The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) has recently announed that they will be airing a film produced by noted Nintendo figure Shigeru Miyamoto.
Rather than the obvious Mario or Zelda candidates, Miyamoto instead chose Pikmin as his subject. The film is “Pikmin Short Movies,” and it will consist of three different narratives presented side by side. The TIFF announcement lists them as:
“The Night Juicer,” in which Captain Olimar makes his favorite juice; “Treasures in a Bottle,” in which Pikmin meet a strange treasure; “Occupational Hazards,” a big adventure at a construction site.
According to TIFF, the film is part of a research project to “give more life to the game characters of ‘Pikmin.'” It will premier in 3D on October 25th. Also of note is a post-screening talk TIFF will host with Miyamoto and Nobuo Kawakami, representing Studio Ghibli.
A festival of several firsts.
This move represents two firsts for TIFF. First, as Gamasutra points out, this will represent Miyamoto’s first film credit.
Also, just as noteworthy, the second first: the first notable video game figure entering the film festival. Although TIFF has been hosted since 1985 and hosts films from a wide number of countries, no video game figures have entered a film into this festival prior to Miyamoto.
Given these trends, it’s unlikely that more video game developers will submit films to TIFF in the future. This is likely more representative of Miyamoto’s personal direction than anything else.
