Just yesterday, Ryan Reynolds (voice actor for Detective Pikachu) notified the official Twitter account for the movie, along with Warner Bros, that there was a full-movie leak of Detective Pikachu on YouTube.
Of course, it wasn’t actually a leak. It was actually an hour long video of Detective Pikachu doing aerobics for over an hour. Watch the “full movie” here:
The dance itself is meant to be a parody of a Key & Peele sketch, which in itself, was meant to be a parody of an aerobics video from the 1980s. For comparison, here’s Pikachu dancing side-by-side with the skit that the video was inspired by:
It’s not the first time that Ryan Reynolds has done something like this, apparently. Before the Deadpool movie first released in theatres, Reynolds deliberately leaked the test footage for Deadpool during 2014’s Comic Con.
The Internet’s Reaction
Needless to say, the Internet LOVED the video. Some people were cooing over how cute Pikachu looks, jumping up and down and doing its best to dance.
That, and once again, much like everything else of Internet fame: it got turned into a meme. As it would turn out, Pikachu’s dancing syncs up very well with a-ha’s Take On Me.
Here’s another sped-up version of the dance, set to Nicki Minaj’s Roman Holiday:
Someone even made an Undertale reference, making Pikachu dance to Death by Glamour!
The K-Pop side of Twitter evidently had fun with the video as well, making Pikachu dance to their favourite songs from their idols. Here’s a video of Pikachu dancing to BTS:
Overall, this turned out to be an incredibly good publicity stunt. There are tons of videos circulating the internet right now, of cute, fuzzy Pikachu dancing, alongside the cutest new Chinese teaser posters for the movie.
Really makes you want to watch the Detective Pikachu movie, even if you’re not an avid fan of Pokemon!
Sheryl Lim, Writer (Lifestyle)
A sleepless cryptid with a sweet tooth, who spends most of her free time on the internet. Sheryl loves binge-watching shows on Netflix, Persona 5's Joker, arcades, and all her emotional support K-Pop boys.
