Detective Pikachu, the live-action Pokemon feature film with Ryan Reynolds coming 2019, is big on photorealistic, furry \/ hairy Pok\u00e9mon. After the debut trailer, the Polygon staff gathers to talk through the movie\u2019s biggest shock<\/b>
\nOn Monday, the first trailer for Detective Pikachu, Warner Bros. Pictures\u2019 and Legendary Entertainment\u2019s stab at a live-action Pok\u00e9mon feature film, revealed a world populated by the living, breathing creatures, rendered with photorealistic computer animation. The movie makes a bold choice: While the classic Pok\u00e9mon designs come to life alongside human actors, there\u2019s a delicate push toward texture and zoological expectation. What would a Pok\u00e9mon look like if it were real?
Well, Pikachu would probably have fur. For better or worse.
After we picked our jaws up off the floor, a few of Polygon\u2019s staffers jumped into the ring to discuss the decision to give Detective Pikachu some scruff on which his deerstalker could sit. We encourage you to join the debate in a mannered, Pok\u00e9mon trainer-like fashion in the comments.
Matt Patches, entertainment editor: So Pikachu, formally an Electric-type Pok\u00e9mon cartoon, is now a 3D, CG, detective-hat-wearing companion voiced by Ryan Reynolds. This is not the surprising part of the trailer \u2014 we knew what we were getting, and our imaginations probably came somewhere close to what the trailer promises. The surprising part is that Pikachu has fur. He is kitty-like. And it\u2019s shocking. Based on reactions, I might be the only one who approves of hairy Pikachu. This was the only direction the movie could have gone to remain faithful to reality. (As far as a world where Pok\u00e9mon run around the Blade Runner -esque streets is \u201creality.\u201d)
Jenna Stoeber, video producer: Faithful to the reality of an electric mouse?
Chelsea Stark, managing editor: I think he\u2019s cute! Honestly, each time I watch the trailer, Pikachu grows on me.
Petrana Radulovic, entertainment reporter: I\u2019m fine with hairy Pikachu, but this is furry Pikachu. Mice hair is not that long.
Jenna: It\u2019s not even realistically mouse-like.
Petrana: It\u2019s like a subtle fuzz. Look at Incineroar in [ Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]: He has fur. He\u2019s cat-based. But it\u2019s shorter and more closer to mouse. Whereas this Pika looks like a Persian.
Patches: I see, the problem isn\u2019t the existence of texture, it\u2019s the particular texture for you.
Petrana: Yes. All the textures in this trailer should be… less.
Allegra Frank, deputy news editor: There are two hypotheses I have that would make me okay with this Pikachu\u2019s texture: (1) His hair is perpetually standing up because he\u2019s full of electric currents. (2) His hair is perpetually standing up because he\u2019s shocked himself repeatedly. Those would make sense to me.
Patches: So you want the movie to canonize his fur as constantly static-charged?
Allegra: Yes! If they\u2019re going to go this direction by making him have the same fur length as, like, a A LONG-HAIRED CAT, then heck yeah, I want that to be the canonical explanation for this.
Patches: How do we feel about the Super Bowl commercial from a few years ago that literally copy\/pasted the Pok\u00e9mon designs and dropped them into what amounted to a football arena?
I think the spot proved that Pok\u00e9mon could look like themselves while standing next to live-action actors. But we didn\u2019t want Detective Pikachu to look like Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, right? So you have to go full hair. Or full fur! Like the Christopher Robin movie.
Allegra: Hold up, this is what Pikachu looks like in that Super Bowl commercial \u2014 furry, but not that furry:
Patches: They went the extra mile for our boy Pikachu.
Petrana: I would\u2019ve absolutely preferred that treatment. I think some of the Pok\u00e9mon do look cooler in the movie, but it also feels… very different from the Pok\u00e9mon we know.
Jenna: I also would have preferred a Roger Rabbit look.
Petrana: There\u2019s a lot going on in their eyes seeming so real.
Jenna: Detective Pikachu lands in an uncanny valley of detail .
Petrana: It\u2019s almost there, but not.
Allegra: The eyes … look like human eyes. Like, if anime were real.
Jenna: The amount of detail in Pikachu\u2019s expressions is also displeasing.
Allegra: Speaking of expressions though: JIGGLYPUFF. There is no reason Jigglypuff should be that furry. Why does it look like a gremlin?
Jenna: The intense detail on the Jigglypuff hair curl is absolutely unacceptable.
Allegra: JIGGLYPUFF. IS. ILLEGAL.
Patches: Diego Luna is to Jabba the Hutt as Allegra is to Jigglypuff. What did you imagine Jigglypuff to feel like?
Jenna: Like a MARSHMALLOW.
Petrana: It\u2019s a balloon Pok\u00e9mon. That\u2019s its name.
Patches: You think Jigglypuff feels like rubber?
Jenna: Jigglypuff is CANDY, and we should not give candy hair.
Chelsea: So like a Kirby.
Petrana: Can you eat Jigglypuff?
Jenna: \u201cHere, I made a Peep with a mullet for you.\u201d Get out.
Patches: If it was coifed the right way, I\u2019d eat a Peep with a mullet.
Moving on, I want to get to the bottom of this uncanny valley line: When is it too much, and why does Pikachu come close to being a grand slam design? For me, it\u2019s the kind of trippy disconnect I felt watching Where the Wild Things. The Wild Things had real bodies and CG faces. Detective Pikachu achieves a similar living-but-not effect with CG. He feels like a puppet, but with living eyes. Maybe they\u2019re Ryan Reynolds\u2019 eyes.
Allegra: Ryan Reynolds\u2019 eyes, but blown up to be twice as big!
Patches: I should stare deeper and luxuriate in them like a pool of milk.
Allegra: Don\u2019t do that.
Jenna: My biggest concern about this movie is the Pok\u00e9mon we DIDN\u2019T get to see in the trailer. There\u2019s a huge number of horrifying variations of beloved creatures that we haven\u2019t yet been inoculated to.
Petrana: I am curious enough about seeing the rest of the world that I will get over Pikachu\u2019s eyes.
Chelsea: Which Pok\u00e9mon looked right to y\u2019all?
Jenna: Mr. Mime, who looked how I expected and was not bad to look at.
Patches: Mr. Mime is my Babadook.
Petrana: Charmander and Bulbasaur were also good!
Chelsea: So anything without fur. Bulbasaur was also my favorite.
Petrana: I\u2019m sure Eevee would\u2019ve been fine too. I think it\u2019s just things that we don\u2019t expect to have lots of fur having lots of fur.
Allegra: Greninja also looked okay, but I am less attached to it. I think it\u2019s just been so many years of me loving Pok\u00e9mon and dreaming of what Pok\u00e9mon would be like in real life that this is movie was probably never going to sit right with me. It\u2019s not my vision.
Patches: What was your vision, Allegra? How have you dreamed of running alongside a real-life Pok\u00e9mon?
Allegra: Something cuter! These are not CUTE. Pikachu gets there, despite the furriness. But those eyes are just\u2026 evil.
Patches: Maybe he\u2019ll be cuter when he bonds with the boy and they solve a mystery together and everything turns out OK and they become best friends for life.
Chelsea: Not to make Allegra mad, but this is very similar to the reactions comic fans have when they first see a new character revealed.
Related
Patches: Remember when they revealed Iron Man had fur?
Allegra: I\u2019m the Comic Book Guy of Pok\u00e9mon, and I will never apologize.
Chelsea: It\u2019s an emotional moment.
Allegra: I admit, I\u2019ve actually gotten really teary about this [movie] sometimes. Ultimately, I\u2019m happy that Detective Pikachu exists. It\u2019s a huge deal for Pok\u00e9mon! This is seriously a dream come true. It\u2019s just not my dream.
Petrana: As Jenna said, while Pikachu\u2019s eyes are a little off-putting, I am really dang curious about how they\u2019re going to render some of the others. There\u2019s a lotta fan art out there of photorealistic Pok\u00e9s, so the bar is set.
Patches: Hey, at least they didn\u2019t go with Muscle Pikachu .<\/p>\n

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