Shigeru Miyamoto, a senior executive at Nintendo says that they would not be opposed to film adaptations of their video game franchises. Nintendo was not previously warm to the notion due to the differences in the medium between the art of video games and film, but Miyamoto says that times are changing.
Here’s where I draw the line. Remember that godawful live action Mario Bros. film that was made back in 1993? No, of course you wouldn’t. There are things that are meant to stay buried and forgotten (Atari’s E.T. we’re talking to you). However, am I open to the idea of a humble endeavor that could lead to greater things in the future. It’s not the end product of a Mario film that I’m worried about, it’s the transition. Nintendo should be careful how they market this new take on a classic art form such as cinema. It could hurt them if the box office does not receive their efforts with open arms. Sorry for the rant, back to the news.
Since Satoru Iwata’s death last month, Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda are acting as temporary leaders of Nintendo until further notice. The openness to film adaptation could be between the two and not the entire company, but there is still a possibility that talking about the prospect could lead to a movie actually materializing. In fact, in the most recent Adam Sandler movie, Pixels, Donkey Kong made an appearance of his own. Was the movie that great? No, not at all, but it’s a step in the direction that Nintendo says they’re going. Prior to this, leaked emails showed that Sony Pictures and Nintendo were in cahoots to make an animated Mario film (tisk-tisk, Nintendo). Also, although Nintendo has backed off from speculation that it could happen, there was talk of an animated Legend of Zelda television program to be exclusively released on Netflix, which seems to be the trend nowadays.
Nintendo isn’t unfamiliar with opening their franchises to some exploitation, but it would be sad to see some of our favorite Nintendo titles get burned alive with a terrible film adaptation. What do you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down to Nintendo’s plans? Comment below with your thoughts!