Nintendo talks Tim Burton influences in new Pikmin interview

Gearing up for Pikmin 4

Just in time for our Pikmin 4 review, Nintendo has released an official interview with key Pikmin team members, which helps shed a bit of light on this previously niche (but now fairly ubiquitous) series. In it, we hear from a few familiar faces like Shigeru Miyamoto, as well as Nintendo director Shigefumi Hino, manager Masamichi Abe, programmer Yuji Kando, and art director Junji Morii.

Even in a controlled environment like a Nintendo-published interview, these sorts of glances behind the curtain are fascinating. The team talks about how one of the original ideas for Pikmin involved an AI theme (no, not that “AI/LLM!”), where creatures would gradually increase their “chip capacity” over time to provide new functions, while also maintaining emotional capabilities like grumpiness. Apparently, Junji Morii cracked the code with sketches of the plant-based Pikmin we know now, and the rest is history.

So that’s why Pikmin can get really creepy

Curiously, Junji Morii provides us with the juiciest tidbit of all: Tim Burton helped influence some of the eerier elements of the series. Here’s what Morri had to say on that matter, providing a killer sketch to back it up:

“Back then, I really liked the world of Tim Burton, so I wanted the designs to not just be cute, but also give a sense of eeriness, or some emotional weight. That’s why I was drawing the sketches like this, with a style that layers scribbling lines.”

Yeah, I can see it! Especially with some of the more out-there enemy designs, which are inherently created to scare the pants off of you and your Pikmin. The film Fantastic Planet was also named a big influence on the franchise, as the team all watched it together to get in gear for the series’ creation; in addition to Richard Dawkins’ book The Selfish Gene.

The whole interview is worth reading even if you aren’t a Pikmin fan. It’s a great insight into the creative process and a reminder that it takes a village to create something of this scale.

You can check out part 1 here, and part 2 here.