“Pokemon: Apokelypse”

Because of the ages of my two sons (19 and 10), the phenomenon of Pokemon has been a part of our family’s life since the TV series was introduced to the U.S. 14 years ago. So when I saw this trailer, I was pretty much gobsmacked:

Turns out, it’s basically a spoof. An elaborate, expensive one at that.

Synopsis: Celadon City hasn’t been the same since the Gyms closed down. Pokémon fighting has gone underground, and the sport has gotten a taste for blood. Ash, Misty, and Brock have been forced deep into the city’s seedy underbelly to keep training, but the Pokémon aren’t the only ones in danger. Now, Ash must choose to either become a master in the grim world of illegal Pokémon fighting, or make a desperate stand to free them all from the criminal grip of Rocket Industries.

Here is an interview with the filmmakers explaining why they devoted all that time and money into a Pokemon movie trailer parody. Some excerpts:

Interview with Kial Natale (Director & Brock) and Lee Majdoub (Executive Producer & Ash Ketchum)

COREY ROLLINS: First off, this trailer has exceptional production value for a fan-fiction piece. Was this a side project for fun? Part of a university program?

LEE MAJDOUB: It was a side project we came up with while working on a short film. We were talking about live-action ideas. Kial wanted GTA. I wanted Dragon Ball Z. I think somebody mentioned something about Pokemon and Kial and I made eye contact and ideas just started flowing. Kial wrote a script almost immediately. I read it and sent him back my thoughts, and we did that back and forth for a while. We actually wrote it as a film and filmed full scenes. We wanted to make it as legitimate as possible. Major kudos to Kial for actually taking the first step.

KIAL NATALE: This project really snowballed out of control. For me, it started off as an attempt to make a video on par with College Humor’s original content: their parodies are spot on, with amazing production value. Somewhere down the line, however, my long dormant pokémon fanaticism kicked in and I just wanted it to be more and more. I started adding more scenes and re-working the pokémon effects: for anyone who thought our CG looks bad now, you should have seen them before!

COREY ROLLINS: This project was obviously a huge undertaking. Exactly how long did this take to put together and many people were involved?

LEE MAJDOUB: Wow. It took us a while. Wrote back and forth for about 4 months. As far as getting ready and organized, Kial took that initial step as well, but so many people wanted in. I think ultimately, Kial, Barry Liu (Director), and I started meeting up to hash out the shooting schedule, wardrobe, and types of locations we wanted. We started holding auditions and it was crazy how many people came out that weren’t actors, but fans of Pokemon. We had some phenomenal actors come out that didn’t fit the description of the characters so we tried to find them something in the project. I think from beginning to end, we’ve been working on this for a year and half.

KIAL NATALE: With regards to crew size we had about 4 major shoot dates, with crews ranging from 7 people to just a camera operator and sound recordist. It’s hard to remember exactly because work on the film was done very sporadically when we could fit it in, as it was a labor of love.

COREY ROLLINS: The full version of the trailer is loaded with iconic one-liners and features the classic 150 Pokemon roster, so you’re obviously big fans of the original series. Some people have loved it and will be crushed that the film is not real. But at the same time some hardcore Pokemon purists were extremely upset over the idea of a live action Pokemon movie being real. Especially one with guns, suicide references and dark gritty violence.

What made you decide to take the project in this direction?

KIAL NATALE: I remember being on set one day, talking with Nicholas Porteous (the future editor of Pokémon) about an article he read in which a producer theorized that the original Hulk movie bombed because it wasn’t dark and gritty, like Batman Begins.

I think attributing the success of Batman Begins to the level of tone and aesthetic is an insult to Nolan’s incredible genius. We joked about how popular it currently is to make dark ‘reboots’ of popular franchises, and started talking about shows we loved from our childhoods that would make interesting adaptations: pokémon glazes over some horrific animal rights issues.

LEE MAJDOUB: Well we wanted to see how far we could take it without being absolutely ridiculous. We knew it would be difficult to take something like Pokemon and make it live-action, but personally I was sick of seeing corny films based on video games and/or anime. I’ve always wanted the live-action films to be dark. I’m 28, and grew up with DragonBall (and Z), Pokemon etc. and wanted to see a mainly ‘mature’ spin on them.

The video was posted on September 20 and as of right now, there have been over 130,000 views and 1,300+ comments. In this era of create-content-and-put-it-out-there-to-see-what-happens, it will be interesting to track if these filmmakers manage to translate the buzz of this spoof trailer into something substantial.

For the rest of the interview at ShogunGamer, go here.

By the way, my favorite Pokemon is Articuno!

What’s yours?

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