I assume the production team just wasn't able to properly make a working animated model.

Ambiguous:

Magnemite (?): When Ditto-Clifford captures Mewtwo in that grove, he sends out four floating metallic spheres that sort of look like the central eyeball-metal-sphere of Magnemite, but the lack of large magnets makes me genuinely wonder if these are actual Magnemite, or just machinery. The fact that they don't show up anywhere really makes me doubt that they're intended to be actual Magnemite.


Kingler: Kingler is interesting because he's one of the Pokemon that shows up in the "audition" trailer, with a pretty neat looking character model and a badass looking giant pincer that looks realistic... but I've watched this movie three times specifically looking out for him, but I can't find where he shows up. I guess... he didn't make it through the audition?

Not appearing cameos:
There's a bunch of Pokemon that sort of cameo in the movie, but don't show up proper. In addition to Pokemon on posters and building signs (Noctowl! Petilil! Wooper! Whismur! Cryogonal! Rayquaza! Reshiram! Zekrom! Victini!) we also have Mew showing up both on news reports and as one of the huge balloons. Another one of the huge balloons seen during the long shot when Mewtwo blows them up is a Lugia.

The brief montage of hieroglyphics show Sandshrew, Natu and Geodude. Also, Lucy's car has a Spoink bobblehead. During the pika-pika scene at the market, Pikachu stands in front of leeks that look exactly as the one favoured by Farfetch'd as a weapon.