The Pokemon Company seems to be unsure of what Mr. Mime actually is
What is Mr. Mime? He’s obviously a Pokemon, but beyond that, you may not be able to get much of an answer. That’s because even The Pokemon Company seems to be unsure of what Mr. Mime actually is.
Detective Pikachu director Rob Letterman was speaking with The Pokemon Company during the early stages of the film. When Letterman asked what the character is, he was told, “We don’t know.” The Pokemon Company also wasn’t keen on having Mr. Mime in Detective Pikachu since “they weren’t sure what he was or whether he’d work well on the screen,” according to art director Ravi Bansal.
Bansal and visual effects supervisor Erik Nordby shared the following about Mr. Mime in an interview with Time:
Bansal: When Rob [Letterman, the film’s director] suggested using Mr. Mime, we asked the Pokémon Company, “What is he?” They went: We don’t know.” They were actually trying to dissuade us from using him, because they weren’t sure what he was or whether he’d work well on screen. That was a bit of a strange one.
Nordby: When you look at the character, it instantly feels creepy. We had to figure out what aspects we could push and pull. We settled on the idea that every surface needed to feel like a toy. His joints are those dodge balls we used to play with when we were kids. His gloves are the inflatable gloves you’d get at a fair. We had to find all of these evocative textures that just felt childlike.
His shape is so so simple: It’s a series of balls and very simple shapes. So you constantly look for little tiny things that have a high level of detail that can counterbalance that very simplistic overall silhouette. The adding of very subtle freckles is something we found was very successful—it also helped with it looking a bit more cute.
