âWhen people start talking about using the term creepy, itâs a good signal,â Goldberg said of the critics bemoaning the too-real PokĂ©mon appearances. âBecause creepy is the closest thing we have to the emotion of the uncanny, that Freud talked about. We donât have a word for it in English, but creepy is pretty close. So it could be called the creepy valley, right?â
The uncanny valley isnât a perfect theory to explain the eeriness of the CGI PokĂ©mon, though.
Peter Lunenfeld, a professor and vice chair in the design and media arts department at UCLA, told me itâs âa little bit oddâ that people are bringing up the uncanny valley to describe how they feel about the PokĂ©mon, because the concept applies to images that are âtrying to approach a humanâ and PokĂ©mon were never real.
In this case, he said, the term âuncanny valleyâ isnât being used as its definition intended. Rather, itâs acting like a meme.
âYou can identify the uncanny valley now as a meme. Itâs not something that has that much relationship to the scientific or academic literature, but they want to invoke why it feels creepy to them,â he said.
According to Lunenfeld, there are different ways into the uncanny valley.
âWalt Disney approaches the uncanny valley from the classic route, which is with the Hall of Presidents and animatronics, whereas somebody like Hugh Hefner approaches the uncanny valley in the opposite direction, where he takes real people, i.e. playmates, and turns them into denizens of the uncanny valley,â he said, reiterating an idea heâd outlined in the essay âThe Factory Model of Desire.â
âThis is yet another route to the uncanny valley, where 8-bit characters turn into illustrations on cards who then turn into anime who were then turned into various [3-D generations] of gaming,â he said.
He added, âThe question is, âWhy when you get to this moment, literally 30 years after the first thought of [PokĂ©mon]⊠why is it that this iteration in this particular narrative space breeds this online discussion?ââ
Part of the discussion hinges on a character that perhaps better fits the traditional definition of the uncanny valley: Mr. Mime, a humanoid demon-clown-jester-looking Pokémon. Of all the characters in the trailer, Mr. Mime is probably the creepiest, and Goldberg explained why.
âThis particular guy... he does look a little like an evil clown and has got this fleshiness to him,â he said. âThe little hairs on his head are particularly troubling people, and that is often a sign. This little bit of realism that goes to far.â
