When Tim Goodman was younger, he wanted to be a Pokemon trainer. However, he left that dream behind after his mother's death and his estrangement from his father, Harry. He viewed his father as being more interested in spending time with Pokemon than with him. After receiving word that his father has died in an accident, Tim goes to his place to find out details and take care of things, only to discover a Pikachu who can talk (but only to him) and who claims to have been his father's partner. The two of them team up to discover what happened to Harry, restore the Pikachu's memories, and stop whoever is distributing R, a drug that makes Pokemon confused and violent.

I previously saw this in theaters and recalled enjoying it, but that was before I had played any Pokemon games. I've since played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, New Pokemon Snap, and Pokemon Shield. The benefit: I could recognize more of the background Pokemon (although many were still a mystery to me).

I really liked Pikachu's design, and several of the background Pokemon were also pretty good. Psyduck was weirdly adorable. That said, they did one of my favorites, Gengar, dirty, and surely there was a way Charizard could have been designed so that it was still clearly a reptile but also cute?

The plot was so-so. Really, this movie's greatest appeals were Ryan Reynolds' voice acting and getting to see Pokemon run around in the real world. I'd have loved more slice-of-life style scenes just featuring people existing in the world with their Pokemon. Lucy and her Psyduck were cute together, despite being somewhat mismatched (she's a risk -taker, Psyduck's psychic powers explode when its anxiety-induced headache becomes too great).

Extras:

A brief featurette in which Justice Smith rolled out his Pokemon cred and plugged the movie as hopefully the start of a live action franchise.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Not great beyond special effects. ( )