While Nintendo movies always haven’t had the best reputation, Shigeru Miyamoto has recently hinted that Nintendo’s fruitful future could include some movie possibilities. Using Nintendo’s popular characters and settings, the sky is the limit when it comes to movies – as long as they don’t flop.
The past, the present, and the future
Many people when thinking of Nintendo movies associate it with the disaster that was known as Super Mario Bros., released in 1993. Although the movie was indeed a hot mess, over the past 22 years not only has technology improved – but video games are now more popular than ever; with many generations. The time might be right for Nintendo step into the cinema spotlight and bring their games literally to life.
“After months and months of meeting with the board of Nintendo they agreed that we were going to treat Donkey Kong with respect and the proper gameplay, which was very important, and bringing Donkey Kong into the film was a slam-dunk for us,”
A great example is in a most recent movie Pixels, famous Nintendo characters such as Donkey Kong, Mario, and Duck Hunt all made appearances in the sci-fi comedy movie where aliens attack the world using video games. With tons of collaboration, they were able to début some of these classic characters in the movie, and possibly starting a new trend for Nintendo. The movie wasn’t as good as expected, reaching a 16 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but the idea has been put in motion, and Miyamoto confirmed the mindset.
While Pixels wasn’t a great movie, one video game movie that’s a huge hit is Wreck-It-Ralph, featuring Bowser and many other characters in a giant fictional world of an arcade.
An interview with Fortune
During the interview with Fortune, Shigeru Miyamoto discussed that although video games and movies are similar, he finds them to be two different venues in the entertainment industry. Video games for example are extremely interactive, while movies are purely fpr watching and enjoying. It’s that mindset that has kept Nintendo movies from reaching the production table, but the option is still in the air.
“As we look more broadly at what is Nintendo’s role as an entertainment company, we’re starting to think more and more about how movies can fit in with that—and we’ll potentially be looking at things like movies in the future,”
– Shigeru Miyamoto, Fortune
The idea of a movie version of The Legend of Zelda or even Mario Galaxy is great in thought, but when it comes to getting accurate representation without looking too live-actiony, it becomes a difficult accomplishment. As a gamer I would love to see some more Nintendo movies, but I expect that they’d be better than the old ones.
What Nintendo game would you like to see turned into a movie? Do you think Nintendo can pull it off? Give your thoughts below!
