50 Fun Facts About Detective Pikachu

Which actor did 40,000 Detective Pikachu fans petition to voice the gruff hero of the game in English?

Danny DeVito declined to audition, saying he had never even heard of Pokémon. The campaign began after the game's 2016 release in Japan.

Which Canadian actor supplied both the voice and the motion capture for Detective Pikachu in the 2019 film?

Ryan Reynolds wore a head-mounted camera while running through dozens of facial expressions, and animators used that library to shape Pikachu's face.

Which headache-plagued Pokémon is the partner of junior reporter Lucy Stevens in Detective Pikachu?

Psyduck made the film because two of its screenwriters called it their favourite Pokémon. One said that, as a neurotic writer, he related to its habit of growing more stressed until it explodes.

Which Pokémon from the franchise's first animated film appears to cause the car crash in Detective Pikachu?

Mewtwo only seems guilty: it was shielding the missing detective from attackers, and its DNA had been used to make the gas that drives Pokémon wild.

Which Pokémon is interrogated in a Detective Pikachu scene modelled on the thriller Seven?

Mr. Mime stayed in only after the director pitched the scene to The Pokémon Company's president, who laughed and agreed. A real mime helped the cast rehearse it.

Which fire-breathing Pokémon must Detective Pikachu fight in the secret battle arena run by Sebastian?

Charizard is the partner of arena boss Sebastian, and extra audio for the bout was recorded at the 2018 Pokémon World Championships.

Angels with Filthy Souls, the fake gangster film seen in Detective Pikachu, was created for which comedy?

Home Alone invented the film, whose title parodies the 1938 crime drama Angels with Dirty Faces. The Pokémon film reuses its footage of the gangsters Johnny and Snakes.

A fake leak of the full Detective Pikachu film, posted on YouTube in May 2019, mostly showed Pikachu doing what?

Aerobics filled almost all of the video, which ran for nearly 1 hour 45 minutes to a 1980s-style synth tune. The studio posted the prank itself, and the film's star played along online.

Which blockbuster kept Detective Pikachu off the top of the US box office on its opening weekend in May 2019?

Avengers: Endgame held first place, though the Pokémon film still won the Friday and set a then-record opening for a video game adaptation.

The gruff, tough-talking hero of the Detective Pikachu games is known for his love of which drink?

Coffee is his signature vice: he is written as a gruff Pokémon who talks tough and loves it strong, a far cry from the squeaky mascot of the anime.

What is the name of the metropolis, founded by Howard Clifford, where Detective Pikachu takes place?

Ryme City is a place where humans and Pokémon live side by side, and where battles, Trainers and even Poké Balls are against the law.

Which actor from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom plays Tim Goodman, the human lead of Detective Pikachu?

Justice Smith was cast in November 2017, a month before the voice of his furry partner was chosen, and played many of their scenes opposite a puppet.

Which Big Little Lies actress plays Lucy Stevens, the reporter who teams up with Tim in Detective Pikachu?

Kathryn Newton won the part over Natalia Dyer, Haley Lu Richardson and Katherine Langford after an intense round of readings opposite the film's lead.

In Detective Pikachu, Howard Clifford's bodyguard Ms. Norman turns out to be which Pokémon in human disguise?

Ditto, genetically modified to copy people, also poses as Howard Clifford's son for much of the film. The real son turns up tied and gagged.

Detective Pikachu wears which style of hat in both the games and the 2019 film?

Deerstalker: the hat is borrowed from popular depictions of Sherlock Holmes, and it helps set this talking sleuth apart from every other Pikachu.

At the start of Detective Pikachu, the hero is suffering from which condition after a mysterious accident?

Amnesia has wiped out everything he knew about the case he was working on, which is why he needs Tim's help to retrace his own investigation.

At the end of Detective Pikachu, whose consciousness is revealed to have been sharing Pikachu's body all along?

Tim's father Harry was badly hurt in the crash, so his mind was placed inside his partner's body while his own was healed.

Which monkey Pokémon turn violent and attack Tim after he releases a purple gas in Detective Pikachu?

Aipom are also the first troublemakers in the original game, where a gang of them steals a necklace that Tim and Pikachu have to recover.

When Pikachu is badly hurt in Detective Pikachu, which Grass-type starter Pokémon leads Tim to help?

Bulbasaur guides the pair through the woods to a Pokémon able to heal Pikachu's injuries, a sequence the film's score calls The Forest of Healing.

Which skull-wearing Pokémon does Tim's friend Jack urge him to catch early in Detective Pikachu?

Cubone is the target chosen by Jack, played by Karan Soni, and the attempt gets its own cue on the film's score, Catching a Cubone.

Which mobile game promoted the Detective Pikachu film by adding a limited-edition Pikachu in a detective's hat?

Pokémon Go also featured other Pokémon seen in the film for the occasion, and a tie-in set of trading cards carried images from the movie.

Which European capital was the main filming base for Detective Pikachu in early 2018?

London was the base, with studio work at nearby Shepperton and Leavesden, while other scenes were shot in Scotland.

Which pop singer plays scientist Dr. Ann Laurent in Detective Pikachu and also sings on its single Carry On?

Rita Ora recorded Carry On with the Norwegian producer Kygo for the end credits. On screen she is the researcher running the experiments at the heart of the mystery.

The original Detective Pikachu game, released worldwide in March 2018, was made for which Nintendo system?

The 3DS received the full game two years after Japan got a shorter download-only version. The 2023 sequel moved the series to the Switch.

In the climax of Detective Pikachu, what does Howard Clifford use to release the purple gas over the streets?

Parade balloons carry the gas over the streets, and the villain then begins fusing people with their Pokémon, the reporter Lucy among them.

Which film took Detective Pikachu's record for the biggest North American opening weekend by a video game movie?

Sonic the Hedgehog opened to $58 million in North America, edging past the $54.4 million the Pokémon film had taken the previous May.

Having given up his dream of training Pokémon, Tim Goodman works in which job at the start of Detective Pikachu?

Insurance agent Tim abandoned that dream after his mother died and he grew estranged from his father, a detective who had moved away.

Which Love Actually star plays Howard Clifford, the founder of the metropolis in Detective Pikachu?

Bill Nighy plays the disabled visionary who presents himself as an ally before the film unmasks him as the mastermind behind the gas.

Which star of The Last Samurai plays police lieutenant Hideo Yoshida in Detective Pikachu?

Ken Watanabe also recorded his own lines for the Japanese-language release, in which other actors dubbed the film's young leads.

Which Fairy-type Pokémon is the partner of police lieutenant Hideo Yoshida in Detective Pikachu?

Snubbull looks fierce, with quivering jowls and an underbite, yet the bulldog-like species is known for being playful and kind.

Which Water-type Pokémon, boosted in power, ambush Tim and his allies at the abandoned lab in Detective Pikachu?

Greninja are later exposed as the real cause of the crash: a water shuriken left at the scene shows Pikachu who had attacked the car.

After escaping the lab in Detective Pikachu, the heroes cross a field of which Pokémon, grown to enormous size?

Torterra herds, in Pokémon lore, have been mistaken for forests moving on their own, a legend the film turns into a set piece on a giant scale.

What single letter is the name of the purple gas that sends Pokémon into a rage in Detective Pikachu?

R is made from the DNA of a laboratory-held Pokémon, and a drug of the same name drives the plot of the original video game.

Which filmmaker, who earlier directed Goosebumps and Monsters vs. Aliens, directed Detective Pikachu?

Rob Letterman liked that the story left Ash behind for a new hero, and spent a year designing its Pokémon before a single scene was shot.

Which studio took over worldwide distribution of Detective Pikachu from Universal Pictures in July 2018?

Warner Bros. inherited the film with its release date unchanged, while Toho kept the right to open it in Japan a week ahead of America.

Archive recordings of anime voice actress Rachael Lillis give which Pokémon its voice in Detective Pikachu?

Jigglypuff keeps the voice Rachael Lillis gave it in the anime, where she was also the English voice of Misty and Jessie.

Which dessert goes missing in the 2023 animated short released to accompany the game Detective Pikachu Returns?

Flan is the prize in Detective Pikachu & the Mystery of the Missing Flan, an anime short from Polygon Pictures released on YouTube weeks after the game.

The makers of the Detective Pikachu game built it around the idea of a Pikachu who talks like what?

A middle-aged man in a Pikachu's body was the twist that made the project click, after an ordinary adventure game struck the team as not very interesting.

Which co-owner of The Pokémon Company, alongside Nintendo and Game Freak, developed the Detective Pikachu games?

Creatures Inc. began the project in 2013 after finishing PokéPark, wanting to try an adventure game, a genre no Pokémon spin-off had tackled before.

The end credits of Detective Pikachu feature a new arrangement of the theme from which pair of Pokémon games?

Red and Blue's theme was written by Junichi Masuda, the series composer who also pushed for the Detective Pikachu game to have a talking hero.

Eurogamer compared the Detective Pikachu game, with its clues and witnesses, to which adventure game series?

Ace Attorney was the comparison from a reviewer who also found the game closer to the Pokémon anime than to earlier Pokémon games. Several critics felt its story would work better as a film.

Which American DJ appears in Detective Pikachu as the master of ceremonies at Sebastian's battle arena?

Diplo plays the disc jockey whose set accompanies the illegal bouts, in a venue run by a character played by Omar Chaparro.

Which studio won a 2016 bidding war for the film rights to Pokémon and went on to produce Detective Pikachu?

Legendary announced the live-action film that July as a joint project with The Pokémon Company, then fast-tracked it once a director signed on in November.

Which composer, who had scored Monsters vs. Aliens for the same director, wrote the music for Detective Pikachu?

Henry Jackman said he used everything from a full symphony orchestra to vintage analogue synthesisers to give the Pokémon world its own sound.

Which actress, Pikachu's voice in the anime, supplies the squeaks everyone but Tim hears in Detective Pikachu?

Ikue Ōtani has voiced Pikachu since the anime began in 1997. For the talking detective's lines, Japan's dub used the actor Hidetoshi Nishijima.

Which hitmaker produced Electricity, the Lil Uzi Vert collaboration heard over Detective Pikachu's end credits?

Pharrell Williams produced the track, one of two new songs made for the film; the other was released as a standalone single.

The Detective Pikachu game launched in 2018 alongside a giant version of which Nintendo accessory?

Amiibo figure in name but giant in size, the Detective Pikachu model unlocks hints and optional cutscenes in the game.

At the end of Detective Pikachu, what does Tim pull off Howard Clifford to break his hold over a Pokémon?

A neural-link headset lets the villain move his mind out of his own body and into a far stronger one; removing it frees the Pokémon he was controlling.

Which fast-food chain sold a set of six Detective Pikachu toys to tie in with the 2019 film?

Burger King's six toys joined a wave of tie-ins that included a graphic novel and a trading card available only on the film's opening weekend.

The director of Detective Pikachu compared its photo-real Pokémon to which CGI character from Guardians of the Galaxy?

Rocket, the talking raccoon, was his benchmark for effects that seem alive on screen. Much of the work came from the team behind The Jungle Book and Fantastic Beasts.