Director Ang Lee has opened up about his regrets over his love it-or-hate it Hulk movie, but credits the 2003 comic book film with helping him pull off his new CG-heavy film Life of Pi.

"I learned quite a bit about CG from The Hulk, and I wouldn't have been able to do Life of Pi without that. But it's easier to create an animal, because there exists a good reference — so a tiger or a hyena is easier than a 2,000-pound rage monster," Lee told Vulture "The hardest thing to do is the weight, not the skin, because there's no reference for something that size that is agile. And the technology's improved, so you can have more details with Mark [Ruffalo]'s Hulk. My problem is that I took the whole thing too seriously. I should have had more fun with it, instead of all the psychodrama!"Life of Pi opens Wednesday.