List of Pokémon films
| 2019 | Detective Pikachu |
|---|
Pokémon is a media franchise created by video game designer Satoshi Tajiri that centers on fictional creatures called Pokémon. As of 2020, there have been twenty-three animated films and one live action film. The first nineteen animated films are based on the anime television series of the same name, while the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-third are set in an alternate continuity to the anime. The films are produced by animation studios OLM, Production I.G, Xebec, and Wit Studio, and distributed in Japan by Toho, with various studios distributing the films in North America. They were directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and Tetsuo Yajima and written by Takeshi Shudo, Hideki Sonoda, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Shōji Yonemura, Eiji Umehara, and Aya Takaha. The first Pokémon animated film, Pokémon: The First Movie, was released in Japan in 1998, and in 2019 was remade as Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution. A live-action film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, was produced by American studio Legendary Entertainment, directed by Rob Letterman, and written by Letterman and Nicole Perlman. It was distributed in Japan by Toho and outside of Japan and China by Warner Bros. It was released on May 10, 2019.
The films star Pokémon Trainer Ash Ketchum and his partner Pokémon, Pikachu. Detective Pikachu is based on the 2016 video game Detective Pikachu and stars Ryan Reynolds as the motion capture role of Detective Pikachu, with Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton as the lead human roles.
There are also two animated television specials broadcast on TV Tokyo featuring Ash and his Pikachu and ten animated short films. Warner Bros. licensed the first three animated films in North America and Miramax Films licensed the following four films. From the eighth film onwards, licensing has been handled by The Pokémon Company International themselves, with various distributors handling the releases, such as Viz Media in North America.
The most recent film, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, was originally set for release in Japanese theaters on July 10, 2020, but delayed to December 25, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on October 8, 2021, in the United States.