Nerd Processor
‘Pokémon Detective Pikachu’ Is a Lie
The movie hides darker truths about prejudice, civic infrastructure, and pooper scooper laws
Sometimes you see a movie that challenges you, that really makes you think. For me, that film is Pokémon Detective Pikachu. The somewhat kid-friendly noir is set in a metropolis jointly inhabited by humans and highly merchandisable creatures of all types and sizes. It’s a fun film, but after watching it, I have not been able to stop questioning how such a society would work — or, more specifically, why it wouldn’t.
My conclusions have left me shaken to the core of my being.
The movie — which I will simply call Detective Pikachu, because the lack of a colon in Pokémon Detective Pikachu causes me actual pain — forgoes the traditional creature vs. creature battles that form the basis of the incredibly popular games and cartoons. Instead, it’s about a kid named Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) who partners with a titular electric rat detective (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) to figure out if his dad is dead or not. (Again: somewhat kid-friendly.)
The traditional knock on Pokémon is that it’s essentially glorified dogfighting, as players hunt down and imprison animals, and then force them to fight one another while the…
