'' Pokémon'' is a

media franchise A media franchise, also known as a multimedia franchise, is a collection of related media in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a film, a work of literature, a television program, o ...

created by video game designer Satoshi Tajiri that centers on fictional creatures called Pokémon. , 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 Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

by Toho, with various studios distributing the films in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. 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 Legendary Entertainment, LLC (also known as Legendary Pictures or simply Legendary) is an American mass media and film production company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull. The company has often collaborated with the major stu ...

, directed by Rob Letterman, and written by Letterman and Nicole Perlman. It was distributed in Japan by Toho and outside of Japan and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

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 Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...

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 Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It was released on October 8, 2021, in the United States.

Anime films

Live-action films

The launch of the mobile game '' Pokémon Go'' in 2016 reignited mainstream interest in the ''Pokémon'' franchise in the Western market since its initial peak in the early 2000s, and various Hollywood film companies approached The Pokémon Company to gain film rights. Eventually, Warner Bros. Pictures and

struck a deal to produce a live-action adaptation of the 2018 video game Detective Pikachu; '' Pokémon Detective Pikachu'', the first official live-action Pokémon film. In January 2019, ahead of the film's release, Legendary began development on a sequel.

Pikachu shorts

Pikachu shorts are a series of twenty-seven animated short films shown at the start of animated theatrical films based on Pokémon, and have also been shown on ANA flights in Japan and released during Christmas as ''Pikachu's Winter Vacation''.

Television specials

These television specials, which run longer than the normal half-hour and are usually not separated into more than one episode in either the original or the dub, are often considered TV ''Pokémon'' movies, not counting towards the running total. They do not air in theaters, but are instead broadcast on the same networks that the anime is broadcast on for their premieres. Though they may air around the same time as episodes of the anime, usually in the anime's normal timeslot, they are not assigned episode numbers.

Home media

Region 2 (Japan)

Critical reception

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:List of Pokemon films * Pokémon (film series) Pokémon (film series) Japanese fantasy adventure films

films A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...

Pokemon Pokemon