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The movie Detective Pikachu had the following theme in it: Ryme City. It sounds very similar to L's Theme from Death Note, Tubular Bells, Chocolate Rain and this music from Mass Effect. But it is the most similar to the opening of Attack on Titan.

My question is the following: is this soundtrack based on some theme used previously in any Pokémon movie, anime or game, or is this a case of temp music and it was actually based on one of the songs I have mentioned above?

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    It also reminds me of "The Dream is Always the Same" from Risky Business (performed by Tangerine Dream). Aug 25, 2019 at 14:10
  • Interesting question, is there any other version of Ryme City that played during the movie?
    – Roy
    Aug 28, 2019 at 10:48
  • @Roy Yes, the same motif is played later during the movie
    – TK-421
    Aug 28, 2019 at 10:54
  • As far as the music that it might remind you of how about this :-)
    – m1gp0z
    Aug 29, 2019 at 21:55
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    @m1gp0z I just remembered what it was most similar to, the opening of Attack on Titan
    – TK-421
    Aug 30, 2019 at 6:02

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Thank you for your question, especially for all the links you included as it helped to understand specifically what you were looking at and provide a frame of reference.

The best link was the last one, which explained what temp music was and how it affects what finally ends up in a film's score.

By strict definition then, the answer is no. Temp music is only meant for a director to convey to a composer what he is trying to convey in a specific scene.

Henry Jackman is the English composer who worked on the Detective Pikachu soundtrack/score (and appears in the linked video for temp music as the composer for two the Captain America movies)

He has collaborated in the past with Mike Oldfield, who recorded an album called Tubular Bells, part of which was used to promote The Exorcist but beyond the fact that they are both English and work in the same industry, I couldn't find any other link between the two.

In Score: the podcast, where Henry Jackman mentions some of the inspirations that he had like Stranger Things, Brian Eno and Symphony Orchestra. He mentions "piddling with Ryme City" for 9 weeks. The link is a a brief snippet but has a link to the entire podcast (like an hour that I don't think I'll listen to).

Henry Jackman has worked with the movie's director, Rob Letterman on another film Gulliver's Travels (2010), however.

This is outside of what you were asking but I recently read that the PostModern approach to Art is that Nothing is New and hence we sometimes must find our inspirations where we find them and try to honor them as we incorporate them into our own works, a la Tarantino but some might say that's a bunch of crap...

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  • Do you know if this theme is based on anything from the Pokemon universe?
    – TK-421
    Aug 30, 2019 at 5:56
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    Funny story, I heard the whole hour and 20 minutes in chunks as I worked and only in the last five minutes did he discuss the film. Very briefly he went over the experience and how unhappy the directors were trying to "temp" music the film, where nothing worked. He didn't mention anything related to the Pokemon universe but throughout the podcast he did mention being very much into Drum & Base and his experience with electronica, synthesizers etc
    – m1gp0z
    Aug 30, 2019 at 16:22
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    A composer named Dan Golding posted a video response to your link about temp music which was interesting to listen to as well, where he states that it's more a case of technology becoming more accessible and inspiration coming from less places. Interestingly, this video heavily featured Hans Zimmer, a mentor to Henry Jackman, composer of the Pikachu film.
    – m1gp0z
    Aug 30, 2019 at 18:32
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    thank you, I will happily listen to this video to find out more about this subject
    – TK-421
    Aug 31, 2019 at 6:35

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