Detective Pikachu finally made its way into theatres about two weeks ago. The film would be the first live-action one in the franchise. Thus, it revealed to audiences what Pokemon would really look like. One of the most bizarre inclusions was Mr. Mime.
This Pokemon is one of the most creepy and human-like there is. Pete Dionne,
Detective Pikachu's VFX supervisor, recently discussed how the VFX team went about bringing the anthropomorthic character to life with
DigitalArtsOnline. As well as revealed how the team
avoided the character turning out too creepy, he also revealed the inspiration behind the character's performance.
Dionne explained that the Pokemon creature's performance was actually based on a real physical comic by the name of Trygve Wakenshaw. After discovering the comic's work online, the film's director, Rob Letterman flew him to set from New Zealand where he would act out scenes so that the VFX team could replicate his movements.
You can read what Dionne had to say as well as check out one of Wakenshaw's performances below:
"Trygve is just absolutely hilarious. Rob Letterman brought him in after seeing a video online, and he did about three hours of workshopping the interrogation scene with him, which we recorded with multiple cameras. We got absolute gold, and a large portion of that performance in the final film was inspired by Trigve’s original performance in the workshop."