Nintendo Could Make Movies Again
'Mario v. Donkey Kong: Dawn of Justice' coming soon, maybe, not.
Time heals all wounds, even bad acid trips like the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. After 22 years, Nintendo might finally be looking to get a piece of the Hollywood action once more.
In the June earnings statement, Nintendo stated with hushed tones an increased attention to “visual content production and character merchandising.”
While that could mean anything — YouTube is visual content production — Nintendo has had minor recent success in feature films. Pixels might be a mess, but it didn’t ruin Donkey Kong nor did it taint their presence in Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, which was showered with praise and earned nominations for a Golden Globe and Academy Award.
Whether Nintendo’s “visual productions” end up as big-budget features or two-minute skits on YouTube, there’s reason to believe in its possible success. The gatekeeper himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, will be overseeing these endeavors through Nintendo’s Software & Planning Division, according to Fortune.
What Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were to Marvel Shigeru Miyamoto is to Nintendo. At E3, Miyamoto said to Fortune that “games and movies seem like similar mediums” but stressed that the interactivity of games and the passivity of movies make them fundamentally different.
For a guy who made up a game where an Italian plumber saves a princess from a giant dinosaur toad, he’s got a pretty level head.
