Pokemon is inescapable. If you grew up in the 90’s especially so. It’s hard to ignore the pull of a face as cute as Pikachu, the iconic mascot of the series who’s yellow-furred, red-cheeked visage covered the world during the Pokemon boom of the mid 90s. Nowadays the cultural gravity of Pokemon has lessened. People remember it fondly but it is no longer the all-consuming monolith it once was. The animated series films aren’t being released in full theaters for one, and no longer is the series logo plastered as passionately on lunch boxes and suitcases and backpacks. 

The games have continued. Steadily. Always existing for every new generation of children. That’s what the series is for, really. It’s about the innocence of childhood. The fun of just going on adventures. And the inescapable cuteness that all that entails. “Detective Pikachu” understands that to an absurd degree. The film’s main setting, Ryme City, a paradise of human and Pokemon coexistence is rendered in such sumptuous detail that fans of the series may need to see it multiple times in order to soak in all the tiny references to characters and Pokemon from the series’ 25 year history. “Detective Pikachu” manages to realize the coexistence between the people and Pokemon is still the most interesting part of the series.

The film stars Justice Smith as Tim Goodman, a young man who sells insurance in the Pokemon world instead of, like most other people around him, training them like the characters in the games and shows, having abandoned that dream long ago with the loss of his mother. Tim joins up with an inexplicably talking, caffeine addicted, and deductive Pikachu, played by Ryan Reynolds, in order to solve a mystery surrounding the Pikachu’s lost memory, his ability to speak to Tim and to find the truth about what happened to Tim’s father who seemingly perished in an accident while working a case. As in most noir stories, which “Detective Pikachu” seems to take heavy inspiration from, nothing is ever that simple. Toss in a mysterious aggression drug that drives Pokemon wild with rage, a research institute experimenting on the friendly creatures and you have a pretty standard story with a fun take on various noir tropes. It’s been described as “Kids’ first Neo-Noir” and that’s a fairly apt description

The plot is easy to follow and the twists are incredibly predictable for any seasoned veterans of detective stories but none of that can dampen the fun that this movie has to offer. The film relishes in its faithfully realistic takes on series favorites from the nearly 800 pokemon on offer from the trees and dirt sloughing off of the back of a Torterra, a sort of hybrid of a tortoise and an ankylosaur, to the beautifully rendered fur of the titular Pikachu. The kind of take that makes you want to reach out and hug it. That seems to me to be the central good that this film provides: joy.

Everything from the Pokemon designs, to the incredible chemistry between Justice Smith and Ryan Reynolds,who have a kind of comedic back and forth that elevates the film to an immense degree, to even the action sequences ranging from a horizontal tree run from a fleet of ninja frogs hurling exploding shuriken of water, to an underground fight club for the battle enthusiasts of Ryme City to a shapeshifting Ditto taking on the aspects of humans rather than just other Pokemon to fight. Nothing brought me more joy than seeing the creative ways they incorporated Pokemon into the world and, as a long time fan of the series, I think that was what the movie was made for.

If you are not a fan of Pokemon in any way shape or form, it’s hard to try recommend this film without the caveat that it is first and foremost a Pokemon movie. But there’s something to be said for its sincerity. This movie wears its heart on its sleeve, despite some cliches and well worn tropes of the genre, and that I think is the . Seeing tears well up in the eyes of that charming yellow mouse can reduce even the strongest of souls to a childlike sense of sympathy. In a world that seems to want us to view everything with a veneer of cynicism, “Detective Pikachu” defies that. In every way this film wants you to open up to that childlike joy and willingness to just follow with your heart and, at least in my case, it succeeded with flying colors.