Detective Pikachu: Fears THIS Pokémon was ‘too DIRTY’ – ‘It’s completely gross’

There’s one moment in the Ryan Reynolds-starring comedy that, it seems, made bosses at The Pokemon Company very uncomfortable.

And no, this is separate to their previously-revealed concerns over Mr Mime.

Speaking with Time, visual effects supervisor Erik Nordby recalled the issues the team had with Lickitung.

It’s a baby pink species with an enormous tongue, that appears for a quick but of light relief.

“We built that tongue in reality with a big chunk of latex,” Nordby said.

“It’s completely gross, but we had to have something to wipe Justice Smith’s face with.

“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.”

It seems the team had to work hard to convince them to let the Lickitung scene go ahead.

“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,” Nordby added.

“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.”

As of earlier this week, Detective Pikachu has grossed around $175.8 million worldwide in less than a week.

But there was controversy at one Candian cinema in its opening weekend when a horror film was accidentally played instead.

Children were said to be in tears when suspicion was raised by trailers for horror films – before the horrifying first scenes of The Curse of La Llorona were played in error.

The incident allegedly took place at the Guzzo Marché Central, according to Screen Rant’s Ryan George – who happened to be in the room.

He tweeted: “This was such a massive mistake and so entertaining to watch unfold.”

Detective Pikachu has a 65% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics agreeing: “Pokémon Detective Pikachu may not take its wonderfully bizarre premise as far as it could have, but this offbeat adaptation should catch most – if not all – of the franchise’s fans.”

Smith plays the human lead, Tim Goodman, with support from Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy, Suki Waterhouse, Ken Watanabe and Rita Ora.

Detective Pikachu is out now.