Storytelling Through Transmedia

This article explores the concept of Transmedia Storytelling through the movie Detective Pikachu. It discusses the impact of ownership and production on content creation and analyses the movie using Jenkins’ principle and Chomsky’s propaganda model.

Running head: STORYTELLING THROUGH TRANSMEDIA
STORYTELLING THROUGH TRANSMEDIA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

Detective Pikachu is a fantasy mystery movie that is directed by Rob Letterman and is
adapted from the 2016 video game named the same. The movie was released in 2019 and is
based on the Pokémon universe created by Satoshi Tajiri. The movie is written by Letterman,
Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit and Derek Connolly from the story written by Hernandez, Samit
and Nicole Perlman. The movie is produced by Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment.
It is the first live action of the Pokémon universe.
The main plot of the story is when a detective, Harry Goodman, goes missing under
mysterious circumstances and his son who is 21 years old is prompted to delve into it to
figure out the cause of the disappearance. His son, Tim, is helped by Harry’s former
Pokémon partner, Pikachu, who is an adorable and super smart detective. Tim is the only
person who can communicate with Pikachu, understand him, and thus they band together to
find Harry. Throughout their journey, they come face to face with many Pokémon and
uncover a secret that could destroy the harmony between Pokémon’s and Humans. The
subplot of the movie is to keep the harmony of the world intact by maintaining the peace that
is there between the Pokemon and the Humans. Maintaining the harmony between the
Pokemon and the Humans is important as it is on the cooperation of the two species that there
is such advancement in the Pokemon universe. The movie has many different characters that
are there to help the two characters in their mission and also some who are there to diverge
them from their path.
As stated earlier the movie is adapted by the video game, Detective Pikachu and is
based on the Pokémon universe. There are many video games and televised version of the
Pokémon story starring Ash Ketchum and his friend Pokémon friend Pikachu in gaining the
title of Pokémon Master. The Pokémon universe is distributed throughout a variety of
platforms. This form of storytelling can be termed as Transmedia Storytelling. Transmedia

storytelling was first introduced by Henry Jenkins for his influential work, Convergence
Culture (Harvey, 2015).
Transmedia storytelling can be describe as the method of designing, sharing and
participating in an united story that can be experienced through an array of platforms, both
traditional and digital. Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, Game of Thrones are the best
examples to understand the transmedia method of storytelling. Transmedia stories are not
based on the story of an individual character or a specific plot or story line; it is a unique
complex world of fiction that has many multiple interrelated characters and their stories.
Transmedia is often a complex method of storytelling that has many small plots; however, it
can help in creating a wider fan base, which creates fan fictions that can help the story to be
relevant even after a long time (Freeman, 2016). Having a transmedia method of storytelling
also means that the audience are aware of the story in prior, however they still want to watch,
read or listen to the story again. The Pokémon universe has a huge fan base and is mainly
popular because of its video games and television story.
The world of Pokémon can often be seen overlapping with the real world. The
Pokémon are based on the real life animals and have many resemblances from the same, for
example the Pokémon Pidgey is created taking inspiration from sparrows, and the Pokémon
Mewoth is from cats. The world that is created is imbibed from the myths and realities, which
can help in creating such a strong story base that can be portrayed through a medium of
channels (Lamarre, 2018). The story of the Pokémon universe has been modified and
changed according to the channel that used for the purpose of telling the story, like video
games, television, cards and many more other such channels.

The movie, as already mentioned, is directed by Rob Letterman and has become
exceedingly successful commercially, while also getting many critical acclamations. The
movie earned approximately $433,000,000 worldwide. It is the first live action version of the
Pokémon universe. The analysis of the transmedia storytelling of the Pokémon universe can
be done using the Jenkins’ principle and Chomsky’s propaganda model.
As mentioned by Jenkins that a successful transmedia storytelling is possible only
when the story can expand over the media outlets and can deliver the story as a unique story,
while also fitting into the whole universe. There are seven factors that are mentioned by
Jenkins that are important for analysing a transmedia movie; spreadability versus drillability,
continuity versus multiplicity, immersion versus extractability, world building, seriality,
subjectivity and performance (Jenkins, 2014). The movie Detective Pikachu is said to have
certain diversions from the main plot that is there in the game. In the movie many, dialogues
and scenes have been added to create a more dramatized plot that would attract the audience.
An important attribute that a good transmedia storytelling is that it must add certain new
functions to the already existing ones. The movie is a live action version and adds value to
the already existing values by being the first live action version of the whole universe. The
movie and the game differ in certain aspects, yet both are thoroughly enjoyed by the fans as it
creates a completely new universe for them. The characters in the movie are universal and are
there beyond the existence of the movie (Georgi, 2015). There is a lot of scope of adding
many different characters in the story, while also keeping the existing ones that can help the
story to be adapted into different transmedia forms.
Chomsky’s propaganda model explains how the public is manipulated for the consent
of economic, social and political policies. The ownership of a media can influence the content
that is transmitted to the people. It creates a conflict of interest between the people who
develop the content and the people who own it. The propaganda model has five attributes and

can be used to understand the medium and the content. The five factors are ownership,
sources that fund the medium, sourcing, flak and anticommunism (Robinson, 2015). These
factors can aid in analysing the influence of ownership, production on the content of
Detective Pikachu, the copyright of the movie was with Warner Bros., and that had a huge
impact on the content of the movie. The main producers of the movie are Warner Bros. and
Legendary Entertainment in the association with the Toho Company.
The content of the movie is loosely based on the video game and has the basic plot;
however, it has been adapted to suit the transmedia channel, to gain more fandom. The movie
has been influenced by the production and the ownership of the rights. The movie was made
a live action movie, as it was what the production wanted and thought would bring more
profit. The cast that was chosen by the producers also was done keeping in mind who the
popular actors are and how they will influence the audience in watching the movie. The basic
story of the movie was kept in accordance to the video game yet there were several changes
made, due to the ownership of the movie. There had to be many efforts given by the whole
team in order to match the status of the whole Pokémon universe. The Pokémon battles, the
depiction of the characters, the certain characteristics of each character had to be maintained
for it to be not ambiguous for the audience. The propaganda model can be used to audit the
media houses that sell the products to readers. The purpose of the media is to assess the
institutions on their operation and how that can be ignored with careful considerations. The
content of the movie can also be influenced by the flak, that is the negative feedback that any
content receives (Robinson, 2018). Detective Pikachu did not receive much negative
feedback and was appraised by the audience, the movie Sonic the Hedgehog, received a lot of
negative feedback from the audience on the caricature of the main character, thus they had to
change the whole animation of the movie. Flak can have a huge impact on the content, and
can force the creators to change their content, for it to be accepted by the people. As the

movie, Detective Pikachu gained many appraises it did not have to change any of the content
of the movie to suit to the needs of the audience, as Sonic the Hedgehog had to. The
propaganda model can be seen to have colossal impact on the way the content is created.
Though the content must not be changed or be influenced by the ownership, it cannot be seen
to be held. Most of the content that is out there is in some or the other way influenced by the
ownership, the medium, the source of funding, flak or anticommunism. As Chomsky had
stated media can be used to influence the people and the media that is created is influenced
by these factors, thus there are some people who can control the actions of the others by
propagating through such mediums.

References
Freeman, M. (2016). Historicising transmedia storytelling: Early twentieth-century
transmedia story worlds. Routledge.
Georgi, C. (2015). Reconsidering convergence culture and its consequences for literary
studies.
Harvey, C. B. (2015). Fantastic transmedia. In Fantastic Transmedia (pp. 12-39). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
Jenkins, H. (2014). Rethinking ‘rethinking convergence/culture’. Cultural Studies, 28(2),
267-297.
Lamarre, T. (2018). The Anime Ecology: A Genealogy of Television, Animation, and Game
Media. U of Minnesota Press. Lamarre, T. (2018). The Anime Ecology: A Genealogy
of Television, Animation, and Game Media. U of Minnesota Press.
Robinson, P. (2015). The propaganda model: still relevant today?. In Noam Chomsky (pp. 77-
96). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Robinson, P. (2018). Does the Propaganda model actually theorise propaganda?. The
Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness, 53-67.