Pokémon is a media franchise created by video game designerSatoshi Tajiri that centers on fictional creatures called Pokémon., there have been 22 animated films and one live action film. The first nineteen animated films are based on the anime television series of the same name, with the original film being remade into the 22nd. The 20th and 21st animated films are set in an alternate continuity to the anime. The films are produced by the animation studiosOLM, 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 Pokémonanimated film, ', was released in Japan in 1998, which was remade into '. 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 is distributed in Japan by Toho, and outside of Japan and China by Warner Bros. It was released on May 10, 2019. The films star the Pokémon trainerAsh Ketchum and his electric mouse partner Pikachu. Detective Pikachu film is based on the 2016 video gameDetective 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 that were broadcast on TV Tokyo featuring Ash and Ash's Pikachu and ten short animated films. Warner Bros. licensed the first three animated films in North America, and Miramax Films licensed the following four films. In Canadian releases, they were licensed by Alliance Atlantis Communications, Inc., which was responsible for Canadian distribution of Miramax Films. In these four movies distributed by Miramax, there were partly or completely different dubbing casts than in the TV series in many countries. Starting with ', Viz Media is the only North American licensee. The upcoming 23rd animated film, officially titled ', was originally set for release in Japanese theaters on July 10, 2020, but on May 13, 2020 it was announced that the movie has been indefinitely delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Animated films
Live-action films
The launch of the mobile game Pokémon Go in 2016 reignited mainstream interest back into the Pokémon franchise in the Western market since its initial peak in the early 2000s; various Hollywood film companies approached The Pokémon Company to gain film rights. Eventually, Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Entertainment struck a deal to produce a live-action adaptation of the 2016 video game Detective Pikachu called Pokémon Detective Pikachu, the first official live-action Pokemon film. In January 2019, ahead of film's release, Legendary has begun development on a sequel to Pokémon Detective Pikachu.
Television specials
These special films, which run longer than the normal half-hour and are not usually 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 never appear in theaters, but are instead broadcast on the same networks that the regular anime is broadcast for their premieres. Though they may air around the same time as other episodes of the anime, usually in the anime's normal timeslot, they are not assigned episode numbers.
Pikachu shorts
Pikachu shorts are anime short films that are commonly shown at the start of animated theatrical films based on Pokémon, but have also been expanded to fulfill other purposes. There are 27 Pikachu short movies. Out of the shorts, Pikachu & Pichu, has not been released on DVD or shown on television since 2009 after Noriko Sakai, who was the Japanese narrator of it got arrested for possession and abuse of drugs.
