Detective Pikachu TV Spot Mocks Pokémon Mania

Screen Rant

By Chris Agar

Published Mar 22, 2019

A new Detective Pikachu TV spot playfully mocks the real world's Pokémon mania and further highlights the film's action and humor.

A new TV spot for Detective Pikachu includes a bit that lightly mocks Pokémon mania. In some respects, the film has the potential to be this generation's Who Framed Roger Rabbit; the entertaining live-action/animation hybrid that puts a fun spin on noir concepts as its protagonists try to solve a mystery that goes deeper than they initially thought. Based on all of the marketing materials released thus far, Detective Pikachu looks to be one of the most creative offerings of the summer, and Warner Bros. is so encouraged by the response they already have plans to develop a cinematic universe.

Detective Pikachu is poised to have an opening weekend much larger than Aquaman, so a case can be made WB's already done an excellent job selling audience on the film's concept and humor. But with more than a month remaining until the premiere (as of this writing), there's time for one last promotional push to ensure viewers don't forget about it. The campaign continues with the release of a new TV spot.

Star Ryan Reynolds took to his official Twitter account to share the promo, which once again goes over the broad strokes of the narrative. Pikachu teams up with human Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) to work on the case of Tim's missing father. This ad also features a humorous bit at the end where Pikachu comments on Tim's childhood bed that has Pikachu ears as a headboard. It plays as a commentary on Pokémon mania in a way.

The very first Detective Pikachu trailer mentioned Tim had aspirations of becoming a Pokémon trainer when he was younger, but those dreams never panned out. Obviously, Pokémon is a topic of great interest to him, a reflection on the franchise within the context of the real-world. Many of the people who see Detective Pikachu were kids when the property experienced its first boom in popularity during the 1990s and will relate to Tim on some level. They probably had Pokémon merchandise in their rooms too, and it'll be interesting to see how far the film takes this concept. Bits of footage show giant helium balloons of Pokémon like something out of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, so the pocket monsters have a large following in this universe.

By now, people have probably already made up their minds if they're onboard for Detective Pikachu's hijinks or not, so the remaining weeks of marketing are less to sway the uninitiated and more to continue to drum up hype among those who plan on seeing it. Tapping into nostalgia is a tried and true strategy that's yielded excellent results over the years, and it looks like Detective Pikachu will certainly reap the benefits. Pokémon remains a staple of the zeitgeist thanks to all of the new video games and animated films that have come out, and there's lots of excitement surrounding its jump to live-action. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint.