Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Pokémon Grows Up

 

 

 

For Live Action anyways

Growing up I remember the Pokémon being a show aimed at kids featuring these often cute looking creatures that were capable of doing different things based on their particular species. But there appears to be a move underway to mature our cute friends.

Above you will see a trailer for a possible upcoming film for Pokémon. I know that it’s a bit hard to make out, but the poster of this video apparently attended a secret showing of this film trailer and managed to record the last 30 seconds of it. From the trailer you can see some pretty adult violence and our favourite cute looking Pokémon mingled in between. The trail does make for an interesting concept, but I’ll discuss that in a minute.

But first, I think I should answer the question as to whether or not if this Pokémon trailer is a fake, which it is. Unfortunately some film sites jumped the gun on this one and reported it as if it could be real, but I took some time to track down the original story (which you can read here) and found that it confirmed that the trailer was fake. In the Internet age unfortunately fact checking hasn’t become the norm and I’m sometimes guilty of it myself, so I can’t blame anyone for running with this story.

Perhaps this rush to report comes from some long time Pokémon fans wanting to see a more mature film. Over on The Movie Blog, Rodney seems to have a slight attraction for the Pokémon and went as far to say that an updated more mature concept like this made sense since the Pokémon audience has grown up. This is true. Anyone that started watching Pokémon when it first started are now adults and so for there to be some mature themes throughout a Pokémon film would make sense since the audience is older now. That being said, I don’t think it’s a good idea to potentially cut off a new audience. By maturing the Pokémon, it creates a situation where parents may not want to bring their kids to see a Pokémon movie, which would a giant oversight by the film’s producers. Family films do very well at the theatre and so for Pokémon to not be a family film, would be a huge mistake. By remaining family friendly, adults that grow up with Pokémon will feel inclined to bring their kids to the theatre to see the new film. Kind of like the way parents may have brought their kids to see Transformers or GIJOE when they recently released their films.

So to mature the Pokémon from a marketing perspective is a really bad idea. And besides, how many adults are really interested in continuing to keep up with the Pokémon. It was great when you were a kid, but as you get older you have a lot more concerns that I don’t think most adults will find the time for Pokémon. What about you?

VIA

***UPDATE:  It has been pointed out to me that the article from Shogun Gamer doesn’t say that this Pokémon film trailer is fake, which I agree it doesn’t.  But the fact that the trailer came from a fake e-mail,  seems to suggest that it isn’t real.  At least it suggest that for me. I’m also supported by the guys over at Kotaku  who have called the trailer fake as well.  Lets face it,  Pokémon would never release a mature film like this one.  I know older fans would love to see it,  but I don’t see it happening.

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