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Discussion What form of Video content would fit Zelda (and other Nintendo IPs) the best?

lexony

lexony

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While The Super Mario Movie seems to be shaping up to be one of the best performing animated pictures ever at the box office I’m wondering myself more than ever how Nintendo will handle their other IPs.

I mean a Mario + Yoshi Sequel seems to be set in stone at this point alongside many other possible films in the Mario/Donkey Kong Universe by Illumination.

Though where does that leave Nintendo‘s other franchises? I mean Zelda, Splatoon or Animal Crossing are huge, but unlike Mario they are way less known outside of gaming communities.

After Mario and Donkey Kong, the next big obvious choice to give a franchise the cross media and theme park treatment would be Zelda. Though personally I don‘t see an animated Illumination film being the right choice. My dream would be a Live Action Series. What do you think would be the right choice of video content for Zelda (or other Nintendo IPs)?
 
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For DK, I think a movie similar to the Mario Movie would be great.

I think Metroid would be cool in an animated style similar to the art style for The Clone Wars/The Bad Batch, and in a TV series format.

For Zelda I’m not sure, it seems inevitable if Nintendo keeps doing cinematic stuff like the Mario Movie, I just feel like a lot of different approaches could work.
 
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Xenoblade and Fire Emblem should absolutely be Anime.

I think Zelda is best suited towards being a series similar to The Witcher or Game of Thrones (could be live action or animated), but I'm not sure they'd actually do it, and I'd settle for an animated movie on part with How to Train Your Dragon.

Illumination could probably do a respectable job with Kirby, Animal Crossing, and Splatoon.

Metroid I would like to see either in Live Action, or given a dark short animated series akin to Castlevania.

I think some of the B tier franchises could benefit from a streaming series that rotates a bunch of different Nintendo IPs, so you could have F-Zero, Punch-out, Star Fox, etc all be part of the same show with seasonal or rotating storylines.
 
Live action play for Xenoblade and Fire Emblem. Three Houses live action would rule.

Splatoon animated movie.

Kirby anime series.

Zelda anime (like the Link's Awakening remake that has the same frame rate as an anime)
 
The first Xenoblade makes sense for an anime series though Nintendo would need some big oversight to make sure the quality is there. Video game anime adaptations have a wide range in quality even if they have been trending a bit better lately.

I think you could make a really cool Metroid movie either animated or in live action. My short pitch, 10-20 minutes wrapping up a mission (a bit action heavy), a 15 minute interlude (this is where you can have some dialogue and character stuff), and then the rest is one full mission start to finish.
 
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For Xeno. Zelda I would want them to be traditional animation, not cg movies.

Metroid- live action with Brie Larson in the lead role
 
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It's not what I would want personally, but Zelda is guaranteed to end up being live action, whether as a film or series. I'm certain Nintendo would want this to be their "prestige" series; skew a little bit older in target audience compared to the family-friendly animated Mario universe.

Metroid seems like a property that would be of interest to Hollywood. I'm sure Zelda will get priority given out of all of Nintendo's internal properties it is a definite #2, but somewhere down the line I could see Metroid getting something. Would adapt better to film than a lot of Nintendo properties.

Splatoon, Fire Emblem and Xenoblade are shoe-ins for eventual TV anime adaptations. I'm surprised FE in particular hasn't happened yet, no animated content since the Mystery of the Emblem OVA in the 90s. Not sure which studios would pick them up in the end, but these will have to happen eventually if they are serious about their multimedia push, especially Splatoon.

Animal Crossing already has a movie! I'm not sure that format is the perfect fit for the property though. I think a good smaller project for Nintendo Pictures would be a series of slice of life shorts; think something like that could end up being super cute.

I'm not really sure what format would fit best for Kirby nowadays. Obviously we had an 100 episode anime series (which just got rereleased on Blu-ray in Japan). The ongoing light novel series shows that slightly longer form stories with closer ties to the games is also feasible for Kirby. A lot of options for this one.

There's a lot of Nintendo games and series with easter eggs in the Mario movie: Game & Watch, Duck Hunt, Balloon Fight, Ice Climbers (and plenty of other Black Box NES titles), Kid Icarus, Punch-Out!!, F-Zero, Star Fox, Wave Race, Pikmin, maybe more. I'm not really confident any of these will get their own full film or series at this point. F-Zero has already had an anime series, but that was when it was actually an active series. Kid Icarus, Pikmin and Star Fox all had shorts in the 2010s, but I don't think they'll be seeing anything more in the foreseeable future. Punch-Out!! is probably one of the easier series to write a story around, but I can't see it happening either. The others don't have much of any potential..

In short; i'm looking forward to Famicom Detective Club: The Animation.
 
I think both Zelda and Metroid would need to have very high budgets to get their own live action shows.

If they really want to make a Smash Bros movie where all universes collide, its better to let Universal make al CGI films so later they can reuse as many assets as possible.
 
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Yamanoi said:
Live action play for Xenoblade and Fire Emblem. Three Houses live action would rule.

Splatoon animated movie.

Kirby anime series.

Zelda anime (like the Link's Awakening remake that has the same frame rate as an anime)
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That's a lot of anime.

nyQ2q5N.jpg
 
A Legend of Zelda movie would be great. Just get a decent studio in charge of it, as in, not Illumination. Dreamworks could totally nail it.

A Xenoblade anime needs to happen. Let Takahashi live his destiny.
 
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Yamanoi said:
Please don't try and post any images for provoking other members' reactions. Now, a real mario and luigi dream team is:

s-l1600.jpg
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There are so many alternate universes out there with more inspired Mario and Luigi castings. Shame we got stuck in this one.
 
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Metroid feels too niche to warrant a big Hollywood blockbuster, along with the general issues with adapting it to a mainstream movie narrative. It would have to sell on its own merits, not "see Metroid on the big screen."
 
Mekanos said:
Metroid feels too niche to warrant a big Hollywood blockbuster, along with the general issues with adapting it to a mainstream movie narrative. It would have to sell on its own merits, not "see Metroid on the big screen."
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I always wanna say "get Ridley Scott to do it" but I dunno anymore..
I saw Prometheus in theaters and that's a tough one to forget.
 
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I would kill for a three houses anime.

The lore, story and and characters are all there. Take them and run with it
 
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As for Zelda, I personally can't imagine it being live action at all. Probably not animated Zelda by Illumination but if made by DreamWorks that would work perfectly well.
 
I think the deal for Zelda will be with Universal Studios and it will be a massive deal which will include both live action and animated Zelda movies. Yes, plural. Either that or Nintendo will seperate the rights to try and drive even bigger bidding wars.

People need to understand, the bidding war for these IP are going to go through the roof now, even things like Metroid and Star Fox movies ... right now if Nintendo wanted to sell those IP rights, I bet they would find buyers fairly quickly.

The fact is there simply aren't many proven franchise IPs available to movie studios (Marvel + Star Wars is locked to Disney, DC to Warner, Jurassic Park to Universal). Beyond that many IP are on the downswing ... Fast & Furious is winding down, Jurassic Park I would question how many more times they can do the "dinosaurs got loose ... again ... some how" thing.

If I was at Universal I would try right now to get rights for all existing Nintendo IP under one umbrella. This thing is a gold mine and they should have an advantage with Miyamoto working with the Illumination guys and being massively successful with it. But the cost and terms of the deal now are likely to be very much in Nintendo's favor.

I also think with Zelda ... Mario as a movie has proven that Nintendo can dominate in animation and there's a fairly straight forward path to other successful animated films (Mario sequel, Luigi's Mansion, Donkey Kong Country, etc.) ... but Zelda is probably their best bet of their franchise stable for success with a live action project. They ought to try it, if it's a big success then it's nothing but another big money stream for Nintendo.
 
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F-Zero: Rip-off of the Wachowski sisters' Speed Racer movie
Electroplankton: Art installation at MoMA
Yakuman: Live competition broadcast
Urban Champion: Documentary
 
TheMindOfThomas said:
They could give Zelda to DreamWorks and do a film with a similar animation style to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
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Yeah they could do a Zelda movie in that art style, although I wonder if it's as commercially favorable as just doing regular CGI.

DreamWorks is owned by Universal, so these distinctions are also kinda moot ... it's all the same company.

Most likely Nintendo I think will be getting its own entire animation division at Universal because of the success of the Mario movie.
 
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MondoMega said:
In short; i'm looking forward to Famicom Detective Club: The Animation.
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For some reason I thought about the anime in the style of Higurashi lol.

But yeah, detective style animes are some of the best. Would love to see it.
 
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I said this in the main Mario movie thread but I personally don’t think they go live action with anything. They’ll have more control over how everything looks if it’s animated. The big tossup for this is Zelda; I think everything else could pretty easily be animated.
 
A Metroid animated series would be lit. Imagine one a la Metroid Prime, where Samus doesn't talk whatsoever but the plot moves forward through imagery and the occasional talk from side characters (so a bit like Samurai Jack), and with realistic but very stylish visuals (Dread is a nice example).

I can dream but it will probably never happen.
 
An animated Zelda would be cool if they would experiment with Artstyles and stuff.
 
Aurc said:
This can't be true, considering Prime Remastered is sitting at a 94 on Metacritic. Prestige games are 95 and above.
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$40 for 94 Metacritic game at 60fps. TOTK would need to be 101 on Metacritic IMHO to justify $70 and 30fps.
 
Christo750 said:
I said this in the main Mario movie thread but I personally don’t think they go live action with anything. They’ll have more control over how everything looks if it’s animated. The big tossup for this is Zelda; I think everything else could pretty easily be animated.
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They could hold in their deck as a gold card (saturate the animated market and then tada ... we got live action Zelda!). I think a well done Zelda live action film could be a billion+ earner.
 
Machrider said:
They could hold in their deck as a gold card (saturate the animated market and then tada ... we got live action Zelda!). I think a well done Zelda live action film could be a billion+ earner.
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it might be a billion+ earner but idk.

Maybe tangential, maybe unrelated but I don't think so: I wonder how Miyamoto feels about reviews for the Mario movie. If it's a Nintendo franchise he had a hand in initially creating, he will be in a producorial role for it's film adaptation; Zelda, DK, Pikmin, etc. He's not used to many Mario-related things getting poor reviews so I kinda wonder if he tightens or loosens his grip on the next projects. I think a live-action Zelda movie has the potential to go so wrong so much quicker.

And in the Variety interview, he talks about how other interpretations don't have the creators input and suffer for it, and I honestly don't see him vibing with a live-action Zelda.
 
Christo750 said:
it might be a billion+ earner but idk.

Maybe tangential, maybe unrelated but I don't think so: I wonder how Miyamoto feels about reviews for the Mario movie. If it's a Nintendo franchise he had a hand in initially creating, he will be in a producorial role for it's film adaptation; Zelda, DK, Pikmin, etc. He's not used to many Mario-related things getting poor reviews so I kinda wonder if he tightens or loosens his grip on the next projects. I think a live-action Zelda movie has the potential to go so wrong so much quicker.

And in the Variety interview, he talks about how other interpretations don't have the creators input and suffer for it, and I honestly don't see him vibing with a live-action Zelda.
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Zelda has more story meat to draw from though and an even more epic score to lean on. Lets be honest too, people are too hung up on reviews. How good were the last two Jurassic Park movies? The last Minions movie? Fast & Furious 9? There's plenty of blockbusters cleaning up without great reviews.
 
Machrider said:
Zelda has more story meat to draw from though and an even more epic score to lean on. Lets be honest too, people are too hung up on reviews. How good were the last two Jurassic Park movies? The last Minions movie? Fast & Furious 9? There's plenty of blockbusters cleaning up without great reviews.
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I'm not hung up on reviews at all, and considering how much people like it and are going to see it, I don't think many people are really paying attention to reviews outside of boards like these. I'm strictly talking about Miyamoto.
 
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(apologies for the incoming rambling, I can't help myself)

Note that I won't be able to watch the Mario movie until it's available to buy or stream, so I can't speak for whatever sequels or spinoffs it might be setting up so I'd rather talk about IPs that aren't connected to Mario.

Honestly, I don't really want live-action anything because I feel like they'd lose something in the transition (and I just... prefer animation anyway), but I feel like live-action is probably how Zelda and Metroid would be handled, although I really don't think live-action is actually a good fit for Zelda for a variety of reasons. I don't want it to be the next Game of Thrones, or Witcher, of LotR, etc because I feel trying to chase the current fantasy genre trends would do a disservice to the series identity. Live-action would fit Metroid better between the two, but even then I still would much rather it be animated. But not by Illumination, obviously. I think it would be a mistake to have Illumination do every animated movie.

I'll accept live-action adaptations if they do them and manage to pull it off. I just don't think that's the way to go.

(my primal fear is that a Metroid adaptation would be a kid-focused movie; I try to assure myself that's unrealistic but then I remember the Metroid cartoon that almost happened and start screaming)

I'd love to see Fire Emblem get an anime. I'm surprised it hasn't gotten anything since the OVA in the 90's. I want to see Tellius or Three Houses adapted but it feels a safe bet to say it'd probably start with Marth if they ever do anything.

But none of that matters as much to me right now as what I really, really want: a Star Fox movie or series. Please. It's been three thousand years. Let me see them again. Bonus points if they do puppets like Thunderbirds but I have a feeling they'd go for CGI.
 
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My biggest fear for a zelda movie made by Hollywood is that they might try to turn it into some kind a LOTR deal and losing the playful classic fantasy tone on the way.
 
Bowser Sr. said:
My biggest fear for a zelda movie made by Hollywood is that they might try to turn it into some kind a LOTR deal and losing the playful classic fantasy tone on the way.
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That's why every time this comes up I start shouting the name of an Irish animator 😅
 
The Illumination CEO is a board member of Nintendo now right? Doesn't that imply that any new project would also go through him? I'm not particularly enthused about Illumination Zelda...

I could see Zelda either as a more sophisticated computer-animated film (good examples upthread!) or leaning into BotW's Ghibli inspirations and make it a classy anime. I don't they'll do that though, because they'd likely want to go as mainstream as they can.
 
I thought the Zelda DiC cartoon was excellent for what it was. An illumination movie with those character dynamics or a more serious high budget TV series would both be good.
 
manfromthedam said:
The Illumination CEO is a board member of Nintendo now right? Doesn't that imply that any new project would also go through him? I'm not particularly enthused about Illumination Zelda...

I could see Zelda either as a more sophisticated computer-animated film (good examples upthread!) or leaning into BotW's Ghibli inspirations and make it a classy anime. I don't they'll do that though, because they'd likely want to go as mainstream as they can.
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Meledandri recently also was the Executive Producer of Puss in Boots which was produced by DreamWorks (owned by Universal/Comcast). I don’t think it has to be necessarily Illumination for all Nintendo productions if it has to go at some point through him.

Even with that, the deal(s) between Nintendo and Universal currently probably only includes Mario and Donkey Kong, considering the theme park efforts and the movie. I could see Nintendo working with different partners for their other franchises.

Though if Nintendo continues to do all future productions only with Universal, they’d still have access to a huge network of possible studios that could adapt their properties. Maybe Universal would even create a specific department as a jointventure with Nintendo or something.
 
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lexony said:
Meledandri recently also was the Executive Producer of Puss in Boots which was produced by DreamWorks (owned by Universal/Comcast). I don’t think it has to be necessarily Illumination for all Nintendo productions if it has to go at some point through him.
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Ah right, well that opens up a huge amount of possibilities!
 
Zelda is going to be interesting, because right now it's not a matter of if Nintendo can get the movie made, it's a question of how they want it done.

Do they want to try live action first? Or continue with animation only?

Or at some point even have both (like Spider-Man)?

I think they definitely are going to want to build up to a Smash Brothers mega team up movie, so there has to be an animated version of Link/Zelda/etc. to go with Mario/Luigi and co.
 
Machrider said:
Zelda is going to be interesting, because right now it's not a matter of if Nintendo can get the movie made, it's a question of how they want it done.

Do they want to try live action first? Or continue with animation only?

Or at some point even have both (like Spider-Man)?
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If they decide to do both live action and animation then all it'll do is further deepen the argument over 2D vs 3D Zelda
 
Zelda could go in a few interesting directions. An adaptation of Windwaker by illumination could be a huge hit, Ocarina of time into a twilight princess sequel would be fun, or even an adaptation of majoras mask near Halloween could be a modest hit.
 
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Outside of the big productions I feel like all Nintendo IPs would be perfect for animation shorts with various artstyles and stories similarly like Pokémon is doing once in a while. The Pikmin shorts are hugely sucessful on YouTube and more of these would do a lot for brand awareness. Maybe Nintendo Pictures is exactly there for that, but it would be even more cool if they have different guest writers/artist who could each create something unique for them.
 
lexony said:
Outside of the big productions I feel like all Nintendo IPs would be perfect for animation shorts with various artstyles and stories similarly like Pokémon is doing once in a while. The Pikmin shorts are hugely sucessful on YouTube and more of these would do a lot for brand awareness. Maybe Nintendo Pictures is exactly there for that, but it would be even more cool if they have different guest writers/artist who could each create something unique for them.
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I was thinking something like this. They could have a streaming series like I suggested a few posts back that can get experimental with the IPs and productions. Alternatively, they could produce more traditional shorts and run them before full movies, and use that to gauge interest in expanding those IPs into a feature film or create new game content for them.
 
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