**This post contains some mild spoilers for Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.

I feel it in my jellies.

Let’s just get this out of the way right now. I’m not a Pokémon fan. I didn’t grow up with it, and it never really appealed to me. My kids also aren’t Pokémon fans. I mean, they’re kids, so they know the names of about 87 different Pokémon, but they’ve never really been into the shows or movies.

But come on, have you SEEN the trailers for Detective Pikachu? We’re not made of stone, people! Pikachu is freaking adorable!! And have you seen his little fingers?

I’ll admit that I was skeptical of the movie at first.

OK. I was super skeptical. But I know you were, too. A live-action Pokémon movie? With a talking Pikachu? How would that even work??

Incredibly well, as it turns out. Just so long as you get Ryan Reynolds to play Pikachu. Because when you have Deadpool playing Pikachu, you get a Pokémon movie positively overflowing with double entendres, innuendo, and flat-out inappropriate (but hilarious) jokes.

For example? When Pikachu and our human protagonist, Tim (played by Justice Smith), have a run-in with a shirtless Russian tough guy, adorable little Pikachu utters the line, “All I hear are consonants, and all I see are nipples.”

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The conceit of Detective Pikachu is that Pokémon exist, and in the metropolis of Ryme City, humans and Pokémon live together in harmony. There’s none of that “I choose you!” nonsense, no one’s imprisoning Pokémon in little balls, and Pokémon aren’t treated like dogs and forced to fight for our pleasure.

Almost all humans have a Pokémon partner who follow them everywhere, but they still can’t talk. They’re still limited to just saying their names. They’re basically cute, high-pitched versions of Hodor.

So when Tim travels to Ryme City after his detective father is unexpectedly killed on duty and finds a Pikachu who can speak English? And that Tim is the only one who can understand him? Yeah, that’s a little surprising.

In a nutshell, Pikachu has amnesia, doesn’t know why Tim can understand him, and doesn’t remember much of anything. All they’re able to figure out is that Pikachu was Tim’s dad’s partner.

Thus begins the mystery. What happened to Tim’s dad? Is he still alive? What does Mewtwo have to do with everything? And why has Ryme City’s iconic founder, Howard Clifford (played to perfection, as always, by Bill Nighy), taken an interest in Tim?

Be warned, though, that Detective Pikachu lifts many of its major plot developments straight from Disney’s Zootopia.

• A city characterized by dramatically different species living together in seeming harmony? Check.
• A pair of misfit characters (one a real detective, one thrust into the role) getting in way over their heads and uncovering a massive conspiracy? Check.
• A serum/gas that turns animals/Pokémon feral and dangerous? Check.
• A figure of authority ultimately revealed as the evil mastermind? Check.

The dramatic, third-act “villain’s plan set in motion”? Well, that’s directly from Batman ’89. I certainly can’t fault the movie for having great taste in its influences.

Despite all that, Detective Pikachu is still incredibly fun. The character designs on the Pokémon are ridiculously good, and the world is so well fleshed out that you’ll forget the entire thing was once just a green screen.

Adults will likely see the climactic “twists” coming a mile away (I predicted both major twists about 10 minutes in; yay, go me), but the ride is so damn enjoyable that it doesn’t matter.

You’ll laugh. You’ll spot dozens of Pokémon (and hear all the kids around you name them all). You’ll laugh some more. You’ll marvel at how they convinced Bill Nighy and Ken Watanabe to be in this movie. You’ll admire Justice Smith’s ability to act an entire movie opposite an adorably sarcastic Gollum. And you’ll laugh even more.

And that’s the key. This movie is a hilariously good time. Between Reynolds’s wisecracking dialogue and the physical comedy of all those Pokémon, you’re guaranteed to laugh and feel good.

You don’t need to be a Pokémon fan. I’m certainly not. But Detective Pikachu is absolutely the biggest surprise I’ve had at the movies in a LONG TIME. Go see it. And then wait for the inevitable sequel.