Those only familiar with the franchise up to the 151st Pokemon may have missed some of the deep cut references to successive games, not to mention been unfamiliar with some of the new species that are prominently featured.
It still makes for a fun time at the cineplex, but imagine if there was a movie that focused on the Pokemon of the late 1990s.
Detective Pikachu is a great movie, and a wonderful nostalgia trip for those who were a part of Pokemon’s original run 20-plus years ago – but there are bits of the film where older fans may have been a bit out of the loop.