To the left, you’ve got Wailord, as it appears in Pokémon Sun and Moon. To the right, you’ve got Wailord from the Pokémon anime. Notice a difference?
As Instagram user xeogran noted recently, Pokémon Sun and Moon does not capture the sheer magnificence that is Wailord. This Wailord is too small!
Sun and Moon are the first games in the main franchise which show trainers standing behind Pokémon in battle. While downscaling monsters to fit the screen is nothing new, looking at an 11-year-old stand tall against a creature based on a blue whale is silly. Wailord is supposed to be one of the biggest creatures in the entire game, ostensibly even a baby Wailord would be enormous next to a trainer. (According to Bulbapedia, Wailords are around 47'07" and can weigh around 877.4 lbs.)
Literally unplayable, Game Freak.
Reader @sirboulevard points out that Colosseum got it right when it displayed Wailords that would obscure nearly the entire screen: