Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is the first live-action Pokémon movie ever made, but it actually has some small connections to the anime that came before it. The popularity of Pokémon has been incredibly high over the last few decades, but it received a major increase when Pokémon GO was released a few years back. The excitement that the mobile game generated was enough to push Warner Bros. and Legendary to move forward on a live-action movie.
The film stars Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Pikachu, who goes on an adventure with Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) to help find the boy's father. It is loosely based around the video game of the same name, but also includes some major deviations with how its story concludes and the arcs of certain characters. Of course, there is much more history to the Pokémon world than this single video game, and at least some of Detective Pikachu's inspiration appears to come from the anime.
In Screen Rant's newest video, we take a quick look at the similarities that a few elements of Detective Pikachu has to the anime. Both of the examples pertain to Mewtwo's role and portrayal in the film. For one, Mewtwo actually speaks English in the live-action movie, something he has only ever done before in the anime, while the group of Bulbasaurs who appear to work for him is also lifted from prior materials. Discover all of the details by watching the video at the top of this post.
Even with these connections to prior materials, Detective Pikachu is largely a new story for new and old Pokémon fans alike to witness. There were also major ties to Pokémon Red and Blue thanks to Mewtwo's role, so the ties to the history of the franchise go beyond any possible ties to the anime. Additionally, one of the film's biggest surprises confirmed a longstanding theory from the original Detective Pikachu video game, so it is clear that the filmmakers dove deep to bring Pokémon to life properly on the big screen.
The major question that fans will be left with after seeing Detective Pikachu and learning of these connections is whether or not they'll get the chance to see more of them on the big screen. Even before the movie hit theaters, the studios already moved ahead with plans for a sequel. Detective Pikachu is currently performing fairly well at the box office and received mostly positive reviews, so the chances are high that a sequel will actually make it to the screen. And if it does, then more connections to Pokémon lore like the ones in Pokémon: Detective Pikachu could be included.