Nintendo is getting its own animation studio, Nintendo Pictures
As the release date of Illumination's Chris Pratt-starring Mario movie looms closer, Nintendo is launching its own CG studio
Aux News Unknown
Some interesting news out of Nintendo this week, as THR reports that the Japanese game company has just acquired a new animation studio, soon to be rebranded as Nintendo Pictures. Specifically, the Mario makers have picked up visual content company Dynamo Pictures Inc., with the intent of re-launching it this October as an in-house animation studio.
Adaptations of video games have become increasingly big business in recent years, as films like Detective Pikachu and the Sonic The Hedgehog movies have managed to shake off at least a little of the stigma usually attached to the form. (Sony, meanwhile, took a similar swing with Uncharted, and is clearly banking on its The Last Of Us adaptation at HBO to break some of the game adaptation curse.)
Although Nintendo has never been shy about licensing out its games to outside studios to turn into TV or film—from the live-action/animated hybrid Super Mario Super Show, to the Super Mario Bros. movie starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, to the upcoming Illumination animated Mario feature, just to pick one plumber-based franchise from the company’s deep catalogue—it’s never gotten seriously into producing its own content.
Not that the acquisition of Dynamo Pictures necessarily means that there’ll soon be infinite Zelda movies rolling off the shelves indefinitely, mind you; the studio mostly produces CG for video games as well as TV shows. so it’s just as likely that the company launched Nintendo Pictures to bolster its own game production, more than to craft that Metroid movie you’ve been dreaming of. That being said, THR notes that the studio does intend to “focus on development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP,” which certainly sounds like fans of the godawful Donkey Kong Country animated series from the 1990s might finally get that sequel their perverted hearts have been pining for lo these many years.
19 Comments
…fans of the godawful Donkey Kong Country animated series from the 1990s might finally get that sequel their perverted hearts have been pining for lo these many years.
Look, I’m just really into busty female monkeys that wear tight, revealing shirts and hot pants, OKAY?
Don’t kink-shame me!
Nintendo has plenty of IP that could do well as animated TV shows or movies. Metroid seems like the prime example but have always thought Star Fox would be good as well. And Zelda seems like low hanging fruit.
Honestly, it’s shorter to list the Nintendo IPs that WOULDN’T make good animated shows/movies. Like, even Game and Watch could have some fun in it as a throwback to Steamboat Willie-style stuff if they wanted.I’m REALLY thinking about this and the only one I feel just couldn’t possibly be good animated media is R.O.B. I love R.O.B., but there’s just nothing there. Even Wii Fit/Ring Fit… I mean, exercise programs exist, you could probably make a really useful one with some CGI animated backing, even if it wouldn’t necessarily be a hit.
Balloon Fight would make a pretty shitty streaming series
I 100% forgot about that game but it was a lot of fun for such a simple premise.
R.O.B. could work because the core concept -a robot that plays video games- is a great blank slate. Hell, the robot could easily be Nintendo’s version of T.O.M. from Toonami, anchoring entire blocks of Nintendo animated content.
‘Prime’ example, I get it.
‘Metroid’ seems like the prime example to you eh? Snicker snicker.
So what I’m getting from this is they have absolutely no faith in the Chris Pratt Mario movie.
Does anyone?
You can just picture Miyamoto and the gang being so repulsed by whatever the Minions people have done with their IP that they pull a Bender and decide to make their own Nintendo films, with no blackjack or hookers, except of course in the Wario movie.
Although Nintendo has never been shy about licensing out its games to outside studios to turn into TV or film—from the live-action/animated hybrid Super Mario Super Show, to the Super Mario Bros. movie starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, to the upcoming Illumination animated Mario feature, just to pick one plumber-based franchise from the company’s deep catalogue—it’s never gotten seriously into producing its own content.There’s a reason there’s a 29 year gap there. They *have* been notoriously shy about licensing out their games to movie studios ever since the Bob Hoskins movie debacle. I feel like a teacher handing back a failing essay to a middle schooler sometimes when reading this website.
I feel the same way but somewhat oppositely, because there IS an elephant in the room with Nintendo’s licensed projects in terms of consistency and longevity, one that essentially fills that 29 year gap, and it’s Pokémon. Yet it only gets obliquely referenced with Detective Pikachu, which the article seems to position as a big break, despite the fact that, adjusting for inflation, the first Pokémon movie surpasses it.
The Pokemon IP is owned by the Pokemon Company. The Pokemon Company is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. Nintendo has about a 10% stake in Creatures. Nintendo does however own a number of the trademarks and copyrights for Pokemon. But it isn’t fully Nintendo’s call on Pokemon. I also believe Game Freak was the one that got the ball rolling on the TV series.
Nintendo has produced/licensed some animation over the years such as Hoshi no Kirby and Mega Man NT Warrior, both in the early 2000’s.
I feel like the seed has just been planted for a Smash Bros. cinematic universe. Which means we have enough cinematic universes now to have a Cinematic Universe Cinematic Universe. I for one can’t wait to see The Mummy and Hulk get their asses kicked by Mr. Game And Watch.
Eh, I’m totally fine with them launching a bunch of standalone titles like Metroid and Zelda etc. and then tying them into a Smash Bros. “Avengers” type film.
That sounds inoffensively fun to me.
Oh, me too. They could follow the MCU formula exactly and I’d be all for it.
I’m kinda hoping that this Mario movie will turn out to be an entertaining, unmitigated crisp rat of a disaster, but it’ll probably just be unbearably mediocre. Oh well.
give mean earthboundmovie!