Uhh, What the Hell Is Up With Pikachu’s Old Man Voice in Nintendo’s “Detective Pikachu”?

Dude’s dropped a few octaves since we last heard him.

Pikachu’s voice has officially broken, if the trailer for Nintendo’s next Pokémon release on the 3DS is to be believed. And honestly, it is quite difficult to believe.

Detective Pikachu is set for release on 24 March, and will follow the tiny, titular detective as he attempts to crack the case of some “oddly behaving Pokémon”.

This all sounds quite nifty, but the internet can’t really deal with the game’s potential awesomeness, because they’re too traumatised by Detective Pikachu’s gruff, gravelly voice. Imagine Matthew McConaughey’s True Detective character crossed with Bob Hoskins and Metal Gear's Solid Snake, but bright yellow and adorable.

i have so many conflicting emotions about detective pikachu... he's so cute with his little waddle and detective hat but then he opens his mouth and hes a 30 year old man and i feel my soul disassociate from this plane of existence at the voice-appearance dissonance

— min (@ministired) February 23, 2018

"let's make pikachu's voice really low and manly ahaha"
This is the kind of joke I would pull off if I were a developer

— a very keen boi (@savztheavz) February 26, 2018

When 75% of the people complaining about Detective Pikachu’s old man voice are the SAME people who said they’d boycott the game if Danny DeVito didn’t voice him.

— Mike-O (@LucarioOcarina) February 23, 2018

Mfw I hear Detective Pikachu's smooth and deep voice. pic.twitter.com/2oHgyG3aL2

— Danielle McRae (Monster Hunter)⭐ (@DanielleMcVO) February 24, 2018

i’m annoyed because i absolutely WILL play detective pikachu even though pikachu’s deep ass human voice stresses me out

— 🏳️‍🌈✨sydney✨🏳️‍🌈 (@sworceresss) February 23, 2018

WH-WHAT IS WRONG WITH PIKACHU'S VOICE? #DetectivePikachu

— Ary (@ArylideSuleth) February 23, 2018

At the very least, this explains why Ryan Reynolds, of all people, was picked to voice Pikachu in the upcoming Detective Pikachu movie. (Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think Ryan Reynolds is emotionally-broken enough to play this battle-hardened Detective Pikachu, which is a hell of a thing.)

Also, because we should never forget, Reynolds is doing mo-cap as the tiny, potato-shaped detective. Now though, when we describe Pikachu as ‘bottom-heavy’, we can refer to both his body and his voice.

Photo: Nintendo