Detective Pikachu: 10 Pokémon That Seem Impossible To Adapt To Live Action
Detective Pikachu is one of the recent films that has been heralded for breaking the 'video game movie curse' that seems to have taken hold of the industry for some time. It proved to be an accurate live action adaptation of many of the most iconic Pokémon from the Nintendo games.
While the design on many of these creatures was absolutely superb, it does beg the question as to whether some Pokémon are simply impossible to bring into the real world. With strange features and almost comedic concepts, many of these Pokémon might never actually make it to the big screen in the future.
10 Exeggcute
Hailing from the original batch of 150 Pokémon, Exeggcute and indeed its evolution, Exeggutor, is an extremely difficult character to adapt since it's essentially a bunch of eggs with faces. While the palm tree might be a little easier in terms of concept, Exeggcute definitely creates design problems.
There's always been a question as to how these eggs are actually connected and they would certainly provide problems in terms of making them feel like a singular entity, or at least a group of sentient eggs. Audiences unfamiliar with the games may end up being baffled by Exeggcute or just laugh at it.
9 Lileep
Lileep provides a few design problems that concept artists and visual effects technicians are going to have difficulty solving. To start with, it's unclear what Lileep is really supposed to be. The textures of the creature and its odd tentacles will be hard to adapt.
What's more, the strange face in the middle of the creature is almost like a complete void, with eyes shining out. That's easy to create in a video game but might not be feasible in live action, where HD and CGI would have to reveal whats in that black hole.
8 Shuckle
Shuckle can perhaps be compared to a tortoise or turtle, but provides a number of questions that might not be that answerable. To start with, what texture should the skin of the creature be?
The designers could take a reptilian approach to this, although it wouldn't feel authentic to the video game. Furthermore, the size and design of Shuckle would make it quite unbelievable and difficult to animate when it came to movement in live action.
7 Vanilluxe
The ice cream Pokémon was mocked by some when it first released as it seemed too goofy, even by Pokémon standards. While fans have gotten used to this sentient ice cream sundae, it doesn't mean it'll work in live action.
A floating ice cream sundae certainly doesn't seem that believable and while the actual animation process could be easy, it will be a much harder Pokémon to make plausible or even acceptable in live-action compared to other creatures.
6 Solrock
Solrock is a giant floating sun rock with no features and a strange set of spikes. Without question, it's one of the most bizarre characters from the franchise and wouldn't be easy to bring to the big screen.
To be fair, it's easy to render it on a computer, with rock based textures being the most natural choice here. However, a fictional animal on the big screen usually has to have something to relate to: eyes, a nose, a mouth, etc. Humans relate to similar features but there's nothing recognizable about this sentient sun.
5 Porygon-Z
Porygon-Z is a strange three dimensional duck with a floating head and plastic-like textures. What could audiences not understand about it? Porygon-Z is almost impossible to make seem realistic.
It's going to be very difficult to make the character feel like a genuine creature, rather than some kind of toy that has come to life. There's also a thin line between making Porygon-Z goofy or potentially creepy! That, and Porygons infamously caused real-life seizures. Now imagine that on IMAX.
4 Reuniclus
Reuniclus is the third evolution in its sequence, with each version of the creature getting weirder and weirder. This Pokémon is essentially a floating body inside a gel like substance that grows in size and number of limbs with each succeeding evolutionary stage.
It's challenging to decide how to create the "gel" in live action, let alone deciding how exactly to make it look realistic or convincing. While other Pokémon are essentially heightened animals or humanoids that could be easily brought to life, Reuncilus is something else entirely. Reuniclus' strange and almost otherworldly design might just be a step too far.
3 Spiritomb
This Pokémon has some interesting mythology behind it, with it actually being quite a mysterious character rather than an animal. While Spiritomb might be useful for plot, he's extremely difficult to understand in terms of appearance.
There's going to have to be a lot of visual wizardry to be able to create a good adaptation of the ghostly face which seems to emanate from an ancient rock. Movement will also once again prove to be a big challenge.
2 Darumaka
It's difficult to even describe what Darumaka is. The firey, although sometimes icy, Pokémon has incredibly strange proportions alongside an extremely cartoony and goofy design.
It's easy to envy the concept artists who would have to work on trying to get some kind of screen appropriate iteration of Darumaka on screen, although strangely its evolution may be a little easier.
1 Stunfisk
The characters of the Detective Pikachu world might be quite mythed as to what a Stunfisk actually is. It appears to be some kind of fish with a beak, that lives within shallow mud off the shore.
While its design might make sense in terms of where it lives, it's horrible to have to adapt to the screen. Stunfisk is almost two dimensional in nature, making it a Pokémon that requires some interesting framing in order to capture properly on film.