Pokemon was first created in 1995 and has since become an international success. The Japanese comic series spawned a cartoon, cards, video games, movies, and Pikachu who is a Pokemon has become the national mascot of Japan. It’s meteoric popularity started in Japan with adolescents and only grew when a dubbed version of the cartoon known as an anime was released in America. It’s success prompted a movie to be released in 1998 with huge success. There have been 19 movies to date with varying success.

This year is technically Pokemon’s 20th year anniversary which marks the anniversary when The Pokemon Company was created which is responsible for the massive game and media success. The rights to make movies lie with The Pokemon Company and various movie studios are in talks to buy the rights to make a live action movie. A live action movie differing from a cartoon in which real people in the real world, perhaps with CG, will recreate the Pokemon world. Rumors indicate movie production company Legendary is closest to getting the movie rights.

Though, it would be difficult to tell if Legendary would actually get the rights since they were recently acquired by a Chinese company. Japan and China relations are tenuous at best and might cause political issues. Warner Brothers is also aggressively trying to acquire the rights to the live action movie. Which do you think would make a better live action movie?