Introduction and Return of Stephen
00:00:22
Speaker
The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams. You teach me and I'll teach you. Disenfranchised. We're that podcast all about those franchises of one, those films that fancy themselves. Full-fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film.
00:00:41
Speaker
I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy. um Yes, it's been weird. There's been a little Pikachu running around Brett's office for the last couple of weeks speaking in my voice. But I'm back, baby! Um, and speaking of joining me tonight, uh, he is my best friend in a world. We must have fret must defend. Excuse me.
00:01:00
Speaker
ah it's the immortal Brett, right? Brett, how you doing? Hello, Steven. How doing, buddy? Man, I'm doing all right, I guess.
00:01:12
Speaker
i'm Well, i'm I'm glad to hear that. i'm glad you I'm glad it's all right and not all wrong. So there's that. um And this is this feels like old times, Brett, because Tucker is is currently off in the big city trying to and unravel the the the mysterious disappearance of his father.
00:01:31
Speaker
So it's just the OGs tonight. yeah How's the last time this happened? it's i Honestly, it probably 2022. It has probably been close to three years since the two of us have done this together. Just just you and I.
00:01:49
Speaker
That's crazy. Yeah. I mean, Tucker joined at the beginning of 2023. So yeah, that right after I moved, ah moved into, moved to Illinois. So yeah, it's been man is as committed as you are to showing up to every episode.
00:02:06
Speaker
Well, somebody has to be, because it ain't going to be me. Otherwise would have shuttered this bastard so long ago.
Detective Pikachu: Cast and Production
00:02:15
Speaker
bad um But Brett, we were, we, we, la life found a way last week. So we, we, we did a rewind, but we're back. We're live. We're doing it live.
00:02:25
Speaker
And we're wrapping up our, uh, video oops all video game theme month brett uh with again all the all the entries this month were especially chosen by you but i feel like this one most specially chosen brett what are we covering tonight uh we're covering detective pikachu Correct. From 2019, it's Pokemon Detective Pikachu, directed by Ron Letterman, written by Dan Hernandez, Benji Samitz, Rob Letterman, and Derek Connolly, and starring, among others...
00:03:00
Speaker
Ryan Reynolds, Kuei Otani, ah Justice Smith, Catherine Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Gere, Ken Watanabe, Bill Nighy, Rita Ora, Karen Soni, Josette Simon, ah Rachel Lillis in some archive footage, ah and...
00:03:20
Speaker
um I think Diplo, uh, who is apparently someone famous shows up as a DJ. Uh, but what a cast Brett, what a picture.
00:03:32
Speaker
Indeed. Um, yeah, let me, let me just be Ford for right with everybody. Yeah. Let me just be upfront about this. Um,
00:03:43
Speaker
Look, and I know this is this has been a running theme with me lately, so I do apologize. um Because I didn't i didn't finish all of Tomb Raider. um and i I remember that in the group chat, yep. That was more out of anger, though, not...
00:03:57
Speaker
um uh, uh, tiredness. Cause look at the nap one today. Yeah. Um, it's been a long week. So I wanted to take a nap instead.
00:04:11
Speaker
Uh, so I, I'm going, I'm telling you umm going off of memory here. um I first saw this movie flying to Tokyo in 2019. Um, so I'm going off of that memory.
00:04:25
Speaker
Uh, Now, I did, you know, out of respect, at least refresh my memory with the Wikipedia article. Right. um So I'm not entirely going into this, you know, not remembering anything.
00:04:38
Speaker
Correct. um And i have a little familiarity with the games it's based on. Which we'll talk about here momentarily. Yeah. So, they look, it's just...
00:04:50
Speaker
I apologize to the listeners. um But look, it'll be OK.
Theater Experiences and Movie Preferences
00:04:58
Speaker
Life. and yet Here's the thing. Here's the thing that our listeners need to understand. We're we're people, too.
00:05:04
Speaker
And sometimes self-care is more important than recording a podcast episode. i I definitely watched the back half of this movie laying in bed and occasionally falling in and out of consciousness.
00:05:18
Speaker
um Did I have to rewind the movie to make sure I caught the final scene? Sure. Yep, sure did. Because I definitely woke up right as the credits started rolling and was like, holy shit, what did I miss?
00:05:29
Speaker
And had to kind of rewind and go back and and and rediscover it. um So, yeah, you know, ah sometimes that happens. I also saw this movie in 2019.
00:05:40
Speaker
I saw it in a movie theater um as ah Pokemon is one of the few video games that I have actively played in my lifetime and one that I have consistently gone back to.
00:05:52
Speaker
A movie theater? Yes. This was in the before for Brad, the long ago, the time before time. oh oh, I've, I've forgotten.
00:06:07
Speaker
ah But yes, I did see this in a movie theater. um My favorite movie theaters are a hellscape from what I understand. i I, when I go, which is with, uh,
00:06:20
Speaker
some regularity, I would say once every couple months, uh, I sit in the back and I try to keep myself from any other person in the theater. Uh, but usually when I go, I'm not seeing a movie, uh, in, uh, in its opening run.
00:06:35
Speaker
I'm usually seeing it ah several weeks after it's been out. So the rushed, to or I'm seeing a movie that is so niche. No one fucking wants to see it. Uh, so like the last movie I saw in theaters was, uh, the monkey, uh, which I very much enjoyed.
00:06:50
Speaker
But that was a back row in like a weekday matinee situation. ah So it was kind of like one of those. We we took the day off. We were you know, we had to take either the cats to the vet or clean something.
00:07:05
Speaker
And then so we're just like when we're done, we're like, you know what? Let's go see a fucking movie. And we went and saw the monkey. So, OK. So yeah, it's it's it's it's one of those situations.
00:07:16
Speaker
i'm I'm afraid to go to like a popular movie on opening weekend anymore. I feel like it's going to be a bad time. Now we've gotten lucky because I first started hearing about these terrible experiences when Five Nights at Freddy's came out.
00:07:29
Speaker
okay We went to go see that opening weekend and it was fine. So I don't know if we just got lucky or well the internet is making me believe this is overblown. I don't know.
00:07:40
Speaker
And that could be too. And maybe it's in major market areas like Chicago or New York or LA. um But I also know that Five Nights at Freddy's was a slow earner. Like that one built over time.
00:07:51
Speaker
So seeing that one opening weekend may not be as bad as maybe seeing the upcoming Thunderbolts movie opening. something sure yeah which i mean i'll i don't go see marvel movies opening weekend anymore because my dad moved right like i haven't seen the new captain america yet neither have well that doesn't surprise me maybe when it hits disney plus we're talking about me we don't talk about you and marvel movies anymore we know how this works right right right um
00:08:23
Speaker
But yeah, so like i I'm not going to go see Thunderbolts when it comes out either. i Do I want to see it? Sure. i'm in I'm more interested in Thunderbolts than I have been in any Marvel movie in the past, like, three years.
00:08:35
Speaker
So, I don't know. What is it about Thunderbolts that has made i don't you interested in? I don't know. I like the idea of just kind of the ragtag team, even though it has like no similarity to the team from the comics, like whatsoever.
00:08:51
Speaker
Like I'm interested in, because it feels like they're setting up dark Avengers. also, which is a very good run in the comics. Like I love Bendis' lead up to the Dark Reign, which again, it feels kind of like that's where the MCU might be headed with like Val being kind of the new Nick Fury with, um you know, Wilson Fisk now being the mayor of New York City.
00:09:14
Speaker
Like it feels like we're we're kind of slipping into the villains are running the show kind of territory, which I like. I like that. And and what Bendis did with that title in the comics was really fun.
00:09:26
Speaker
And so now I'm kind of just wondering, can we do something that fun with it in the MCU? I have my doubts, but like Thunderbolts feels like the first leg of something like that.
00:09:37
Speaker
And i don't know. It seems interesting to me. All right So it's probably going to be terrible. And i will i hears that I will not see it in theaters. I will see it when it comes out on Disney Plus. But yeah, with that attitude.
00:09:54
Speaker
like I really want to see this movie. It's probably going suck, though. Like, man, come I can be realistic about things, Brett.
00:10:04
Speaker
Sure. I just, I don't know. i The Marvel stuff, even the stuff that I've enjoyed has just felt very a lackluster since Endgame. you watching You're watching Born Again? I have watched the first two episodes of Born Again, but I have not been consistently going back to Born Again.
00:10:19
Speaker
Because, Brett, here's the thing. There's new Yellow Jackets and there's new Righteous Gemstones. So that's kind of been monopolizing my television time lately. and You got to live like I live.
00:10:31
Speaker
Wait until it's all out and binge it all at once. um Probably. But I did see the first couple episodes of of Born Again. There was a moment in the first one. It's the moment in the first one that pissed off everybody that really pissed me off.
00:10:44
Speaker
But, you know, what are you going to do? But it shouldn't be pissed off. comics i i i understand that but by the same token um yeah i i you i don't want to spoil that for anyone who maybe hasn't seen it that wants to but like you know and all i'll say is it happened in the comics have no fear ah you should also be the man without fear
00:11:15
Speaker
It happened in the comics. What I would like to do is go back and revisit like the Bendis run on Daredevil. That's what I would really like to do. Happy ending in the comics is what I'm saying. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it had a happy ending in the comics. I don't know because i I've not been the most avid reader of Daredevil.
00:11:32
Speaker
Oh, okay. Which is why I want to go back and read the Bendis run on Daredevil. The Bendis Maliv run on Daredevil. Okay. I thought you knew. okay So...
Pokemon Nostalgia and Game Mechanics
00:11:41
Speaker
Ain't no one telling nothing, man.
00:11:44
Speaker
Gotcha. Okay. So then I'll just say it happened in the comics. And it was a ruse. Okay. I just know we don't have Lazarus pits in the Marvel universe. We what we do technically. if If this is supposed to be a continuation of the Netflix Daredevil, then we do.
00:12:11
Speaker
oh I see. yeah I blocked so much a season two out of my head. um Okay. hes Yeah. yeah There were three seasons of Daredevil on Netflix. Weren't there? There were but season two is the one I didn't like.
00:12:22
Speaker
oh okay well and Well, and also, it in the comics, it didn't involve Lazarus, but... Okay. do do do do do um All right. But we're here to talk Pokemon. Yeah, we have this Marvel tangent.
00:12:36
Speaker
These happen sometimes. these look You know what you're getting into. um and At this point, yeah. We're not getting new listeners. You guys know what you're getting into. You guys know what you signed up for. Come on. Yeah. You love us anyway. You're here for the banter. That's right. That's why you're here.
00:12:52
Speaker
um But yeah, so Pokemon, one of the one of the first one of the only games that I consistently played, I had an OG Game Boy and a friend of mine gifted me a copy of Pokemon Red.
00:13:06
Speaker
ah when I was in high school. And so the only gaming system I've ever had ah that has been uniquely and specifically my own has been an OG Game Boy, like the first gen Game Boy.
00:13:18
Speaker
And so I played Pokemon Red probably three or four times straight through. Damn. Yeah. Like I started over multiple times. Yeah.
00:13:30
Speaker
You crazy son of a bitch. Yeah. I made it to the end and I was like, you know what? Let's play it again. Um, so yeah, I did that a few times. Um, but yeah, it was, it was for a while. was the only video game I played. And then they came out with Pokemon, uh, go to the polls.
00:13:48
Speaker
And, uh, I was there on day one for Pokemon go, as I recall. fast Fast forward 10 years. Right. At least. We forgot the time jump there. 20 ah twenty I thought you were about to say, and then they came out with Pokemon Gold and Silver. No, you were doing a time jump.
00:14:04
Speaker
No. Yeah. i i I played a few of those later on like emulators on my phone just to like get familiar with like Pokemon Gen that I was...
00:14:16
Speaker
seeing in the game that I just didn't know anything about. So I did a few of those, but I did, I, it was very rare for me to make it all the way through on the emulators. So I ended up abandoning some of those, but um yeah, my, my ex-wife was a huge Pokemon fan actually bought a switch so she could play a let's go Evie and let's go Pikachu.
00:14:37
Speaker
So which are remakes of the originals. Correct.
00:14:42
Speaker
So, yeah. i I mean, so, yes, of course, this was a movie that we saw in theaters um because, you know, big Pokemon fan. But I did not know until this movie came out that there was a game called Detective Pikachu. was like, wait, that's a thing? I just thought we put Pikachu in a fun little deerstalker cap, and that was the premise. Like, I had no idea this was an actual game. Well, yeah, mean, that was the premise of the game.
00:15:09
Speaker
like That's what, like, man... When it comes to Pokemon, the Japanese people love to do this sort of thing. is Because there's another spinoff game called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon hu um where you play as Pokemon going on adventures.
00:15:27
Speaker
Okay. But yeah, so like they... You want to milk the lucrative property as much as you can. Right.
00:15:38
Speaker
so Stands to reason. What would be great is what you know these these games, these Phoenix Wright games, they're popular, right? You go and investigate things.
00:15:49
Speaker
What if we put that in Pokemon?
00:15:53
Speaker
What if Pikachu, our mascot, was a detective? Right. And he had a little deerstalker cap and drank way too much coffee. Now, to be fair, the story of the movie is...
00:16:07
Speaker
The broad skeleton of the game. Okay. I was going to say, I've never played Detective Pikachu, so I may need you to enlighten me a little bit on that. So, well, you i I don't think I finished them.
00:16:20
Speaker
Because there's Detective Pikachu and Detective Pikachu Returns. Okay. And this movie is kind of a mashup of both of them. Because Tim doesn't find his dad until the second game.
00:16:33
Speaker
or doesn't discover what's going on with Pikachu and his dad until the second game. Oh, gotcha. Okay. The first game ends in sort of like a
00:16:43
Speaker
like a nineties cartoon way where like, you know, you have the setup premise of trying to figure out what's going on. right It doesn't get resolved.
00:16:56
Speaker
So there's this overarching story that they could finish at literally any time. Meanwhile, they're going to go on these random adventures. Right. See you next episode. Yeah, exactly.
00:17:07
Speaker
Exactly. It feels very 90s cartoon. like Okay. and But they just, you know, because there's a bunch of stuff in between.
00:17:18
Speaker
It ends up being all interconnected. Sure. But like... Kind of like it does here. Yeah. And I mean, it all end it all ends the same way. I mean, the the people, the the villains are different, if I if i recall.
00:17:37
Speaker
um Because it's not one overarching story, it's two. oh Okay. there are different villains. Yeah. And there's, you meet way more Pokemon in the man. i'm I'm kind of upset because in the first game, there's so many ghost Pokemon.
00:17:53
Speaker
Oh, um and like you love those guys. Yeah. I mean, one of them is in my, like, like my actual, if I were to actually have a Pokemon team in real life, I'm getting attention fingers.
00:18:09
Speaker
um One of them is in my six. That is Trevenant. Oh, I don't even know that one. ah He's the big, giant, spooky tree.
00:18:21
Speaker
Okay. i What gen is he? i don't i don't know him. What gen is he? Hold on. Because he did not show up in Pokemon Go when I was playing that game.
00:18:34
Speaker
He did. He did too. I think it was around the time when you were starting to not play as much. That's probably why. But he but he was around. And the ghosts are only really available in October in that game. so Also true.
00:18:47
Speaker
yeah If I wasn't playing in October, then I didn't get it. Can you see that? not Kind of. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, that looks like a spooky tree, for sure. i mean, yeah, if you were to imagine a spooky tree and then... but looks like it's got a little jack-o'-lantern face, too.
00:19:06
Speaker
uh i mean it doesn't um but it looks like it might hold on i'm just gonna send it to you i was gonna say yeah put it send it to my text or put it in the chat here because uh because there's things it not only because it's not just the regular trevin in either
00:19:26
Speaker
ah the Trevenant in my team is a shiny Trevenant. Of course. Of course he is. Of course. Well, you'll see specifically why. Because normally, he looks like a regular tree. Like, just green leaves and, you know, a regular tree.
00:19:39
Speaker
The shiny one... It's an autumnal one. It's an autumnal tree. Yeah. It's a white tree with, like, you know, auburn leaves. Yeah. So, I have to have a shiny Trevenant. That's, you know... ah That is in keeping with your brand. Houndoom and a... a A shiny Trevenant. Yeah, for any for anyone wondering.
00:20:01
Speaker
So my team is the shiny Trevenant, a Houndoom, a Galvantula, which is a the electric tarantula, Corviknight, who is like a giant metal raven.
00:20:15
Speaker
um So that's one, two, three, four, five. Fifth one is... ah Ursa Luna, Blood Moon Ursa Luna, which is, it was introduced in Violet and
00:20:34
Speaker
Sapphire. Okay. So the most recent one. And it's like a, it's a legendary, but it's like, so Ursa Luna is like, see, you remember, you remember Teddy Ursa and Ursa Ring?
00:20:46
Speaker
The bear? it's the third stage of them. Oh. So Ursa Luna is the third stage where like if you you can evolve Ursa Ring during a full moon, it becomes an Ursa Ring or Ursa Luna.
00:21:03
Speaker
Okay. The legendary one is if you evolve an Ursa Ring, I guess the lore, if you evolve an Ursa Luna during a blood moon.
00:21:16
Speaker
so like it's it's like it's a giant fucking bear that looks like half bear half werewolf right it has a giant like red moon on its forehead okay um uh
00:21:29
Speaker
and then wait i may or may not be googling this right now you should he oh yeah that is uh oh 100 the spooky shit that you love yeah um and then i'm trying to think what the sixth one is and i can't remember
00:21:47
Speaker
Well, that sucks. I'm sorry. That's going to the shit out of me. Well, we'll get well I'm sure we'll come back. to I'm sure you'll remember sometime before this episode stops recording.
00:21:59
Speaker
Oh! i um Annihilate. Oh, okay. which is the the ghost form of Primeape, like the third evolution of Primeape that they introduced in Ruby and Sapphire, um where a Primeape gets so angry that he punches him, like he just he he like he just starts punching something so much and doesn't stop until he dies.
00:22:32
Speaker
Okay. Then he just becomes a a spectral ape. Okay.
00:22:38
Speaker
So I mean, that very, very on brand. What's it? What's it called? Annihilate. but Annihilate. Okay. Let me Google that here real quick as well.
00:22:51
Speaker
yeah Annihilation, not the first thing that comes up. Annihilate. The first thing that comes up when I type in a N N I H. Yeah. Look, that's how popular Pokemon is. Uh, well, the shackles. Oh, the shackles are, uh,
00:23:06
Speaker
The shackles are cool. Yeah. Again, very this is very much in your aesthetic here. this is At no point has any of this surprised me. the i knew there would be a Houndoom because I know Houndoom is your guy.
00:23:19
Speaker
yeah Your actual human son, if you have said so many times. Yes. so um Right on. via so that's that is That is my six. That would be my team if it if Pokemon were real.
00:23:34
Speaker
As they appear to be in this movie. and And it just so happens that there's some pretty good type coverage there too for you, you know, more strategy-minded Pokemon players out there.
00:23:47
Speaker
I've got some pretty good type coverage in that team. Fire, fighting, yeah, you've got a few different Fire, fighting, electric, grass, dark, steel.
00:23:58
Speaker
There's no water because, like, there's no... It's weird. There's no spooky water Pokemon. I was shot. Like, I specifically went looking for a spooky water Pokemon, and there really aren't any.
00:24:14
Speaker
and don't know why Yeah, that's... I mean, I guess Golduck kind of has, like, a dark kind of look to him, but... Kind of, but not really.
00:24:26
Speaker
Right. I mean, he's water. um I mean, Sharpedo... Sharpedo was sort of... I considered Sharpedo for a second, and then I went and it doesn't really fit.
00:24:39
Speaker
Speaking of this movie, Greninja.
00:24:42
Speaker
Greninja's a ninja. not really spooky. Touche. Good God, so many Sharpedo articles on um the Pokemon wiki.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it piranha, sure. but like But like his aesthetic doesn't didn't really work. like I don't really like the colors they used for him. He doesn't really look like ah like He sort of looks like a piranha, but that just didn't fit.
00:25:13
Speaker
I don't know. It didn't click with me. Samurath?
00:25:19
Speaker
Well, so here's the thing. there's also I also had to take into account that already had two ghost Pokemon on my team. Because I think there's some there's like a ghost water. um But I don't need three ghosts on my team.
00:25:34
Speaker
There's too many ghosts.
00:25:44
Speaker
We back? Yeah, I think so. Okay. Tucker, edit this out. Obviously. Hey, I get to say that again. haven't been to say that in a while. Right? Steven froze there for a minute, so cut this out, Tucker.
00:25:58
Speaker
Right. we we we We each froze for one another. so yeah but say Yeah. So that's too many ghosts. Too many ghosts. okay I need something else.
00:26:10
Speaker
Fair. mean i need I need something spookier there's There's some wiggle room on my team. Like I could drop Corviknight. He's not that strong. Do I love a giant metal Raven on my team? Fuck yeah, I do. But like he's not that strong.
00:26:24
Speaker
Right. I was i was looking for like a like a dark water type, which I mean, that's where, you know, Carvana, Sharpedo, like all those are dark and water. So yeah, I figured there might be some spookiness in there somewhere.
00:26:36
Speaker
Yeah, like, ah like where's where's, like, I don't know, like, what is it, the Lanternfish, or whatever the fuck it's called? Lanterna? No, well, yeah, like, yeah, the Lanternfish in the Pokemon universe is cute as fuck. now Yeah, he's fucking adorable.
00:26:52
Speaker
right Yeah, that doesn't make no sense. um Even though, like, the real-world analog is terrifying, so I don't know why they went the cute route with it. Yeah. Probably not terrified children, but yeah. i need Yeah, well, I guess.
00:27:11
Speaker
I mean, look at Trevenant. That's kind of... I could terrify children. Sure. But not to the same extent that one of those anglerfish would. Anglerfish, that's the word. Thank you, Stephen.
00:27:23
Speaker
I'm here for you, man. It's the actual name. i got you. The fish I was thinking of. Yeah, no. Um...
00:27:33
Speaker
Speaking of terrifying children, like most of the ghost Pokemon in the games are usually ah a soul of a child in them in one way or another. Right. Yeah. I remember that from the first game is you're walking through like Lavender Tower and there's all these like ethereal children like popping out of places and you're just like, ah.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah, like Driploom and Drifblem, like steal children and carry them away. um Pumkaboo, which is the... No, it's not Pumkaboo.
00:28:08
Speaker
That's a different Pokemon. Trevenant's Phantump. That's Trevenant's. Oh, yeah. um is Is just a child's soul that got lost in the woods.
00:28:20
Speaker
Okay. Inside of a tree stump. Okay. So, you know, children children children are kind of fucked in the Pokemon universe.
00:28:32
Speaker
Okay. As evidenced by this movie. I mean, i look at what happened to our main protagonist, Tim. like Exactly. Right. Yeah, man. got a rough in the pokemon Kids. in that ah One of the things I loved about this movie is like the real-world application of Pokemon in silly and fun ways, like the Squirtle firefighters or the... um the the dudes with the speakers for ears, I forget their names, but like basically hanging out with the loud there. There we go. X loud or explode being like the speakers at the, at the, like for the DJ, like that shit was really fun. But then there's other stuff where you're just like, yeah, like Pokemon are kind of the central, like crux of this world. What if you just like, don't want one.
00:29:27
Speaker
Um, what if What if you're just kind of like out on Pokemon? Like you you're you're kind of ostracized from society at that point, it it seems like. I would imagine in a world where Pokemon exists, you'd'd probably you'd probably be hard-pressed to find somebody like that.
00:29:46
Speaker
um I mean, our main character is one, so we don't have to work too hard to find someone like that. but Well... But I mean, he's nine he doesn't want to own one, but like, he's not, a he's not opposed to them being a part of the world.
00:30:01
Speaker
Sure. But he's just like, I, you know, I don't want one. I don't need one. and like, anytime someone's like, well, Hey, where's like, it's just a foregone conclusion. Like, Oh, where's your Pokemon?
00:30:12
Speaker
Oh, why don't you have a Pokemon partner? Like it's kind of one of those, like as someone who like myself, like doesn't like Apple products. Well, why don't you have an iPhone? Like, just that's just what people have. Why don't you have one?
00:30:24
Speaker
like it So there's a bit of ostracization for this poor guy. Sure. yeah Which, I mean, in the in this scenario, you would own a Digimon, probably.
00:30:34
Speaker
Probably, yeah. yeah Just like the more popular one, I'm going to have the Digimon over here. Correct. Yeah. The contrarian in me would be like, nah, rather a Digimon. Not because they're better, just because I don't want to be part of the popular crowd.
00:30:50
Speaker
Or I would have a Magikarp. Like it would be something like that. And you would never evolve it. Nope.
00:30:57
Speaker
Nope. Just have a magic card. Just, you know, no, he's fine. Look at him. He's just hanging out, splashing around, just enjoying this, living his best life. Why would I, why would I want to change that? Yeah.
00:31:08
Speaker
You could enter him into jumping competitions. That's a thing. Well, there you go. Yeah. or item Shout out to Magikarp Jump, one of the most fun mobile games you can play out there.
00:31:21
Speaker
Oh, really? That's that's hilarious. Yeah, you're a trainer of a Magikarp, and you're training it to jump super high in competitions. That's really funny. that that That cracks me up. That's really good. I like that a lot. And it's a seriously fun game. It doesn't have any right being as good as it is. It's...
00:31:39
Speaker
And and it's not it's not an ongoing microtransaction game.
Trading Card Game and Community Building
00:31:43
Speaker
Okay. It has a story, and you're just rising up through the ranks of the different Magikarp jumping tournaments. Okay. Interesting. That's wild.
00:31:52
Speaker
Yeah. It's a lot of fun. Highly recommend. Sounds like it. Okay. You should play it. I might. Right now. Download right now. Okay. We'll wait. Do-do-do-do. live.
00:32:05
Speaker
We'll do it live. We'll do it live. this is This is taking the place of these Steven Googling things. This is Pokemon Masters EX. What's that?
00:32:20
Speaker
Good question. I have no idea what that is. Okay, cool. I won't worry about it.
00:32:27
Speaker
Magic Car Jump. Here we go. Looking for Magic Car Jump. This app isn't available for your device because it was made for an older version of Android.
00:32:38
Speaker
Oh, no. That mess, I bet you I can. Hold on. I bet you it's available for Apple because they don't do that shit with Apple. Hold on. Let me look. Oh, wait, it is.
00:32:51
Speaker
Well, there you go
00:32:56
Speaker
you go. I can play that other Pokemon game I saw, Pokemon Masters EX. I play that one. You play the Pokemon TCG game where it's just it's literally just opening packs.
00:33:07
Speaker
just open packs of Pokemon cards and collect them. That sounds lame. ah It depends on how much you enjoy opening packs of trading cards.
00:33:20
Speaker
I mean, i don't do it in real life, so that should tell you enough right there. um No, that just tells me you've never done it. It's one of the most interesting things. Absolutely. i i played the Star Wars customizable card game when that when that thing came out. You buying packs on a regular basis?
00:33:40
Speaker
Then we should study you and how you did not get addicted to opening packs of cards. you are You are a unicorn, sir. No, I just... i just i my My money started going toward comic books is what it was.
00:33:55
Speaker
doesn't stop the addiction to wanting to open packs. right But that's just it. Maybe I was never addicted to opening packs. which is Which is weird. I guess.
00:34:06
Speaker
If you say so. Look, to the four people listening to this right now, did you play TCGs? Sound off in the comments. Let me know addicted you are to opening packs of cards.
00:34:18
Speaker
Right. I guess for me it just got boring because I was opening packs and just getting the same cards every time. And I was just like, eh.
00:34:30
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, it isn't like the Star Wars card game what didn't live that long. No, it really didn't. There weren't a whole lot of new sets or new cards. And I mean, i I ended up dropping out of that before it was before they even completed the the entirety of it. So like before we even got to Return of the Jedi, I was kind of out on that game. Yeah, it doesn't really sound like you were that committed to begin with.
00:34:51
Speaker
I didn't know how to play. That was really the big thing. It was very well now it's very complicated. making sense. Now it's all coming together. like Part of the addiction of opening packs is like knowing the game, playing the game, being in the game, like knowing the community and like what cards are good and what you're looking for, and like chasing that rare that you need for your deck.
00:35:18
Speaker
to make it work better. And like, that's where the addiction comes in. That's why opening opening packs is cool. Now, I mean, that doesn't apply to, you know, well, that's how you get into the high of it.
00:35:36
Speaker
That's how you get into the addiction of opening packs. And then it just becomes a thing like any other addiction. Like you just, you love the high of opening a pack and finding a rare card.
00:35:53
Speaker
but Yeah, I guess that was never really my thing. No, sorry about that. That's OK. Sorry to continue to disappoint you. I'm used to it by now. Yeah.
00:36:07
Speaker
I kid, I kid, I joke, you know, I love you. I know. And I love you, too. I hope you know that. Of course. Let's let's talk Pokemon. mean, we off a card tangent.
00:36:23
Speaker
i mean we we got off on ah on a card tangent yeah sure yeah so when did you ah like were you an early adopter of pokemon did you come to it later like what's your personal history with the franchise hell yeah i was an early adopter ah was playing that shit on school bus every day okay battling my friends and okay back when gyarados and mewtwo were the two strongest pokemon you could possibly have right First gen, baby. if you had a Mewtwo, you were crazy because the internet didn't really exist, so you didn't know where to find him.
00:36:59
Speaker
You just had to go exploring. hu And you stumble on this incredibly strong Pokemon, and you're like, who the fuck is this? Better use that master ball I've been saving for just such an occasion. Pretty much. Yeah.
00:37:11
Speaker
That's what I always did. Yeah. Made catching the legendary birds harder, but they were easy. They had a better catch rate than Mewtwo did. Correct. Mewtwo's catch rate is literally impossible without the master ball.
00:37:23
Speaker
No, not not true. Not true? Not true. No, you can totally catch Mewtwo with like a regular Pokeball. It's insanely low percentage, but it's doable. Okay. um No Pokemon, as far as I know, in any game is not catchable.
00:37:38
Speaker
Okay. Because that would be unfair. Touche. But yeah, I always use Ultra Balls for the Legendary Birds and then grab Mewtwo with the Master Ball.
00:37:52
Speaker
That was always my strategy. yeah yeah I mean, that's pretty solid. usually Now, sometimes I had to like save my game before going up against ah a legendary bird just to make sure I... Well, that's what you should do. is If you don't catch it, if you knock it out or you leave, it runs away and you'll you'll literally never see it again. Never see it again, right. so But I had all 151 because I got a Mewtwo from the pro the promotion that Toys R Us did.
00:38:21
Speaker
You mean a Mew? Yeah. Mew. Yeah. What did I say? Mew 2. Whatever. yeah um Same thing. ah They're not. ah Just kidding.
00:38:32
Speaker
ah but The promotion that Toys R Us did, where like, I think you had to midju had make a purchase out of Toys R Us, and they would they would literally load Mew onto your game for you.
00:38:46
Speaker
that's That's rad as hell. See, and i I came to the game so late that I... i Nope, that was never going to happen for me. yeah and i was I was in it, man.
00:38:57
Speaker
I remember when Pokemon Snap came out on the n sixty four um That game about like taking pictures of Pokemon, your Pokemon photographer. Right. um and like you You could take your cartridge to Blockbuster and they had these kiosks where you could like put your game in and you could print your photos off.
00:39:22
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. They were like stickers. like they they would They would take the pictures that you took in the game put them on the stickers. And you could like, so you could show off your pictures in real life that you took in the game.
00:39:35
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. that That missed me entirely. Because again, did not have an Only had a first gen Game Boy. Right. Look, we know this.
00:39:46
Speaker
You're not the video game guy. Sure I'm not. Although I do have, I did purchase a video game that I have yet to start playing. Yeah. and Alan Wake.
00:39:56
Speaker
Per your and Tucker's incessant rambling about it, i decided to purchase it. and But i haven't I haven't loaded it onto the computer yet because I'm realizing this computer is so fucking old that I need to buy a new one very soon. So that's what I'm going to start saving my pennies for.
00:40:12
Speaker
I mean, the we'll well the preach the gospel of Remedy games to anyone who will listen. um Or anyone who won't. Or anyone who won't, honestly, they guys which i my partner can attest to.
00:40:32
Speaker
four I mean, she's just cheese is not into it. this is nice she She thinks it's cool. But like and she was she was interested in the first Alan Wake um because it's more it's definitely more horror.
00:40:47
Speaker
It feels more like a horror game. right um Control is more of an action game. with cool, you know, SCP elements.
00:40:59
Speaker
So it we're going to get off on a tangent again. I'm just, you know, I'm just, I'm again, preaching the gospel of Remedy Entertainment. Play the games. They're so good. Anyway, Pokemon.
00:41:10
Speaker
Brett's history with Pokemon. i like um I dropped off around...
00:41:22
Speaker
Ruby and Sapphire, which is what I've been doing wrong. It's what I've been saying wrong. The newer ones, the newer generation is Violet in something else. It's a red something.
00:41:39
Speaker
I played Violet, obviously, because I don't remember what the red one's called. Ruby? group No, they already did Ruby and Sapphire. That was like Gen 3 or 4. Garnet? No. No. garnet no
00:41:52
Speaker
don't know. Look up most recent Pokemon games. See, the last gen I remember was Sword and Shield.
00:42:01
Speaker
Yes, that was the gen before this most current one.
00:42:08
Speaker
And this is the gen that I got back into the games. Like I dropped off. Scarlet and Violet. Scarlet and Violet. There we go. That's what it is. Scarlet and Violet. um So apologies for those of you screaming at your listening device earlier when I said Ruby instead of Scarlet.
00:42:24
Speaker
My sincere apologies to everyone out there. um
00:42:29
Speaker
So, so yeah, so I dropped off after gen two. Okay, so after Johto? Yeah, so gold and silver. Okay.
00:42:41
Speaker
um One of my video game horror stories is that I had a complete Pokedex of Pokemon Gold, um and my sister erased it.
00:42:57
Speaker
i'm sorry i'm angry I'm angry for you. She didn't know. I've since forgiven her because she didn't know that's what would happen if she started a new game. Touche. It's not like she did it maliciously. Sure.
00:43:09
Speaker
And it wouldn't have mattered in the long run because like it's not like I could have gotten those. There are ways you could have potentially gotten your OG Pokemon all the way to the current gen, but it's not easy. Right. It's to have been transferring them along the way every generation.
00:43:29
Speaker
But, so that's and that's a horror story that I have. For sure. Yeah, absolutely. Which, a fun story is I had Pokemon Gold when I played second gen.
00:43:40
Speaker
My favorite Pokemon, Houndoom, was in Pokemon Silver. Oh, God. So it's weird that he became, or it, because it could be both genders.
00:43:51
Speaker
tra It's weird that it but became my favorite Pokemon and I never really
00:43:59
Speaker
played with one until the newer generations. Right. Because I just dug its aesthetic. I was going to say, it's very much like your vibe.
00:44:11
Speaker
yeah For sure. i mean, it's it's it's a demon dog with horns. Right. It's spooky. What's not to love? Yeah. um and they so And then I tried to play Sword and Shield because like I really fell off. I played...
00:44:29
Speaker
Heart, Gold, and SoulSilver. That's where I first found Houndoom. They were the remakes of Gold and Silver. Right. and Because, like, yeah, I played...
00:44:43
Speaker
FireRed and LeafGreen, which were the remakes of the originals. Then I played HeartGold and SoulSilver, which were remakes of Gold and Silver, second gen.
00:44:55
Speaker
And that sort of got me back into them for a little bit. I played... um
00:45:03
Speaker
diamond and pearl ah played x and y and then i dropped off again okay and then i came back for scarlet and violet okay so i've been in and out i remember because my ex had one of the sword and shield and then i think you got the other one if i I mean, I got it way later. i don't know. I got sword, I think.
00:45:31
Speaker
Yeah. And I didn't finish it. didn't, I didn't really like it. I didn't, I didn't really play that long. I think I got maybe to the first gym and then I kind of dropped off on it. Yeah.
00:45:43
Speaker
But like yeah she the only the only the only thing I really like that came out of that gen is the gentleman wheezing.
Video Game Adaptations: Successes and Challenges
00:45:51
Speaker
I don't know if you ever saw the gentleman wheezing.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yes. The with the top hat. I always wanted to get one in Pogo because they released it early in Pogo as a. um as a tie-in and I never, I could never find it. Like anytime there was a gym, there was no one else around. Anytime was at a gym, no one else was around or available or everyone already had it. And I'm like, I want, I want that guy.
00:46:15
Speaker
I'd come like so close and then not end up being able to get it. I eventually got one way later when they did, when they just like released it normally into the game. Right. they b But with like the, yeah, there's the top path. It's like a smokestack and the,
00:46:30
Speaker
green smoke that looks like a mustache is pretty good. Looks like ah like a character out of like From Hell or something. Yeah. yeah Because that's that's that that generation was set in the Pokemon version of Great Britain.
00:46:45
Speaker
What is Scarlet and Violet set in? ah The Pokemon analog to lake Spain, Mexico, Spanish. A lot of influences.
00:46:57
Speaker
Interesting. Okay, yeah, I can kind of see it from the the serpentine characters on the covers here that I'm looking at. So, okay. That makes sense. Yeah. All right. Right on.
00:47:10
Speaker
Loosely based on the Iberian Peninsula. So yeah, Spain. Sure. Spain. and I know what the Iberian Peninsula is. You don't know that I don't. i never i I would not have impugned your intelligence to suggest it.
00:47:24
Speaker
Good, because I definitely knew what it was. Good. I knew you did. yeah you work for You work for a travel company. I would hope so. Sure. Absolutely.
00:47:35
Speaker
don't know why we're even talking about it. So Pokemon Go. So Pokemon Detective Pikachu. Sorry. And it should let the record show Pogo was a an early bonding experience for for Brett and Steven.
00:47:48
Speaker
ah In the formative years of our friendship, we would often just ah walk around and and play Pokemon Go on our breaks and or after work. um So, yeah, we had a very good time. And that's how we met a lot of our friends at work, too, when we worked together. We had a gym We had a gym on site.
00:48:07
Speaker
On site. So we would frequently go down and battle the gym together if there was something fun. And there was usually ah a big cluster of people. We ended up getting a chat together, a text thread, and we'd all run down. And then if one of us caught one of those gyms, it was like, you know, come back later at a certain time and you can join like a big group of people.
00:48:27
Speaker
to take on and we'd like you and I and my ex would all jump in a car and run down to the is usually the Starbucks gym up the road and try to try to take that gym with like five to six other people that had kind of gathered around. So, yeah,
00:48:45
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Good time. What a time to be alive when Pokemon go united the world. For for the for a briefest of moments. know um But Detective Pikachu, we're 48 minutes into this episode. Let's let's talk some Detective Pikachu, shall we?
00:49:01
Speaker
I mean, really, sure, we will talk about the movie, but, like, the Pokemon, like, that's what's so good about this movie, honestly, is, like, it's... a And what I have been sort of talking about in the previous episodes of this month, like, so the times when a video game movie adaptation works is when you're not trying to adapt an existing game.
00:49:29
Speaker
Because, you know, as much as I would love to see a direct adaptation of the first Resident Evil game, it doesn't work. I'm sorry. Like, I know there's people out there that would argue with me that it can work.
00:49:40
Speaker
I don't think it can. I'm sorry. It's like it's it's three hours of a dude walking around a mansion. Like, I don't know how you turn that into a movie. I'm sorry. um There might be ways to do it, but I don't think you're ever going to see them.
00:49:55
Speaker
Well, and particularly because video games, I mean, these days, like you have to make sure you get to the ending, which means you need to make the right decisions and the right choices within the game itself. And you have to be skilled enough to take on the various levels. And not everyone always gets there.
00:50:13
Speaker
I speak mostly for myself, who is bad at video games. Like, so, you know, some some people don't actually see, end up seeing the story through to completion or, um or if there's like an alternate, like, because I know some games have multiple endings, depending on what choices you make within the game.
00:50:31
Speaker
um Like, how do you adapt a game with multiple endings? Like, that seems like a fool's errand, right? it's funny you say that, and Fallout's going to do that. ah Really? Yeah, it's it's one of the big things they're talking about right now because New Vegas, this fourth game,
00:50:53
Speaker
there's multiple ways you can handle saving the Vegas Strip in that game. um And since i we've gotten set photos of season two,
00:51:06
Speaker
They're going to the vegas the new Vegas Strip. Interesting. So they're going to have to canonize one of the three or four endings. Interesting. Which is crazy. Right.
00:51:17
Speaker
And we're all wondering, we're all like there's huge discussions in the community about like which ending are they going to canonize, which one makes the most sense based on what we're seeing and what we've seen so far. So that's wild and will either be good or bad.
00:51:31
Speaker
i assume it's going to be good because the first season is fucking great. so I liked what I saw of it. I haven't finished it yet. I have high hopes. um
00:51:40
Speaker
ah Which, I mean, you started watching it a long time ago. you haven't finished it yet, are you going to at all? I would like to. I enjoyed what I saw of it. it's just it's like Again, i I've got new Righteous Gemstones and new Yellow Jackets coming out every week. like That's kind of monopolizing my time. Maybe. Fallout's been out for like a year.
00:51:58
Speaker
prior like You put it in order. That's what you do. Fallout came out first. You should finish it first. ah Well, actually, Brightest Gemstones and Yellow Jackets were here before Fallout, so they had my allegiance before Fallout did. Hold on.
00:52:12
Speaker
Hold on. No, hold on. they There's new seasons of those shows, sure, but when Fallout came out, you had watched all of the available episodes of those two shows. Sure. Therefore, Fallout takes priority because that was new stuff you hadn't seen yet.
00:52:26
Speaker
No, that's not how that works. Because by your logic... You're waiting until Righteous Gemstones and Yellow Jackets are done completely forever before you finish Fallout. I mean, i here's the thing. They're both on their last seasons, so I guess yes.
00:52:43
Speaker
Because they're both done after this season. So when I get to episode 10 of Yellow Jackets and episode whatever of Righteous Gemstones this season, then yeah, they're done for good. But I will get back to Fallout. I did enjoy that show. And it's got Kyle MacLachlan. Like, I'm going to turn my back on a Kyle MacLachlan show. Come on. And Walton Goggins.
00:53:01
Speaker
And Walton Goggins. I love that dude. Baby Billy himself. Yeah. There will come a payday. Hallelujah. What a payday. I love that we have this kind of unspoken thing where we just send each other. Anytime a Billy, a baby Billy meme pops up on Tik TOK, we just send it to each other. That's true.
00:53:21
Speaker
I love that for us. And I will never not stop and watch one. i Right. more pickockck feed like It's yeah. And, and now I'm thinking I'm going to probably need to buy a baby Billy t-shirt of some kind, some form or other. I mean, I've got my David Lynch t-shirt.
00:53:38
Speaker
So, you know, it's it's it's going to happen. Got my probably I've got my Gremlins T-shirt. I've got my David Lynch T-shirt. I've got my Orson Welles T-shirt. I've got my blank check T-shirt. Now I need some baby Billy Freeman T-shirt.
00:53:54
Speaker
I think it would complete the ensemble. Definitely. For sure. Really tie the tie the outfit together. For sure. For sure. So Rhyme Rhyme City is an actual location in the games because it was not one that I was familiar I mean, the Detective Pikachu games canonized it. Yeah.
00:54:12
Speaker
OK. And so, I mean, in terms of the actual makeup of the game, what what is because the I struggle to see how a mystery would fit within the staple of Pokemon format of running around, catching Pokemon and doing gym battles. Like what is the format of of a Detective Pikachu game?
00:54:35
Speaker
well, much much like how the Pokemon world works, not everybody is a Pokemon trainer. um Actually, and if I am correct in the lore here, most people aren't Pokemon trainers. They have Pokemon partners.
00:54:49
Speaker
They have Pokemon in their lives. um you know Ash's mom has that Mr. Mime that helps her around the house. what else that Mr. Mime helps us. We're not entirely sure.
00:55:01
Speaker
I'm sure he helps her in all. We have heard, we have our suspicions what that Mr. Mime helps her with, but we don't know for sure. But yeah, so like, like Pokemon training in the Pokemon universe is just a lot like sports.
00:55:18
Speaker
it It is the sport of the Pokemon universe. So not everybody does it. And to be successful, you have to be very good at it. And we see an underground version of that here. So it's almost like ah like a cage match, but with Pokemon in this yeah movie, which is kind of a cool application of that idea. Like,
00:55:37
Speaker
In a city where Pokemon are kind of just like equals in in society, to battle them must seem barbaric. And so to actually have a Pokemon battle, it would need to take place underground. Like all of that, the logic of that is fantastic.
00:55:54
Speaker
Yeah. I love the way that they applied all that stuff in this movie. it's it's It's something you you didn't really get to see a whole lot of. Like, that's the thing. Like, you...
00:56:06
Speaker
Most people don't know Pokemon lore like that. they right They only know through the games, the mainstream games that they play. the television show. Or the television show, which is all about battling and training to be a battle our battler and like tournaments and, you know...
00:56:27
Speaker
you teach me and I teach you, you know, you want to be the very best, like no one ever was. Exactly. But like, that's, that's such a small portion of the Pokemon universe.
00:56:37
Speaker
Um, but one that until apparently until detective Pikachu never got explored ever. No, it it didn't. um I mean, you sort of get hints to it in the games if you talk to NPCs.
00:56:51
Speaker
Sure. And there was plenty of those sorts of applications shown in the in the cartoon, the anime. um Like, you know, the because there's like, there's and there's also the unspoken things like eating Pokemon.
00:57:07
Speaker
Like is that's, you know, they're the only, I think, I don't know for sure. I could be wrong, but I think there's there are occasionally like regular animals in the Pokémon universe, and that's sort of what's implied people eat.
00:57:25
Speaker
right um But also, I think there's there's scenes in the anime where like people are eating Magikarp and like various fish Pokémon. sure so Which, again, logically would make sense.
00:57:41
Speaker
It would, yeah. But but i mean meanwhile, there's there's a whole arc in 2nd gen... where like eating slow poke tails is like a taboo.
00:57:56
Speaker
Like you're not supposed to do that. It's like people do it, but you're like, you're not so like, it's a delegate it's a delicacy. It's one of those like forbidden delicacies. Gotcha. um Like you're not really supposed to do, but people do it.
00:58:09
Speaker
And they're not humane about it either. At least the town you find in that game isn't very humane about it. Fair. Yeah. So, like you know, Pokemon has always been a dark, if you know where to look, it's a dark universe.
00:58:25
Speaker
Right. Like I, I, I, you know, for kids. Yeah. You know, for kids. Uh, sure. Sure. Um, sure. Sure.
00:58:38
Speaker
So like it wasn't far fetched pun completely intended, um, to, to see the universe of detective Pikachu, um,
00:58:51
Speaker
where like, you know, but much to your point about like, you know, people that wouldn't want to battle. Like there's people that would want to live in a city where battling isn't a thing at all.
00:59:02
Speaker
Right. Cause I, I, in my mind, it's almost like cock fighting or dog fighting. Like it's like, we're making these animals fight each other. And there's an element of it that does feel pretty inhumane. if I'm being really honest.
00:59:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, they they definitely they try to... That's the that sort of the whole crux of the games, and especially the anime, of like, you know, you're supposed to treat your partner Pokemon that you're battling with with respect with like friendship and you know treating them good right and whenever ash would go up against an evil trainer that treated their pokemon like shit like right they were always the the villain
00:59:52
Speaker
Yeah. um And they were the worst villains because like there's even like opponents and antagonists he would fight in the show that still respected their Pokemon. Right. um Like Giovanni, who's the head of Team Rocket, like still respected his Pokemon and talked to them like they were his friends.
01:00:09
Speaker
Right. So there's that difference.
01:00:14
Speaker
So that there's that difference. Like you're you're not going to like go to a cockfighting ring and find a guy talking to his rooster. Like do a good job out there, buddy. I believe in you. Right. it's That's not going to happen.
01:00:26
Speaker
There's the difference, but I do see where you're coming from. like That's why they try to differentiate it and make it be like you're supposed to form a bond with your fighting Pokemon. And I do remember that from the original game too. And there are there are elements of that within the show that I recall when I watch when i did watch that and in the late 90s. And it even became a big mechanic in the games too. like there's There's plenty of Pokemon nowadays that evolve...
01:00:54
Speaker
only through high friendship. You have to use them and your team on a regular basis, heal them when they're poisoned and heal them in general on a regular basis you know like to so to build their your friendship.
01:01:11
Speaker
Once they get to a certain friendship value, they can evolve. okay so It became even a thing in the games. So they're they're definitely trying to beat the, you know, animal cruelty allegations.
01:01:25
Speaker
Sure. Which I, thankfully, um yeah yeah you truly, you love to see, you know, animals not being treated cruelly. Right.
01:01:36
Speaker
So, um but yeah, in terms of the the the mechanics of the the Detective Pikachu games, um what, so it's obviously it's not a setup the way that the the regular games are.
01:01:50
Speaker
um Is it similar? I mean, you're doing, you're like investigating, you're you're going to different locations and... finding clues. Okay. Like if I recall, it is very similar to Phoenix, right?
01:02:03
Speaker
Or like you're going to different locations, finding clues to advance the story. um And I don't think there's any battling. and Okay. So it is, it's all story driven. It's almost, um what do they call them? Like visual novels.
01:02:20
Speaker
um Like where you're just sort of, it's like a book. Like a motion graphic novel kind of a thing? Kind of. Yeah. But there's, i mean there's more to, there's, there are game mechanics. You are doing a thing.
01:02:33
Speaker
Okay. But it's more story driven. Okay. You don't have to, it's not an RPG. You're not battling and improving your stats. Right. Like the original games are.
01:02:44
Speaker
Okay. Right. Yeah. yeah I suppose that makes sense. And you said the central mystery is at least similar to what we see in this film. Yeah, yeah. there's a The first game is more about discovering why Pokemon are going crazy. So the R thing? The R, yeah. I mean, you find eventually, like, the end of that game is finding out about R, what it is, how to stop it.
01:03:10
Speaker
Is that a Team Rocket thing? Because that's what I was thinking the entire movie, is that R is a Team Rocket thing. I don't think so. I don't really ever say that. Weird. Weird.
01:03:22
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. It just feels weird for a Pokemon game to use the letter r and not have it refer to Rocket, but... but Yeah, don't know. I don't think they were met they might mention the games. I don't remember, but it might be.
01:03:36
Speaker
I don't know. So you you had mentioned and you you'd started to talk about this earlier. I kind of want to circle back to this this thing you'd said a little bit ago about how the video game franchises that are unsuccessful are the ones that are attempting to just adapt a video game. But it seems like this movie is adapting and at least in in at least in part,
01:03:56
Speaker
the the Detective Pikachu video game, what do you think sets this one apart from from things like, say, Tomb Raider? Because, like, as much as... Because you could argue that, like, it isn't as good because it doesn't adapt the game very faithfully.
01:04:19
Speaker
It feels like... Because the game itself is a side story to the main... Pokemon line of games. So I'm trying to figure out how to describe it.
01:04:34
Speaker
Because like, well, yes, this movie is adapted like directly adapting a game. It's
01:04:44
Speaker
the story itself isn't as important as like a Tomb Raider is. Because like it it it hits the same story beats. It hits the right story beats.
01:05:02
Speaker
It just gets there in a different way.
01:05:07
Speaker
And I'm having trouble describing why that's different. OK.
01:05:17
Speaker
Is it because they're not really doing a one for one? Like they're actually constructing it as like, cause guess with this game, as it's a mystery, you can construct the screenplay as a mystery because mystery films and novels have been a thing for ever.
01:05:34
Speaker
So you can kind of almost construct it as that type of film and then just put Pokemon in it. Right. Yeah. Cause I mean, you just take, you basically, you take the conceit of the games and,
01:05:46
Speaker
and you build your own narrative around it they which
01:05:57
Speaker
is why i'm struggling so hard because most of the time that doesn't work i would i would say 99.9 the time that doesn't work right um
01:06:13
Speaker
Well, no, hold on. I might be onto to something here. Okay, so take take The Last of Us. um That show adapted the game very faithfully, but also did things that weren't in the games at all, but still fit within the narrative and the feel and the themes and the heart of what it was.
01:06:42
Speaker
So we're we're extrapolating on the the key ideas and building them out in a way that is interesting to the viewer. Yes. As opposed to something like Tomb Raider where it's like we're we're going to cherry pick or Resident Evil. Resident Evil is a better example of this. We're we're going to cherry pick things from the games that we like and completely rewrite the narrative 100%.
01:07:10
Speaker
um So that's the difference. Okay. Like you don't have to adapt something one-to-one. You just have to adapt it enough so that we can, so it hits our lizard brain and goes, oh that's that thing I like.
01:07:26
Speaker
In a way that shows that you understand what it is that makes the game itself successful.
Nintendo's Live-Action Adaptation History
01:07:31
Speaker
Exactly, yes. To to the broader audience. And apparently that is a very difficult thing to do with video games. Yes, yes.
01:07:39
Speaker
100%. That's the problem. That's the problem with most video game adaptations. Which, ah I mean, this is the first live-action video game adaptation that Nintendo has done since 1993, which I think deserves some conversation.
01:07:54
Speaker
Shout out to Super Mario Brothers. But i think I think the Mario thing is kind of important, to at least in some ways, to the development of this movie. Like, it took them...
01:08:06
Speaker
years and years and years to come out with another live action adaptation of any Nintendo game. And even then it was only the most popular franchise that they've had in their history. And, and even then after several animated films, some of which had varying degrees of success in America, that they even considered releasing something ah in in live action again, like that is I mean, they they that is the extent to which they were so badly burned by by Super Mario Brothers, which I find fascinating.
01:08:42
Speaker
no well Fascinating, but understandable. Yeah. Oh, no, absolutely. they They weren't just burned. They were torched. Like, I mean, and it was... it was And in part, it was because this is like the first Super Mario Brothers is the first video game movie ever.
01:09:03
Speaker
So no one really knows how to adapt one. The only thing that people really learn after Super Mario Brothers is, OK, not like that. That's true. but and And I know this is something that we've kind of talked about earlier.
01:09:16
Speaker
in in the past on this podcast is just the notion that there are so few good video game adaptations. And I don't know what it is, but since like 2019, we've started to see some actual pretty good ones coming out. Why do you think that is?
01:09:35
Speaker
That's a good question. One that many people have tried to answer. Because i mean between this and Sonic the Hedgehog, which I think comes out like the same year or maybe the year before, like those are two really solid video game adaptations. Am I right? Mm-hmm.
01:09:55
Speaker
Well, Sonic isn't really an adaptation of anything other than just Sonic the Hedgehog himself. Oh, Sonic comes out the following year. Sorry. Yeah. like sonic sonic is not Sonic is just an adaptation of the character.
01:10:08
Speaker
um Okay. It is not based on any game whatsoever. Okay. but So so you you would say that is the the key to its success then? I would say so. Because you could try to adapt the story of the games, but there's not much there.
01:10:23
Speaker
and so I guess my next question then is how does it... how does it then still appeal to the diehard fans of the game? Because if it's that successful, it must on some level appeal to fans of the games as well. Right?
01:10:38
Speaker
Yeah. Because the parts that they did adapt, see my previous statement are true to the games, true to the heart of the games, true to the humor and vibe.
01:10:51
Speaker
Um, it's, it's, they're true to the character. Like, yeah, Sonic and in later Tails and Knuckles and Shadow are all their are characters. Like, they're... It's not... Because, I mean, look at what happened with Sonic.
01:11:09
Speaker
Like, the they released the the early trailer with that really shitty version of Sonic with the actual, like human teeth. And they're like, the fuck is going on?
01:11:21
Speaker
Yeah. Like, they bullied them into... doing the right thing. One of the few instances of and an internet uproar that actually ended well, as opposed to, you know, usually those things tend to end with people abandoning social media and like quitting acting and things like that.
01:11:43
Speaker
Well, luckily that was just bullying the studio. think that's why it worked. um They weren't bullying the That might have been the culmination, even though it came out a year after this. That might have been the culmination, the turning point That might have been the turning point where the fans were like, we are fed up with you fucking studios not understanding how to adapt a game.
01:12:10
Speaker
Get your shit together. And they listened, saw that listening to that was successful, And then you know few years later, get get The Last of Us. you get Fallout.
01:12:24
Speaker
You get the Super Mario Bros. movie. like Now, yeah to be fair, you also get Minecraft, and we're we're not going to talk about that because it makes me personally angry. we We might actually have to talk about it, depending on how well it goes in theaters. us. I mean, we are going to have to talk about, what's that, was it Shadowlands? Is that the name of that game? Borderlands. Borderlands, that's it. yeah You get your Minecrafts, you get your Borderlands. Those are people, those are studios that still that are still like living in the past.
01:12:58
Speaker
thinking we're just going to take this popular IP and try to adapt it without any understanding. Because now you've got stories coming out like this past week where the showrunner for the God of War TV show they're developing was like, I tried to play the games and I couldn't. I'm not a gamer. I don't get it.
01:13:18
Speaker
And you've got the community going, get this fucker away from this property immediately. Right. Which makes sense. like Again, if... it Because it's it's the he-who-must-not-be-named approach to superhero filmmaking when he comes on to – when they ask him, hey, do you want to make X-Men? He's like, fuck no. I don't want to make a superhero movie.
01:13:37
Speaker
um because he And then yeah someone like sits him down and explains to him, you know oh, there are themes here that you probably will relate to. And he goes, oh. OK, I can do that. And that's what starts the the superhero boom that has lasted to this day is 2000s X-Men.
01:13:54
Speaker
and And it comes from it initially came from that's why they're too afraid to put them in the real costumes. They have to be wearing like the leather that was so popular in the in the mid to late ninety s like there' therere But the spirit of the thing is intact.
01:14:11
Speaker
A thing I up until recently called the game in principle, but I'm thinking of renaming for obvious reasons, um is is just this notion that as long as the spirit of the thing is intact, then it will be successful because it will still appeal to the fans of the thing. Sometimes the particulars don't matter as much as the the broader themes of the projects.
01:14:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. like take Take the Super Mario Brothers movie, for example. they The cast of that movie is absolutely Hollywood schlock, ridiculous bullshit.
01:14:44
Speaker
Right. But the movie itself... Which I still have not seen....is so true to like the spirit of Super Mario. like It's a great movie. I really enjoyed it.
01:14:55
Speaker
I hate having to listen to that cast do the do the voices of these characters... because it it's it's so traditional Hollywood bullshit. like Sure, I believe it. Instead of getting people that could have actually done legitimately good jobs, you get...
01:15:13
Speaker
popular a-list celebrities to do it like yeah you get you get chris pratt stop and charlie day look i love charlie day charlie is a great guy he's not the voice of luigi though right and look i love jack black he's not bowser like come the fuck on why how do you feel about anya taylor joyous peach she did a fine job It's okay.
01:15:38
Speaker
Okay. i But, i mean I mean, just like Charlie Day was okay as Luigi, but I...
01:15:46
Speaker
It just feels like you got you had to put a big name celebrity in the credits. Right. And you chose to do that over choosing somebody who's good for the job, better for the job.
01:15:57
Speaker
Right. i'm not No, I'm not one of those people that was like Charles Martinet needed to be the voice of Mario. I don't think he's great in small bursts in the games. Exactly. iconic for that.
01:16:09
Speaker
But I don't know if he could have done that through an entire movie. And it probably would have graded on some people that had to to actually have to hear him do that. Yeah. but he's He's iconic for his let's-a-go and his yahoo. That's great.
01:16:26
Speaker
It's a me. It's a me. That's all. That's all he does. That's all he needs to do. Exactly. you But like you could you could have maybe just hired like an actual Italian or an Italian-American person to do it, maybe. then oh oh heaven Heaven forbid we do that.
01:16:45
Speaker
um just You know who I think would have made a fucking killer Mario based on it based on and and you know that I think Bob Hoskins was a great Mario. um That movie did him no favors, but I Bob Hoskins can do no wrong. OK, I will not put any blame on Bob Hoskins. Nor will I hear at Bob Hoskins slander.
01:17:03
Speaker
um You know who I think could have would have would have probably had a really fun time with it is James Gandolfini.
01:17:12
Speaker
probably yeah i think he's a little bit too old i'm well he's he's he's also at this point a little too i mean he's dead he's dead now but like if if you were to like say take you know sopranos james gandalfini and like have him voice mario he sounds too old um but that's neither here nor there it might have worked i don't know what about what about bobby cannaval who the fuck that is.
01:17:39
Speaker
Oh. i He's the he's the the the cop husband in Ant-Man, in the Ant-Man movies.
01:17:49
Speaker
Okay. He's a theater guy, which is sure why I know him. But yeah, he's done all sorts of shit. It could probably work. There go. Bobby Cannavale from Mario. Yeah, just, I don't know. Just figure something out. It doesn't be Chris Pratt.
01:18:03
Speaker
Why? ah Anyone but Chris Pratt? Why? but And that that was when he was on that run of animated shit where he was just getting hired to do every voice of every animated character.
01:18:17
Speaker
And I think it was because the Lego movie was so good and people liked the Lego movie and people like the Jurassic World and the Guardians of the Galaxies. People love Chris Pratt. And the internet's like, no, we don't.
01:18:30
Speaker
and Cast someone else. I mean, well, we did. We loved Chris Pratt there for a long time. And then we found out what a piece of shit he is. no But he's not enough of a piece of shit to be canceled.
01:18:44
Speaker
Because here's the thing. like ah People that work with him love him. Love working with him. They're like, this guy, he's great. this is This guy is my kind of guy. um But then you know his he like refuses to renounce like some of the practices of his church, which are very ah you know anti-queer, anti- um you know, but like very, very not progressive, very, very, very church-like behavior from these churches, ah which I think is why a lot of people are, and and his his refusal to kind of separate himself from that, the whole thing with ah leaving Anna Faris for Schwarzenegger's daughter, like all that kind of, I think, rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
Resident Evil Films and Adaptation Challenges
01:19:25
Speaker
We don't look, we don't need to litigate Chris Pratt. No, I just, I just need to rail against him as Mario is all I need And Garfield. And Garfield.
01:19:38
Speaker
Yeah. I have a feeling. Well, I have a feeling we're going to be covering that Garfield movie. Probably some point. Absolutely. We are. That movie came and went, and I knew it was going to come and go and Why did that movie even exist? Anyway. Correct. You're right.
01:19:54
Speaker
You're right. You should say it. Yeah. so so But I mean, like, yeah he' like it back to my original point. Yes. As long as it stays true to the heart and the feeling and the vibe of the thing, that's that's all that needs to be there.
01:20:15
Speaker
Sort of. I say that because like there still does need to be... because because You could argue in the first couple... this is why I will somewhat defend the second Resident Evil movie.
01:20:28
Speaker
And maybe that's because I love fan service and I'm a sucker for fan service. You really are. ah But like. it See, it has the opposite effect on me. Whereas I'm like, don't you fucking pander to me, you pieces of shit.
01:20:40
Speaker
Whereas you're just like, yes, put it in my veins. and Pander to me more, please. it's It's the reason that we land where we do on a certain movie that we will not mention. Yes.
01:20:52
Speaker
That has passed on. Correct. It's in in the afterlife. um You can hear us talk about it for the last time recorded on Patreon.
01:21:03
Speaker
Patreon.com slash DisinfranchPod. Because the first two Resident Evil movies capture the vibe. And...
01:21:22
Speaker
I mean, I don't know if it has the heart, really. or like but it doesn't mean But, like, it's...
01:21:31
Speaker
The vibe is there. okay Not much else, but the vibe is there. I mean, that's something. According to kind of what the the treatise that we're operating under, that's that's a huge part of it. Yeah.
01:21:43
Speaker
And especially the second one. The second one is full of so many references and fan service that, like...
01:21:54
Speaker
I guess it's different now because like at the time that was easily the best Resident Evil movie just because of all the fan service because it came across as like, okay, this was made by somebody who played these games and,
01:22:09
Speaker
knows this story and is telling it just in their own way. Right. um Why this Alice character is there, have no idea other than, you know, he's married to her. She was in the last Well, the fact that she's in them at all is because he's married to her.
01:22:31
Speaker
So like, and and because she wanted to make
01:22:37
Speaker
that's That's the weird production thing is like she was a fan of the games and wanted to make a movie.
01:22:46
Speaker
When she pursued it, she found out Paul W.S. Anderson was like, well, they're already doing this. So why don't you go meet with him? um I might have talked about this on the Tomb Raider episode. So apologize if I'm repeating myself. Steven wasn't there.
01:23:01
Speaker
I was not. So I'm hearing all this for the first time. Steven's hearing it for the first time. You know, fast forward maybe like 20 minutes if you don't want to hear me repeat all this. Yeah. uh, we'll check in in about 20 minutes and I'll let you know if I'm still talking about it.
01:23:15
Speaker
Um, so that's how they meet. Um, and you know, they hit it off and he's like, you know, infatuated with her and it's like, you know what?
01:23:30
Speaker
Don't blame him. She's beautiful. And incredibly talented. I'm going to impress this woman by giving her this role in the movie. but like But she does... i want to I want to impress her by giving her this role in this movie, but like she doesn't fit any of the characters in the games.
01:23:44
Speaker
I wonder what I can do. I know. I'll create in a completely original character, whole cloth, and ignore the story 100%. That'll work. There you go And it did.
01:23:56
Speaker
ah She married him. um I think they're still married. They are still married. Yeah. Good for them. um
01:24:07
Speaker
He has the sole writing credit on all six of those movies. Yeah. Like he is the the only person who wrote...
01:24:18
Speaker
All six of those. You see, part of the problem is that even Mila Jovovich and Paul W.S. Anderson didn't really, as far as I've heard from interviews, they played the original three games, but didn't do anything after that.
01:24:35
Speaker
So like they only have like, so Paul W.S. Anderson only has that to go off of. So at that point, then they're kind of riffing within the world rather than actually adapting. and Yeah. And then looking up a Wikipedia article and picking and choosing what looks cool from there.
01:24:48
Speaker
um you know oh this character is in the games we got to use them or this character is in that game we got to use them we haven't used this character from the first game yet he's going to be in the sixth movie um so like that's what happened there gotcha and it it just gets further and further from the source material because when you start off ignoring the source material It's only going to get worse.
01:25:16
Speaker
You're not going to be able to steer the ship back to proper source material. That wouldn't make any sense. Well, and again, I think that's the problem of a lot of early video game adaptations. And again, this is... The first Resident Evil movie comes less than 10 years after Super Mario Bros. It's in 2002. So, like, there's still...
01:25:35
Speaker
so like there's still Again, we've we've come this far and we're only now starting to get into people figuring out how to adapt these things. I had heard up until Detective Pikachu came out, the most...
01:25:56
Speaker
or or the best video game adaptation kind of by default was Silent Hill. Is that correct? That's the one I always said. it's It's the one that I would always defend. I was going to say, and you're you're not alone, and you're not the only person to say that to me either. Past and future guests, Samuel Dumas, would say that as well.
01:26:12
Speaker
ah My old co-host on Rule of Thirds, Caleb Dunkerson, would say that as well. like That was kind of the go-to until Detective... Because it fits... the theme we're talking about the silent hill movie nails absolutely fucking nails the vibe and the heart and the this just the feeling of a silent hill game um
01:26:37
Speaker
Which allows you to ignore the inconsistencies with its storytelling based on the video games. Makes sense. related Because... And and that's and that's ah that movie is a great example of the studio interference that thinks...
01:26:54
Speaker
that there's something about the game that won't work. Right. It just flat out thinks it won't work. Like in the games, it's Harry Mason and his daughter that get lost in Silent Hill.
01:27:06
Speaker
But the studio thought, well, there father and daughter, that people are going to relate to a mother and daughter more. um So we're we're just going to change that. and It sort of works. ah it is It's sort of better.
01:27:21
Speaker
Well, not better. like It's okay. it's okay i mean Better than other you know video game adaptations. Yeah. like it's That's not a terrible change, but it's the reasoning is stupid.
01:27:33
Speaker
it's like it's It's a change for the sake of making a change. like Exactly. We talked about this in our Planet of the Apes episode, ah the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes, is that sometimes there's just a producer who gets, you know, a bug up his butt about something. It's like, I have to put my stamp on this movie.
01:27:47
Speaker
So I'm going to, you know, insist on this change being made so that people know that I had something to do with this. Right. That's exactly what it is.
01:27:59
Speaker
Because then that's and the tale as old as time when it comes to video game adaptations is the argument that you have this property that works, that has millions of fans that already love this story.
Adapting Video Games: Tomb Raider and Silent Hill
01:28:14
Speaker
Why fuck with it so much? Right. Fuck with it a little bit because it's an adaptation. and You have to. Why are you like take Tomb Raider, for example, why are you going to could take this story that could have worked, at least partially worked in movie form, chuck it out the window and do something completely different because you have to re-characterize Laura.
01:28:38
Speaker
Right. And I mean, yeah, because it's it's her before the video games, right? We have to do the origin of every character. Yeah, well, I mean, the video game is her her before she's Laura Croft, right? like But like in the in the in the video game, she starts off as like a rich, very intelligent, successful college student who like wants to...
01:29:01
Speaker
Pursue this thing she found right gets a group together sails off to this island and that's when shit happens sure but in the movie She has to be a down on her luck woman who is refusing her inheritance. She doesn't want it.
01:29:19
Speaker
She's better than that. right She doesn't want handouts. and like So she's just down on her luck, doesn't have any money, refuses the inheritance, like has to scrape and claw to find this boat to get to the island to find her dad.
01:29:33
Speaker
Because, you know, she can't have this thought on her own. has to follow her dad. i Which is storewar partially the story of the second game. Right. Crammed into the first movie for whatever fucking reason.
01:29:49
Speaker
Because apparently people wouldn't have liked a rich, successful Lara Croft. She needed to be more relatable. Well, you know, that was during that was, you know, around the time when we were all about eating the rich, which, by the way, that hasn't changed. But here we are. We're, you know, basically being run by an oligarch dictatorship now. So I mean, sure. I mean, I get that. But like at the same time, you you fix that by making her a likable character. that's what the video game did.
01:30:14
Speaker
Right. you You make her a likable character by putting her through this adversity that the game does. There there are certain rich characters we just don't mind, like Scrooge McDuck.
01:30:25
Speaker
Everyone loves Scrooge McDuck. yeah no No one's going to say any bad thing about Uncle Scrooge, but he's, you know, he's a fucking billionaire. Like, you know. So, you know, there there are ways around that and ways to connect, may help help characters connect in that way. But that means you can't write it lazily. You actually have to, you know, do some legwork and and and make it make sense.
01:30:49
Speaker
Yeah. and and And that way of thinking completely erases like five other interesting characters. Right. Or four. and But there's still, there's like, there's a group.
01:31:02
Speaker
And maybe Tucker was right. Tucker was said if they wanted to go that route, it would' have worked better as a series than a movie. Maybe he's right. Maybe that's too much for a movie. Yeah. And that's 100% what I think a lot of, and that's why a lot of these are going to TV now, rather than like Last of Us, Fallout, great examples where you're telling that that kind of story in um in a more long form way.
01:31:23
Speaker
And it fits better because there's so much story there to tell. And you can really like dig into character and, you know, spread out the Easter eggs and stuff like that. Like it, I think it, something like that tends to work a little better in a long form format.
01:31:41
Speaker
Yeah, and and I would agree. Because the games themselves take hours to play. Like, why wouldn't you take hours to tell that story instead of trying to cram it all into an hour and a half, two hours?
01:31:52
Speaker
Right. That's very true. Whereas it it kind of works with this movie, with Detective Pikachu. Because I think the world is so fleshed out, because most people coming to this into this movie hey at least have an understanding of Pokemon. It it is, Brett, I'm going to tangent here for a second.
01:32:12
Speaker
It is so weird to hear like really great character actors like Bill Nighy and Ken Watanabe talking about Pokemon. like It's just really weird to me. Because you can almost tell they have no idea what they're saying.
01:32:27
Speaker
And it's just kind of like, well, these are these are really weird things to say. That's odd. um but yeah But they're probably used to it. I mean, you know, Ken Watanabe was in Godzilla, right?
01:32:38
Speaker
Sure. Let them fight. Yeah. And Bill Nighy was in the Underworld movies. So, like, he's used to it. Fuck, that's right, he was. He's used to talking crazy gibberish all the time. I've blocked those movies so far out of my head. He's also in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. like And that's the thing. And Shaun of the Dead. He's used to those shenanigans. I ran it under a cold tap.
01:32:58
Speaker
um God, I love Shaun of the Dead. The... the Yeah, you're right. Like that that is part of what it is to be an actor. But like, i don't know, it just feels like the word Pokemon just feels so foreign and coming out of their mouths. Like, and you could tell like, this is a the they the um they're almost like this is a weird thing for me to have to say.
01:33:20
Speaker
Sure. Whereas with someone like, ah you know, Catherine Newton or Justice Smith, it's like, yeah, we grew up playing Pokemon. We know what Pokemon are. Yeah, that's a Psyduck. That's a Pikachu. Yeah, let's just move on.
01:33:31
Speaker
Whereas Bill Nighy's like, yes, it's all about the relationship of people with their Pokemon. And you're just like, hmm. You keep on saying this word, but I don't think it means what you think it means. Like...
01:33:46
Speaker
I mean, sure. Yeah. i don't know. It just, it it felt weird to me and it's probably just a me thing, but yeah, I was just like, I don't know. I mean, at least they're pronouncing it correctly.
01:33:57
Speaker
True. Because, I mean, outside of learning how to pronounce it for a movie, I have to imagine like somebody like Bill Nighy is pronouncing it, you know, Pokemon. Or Pokemon.
01:34:07
Speaker
Pokemon. Or... Pokemans. Pokeman. Or something like that. Right, could you got the accent there. Pokeman. Yeah, would make sense. i mean like that's that's like Actually, Pokemon is really how most adults pronounce it.
01:34:22
Speaker
like they They think that the E is it's a long E for some fucking reason. um I like saying Pokemans just to like irritate people sometimes. I mean, yeah.
01:34:35
Speaker
I will that will be the first to tell you sometimes it's fun to just mispronounce something on purpose. Sure. Ridiculously mispronounce something on purpose gets' me gets a laugh out of me every time. Yeah.
01:34:50
Speaker
And another thing I will say, um and I don't know if I've mentioned this in our Green Lantern episode or in our um X-Men Origins Wolverine episode, but I do not care for Ryan Reynolds.
Detective Pikachu: Humor and World-Building
01:35:04
Speaker
Hey. Like the fact that he, after Deadpool kind of became like the poster child for Hollywood snark for a while and like was in every movie for,
01:35:17
Speaker
honestly, like the last 10, 13 years, i it's exhausting to me. He's definitely overstayed his welcome. I mean, there's definitely a time there for a while where it was endearing and i quite liked Ryan Reynolds. I thought he was a funny individual and charming.
01:35:35
Speaker
um Not really anymore. just kind of runs its course. even Even before, like... like the the Deadpool thing when he kind of was boosted back into the public consciousness.
01:35:48
Speaker
I always kind of found his like shtick very ah little, a little heavy handed. Like I was always just kind of like, all right, and we get it. You're snarky. You're funny. People find you endearing. I find you annoying.
01:36:01
Speaker
Let's let's get on with it. But yeah, like going back that far, that feels more contrarian Steven than anything. I ah know just, it just, I just, I didn't care for it.
01:36:12
Speaker
Like, and I'm not, and I don't say that to be a contrarian, but like Van Wilder, i was like, no, thank you. Um, Like, you know, I, I would have thought he would have been an interesting flash in a, in a DC movie, but he got cast as green lantern instead, which I thought he was fundamentally wrong for. Like, I, and I do think I mentioned that on our green lantern episode, but just like, I've just never really cared for him as a performer. Like sometimes performers just kind of rub you the wrong way. Like he's always been one of those guys.
01:36:41
Speaker
So when he kind of like became like the it guy for a while, was kind of like, I was just i don't under, I don't get it. Like I just, it never understood Yeah.
01:36:53
Speaker
Hey, that's your opinion, man. yeah I think we all feel about it. I think everybody, the zeitgeist has caught up to that opinion. um and in For sorry, yes. Yeah.
01:37:04
Speaker
Well, and I think this whole thing with him and and Blake and the the movie that they that she did with this creepy director dude last year, like everything about everything surrounding that just feels...
01:37:16
Speaker
um like Like everyone's just like, all right, just shut the fuck up and every everyone every one of you go away. Like we're kind of all tired of this. so Yeah.
01:37:28
Speaker
Because I will tell you, i love Deadpool and Wolverine, but he's my least favorite part of it. Yeah. The reason I love Deadpool Wolverine so much is just because... it's It's the payoff to watching all the MCU movies and all the Marvel movies and all the... It's the payoff for watching Supergirl movies for like 25 years. Yeah. Yeah.
01:37:51
Speaker
Not because Ryan Reynolds is a great Deadpool. He's a fine Deadpool, I guess. But like... Yeah, I mean, yeah, again, i but I never cared for that character either, which is another part of it. Like, everyone's like, Deadpool, he's great. And I was like, I i never got the like and the appeal of the character. was just no thank you for me. He he has to have a really good writer behind him. Like, you can't you can't be doing this stupid edgy stuff like Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe. I read that and was, like, rolling my eyes after fucking time. Like, why are we here?
01:38:20
Speaker
Why are you doing this? I read The Punisher kills the Marvel Universe. That was fun. but it's not i don't i mean why are you doing this like what's the point like sure no and i i yeah so like and i don't know like but deadpool wolverine pure unadulterated fan service so it does not surprise me that you really love that movie uh i i thought it was fine at best but that should come as no surprise to anyone
01:38:51
Speaker
No, not at all. But, you know, ah whereas this movie I thought was good. Like, I enjoyed Detective Pikachu, despite the Ryan Reynolds of it all. ah The fact that I don't have to look at him, I think, helps.
01:39:03
Speaker
um this looking And that Pikachu is absolutely adorable. So that helps, again, a good deal. Uh, and I love that Pikachu drinks coffee and I love coffee and Pikachu loves coffee. So I'm like, Oh, I, I understand this guy.
01:39:17
Speaker
Like, I mean, this makes sense. And it does. I really, honestly, love the humor in the movie. It was very good job of like Pokemon are funny when you really think about it Like Psyduck. Psyduck in general is just a very funny Pokemon.
01:39:34
Speaker
The Mr. Mime scene might be my favorite scene in the whole movie. The Mr. Mime scene is great. Um, The Mr. Mime scene is is so incredibly funny. And then just some of the applications of the Pokemon I found really funny. Like I mentioned the Exploud speakers and and stuff like that. But just, you know, seeing like a Pokemon just doing something, and you're like, oh of course that Pokemon would be doing that in ah in a city setting.
01:39:57
Speaker
It was like Ludicolo was helping the bartender. yes Yeah, absolutely. ah The squirtles on the fire department I mentioned before, ah that you would just look randomly look up in the sky and there'd be like a Pidgeot or a Pidgeotto or a Firo or a Spearow flying overhead. Like all of that makes perfect sense.
01:40:16
Speaker
yeah And just in in some of those moments had like a little, you know, kind of tinge of humor to them as well. Like a Snorlax just sleeping in the middle of the street. So people are like directing traffic around it.
01:40:27
Speaker
That's a great visual gag. That's a great sight. Yeah. yeah That's absolutely what happens in universe all the time. Yeah. That's, that's like, literally that's how you find Snorlax in the game is he just, he's asleep in the middle of the road and that he, it had me sleep. He's sleeping in two different places.
01:40:45
Speaker
And that's, that's your chance to catch a Snorlax is when he's just sleeping and blocking your path. That's it. Yeah, it' it's a perfect encapsulation of really what I'm talking about. i it Not only is that a callback and potentially an Easter egg to the first game where you have to do that because he's blocking a road, but it's also just something that would happen in this universe. I just i assume Snorlax doesn't give two shits.
01:41:10
Speaker
Like if he's tired, he's going to fall down somewhere and go to sleep. He doesn't care where it is. Absolutely. and doesn't care he's inconveniencing for doing so. Right. And it just again, it's like a huge city. But then, you know, shit as someone who just moved out of a major metropolitan area, shit like that happens in the city all the time.
01:41:27
Speaker
Like, you know, something will go wrong. like a ah But, you know, in this case, it's an animal that fell asleep. And if you if you hit it, it will do more damage to your car than to the animal, like in this particular instance. So like in more ways than one, not only like hitting it, but also it'll wake him up.
01:41:46
Speaker
And he's going to fuck up your car. Correct. Because Snorlax are notoriously very angry if you wake them up before they're supposed to be woken up. Exactly. Which is why they always come in hot after you play the Poké Flute.
01:41:57
Speaker
But, you know, it's stuff like that, like youre you're right there, there is humor kind of embedded and it's not just the, the gag. It's not just the dialogue. It's inherent within just the, and again, it it makes it clear that they've thought through on the world building, which again, I'm a sucker for goodwill world building.
01:42:15
Speaker
If you've, if you've constructed a very well, ah you know constructed a well thought out world, I'm going to get lost in it. Because that's just who I am.
01:42:25
Speaker
Like, i love world building. So this this is a very well actualized notion of what it is for Pokemon to be living in the world that we live in.
01:42:39
Speaker
Like, and it it it fits. It's really funny. I love that the... i That first shot of the snubble as you pan up from the from Ken Watanabe's desk and you just see this glowering snubble.
01:42:53
Speaker
And he's just like, oh no, he's he's really sweet. And he's just like growling the whole time. It's just... perfect. Like, it's just so... such an And the idea that that Ken Watanabe has a snubble, too, is also inherently hilarious.
01:43:09
Speaker
Yeah. Like, I kind of love it. Yeah, man. is it thats It just goes back to what we've been saying. that It captures the heart and the spirit of the thing that's adapting.
01:43:21
Speaker
And that's all you gotta do. yeah I mean, honestly, making Mewtwo the focus... I mean, that was in the game, but like... You know, it's also fan service. like Mewtwo is like sort of like the unspoken mascot behind Pikachu.
01:43:38
Speaker
And he he is, i mean, he was the subject of the first the the first Pokemon movie that released in America. the poke Pokemon colon, the first movie, which I also saw in theaters.
01:43:51
Speaker
um But like he was the subject of that too. So if you're going to do a first live action movie, it makes sense that Mewtwo is kind of the crux behind it. Yeah. Yeah. So no, I totally get it.
01:44:02
Speaker
And then making a a ditto turn into a human fun. I don't know if that's a thing that happens in universe, but I don't see why it wouldn't be. I mean, I feel like a ditto could probably turn into a human.
01:44:14
Speaker
And I love that she wears the sunglasses to hide those cold dead Ditto eyes. Yeah, to hide the... That was fucking great. Like, that's always how... like that's It's sort of the thing. Like, some... I'm not one of these because I think it's funny.
01:44:29
Speaker
But, like, there there are some pedantic Pokemon fans that are like,
01:44:36
Speaker
That only happened in one episode of the anime because it was a ditto that didn't know how to transform all the way. Right. um But like theyve they, the Pokemon company has just adopted that as the way a ditto looks when it turns into something.
01:44:50
Speaker
And rightly so. Because it's hilarious. It's funny. It is. It's funny. goofy as shit and I laugh every time. And it allows them to be able to sell more merch because then you can sell the regular version and then then you can sell the Ditto version. They absolutely do.
01:45:04
Speaker
um and yeah And you know there there are people out there who are going to buy that shit. Oh yeah. and they say If they had made like a Ditto Houndoom I would have bought that shit right away.
01:45:16
Speaker
They haven't though because there's barely any Houndoom merch. I don't know why they keep disrespecting my boy like that. but I mean, it that's that's the problem when you you go outside the the mainstream, man. when you when you When you live your life on the fringes, people ain't making shit for you. Like, one of my favorite franchises is Gremlins. And compared to, like, your favorite franchise, Ghostbusters, they just ain't making the Gremlins merch like they're making the Ghostbusters merch, man.
01:45:41
Speaker
and that's That's true. as I see your point. I mean, maybe they've done focus groups and Houndoom wasn't very popular. It just seems like... At least around Halloween, I never understood it.
01:45:52
Speaker
He's a spooky dog. like Look, I get it. Ghosts. yeah Spooky ghosts. um But like why don't you do other spooky things?
01:46:04
Speaker
That's all I'm saying. but I mean your but no like ah i had oh um was going to tie it back into um I've been to the Pokemon Center in Tokyo.
01:46:17
Speaker
o and there is a plushie of every single pokemon don't get me wrong sure that is a thing right just depending on popularity you might see different kinds of merch based on popular pokemon which makes sense like i like pikachu is going to be on everything yeah top three pokemon i would say are pikachu mewtwo and gengar not eevee Oh, Eevee.
01:46:43
Speaker
Top four. Eevee. I was going to Eevee is hella fucking popular. Eevee and all of its Eeveelutions are definitely just as popular. Right. So those those are your top four. those are the Those are the Pokemon you're going to see the most merch of.
01:46:58
Speaker
ah Ditto might actually be up there, honestly. like ditos Even Ditto is just Ditto. is like Right. Yeah. Or Mew. Mew, kind of.
01:47:10
Speaker
But yeah, like I... You can find a plushie of every Pokemon. Mm-hmm. I had to wade through a lot in a crowded Pokemon Center in Tokyo.
01:47:21
Speaker
Fortunately, you're, like, really tall, so I'm sure you probably had to, like, you you were probably able to to get get in there and... No, I made it worse. Oh. Because, like, you know, my view is obscured obscured by the mass of people, like three feet shorter than me.
01:47:41
Speaker
I didn't want to say it. I'm glad you did. that like it The joke I'm big in Japan has been a joke for a very long time. ah and And it's going to be a joke we're going to be using again here very, very soon. Yeah.
01:47:55
Speaker
So, yeah, just I just wanted to tie that back in because like i i I saw this movie on the flight to Tokyo. Right. Yeah. A 12 hour flight to Tokyo.
01:48:09
Speaker
So let me ask you this, Brett, as we, as we, I were, we've been here almost two hours. I think we should probably bring this thing to a close. probably Yeah. um But so let me ask you this just point blank. Is this the best video game adaptation yet?
01:48:23
Speaker
No. Okay. No. I mean, if if you'd asked me when it came out, sure. I'd probably agree with you. Okay. and But now, no, not at all. It's fine. It's good. It is.
01:48:37
Speaker
What do you put at the top then? Last of Us. Last of Us. Okay. Fallout, like, well.
01:48:47
Speaker
Got him questioning his reality now, folks. i I mean, I want to put Fallout above Last of Us because I like Fallout. The game better. The game more than the Last of Us. Yeah.
01:48:59
Speaker
It might be one of those situations where like if you ask me tomorrow, I'll have a different answer. Sure. But for right now. They're both really good in their own different ways. Because Fallout is more goofy and over the top.
01:49:14
Speaker
Whereas Last of Us is very drama-grounded. Okay. Fallout's probably not going to make you cry. Sure. But episode like three of The Last of Us will make you cry harder than you've ever cried in anything ever.
01:49:29
Speaker
Sure. So let me ask you this. Let me amend my initial question. Is Detective Pikachu the best film adaptation of a video game yet? I think Super Mario Brothers beats it.
01:49:43
Speaker
Okay. I respect it. is I mean, it but that's also tough. Because you could argue for Pokemon. You could argue for Detective Pikachu.
01:49:55
Speaker
I don't include Sonic just because it's not a direct adaptation of a game. Sure. I mean, Super Mario Bros. isn't either, but like it's still set in that universe. Right. It's still Mario fighting Bowser.
01:50:08
Speaker
Well, I guess the Sonic movies is Sonic fighting Robotnik, so it's not really... I was going to say, and as you said earlier, it made it doesn't get the specifics, but it gets the spirit of the thing, which, and when it comes to adaptation, is what it takes to make a good adaptation of anything. So, as long as the spirit there, does that make it a good adaptation?
01:50:27
Speaker
i well then Well, I guess when it comes down to it,
01:50:32
Speaker
it's really just going to be which one I liked more. Okay.
01:50:40
Speaker
And which one did you like more? i don't know. I'm thinking about it. Okay.
01:50:45
Speaker
I'm going to defer for now. I don't know. It's one of those three. Okay. That's totally fair. And I respect – look, if if i'm going to respect anyone's opinion on this question, it's going to be you because you are the biggest video game fan that I know.
01:51:01
Speaker
So there it is. Best film adaptation is Assassin's Creed. There we go. so There it is. It's been decided.
Detective Pikachu Sequel and Listener Engagement
01:51:08
Speaker
yeah ah Pokemon Detective Pikachu came out on 10th, 2019. It opened second at the box office to office $144.
01:51:19
Speaker
fifty four point four million dollars on its way to a total domestic box office of one hundred and forty four point one million worldwide we get another 284.8 million for a total box office gross of 428.9 million dollars um in terms of a sequel they pretty much announced it before this movie even came out ah but it has been in development basically it's been in active development ever since without any kind of
01:51:57
Speaker
um momentum towards it. Last we heard was either the writer or the producer or the director or somebody in 2023 said it was an act of development.
01:52:09
Speaker
Yeah. Basically, Justice Smith said in 2001 that he didn't really have high hopes. ah He said, I think we just kind of have to bury our hopes. I don't think it's going to happen. I really hope so, though.
01:52:20
Speaker
ah The next year in 2022, Catherine Newton was like, yeah, I'd love to do it. um And then, yeah, February 2023, Legendary said it's still in active development. And in March, they announced ah March 2023.
01:52:33
Speaker
So, again, two years ago, they announced a director, Jonathan Kreisel, and the screenplay written by Chris Galetta. So we can't even get the the original team back together. So at this point, it kind of looks dead in the water.
01:52:47
Speaker
but Yeah. But what we do have is the box office. It opened at number two behind let me see here, third weekend of Avengers Endgame.
01:53:01
Speaker
Speaking of Marvel.
01:53:04
Speaker
Nothing has beaten that. Right, right. And then we also have in third place, The Hustle, which is that ah Rebel Wilson and Hathaway remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
01:53:20
Speaker
That's also opening new this week in fourth. Yeah. In fourth place, we have the intruder, ah which is a, ah movie with, uh, Dennis Quaid, apparently, um, stalking Michael Ely and Megan good.
01:53:39
Speaker
Um, I don't know this movie. This is like, but this was, I think part of Dennis, the, the Quaid a sense when Dennis Quaid started coming back, um, And then in fifth place, Longshot, which is what if but if Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron you know got together and she was like a presidential candidate or something like that.
01:53:59
Speaker
um Rounding out the top 10, you've got ah Palms in sixth place. I don't know what the fuck that is. A cheerleader movie, I guess. um In seventh place, we have Ugly Dolls, future episode of this podcast, Ugly Dolls.
01:54:13
Speaker
In eighth place, a movie called Breakthrough. Don't know what it's about. In ninth place, we have Tolkien, which is a J.R.R. Tolkien biopic starring, want to say Nicholas Holt.
01:54:26
Speaker
I think is that was like on his yes on his like um tour of playing various authors. And then finally in 10th place, ah see our episode on The Curse of Llorona.
01:54:40
Speaker
The Tomatometer score on this one is a 68%. The critics' consensus, Pokemon Detective Pikachu may not take its wonderfully bizarre premise as far as it could have, but this offbeat adaptation should catch most, if not all, of the franchise's fans.
01:54:58
Speaker
We've got a meta score of 53 based on mixture average reviews from 48 critics. And finally, the letterbox score as of right now is a 3.0. point zero Brett, out of five stars, how many are you giving to Pokemon Detective Pikachu? All of those scores are surprisingly low, but I'm going to go with a four.
01:55:22
Speaker
I am too. It's a four for me also. um I had a lot of fun with it. ah Even the second time had a lot of fun with it. It's, it's a fun movie. And again, it gets so much right. It gets more right than it gets wrong, which is, I think what, what makes it so fun for me.
01:55:41
Speaker
And again, this is one of the few video games that I have any kind of stock in. So sure. Yeah. So there you go. And that is our episode on.
01:55:55
Speaker
what is movie? Pokemon, Detective, Pikachu. And that is the end of our second of three consecutive theme months for the year 2025. This is the end of our Oops All Video Game theme month.
01:56:08
Speaker
ah Brett, as as the impetus for and the one who selected all the movies we covered, how how do you feel? how you feeling now at the end of Oops All Video Game month?
01:56:19
Speaker
Tired. There. I'm tired, Grandpa. No. Are you going to come back and join us for our next theme month, which is also one of those we're designing this to try to get Brett back into the end of the rotation more often theme months.
01:56:35
Speaker
like I don't know, man. What is it? ah We're doing yeah our second sequel theme month ah after our the success of our ah Arnie April 2 Austrian Boogaloo from last year.
01:56:49
Speaker
ah This year we're for April, we're doing ah Big in Japan 2 colon Even Bigger. I don't know. Maybe. So, I don't know. check Check what episodes we got coming up.
01:57:01
Speaker
We got a guest scheduled for for one of those, too. So, I don't know. Check and see what yeah what sounds good to you. I'll see. look I'm the, you know, I'm the, what have I described myself as? I'm the wacky neighbor that shows up every once in a while.
01:57:19
Speaker
So maybe, so man I hope so. I hope we, I hope we see it. We got, we got some fun episodes coming up. So ah stay tuned for that. ah You can find the disenfranchised podcast, wherever you get your podcast. You can also shoot us an email disenfranchised pod at gmail.com.
01:57:34
Speaker
Listen to hours of Patreon content over at patreon.com slash disenfranchised pod. Yeah. for five bucks a month, you get included on that tier that allows you to see, Oh shit. What was the, the, our Ghostbusters rankings are, are disenfranchised on the rankings of ghosts, but all the, the Ghostbusters films, which is the last time Brett and I will ever discuss that movie that got mentioned earlier ah ah on a, on a recorded microphone and probably in private too, because we just have agreed. There's a tacit agreement not to discuss that film.
01:58:08
Speaker
Ghostbusters afterlife. He's talking about Ghostbusters afterlife. I'm not allowed to mention it, but since he did, it's i guess it's okay. It's fine. We can, we can mention the name. We just won't get into our feelings about it anymore on Mike or probably in person or in person. Yeah, no. Yeah, probably not. Um, let's just be honest. Some, some topics you just don't bring up and play company.
01:58:30
Speaker
Um, you can also join the official conversation of the disenfranchised podcast over on Patreon by joining at the free level. Uh, we drop our main feed episodes there as well. So you can engage with us directly. You can comment. Tucker and I generally try to respond when we can.
01:58:44
Speaker
ah But yeah, head on over patreon.com slash disenfranchpod. Join us at any level for so for a really good time. ah You can find the podcast on ah very few social media platforms now. We're on Letterboxd, Blue Sky, and YouTube. That's pretty much it at disenfranchpod.
01:59:00
Speaker
ah You can find our absent co-host Tucker. at ice nine zero nine that's ice e n i n e the number zero and the number nine on uh youtube and instagram you can also find him at tuck underscore mugs at instagram as well and brett where can we find you on socials these days absolutely nowhere maybe on letterboxd every once in a while it's us underscore warlock but other that i'm a ghost there it is there it is he's he's a ghost much like the pokemon he does love to collect
01:59:33
Speaker
Fuck social media. ah Honestly. Yeah. And I am Chewy Walrus on, what is it? Blue Sky and Letterboxd. That's pretty much all I do these days. So.
01:59:46
Speaker
So yeah, there you go. That's where you can find us. um And yeah, if you do enjoy what we're doing, let us know. Give us a rating and review over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.
01:59:57
Speaker
Five-star rating and review really does help us find more people like you. And that is the end, the end end of the episode. So there you go Brett, it's it's been like old times doing this with you today.
02:00:13
Speaker
it's it's It's been like, we we should we should try to do this more often. We should. Sorry, Tucker. Yeah. No, we, no, we look, we love Tucker, but there's just something about getting the old magic back.
02:00:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's nice. This, this was a good, this was a good chat. And the band back together. Absolutely. From, from the, from the OG days, the early days, the salad days.
02:00:38
Speaker
All right. I'm shut up and and shut this thing down. Thank you guys for listening. We really do appreciate it. We would not do it if you didn't. um and We probably would. We just like talking to each other, but i don't know. Recording it, recording it feels a little extra special. Letting you guys listen in on our conversation feels a little special. So um that has been the end of our oops, all.
02:01:00
Speaker
video game corner theme month. So until next time, I'm your host, Stephen Foxworthy for my colleagues, Brett Wright and Tucker. Until next time, game over.