The Pokemon Company Hated Detective Pikachu's Lickitung Scene, Told Writers to Ditch Mr. Mime

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu might not have a great plot nor villain but it succeeded in highlighting the franchise's most important aspect; the actual Pokemon. Anyone who watched this movie probably thought about capturing their own Pokemon or wishing they existed in real life. Hell, there's a good chance that they bought one of the 3DS games before or after the film.

The Pokemon Company, for the most part, was okay with how Legendary handled their Pokemon. However, it turns out that the company actually hated how the movie handled Lickitung and even told the writers to scrap Mr. Mime since they had a hard time describing the psychic-type Pokemon.

Speaking with Time Magazine, here's what visual effects supervisor Erik Nordby had to say about The Pokemon Company reacting to Lickitung:

We built that tongue in reality with a big chunk of latex. It's completely gross, but we had to have something to wipe Justice Smith's face with [the actor gets licked by Lickitung in one scene].

For something to feel real, it has to have real world grit and texture. But the Pokémon Company would see that and think it was dirty. We had to walk them through a whole series of slides and build the trust that we weren't going to make these things disturbingly dirty.

I wouldn't say that [the scene with Lickitung] was the Pokémon Company's favorite scene in the movie. That's one where we got right up to the edge of what they would be comfortable with.

Art Director Ravi Bansal had this to say about The Pokemon Company when it came to Mr. Mime. Thankfully, they didn't listen since this Pokemon ended up being one of the movie's highlights.

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.

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu is now showing in theaters.

Read:Pokemon: Detective Pikachu Sequel is Already in Development, Has Fans Wondering How (SPOILERS)