Some days, we can only dream that the world will bring back our childhood in the form of a sequel to 1987’s Masters of the Universe, starring Dolph Lundgren’s pectoral muscles. Other days, the dream is real. As when we got the opportunity to work with an equally awesome childhood bucket-list brand: Pokémon. Our collective inner nerd squealed at the chance to animate pocket monsters for an ongoing campaign with our collaborators at Omelet. Like Legos or Star Wars, Pokémon is a legacy brand transcending generations and is mega popular, no pressure.

We populated the frames with pastoral landscapes, underwater trenches, a futuristic metropolis, and celestial vortexes. Every spot was different, with the environment an equal character to the Pokémon’s doing battle. Naturally, we pulled reference from the crap ton of pre-1995 movies we watch: Blade Runner, Temple of Doom, The Abyss, and Baraka. Not to mention more than a few Pokémon anime “research” binges.

In order to amplify the movements of our CG characters, we took a deep dive into cel effects, which for us, meant watching old episodes of Thundercats. Ok, yes, another beloved childhood reference, but a perfect fit for our character energy fields. They added a powerful secondary animation to both our scenes and the overall edit.