
Production Designer Says DETECTIVE PIKACHU Shies Away From POKEMON Anime & Games
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past several months, there’s quite a lot of excitement buzzing around the upcoming Detective Pikachu film. While audiences will have to wait until May to be absolutely sure, it looks like fans will finally have their first truly great live action video game movie after several decades of countless adaptations ranging from laughably horrible to mediocre at best. Part of this, I suspect is due to the decision to adapt one of the lesser known entries in the Pokémon franchise and thus liberate themselves from audiences’ expectations based on the more archetypal Pokémon story structures and parts of the world. As it just so happens, my speculation seems to align with the overall principle that one of the film’s crew members shares!
Production designer Nigel Phelps spoke a great deal about the film in a new GameSpot article based on information provided in a set visit, revealing that the crew opted to shy away a bit from the iconography of the long-running anime series and main video games in order to nail the film’s more realistic aesthetic.
“We’ve kind of shied away from [using landmarks and architecture from the games]. There are little clues with the street names, and stuff like that, there’s references to the Pokémon universe, without being specific to it. We’ve shied away from the animation [because] the cartoons and stuff felt much too cartoon-y and unreal, and it was important to everyone making the film that this was a realistic universe.“
While I wouldn’t be surprised that a number of fans might have a negative reaction to the language used here, I doubt many would argue with the final results the team seems to have yielded in the trailers. Pokémon was always one of those video games that needed to be handled in just the right way in order to be translated properly to the live action format.
What do you think? Be sure to share your thoughts below!
SOURCE: GameSpot.com
More Stories
THE SOF WEEKLY PLANET #5: “The Dawn of The DCU and Birth of SUPERMAN: LEGACY”
Well, there's certainly a lot to talk about today, and so much has happened since I last wrote a Weekly...
It’s Official: Henry Cavill is Superman Again
Now there's a headline I've been waiting years to write... *SPOILER WARNING: BEWARE! THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BLACK ADAM*...
THE BATMAN Mega-Sode w/ Bill Ramey of Batman-on-Film: Non-Spoiler AND Spoiler Chat, INDY V, DAREDEVIL To Disney+, More!
This week's edition of The Fanboy Podcast begins with MFR and Brett's non-spoiler reaction to Matt Reeves' The Batman. From there...
Matt Reeves Discusses Bringing Superman Into The World of THE BATMAN
This weekend, Matt Reeves' long-awaited The Batman will finally arrive in theaters. It's a unique film, in this modern Golden...
RTF Review: ‘THE MANDALORIAN, S1 Chapter 8’
As a note, this review contains mild spoilers for The Mandalorian Chapter 8: Redemption. I would recommend watching before diving in. By...
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER – An RTF Review
By Tony Artiga WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!! So it's finally here. The last chapter of the Skywalker saga. All wait with...
Average Rating