What Will Be the Third Nintendo Adaptation?

[vanguard333]

The announcement of the upcoming live-action Zelda movie confirmed that Nintendo is definitely emboldened to try again at adaptations of their video game franchises. With the huge success of the Mario movie, this is hardly surprising, and it's even less surprising that the next one will be a Zelda movie. But, the question then is this: after Mario and Zelda, who's next? Who will be the third to receive an adaptation?

 

Note: I am saying "third" and not "fourth" because I am not counting the movie Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, as it was created by The Pokémon Company. I am specifically talking about adaptations that Nintendo is directly handling.

Edited November 12, 2023 by vanguard333

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I picked "Kirby" as an "Animated Movie". I, uh, don't even want to think about how "live-action Kirby" would look.

My rationale was simple - Kirby already had an adaptation. That is, the "Kirby: Right Back At Ya" cartoon series. They were willing to do it before, so why not again? Moreover, if they're sticking with Illumination for animated films, then Kurby is perhaps their most suitable property for such an adaptation.

[Etrurian emperor]

Kid Icarus ascension! With Jim Carrey as Hades. 

[vanguard333]

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I picked "Kirby" as an "Animated Movie". I, uh, don't even want to think about how "live-action Kirby" would look.

My rationale was simple - Kirby already had an adaptation. That is, the "Kirby: Right Back At Ya" cartoon series. They were willing to do it before, so why not again? Moreover, if they're sticking with Illumination for animated films, then Kirby is perhaps their most suitable property for such an adaptation.

I'm imagining every character as a puppet, but that wouldn't happen today with CGI being used for everything puppets and animatronics used to be used for. Another option would be something like Disney's Dinosaur: animated characters placed in a real environment, but that would be considered an animated film as Disney's Dinosaur was considered an animated film.

Kirby is a popular franchise, so it is certainly probable. 

[Hrothgar777]

My guess is, the Zelda movie will try to take itself seriously and the result is that it'll underperform compared to Mario. Recall that the Mario movie was something of a novelty; aside from Pokemon, Nintendo's IPs don't have a long history of seeing the big screen. That has probably worn off now, so people will view the Zelda movie same as the World of Warcraft thing that came out a few years ago: just another video game movie, a genre which has a less than stellar track record overall.

 

(You might say "Warcraft performed decent-ish." First, WOW in its heyday was about as popular as Zelda, and there was inevitably some nostalgia for it among grown ex-fans. Second, even then its box office numbers were like a third of Mario's, which is the metric to which the Zelda flick will be compared.) 

 

Nintendo, in the aftermath of this comparative flop, will be disabused of such egotistical notions as "We're so awesome that we might as well become the next Marvel cinematic universe". So Fire Emblem or whatnot is out. Instead they'll make a "safe" movie with general appeal, such as for a younger audience or a goofball comedy. So my guess would be Splatoon, Animal Crossing, or Metroid.

Why is Metroid an option? Because despite how uptight the franchise has become, the initial premise was something ripped from a 1950s child's fantasy about outer space. Think the recent Buzz Lightyear movie, but maybe a little sillier (I haven't actually seen it).

Edited November 13, 2023 by Hrothgar777

[vanguard333]

36 minutes ago, Hrothgar777 said:

My guess is, the Zelda movie will try to take itself seriously and the result is that it'll underperform compared to Mario. Recall that the Mario movie was something of a novelty; aside from Pokemon, Nintendo's IPs don't have a long history of seeing the big screen. That has probably worn off now, so people will view the Zelda movie same as the World of Warcraft thing that came out a few years ago: just another video game movie, a genre which has a less than stellar track record overall.

(You might say "Warcraft performed decent-ish." First, WOW in its heyday was about as popular as Zelda, and there was inevitably some nostalgia for it among grown ex-fans. Second, even then its box office numbers were like a third of Mario's, which is the metric to which the Zelda flick will be compared.) 

I know I wasn't going to say the Warcraft movie performed decent-ish; it definitely underperformed and likely flopped when including marketing costs. That said, the Warcraft movie suffered from one of its studios (Universal) allegedly being difficult to work with and seemingly wanting the movie to fail; giving it as little advertising as it could and cutting forty minutes of footage at the very last minute among other things. After the movie released, Blizzard said that it would happily like to continue working with Legendary Entertainment (one of the other studios that helped make the film) on future projects, but they never want to work with Universal again.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I voted for Kirby as an animated film, but what I really think will happen isn't on the poll. Donkey Kong.

[Jotari]

My first thought was Kirby. But what I'd like to see them do, Live Action F-Zero. Fast and Furious has been paving the way for F-Zero for years now. And even though I've ever seen a single minute of a Fast and Furious film, that's what I want them to do. It's bold, it's not safe, it could fail, but it could also be awesome and just plain ridiculous in the best way.

 

[Punished Dayni]

One could argue fourth with Pokemon, but that's...... complicated as an ownership structure. Moving on.

As to where I'd expect, I'd say one of three answers: Splatoon as an animated flick (Seems to me the straightforward answer for this franchise from what I know if it), Animal Crossing as a Slice of Life animated series (I'd think the most likely in terms of expected reception, but my question for it is how they'd monetise off this. It is popular enough I think it could get away with it) or Metroid as another live action film (as one of the older franchises that's always held some prestige, even as there have been difficulties getting it going in the last decade recent years have shown it still has some appeal and story wise it could work at cinematic length. Live action would probably be the pick due to them intending on keeping human proportions, as opposed to Mario).

But I want say this for the joke of it: FE, as a live action series. With a cast of primarily humanoids they're probably going to treat it like LoZ and make it live action. With a larger minor cast and a structure that befits a series more they wouldn't really make it a standalone film assuming they try to keep a similar structure. And with it's present sales position maybe they'd treat it as a lower budget show and not be worried about returns on it, see if it works out.

[vanguard333]

8 hours ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I voted for Kirby as an animated film, but what I really think will happen isn't on the poll. Donkey Kong.

I figured that, since Donkey Kong was in the Mario movie, a Donkey Kong movie would technically be a spin-off of the Mario movies. It's the same reason I didn't put Yoshi on the list.

[Lightchao42]

Technically the answer is Animal Crossing, because it already exists. Though I don't expect it to get a non-Japanese film anytime soon because it doesn't really have a plot.

I think Kirby has the biggest "popularity vs. workability" ratio, but Splatoon could work with a "group of Inklings try to make it big in the Turf Wars and foil an Octarian plot in the process" plot. I'll give Pikmin some credit as well, because making Pikmin a household name is probably Miyamoto's goal in life. Star Fox gets a shoutout because Miyamoto is invested in that series as well (though probably not to Pikmin's extent) and could easily translate to an animated movie, while Metroid would be the logical next choice for a live-action movie.

Basically, I think Kirby would make the most sense but I wouldn't be surprised the rest of the series I mentioned got something at some point in the future.

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

But I want say this for the joke of it: FE, as a live action series.

Marth: Chris Pratt

Caeda: Gal Gadot

Jagen: Harrison Ford

Malledus: Danny Devito

Medeus: Jack Black

Camus: Leonardo DiCaprio

Hardin: Nick Offerman

Minerva: Cara Delevigne

Wendell: Christopher Lee (CGI)

Wrys: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

I see it

[Jotari]

48 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Marth: Chris Pratt

Caeda: Gal Gadot

Jagen: Harrison Ford

Malledus: Danny Devito

Medeus: Jack Black

Camus: Leonardo DiCaprio

Hardin: Nick Offerman

Minerva: Cara Delevigne

Wendell: Christopher Lee (CGI)

Wrys: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

I see it

Harrison Ford Jagen XD Man, oh man, can't decide if that is amazing or awful.

Danny Devito war more born to play Merlinus, but he could make for a decent Malledus I suppose.

Medeus Jack Black would be a huge insult to Medeus' character...if Medeus actually had a character to insult to begin with.

I feel Leonardo DiCaprio might be too old to play Camus now, but he would have made a very fine Camus in his youth.

I'm sure you're meming Dwayne as Wrys. But Dwayne might actually make for a decent Medeus. Would be nice to see him try to genuinely play an intimidating villain. He kind of did in Get Smart, but the comedy vibes kind of got in the way of any true potential he could bring to the fold as an intimidating antagonist.

The major question though, are all these guys going to keep their American accents or are we going to try and make them sound Stereotypical Fantasy British?

Edited November 13, 2023 by Jotari

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Marth: Chris Pratt

Caeda: Gal Gadot

Jagen: Harrison Ford

Malledus: Danny Devito

Medeus: Jack Black

Camus: Leonardo DiCaprio

Hardin: Nick Offerman

Minerva: Cara Delevigne

Wendell: Christopher Lee (CGI)

Wrys: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

I see it

If they were to go to the effort to CGI Christopher Lee as one of the characters, it would have to be the sage Gotoh. Wendell is too small a role for the effort, and Lee would've been perfect for the role of Gotoh back when he was alive, right down to Gotoh's portrait in Shadow Dragon looking a lot like Christopher Lee's Saruman.

I don't know about Danny Devito as Malledus, but he'd probably make a good Gharnef. He has proven from roles like Penguin that he can play an effective scheming villain.

[Saint Rubenio]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Harrison Ford Jagen XD Man, oh man, can't decide if that is amazing or awful.

Hey, Indiana Jones 5 proved that ol' Harry can still be an action star, as long as the whole premise of the role is that the character is way too fucking old to do anything actiony but still does it, very crankily. Sounds like Jagen to me! If anything the real problem might be he wouldn't be able to muster the special energy required by the epic "old and senile" line

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

I feel Leonardo DiCaprio might be too old to play Camus now, but he would have made a very fine Camus in his youth.

Ahhh nothing a bit of de-aging CG can't fix. We need stars here.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

I'm sure you're meming Dwayne as Wrys.

Do I look like I'm memeing?

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

If they were to go to the effort to CGI Christopher Lee as one of the characters, it would have to be the sage Gotoh. Wendell is too small a role for the effort, and Lee would've been perfect for the role of Gotoh back when he was alive, right down to Gotoh's portrait in Shadow Dragon looking a lot like Christopher Lee's Saruman.

Honestly, you're right, he really would've made for a good Gotoh. Who could do Wendell, then?

Ehhh John Goodman.

2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I don't know about Danny Devito as Malledus, but he'd probably make a good Gharnef. He has proven from roles like Penguin that he can play an effective scheming villain.

Also this, yeah. He even kinda looks like Gharnef as it is lol, just needs some make-up to look like a zombie.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Punished Dayni]

So, why didn't I mention Kirby earlier? I mean, probably makes more sense than the others I mentioned? Well, I'd feel like if any of them was going to be the one being used to bring the crossover together it'd be a Kirby title, enough space elements to use to justify it and all. But yeah, Kirby as animated makes the most sense, if anything I could see an impassioned director insisting on a film which changes animation styles as it goes, something caused by the villain. Who of course would be so western-inspired devil-looking that the Kirby movie would be called Satanic before it even came out.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Marth: Chris Pratt

Caeda: Gal Gadot

Jagen: Harrison Ford

Malledus: Danny Devito

Medeus: Jack Black

Camus: Leonardo DiCaprio

Hardin: Nick Offerman

Minerva: Cara Delevigne

Wendell: Christopher Lee (CGI)

Wrys: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

I see it

Sadly, too much on the budget for the series, we'd probably end up with Chalamet as Marth if that happened-

>Wrys ala The Rock

*Is smote

Edited November 13, 2023 by Punished Dayni

[Saint Rubenio]

3 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Sadly, too much on the budget for the series, we'd probably end up with Chalamet as Marth if that happened-

>Wrys ala The Rock

*Is smote

Think about it. All he'd have to do is appear, say the meme Wrys line and then promptly fade into the background. How much could like 20 seconds of The Rock's time cost?

[Shrimpica]

On 11/12/2023 at 5:13 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

, uh, don't even want to think about how "live-action Kirby" would look.

[vanguard333]

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

Medeus Jack Black would be a huge insult to Medeus' character...if Medeus actually had a character to insult to begin with.

To be fair to Medeus, Medeus' backstory provides a lot of material for potentially interesting characterization: he was the only Earth Dragon who wasn't too proud to consider becoming a manakete, and as a result was the only one who didn't degenerate, and when Naga sealed away the maddened Earth Dragons, he kept watch over the seal until he saw how poorly human societies treated manaketes, and he abandoned his watch to create the manakete-supremacist Dohlr Empire. That's a lot that can be worked with for interesting characterization.

Of course, nothing about his backstory other than founding the Dohlr Empire was revealed until the sequel, but at least parts of it could be revealed or at least hinted at in advance when inevitably giving him additional scenes for a show.

 

@Shrimpy -Limited Edition- That image is truly terrifying; what show or movie or thing is that image from?

Edited November 14, 2023 by vanguard333

[Shrimpica]

12 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

what show or movie or thing is that image from?

dunno xD

I got it from a google search that pointed me to this thread

https://old.reddit.com/r/midjourney/comments/zlwbf8/kirby_the_liveaction_motion_picture_1991/

[Fire Emblem Fan]

16 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I figured that, since Donkey Kong was in the Mario movie, a Donkey Kong movie would technically be a spin-off of the Mario movies. It's the same reason I didn't put Yoshi on the list.

Even so, it'd be a solo DK movie for DK, and I think that'd qualify.

[Acacia Sgt]

Punch-Out coming in clutch.

Yeah, I feel they'd go for something like Kirby or Metroid next.

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

To be fair to Medeus, Medeus' backstory provides a lot of material for potentially interesting characterization: he was the only Earth Dragon who wasn't too proud to consider becoming a manakete, and as a result was the only one who didn't degenerate, and when Naga sealed away the maddened Earth Dragons, he kept watch over the seal until he saw how poorly human societies treated manaketes, and he abandoned his watch to create the manakete-supremacist Dohlr Empire. That's a lot that can be worked with for interesting characterization.

Of course, nothing about his backstory other than founding the Dohlr Empire was revealed until the sequel, but at least parts of it could be revealed or at least hinted at in advance when inevitably giving him additional scenes for a show.

 

@Shrimpy -Limited Edition- That image is truly terrifying; what show or movie or thing is that image from?

Oh yeah, I know all that. Kind of wish the games actually did something with it though.

[vanguard333]

8 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Punch-Out coming in clutch.

Oh, yeah; I forgot to include Punch-Out... and Ice Climber, now that I'm thinking about it. I could include them now, but they'd have an unfair disadvantage for being added after quite a few people have already voted.

 

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

Oh yeah, I know all that. Kind of wish the games actually did something with it though.

True; true. It wasn't until the sequel that Medeus' backstory was finally given and, even in that game, the focus was really on Gharnef as the main villain, and even then, Gharnef and Medeus could only be hinted at because the game's plot revolves around the twist of Hardin being brainwashed into seemingly being the main villain.

At least an adaptation could finally give Medeus some extra time and actual character.