Adult millennial protagonist wanted to be a pokemon trainer when he was a kid, but that was then, and this is now. Now he’s an adult, and this is a real world with bills to pay and dangers to avoid and without his parents to rely on. And you can’t just get distracted by every childish dream.
Pikachu, both the textual and metatextual representation of said childhood dreams, manifests himself in protagonist’s home, asking him to go on an adventure.
The setting and character design seeks to strike a balance. This isn’t a “gritty” reboot, where cynicism prevails and childhood dreams are crushed. But it also isn’t a glistening plasticine saturated and flat (literally two dimensional) cartoon world. There’s a more complex realization of the designs of that cartoon world, but no attempt to say those designs were bad or the ideas not sophisticated enough.
So, calling upon hope itself, Pikachu vies for the aid of a world-weary protagonist. Pikachu, who is himself chasing a silly impossible “childish” dream.
Ideally, together the two embark on an adventure to both solve their present dilemmas, but also to reconcile what they each represent and make it clear to the audience that you don’t have to choose. You don’t have to choose between pragmatism and idealism. You don’t have to abandon hope in order to pursue truth. Your childhood dreams and your adult realities are not as incompatible as you might have thought. There is nothing about being a grown-up that means you have to stop loving Pikachu.
This is my basic assumption, based on the trailer, for what the movie’s going for. Whether it works will be an incredible tonal and practical balancing act, but if it manages it I think it’ll be another Lego Movie style gem.
Detective Pikachu is designed to make millennials cry and honestly it might work
Comments are closed.
~My Tumblr Back-Up And Stuffs~ 