Nintendo's new president Kimishima spoke to Asahi Shimbun about Nintendo's smartphone and movie plans. See all the details on Perfectly Nintendo.
With the NES and SNES eras Nintendo used to be absolutely everywhere. Yes, there was the bad Super Mario Bros. movie, but they also had TV shows, lots of commercials, even Super Mario cereals. The point is to get attention for Nintendo's actual products: their video game systems and games. It certainly worked for me as a kid. And today smartphones have become an important medium and Nintendo is using this to get attention back to their core systems by releasing free software on Smartphones to lure people back into the real fun. And movies and shows will always be popular, where it could be a good move to do something with their franchises in order to advertise. "Seen this amazing new Zelda movie? Liked it? You have to play the game, then!"
Now, Kimishima doesn't confirm that any Zelda movie is in the talks, but he acknowledges that The Legend of Zelda is in popular demand for such a thing. He also acknowledges that a live action movie didn't really work out so well, which essentially points in the direction of an anime (or animated movie). And this takes away my concerns. I couldn't picture a live action movie for Zelda. Even if it would have Lord of the Rings quality, they won't ever be able to get actors that are a perfect fit for the roles. It would just feel wrong.
An anime in the beautiful style of the new game, however, that is something I could easily picture:
I wouldn't be overly excited, but I certainly wouldn't be worried. It's not the 90s anymore and the Zelda Animated Series from that time is long in the past (though it can be a lot of fun and I might go through all episodes on this blog sometime). An anime worked really well for Bayonetta and if Nintendo can find the right studio (Ghibli may come to mind), a Zelda anime could become a great thing.
This was even something I considered for possible 30th Anniversary surprises, though right now it seems like I was too early with that. The 30th Anniversary might be off the table and all they do at E3 is doing an unscripted live show of the new game. No Zelda Direct or anything, where they could announce something like a Zelda anime in big fashion. But it's still possible that they might reveal something during this year. We'll see and this will certainly be an interesting topic in the future.
With the NES and SNES eras Nintendo used to be absolutely everywhere. Yes, there was the bad Super Mario Bros. movie, but they also had TV shows, lots of commercials, even Super Mario cereals. The point is to get attention for Nintendo's actual products: their video game systems and games. It certainly worked for me as a kid. And today smartphones have become an important medium and Nintendo is using this to get attention back to their core systems by releasing free software on Smartphones to lure people back into the real fun. And movies and shows will always be popular, where it could be a good move to do something with their franchises in order to advertise. "Seen this amazing new Zelda movie? Liked it? You have to play the game, then!"
Now, Kimishima doesn't confirm that any Zelda movie is in the talks, but he acknowledges that The Legend of Zelda is in popular demand for such a thing. He also acknowledges that a live action movie didn't really work out so well, which essentially points in the direction of an anime (or animated movie). And this takes away my concerns. I couldn't picture a live action movie for Zelda. Even if it would have Lord of the Rings quality, they won't ever be able to get actors that are a perfect fit for the roles. It would just feel wrong.
An anime in the beautiful style of the new game, however, that is something I could easily picture:
I wouldn't be overly excited, but I certainly wouldn't be worried. It's not the 90s anymore and the Zelda Animated Series from that time is long in the past (though it can be a lot of fun and I might go through all episodes on this blog sometime). An anime worked really well for Bayonetta and if Nintendo can find the right studio (Ghibli may come to mind), a Zelda anime could become a great thing.
This was even something I considered for possible 30th Anniversary surprises, though right now it seems like I was too early with that. The 30th Anniversary might be off the table and all they do at E3 is doing an unscripted live show of the new game. No Zelda Direct or anything, where they could announce something like a Zelda anime in big fashion. But it's still possible that they might reveal something during this year. We'll see and this will certainly be an interesting topic in the future.
Hire Studio Ghibli and I'm sold. They'd do amazing things with the franchise.
ReplyDeleteI wish them luck in this new endeavor. Anything that's better than the horribad SMB movie will be a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteZelda can work in Live Action, Mario can't.
ReplyDeleteI actually trust a Live Action more then Animation to retain Link's silent quality. For Animation you'd be taking away the only job his Actor has.