Pokemon Detective Pikachu hit theaters this weekend and contains many CGI recreations of famous Pokemon creatures. Creating these digital animals was challenging and in a Time Magazine story, released earlier this week, the visual effects team behind the film talked about the work involved in creating some of these creatures.




Also, The Pokemon Company doesn’t actually know what Mr.Mime is and hated that Lickitung scene.

Erik Nordby, the visual effects supervisor on the film, explained that to create the scene where Lickitung uses its giant tongue to lick the main character of the film, they created a giant latex tongue and covered it in fake saliva. Interestingly, according to Nordby, The Pokemon Company wasn’t a big fan of this scene. “ That’s one where we got right up to the edge of what they would be comfortable with.”




Disturbingly, when the director of the film asked The Pokemon Company about Mr. Mime and what he is, they didn’t have much info to give, saying “We don’t know.” In fact, the company actually tried to convince the creators of the film to not use Mr. Mime. They weren’t sure he would work on screen.

For Loudred, a Pokemon with a speaker like ears and giant mouth, the VFX team had trouble finding a place for his guts. As Nordby explained, “When he opens his mouth it’s a vacuous hole: There’s little room for a brain or anything else.”


The Pokemon universe is a nightmare. At least we have the adorable Detective Pikachu and his hat.