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Detective Pikachu (film)

2019 film directed by Rob Letterman

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a 2019 urban fantasy mystery film and the first live-action film based on the Pokémon franchise. It is loosely based on the 2016 video game Detective Pikachu. Directed by Rob Letterman, who co-wrote it with Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, and Derek Connolly, the film stars Ryan Reynolds as the voice and motion capture of Pikachu, with Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy in live-action roles. The plot follows Detective Pikachu and his partner Tim Goodman as they attempt to solve the mysterious disappearance of Tim's father, Harry. Filming took place from January to May 2018 in Colorado, England, and Scotland.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Detective Pikachu (film)” is 2019 film directed by Rob Letterman. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Detective, Pikachu and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2019, 2016, 2018—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Detective, Pikachu and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2019 film directed by Rob Letterman” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The first chronological checks are 2019, 2016 and 2018.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Detective Pikachu (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Detective Pikachu (film) primary sources, Detective Pikachu (film) archive and Detective research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Detective Pikachu (film)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Detective Pikachu (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.