One of my favourite things about going to the see the Detective Pikachu movie was undoubtedly spotting as many of my favourite Pokemon as I could so I could truly appreciate the gorgeous, realistic renderings that the team of artists and animators had come up with.
Detective Pikachu truly did what the Sonic The Hedgehog failed to do, and created (kind of) true to life takes on Pokemon that retained the spirit and charm of their more cartoony counterparts. I mean, I’m still not over the little Bulbasaur’s that skittered around the place – just look at them.
RJ Palmer is one of the many artists who worked on Detective Pikachu, and actually bagged his job working on the film thanks to a series of popular (and genuinely incredible) images that reimagined some of your favourite pocket monsters as hyper realistic beasts.
Just recently, Palmer shared his own vision for what Venusaur might have looked in Detective Pikachu were it up to him, and the result is an absolutely terrifying creature that looks like it could unhinge its jaw and swallow you whole, soul and all.
It’s certainly worlds away from the adorable Bulbasaur we saw in the movie. Check it out below.
Venusaur didn’t show up in the film itself, but the hulking grass Pokemon did pop up in one of the trailers for Detective Pikachu. It doesn’t quite match up to Palmer’s vision, in that it doesn’t make me want to check under my bed for monsters.
As you can see below, the Venusaur that made it into the trailer is far more palatable and a lot less likely to send small children out of cinemas screaming. See how it lumbers around with big bug eyes and a funny little mouth. What a cutie.
When Palmer revealed his own take on Venusaur, he wrote:
This was during a period where I was free to explore a more naturalistic approach. Looking back though it’s super clear that this would be too scary for the tone of the movie. I think the design they ended up with is fabulous!
Remember kids, eat your greens or spooky Venusaur will crawl into your bedroom at night and eat your toes.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.