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| Image courtesy of www.scifiaddicts.com |
The rise of Pokémon Go in the past few months has been a major surprise to everyone, myself included. I think the concept was genius, but I have not been getting myself stuck into it, as I never downloaded the app myself. Before anyone says anything though, I just never had the interest to play it, my decision was not swayed by the idea of being 'different', no way did it play a part at all.
I did however go on a few Pokémon Go walks with my friend Matthew and it was awesome, seeing people play the game and even talking to a mother and son, considering we would not have made eye contact with them if we weren't playing the game. Moving around our town with the particular gyms and Poké-stops, it was a rather surreal thing but very enjoyable.
So my personal history with Pokémon began with Diamond, and really I only stuck at the games for Generation Four, and personal favourite Pokémon of mine including Lucario, Blaziken, Absol, Milotic, Togekiss and most of all, Eevee and all of its evolutions. I've played it all, from Mystery Dungeon to Ranger, Battle Revolution to XD, even Sapphire and Fire Red.
The show in its many forms, I still continue to this day to enjoy. Seeing Ash Ketchum somehow remain 10 years old eternally as he travelled Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos with his loyal and trustworthy Pikachu remain at his side among his many travelling partners, it still remains strong with its cult following and fanbase that transcends generations. All of this now, having been on the run for 20 years this year, now seems like the perfect time for a live action movie.
Now before we get into the nitty-gritty, I think it is going to be a foregone conclusion that these two points are raised, so allow me to answer them in as small a paragraph as possible. Firstly, yes traditional anime/manga has not transcended well to the big screen in the form of big budget Hollywood movies (Such as Dragonball and Airbender), but I think if any can, Pokémon will if they take some liberties. Second point, no doubt will the majority of the cast be 'Not-Asian', it's a topic I am not willing to discuss at length but I do think there is a prejudice in Hollywood against Asians, though not every circumstance is the same.
Basically, big budget Hollywood movies need a recognisable name, that's simple. But other circumstances are plain shameless, like the movie 'The Vow' with Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams when it was and I quote "Inspired by true events" when what took place in the story happened to - if I am not mistaken - a Chinese couple, at least that was what I read. So whenever I see that on a film, I see it as a nice way of saying "This happened but to people who were Asian, if they were white then we would have had their actual names but since they're Asian, we won't because that won't appeal to a mass audience okay bye!".
Anyway, I got side-racked there. Back to the Pokémon live action movie!
Recently, Legendary Pictures were in negotiations to buy the rights to a Pokémon movie after Pokémon Go blew up, and I began speculating. All the possibilities that would stem from who would be the people portraying the characters? How would they develop the CGI to create the Pokémon? How would the story flow and what would it focus on?
As far as the question "Will they focus on Ash for a new character?", my answer is that they would for sure since we have come to know Pokémon as Ash and his Pikachu so it would make commercial sense to stick to basics and not take a risk. More on that now...
But nope! The Pokémon company said they intended to only sell the rights to one of their particular properties, and that property in question? None other than Detective Pikachu.
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| Image courtesy of www.ludomedia.it |
Now let me get this out of the way immediately, I have no problem with the Detective Pikachu concept at all, it seems completely and utterly harmless. It is on the same level as all the other spin-off properties of Pokémon such as Ranger and Mystery Dungeon, but I would be just as furious with the idea of the first live action Pokémon movie being based on any of those.
Here's a challenge for you all, go to someone who isn't necessarily a massive Pokémon fanatic and ask them to explain for a summary of what Pokémon as a franchise is, and I guarantee you they're most likely to say something along the lines of it being centred on a trainer and his Pokémon. My point here being, this is not a traditional Pokémon movie and I think the Pokémon company have shot themselves in the foot.
If you're going to give the rights to a live action Pokémon movie, let it be a proper Pokémon story and not a spin-off of any kind, you either do that or you do not do it at all. What they've done is the equivalent of having DC kick off their movie universe with a movie centring on Plastic Man and not Superman or Batman.
This situation really winds me up because I saw a lot of potential in a Pokémon movie to be great if it was handled by the right people.
Recently, screenwriter Max Landis (Responsible for writing Chronicle, Me Him Her, Victor Frankenstein, American Ultra and Mr. Right) was proposing a Pokémon screenplay and whilst some of the minor details I reckon should have been changed, overall though it sounded absolutely incredible. Landis spoke at length that he wanted to make a Pokémon movie that was very true to the spirit of the source material, with him describing it as "A cute, happy, fun, sweet story" and had no asterisks, nothing to detract from what makes Pokémon what it is.
His screenplay centred on the character Red (The in game equivalent of Ash), a female friend of his who was rather tomboy like, Red's rival Blue (The in game equivalent of Gary), Red's mother who used to be a Pokémon trainer, her aged up Graveler who used to be a champion, Red's father who spends too much time in the city and a Koffing that he catches in the woods. All of this by the way was taken from an interview with Landis by Collider, which I will link here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unreFv-rQiM).
Landis went on to compare this pitch to the Harry Potter and Rocky franchise, with it being a coming of age story and it sounds absolutely incredible. I say this because one of my all time favourite movies was last year's Creed, the Rocky spin-off, and I adore that film for its coming of age story and how it is a true testament to being great, these major beats are perfect for Pokémon.
It is fair to say that as much as we love the show, it is cheesy and kid like, I mean I do not to fault it for that, but for the live action movie, we can't be doing with its cheesiness. That being said, it's easy to read that and think we need it to be "Dark", and "Gritty".. No way will we be having that at all, we live in a society now where we live for the glorifying of the cynical nature.
I despise how everything has to be dark and gritty, those words have lost all meaning. I guess since all of this was prompted by Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, cheers Chris! You made some amazing movies with Batman but now everyone thinks it is the only way to go.. heck even next year's Power Rangers movie is following that same path, and the old Power Rangers shows were so cheesy, they could have been a pizza!
My favourite franchise-esque movie of recent times has been Kingsman, and that does not take itself so seriously at all. I'll always remember how much fun I had with that film, it hit the nail on the head of being purely entertaining and not just brooding nothing-ness, like Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice was.
That being said, it's also easy to detract from the movie quality and story just to make it light and that was an extreme that Avengers: Age Of Ultron demonstrated in not what to do. There can be a fine line between enjoyment, story quality and fun, and with the oversaturation of the D word and the G word being thrown around when describing movies, Pokémon should break that chain.
But of course, this can't happen, because Detective Pikachu is running the show. So let's forget that this bullshit is happening and think about a proper Pokémon movie, because it should happen.
First of all, it should focus on Ash and Pikachu since that is what we have come to know as Pokémon. I mean, if everything was dictated by me, we would not have Pikachu since I think it is one overrated and oversaturated Pokémon, but Pikachu is by far the most famous so it would make commercial sense as he and Ash are the faces of Pokémon.
One worry would be if people would understand that the live action movie would be a different timeline as to not be limited by what the show has done already, it would be a back to basis thing with the live action Pokémon movie. Ash meeting Pikachu and going on his journey.
Whilst we are on that very subject, let's talk about the story. Now all the traditional Pokémon games have all the same major beats; trainer is given their starter Pokémon, they then challenge all the gyms whilst simultaneously take on an organisation who seek to use the power of whatever legendary Pokémon is on the front of the game box in most circumstances, the trainer then goes to the Pokémon League and will take on the Elite Four and the Champion.
That seems like a hefty task for a movie with a run time of about two hours, and I would ensure it would be all resolved in a two hour run time due to the shit tonne of movies these days that are there just to set up movies that set up other movies. So what would we need to do in order to get it down to about a two hour run time?
I'm no screenwriter, so I'll leave that up to the people who know what they're doing and who are passionate about it. That being the polite way of saying, not someone who just shits out a boring action script to pull in the money as quickly as possible.
The thing that movies need to start having resolutions at the end of the film, not the trilogy or whatever 19th film they make however long down the line. So by having a traditional plot structure from a Pokémon game in one movie based narrative, we may have to cut a lot out and not detract from the major beats of the movie.
When it comes to casting, I haven't come up with anyone to play any of the major characters. My dear friend Morgan gets a shout out here, she and I are both Kingsman fans and she said that Taron Egerton as Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin in that movie reminded her of Ash so she suggested him. I am a big Taron Egerton fan but I'm unsure how I'd feel about that.
It is probably casting-wise, a stroke of genius but there are so many things to think about there, I will leave it all up to you.
One thing I am sure about, what other Pokémon I'd love for Ash to have. In the Gold, Silver and Crystal games, you battle Ash's in-game equivalent Red and along with a Pikachu, he has a Venasaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Snorlax and Espeon (Replaced by a Lapras in HeartGold and SoulSilver), so I'd like to see Ash with this team and see them grow.
His Pikachu as a starter, then catching a Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle since they're the Kanto starters, an Eevee as well and maybe Snorlax already in its final form. We could see all of these Pokémon climb the ladder with Ash, and see them grow with him in the ways that Max Landis said would, just like in Rocky and Harry Potter.
Oh and before we end this, I would have liked to have helped out with special effects. I say this because whenever I watch the anime, all I ever see with colliding attacks are the same explosions and sparkly residue, and for the movie, I would have insisted on helping out in storyboarding and post production special effects in terms of how the moves used would work.
Anyway! I know this has been a ramble, and fairly unstructured and it was basically me blabbering but only because I see so much potential in a Pokémon movie being great and done right. But the Pokémon company insist on Detective Pikachu being able to solve this horrendous crime against the fans, so best of luck you lunatics!
So what do you think? Anyone out there willing to bring up other ideas, or fill in some blanks I left? I highly encourage you to leave a comment below.
But overall, I hope you like what I had to say. I am really hoping that the Pokémon company sees sense and let's us have a proper by-the-book Pokémon movie, rather than that stupid Detective Pikachu concept.
Alright! If you enjoyed this article, make sure to continue following me either via Twitter @TheLucaFormat or by email if you're on desktop, look to the top of the page and on the right hand side of the screen. Hope to see you back here soon.
Before I end this, I was writing an article on the F1 games but I'm not happy with it, so I decided to write this. I'll get back onto that as soon as possible.
That will be all everyone, so until we meet again.
Luca
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