FILM 2020: DETECTIVE PIKACHU

FILM 2020: DETECTIVE PIKACHU

TRIVIA: Tim mentions a gangster film on TV is an "old detective movie." The clip being shown is actually "Angels With Filthy Souls", a movie-within-a-movie which was featured in the original Home Alone (1990).

The realistic style of the Pokémon were based on the artwork by RJ Palmer. The movie's production designer discovered him while he was looking for realistic Pokémon designs on the internet, and he was so impressed by Palmer's artwork that he gave him a job as the concept artist for the movie.

The day before the film's theatrical release, the entire movie was "leaked" onto YouTube. In reality, clicking this video will play a minute of the film, before cutting to a loop of Pikachu dancing for an hour and forty five minutes.

Despite having six distinctive cries (according to both sound bites and Build a Bear) the voice for Psyduck is unlisted and unnamed.

The first movie based on a video game to have a fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, at 64%.

A petition was made to have Danny DeVito voice Pikachu.

At one point Pikachu looks to ensure that Psyduck stays calm by repeating the term "Serenity Now" a number of times. "Serenity Now" is a famous catchphrase from Seinfeld Season 9 Episode 3

It was The Pokémon Company's idea to have Ryme City ban battling and using Pokéballs, wishing to show a different and "more elevated" relationship between Pokémon and people. They were also very protective of Ash Ketchum and forbade any reference to him from being made. Going as far as even forbidding Tim from wearing a cap.

Ryme City is very obviously London, complete with distinctive Routemaster buses and cars driving on the left-hand side of the road (and Pret-A-Mangers). Other landmarks that prominently appear include the Gherkin and King's Cross Station as Tahnti Station.

In a world full of Pokémon with different kinds of powers, of course people are going to put that to use. For example, in the night market, one man uses a Charmander's flame tail to flambe the food in the wok, and the laboratory people are using Greninjas as hitmen to take Detective Pikachu and Tim down. Demonstrated more in earlier scenes, a Machamp is directing traffic, a squad of Squirtles help put out a fire, the police force has a lot of dog-type Pokémon, and a Braviary is flying around the city to deliver a construction worker on a crane his lunch. It also makes sense for certain Pokémon types to have their own occupations, like Octillery cutting up sushi and Loudreds being used as loud speakers in the round house.

FILM 1258: MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET

TRIVIA: In the untranslated dialogue with the Dutch girl, Santa Claus asks the child what she wants for Christmas the girl says she wants nothing, telling Santa she got her gift by being adopted by her new mother.

According to Natalie Wood's biographer, during the shoot, the young actress was convinced that Edmund Gwenn was actually Santa Claus (by all accounts, Gwenn was a very good-natured man on the set). It wasn't until Wood saw him out of costume at the wrap party that she realized he wasn't Santa.

Both the actual Macy's and Gimbel's department stores were approached by the producers for permission to have them depicted in the film. Both stores wanted to see the finished film first before they gave approval. If either store had refused, the film would have had to been extensively edited and reshot to eliminate the references. Fortunately at the test viewing, both businesses were pleased with the film and gave their permission.

Unbeknownst to most parade watchers, Edmund Gwenn played Santa Claus in the actual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade held November 28, 1946. He fulfilled the duties of most parade Santas, including addressing the crowd from the marquee of Macy's after the parade was over. He was introduced to the crowd by actor Philip Tonge (he played Mr. Shellhammer in the movie) and he later unveiled the mechanical Christmas display windows to the accompaniment of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite." This gesture symbolized the opening of the Christmas shopping season at the store.

Received a 'B' rating (morally objectionable in part) from the highly influential Legion of Decency because Maureen O'Hara played a divorcée.

Despite the fact that the film is set during Christmas, studio head Darryl F. Zanuck insisted that it be released in May because he argued that more people went to the movies during the summer. So the studio began scrambling to promote it while keeping the fact that it was a Christmas movie a secret.

When Dr. Pierce explains Kris' belief that he is Santa Claus, he offers for comparative purposes a Hollywood restaurant owner who believes himself to be a Russian prince despite evidence to the contrary, but rather conveniently fails to recall the man's name. This was a reference to Michael Romanoff, owner of Romanoff's in Hollywood, a popular hangout for movie stars at the time.

Valentine Davies got the idea for the script whilst struggling through the Christmas shopping crowds, trying to find a present for his wife. The commercialism he saw made Davies wonder what the real Santa Claus would make of it all.