Creating a "Nintendo Cinematic Universe"!

[TheOriginalTiki]

On top of trying to be this board's resident Disneyland expert, one other thing I'd like to try to bring more to the forefront is discussing possible ideas for films as well as theme park attractions. Sure it's not entirely the same thing, but in this day and age of geek culture being dominate the floodgates have opened for a ton of cool film concepts to become a reality. With this thread, I'd like to focus on one very neglected genre that's always had terrible luck when it comes to adaptations...the video game movie.

Ah yes...Super Smash Brothers, Tomb Raider, Silent Hill, Every Uwe Boll film Ever, Prince of Persia, the list goes on. None of these films have found any success beyond just being "mildly enjoyable" in a few cases. With the game-changing "Marvel Cinematic Universe" essentially setting the new template for blockbuster franchises, and especially with odd-ball concepts like Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad, and Ant-Man now becoming major hit films with A list casts, the ability to venture into bold, strange, and somwhat surreal worlds has never been more at our fingerprints.

So what am I proposing for a Nintendo Cinematic Universe? It's simple. With Nintendo you have several "realms" you could work with. The real world could be inhabited by the likes of Mario and Luigi, who serve as "white rabbits" of sorts to get us into all the other craziness. There could be an entire cosmic Nintendo universe based off the collected worlds of Star Fox, Metroid, and F-Zero. How cool would it be to fight Metroids with Samus by your side in an Arwing...ON an F-Zero track. All kinds of insanity can unfold just by joining those three franchises together. You also have fantastical settings in Nintendo lore such as the Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, and Dream Land. These could all be treated similar to how they treat the different realms of the Thor franchise. In a day and age where Marvel managed to make a talking Raccoon, a practically mute tree, a self-titled "a-hole", and a couple rouge alien assasins and make it into one of the highest grossing films of the year, there's no reason why audiences wouldn't accept something like Star Fox that while it does have a lot of camp value to it also has a ton of heart and really good characters to draw from.

And of course, much like the Marvel franchise ends its phases with Avengers movies, the Nintendo Universe would end each phase with a Super Smash Brothers team up movie. Tell me you're not sold after that!

Here's a few general ideas for franchises...

-Super Mario Brothers (The main characters of the 'Verse, of course. The series of films could always tell a different adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom and you could also draw on storylines from the Mario and Luigi and Paper Mario RPG series. There's actually quiet a lot of rich characters and location for a game series that seems so basic by definition.

-Metroid (Can you say dark and gritty space adventure? Seriously, I can't believe nobody's even thought that this franchise would make an awesome movie. You have a stellar lead female character, a whole mythology built into the world, and some seriously scary environments and creatures to work with. Only challenge with the Metroid franchise is the lack of strong supporting characters, which is why I think potentially giving Samus a relationship with Captain Falcon might be an interesting twist. They're both bounty hunters, after all...)

-Star Fox (Guardians of the Galaxy Meets Star Wars. In a post-Rocket Raccoon cinematic age, I'm absolutely convinced you can pull this off without it looking ridiculous. Star Fox contains some of the most surprisingly deep characters and plot-points and could really set up a compelling trilogy show Pigma's betrayal, the formation of Star Wolf, and the rise of Andross.)

-Earth Bound (Just make it like a slightly more fantastical version of the movie "Chronicle" in which a bunch of kids struggle with how to handle newly discovered powers and the social pressure said powers puts on them .I'm thinking Gygas might be a good way to go for a Universe-wide villain in the style of Thanos. He's easily the most disturbing of the main Nintendo villains.)

-The Legend of Zelda (I'm SHOCKED that this hasn't been considered post-Lord of the Rings. It seems like an absolute shoe-in for a movie out of any Nintendo franchise. A treasure trove of interesting worlds, history, and characters to explore here, with a neat time travel gimmick to boot. Jim Carey as Gannon, please!)

I could see them slowly working in characters like Sonic, Kirby, Donkey Kong, and Wario over the course of the films as smaller roles in other people's movies to get expanded into their own series. The trick...just like Marvel, would be to keep introducing new franchises while nurturing the most successful ones. Very much looking forward to hearing what you guys think of something like this, and if anyone thinks this is in the wrong forum please let me know...

 

[tcool]

Everything you said sounds great and interesting , and here's my thoughts on some movies :

- Fire Emblem could be great, and could eventually crossover with Legend of Zelda.

- Kid Icarus fits the same thing as Fire Emblem.

- Xenoblade Chronicles could be a good film saga. I think first film could be Xenoblade Chronicles : Rise of the Mechon (Colony 9) this could get you aquatinted with Dunban, Reyn, Fiorra, and Shulk.

Spoiler: By end of First Movie Something Big Happens

The second could be Xenoblade Chronicles : Colony 6 which is Everything after the death of the Fiora. This film ends after they start to reconstruct Colony 6 this could be used to get Sharla, Juju, and Otharon. The third one could be Xenoblade Chronicles : Prison Island in which they start to head up to Prison Island and join forces with Riki and Melia. Not only that, but this one can give a false ending. The false ending could be them waiting for what the future will bring. Depending on the overall success of this trilogy a prequel could be made called Xenoblade Chronicles : Sword Valley which can be used to make Muhmkar look like a good guy, and not only that, but give more background information of Galdot. This film will center around Dickson, Dunban, and Muhmkar mostly. Depending on the success of that prequel the next series will come out being Xenoblade Chronicles : The Beginning of the End which will show that Muhmkar and Fiorra are still alive, and will be the start on Mechonis. Xenoblade Chronicles : The Awakening will the Awakening of the Mechonis and Bionis as well as the end for the saga.

And also I think this may be the wrong place to put this thread. One of these maybe?
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/forums/disney-video-games.29/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/forums/chit-chat.22/

Not really sure, but I do know that if does have to be moved then the mods will know abetter place to put this thread.



​

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Wreck-It Ralph is one of the good video game films heck only good video game film.

 

[JokersWild]

Looks great, but I don't think you're going in the right direction for Earthbound. I don't think the game's story/ world really lends itself to a "Chronicle"-type story/ style. Earthbound is a very quirky, funny, mostly-lighthearted game. An Earthbound movie really shouldn't be a small character study on dealing with psychokinetic powers; it should really be about these four kids who go on an incredible journey across this strange, yet wondrous world. Earthbound is not about the characters you play as; it's about the people you meet.

You know that I'm the Earthbound fan, so there are my two cents. Apologies if I totally misread your concept for an Earthbound movie.

I would also like to put it out there that I think that Earthbound should be the jumping point movie of this Nintendo Cinematic Universe (NCU.) Mario and Luigi are incredibly recognizable, yes, but Earthbound is more relatable in the sense that it takes place in a fictionalized U.S.A (Eagleland) and follows human children, facing actual people, until it gets weird and aliens get involved. Earthbound would certainly be a kid's movie, but I truly think that, if done right, it could VERY easily be a timeless kids movie on par with The Goonies.

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

I've definitely thought about both Fire Emblem and Kid Icarus as part of the cinematic universe. I think Fire Emblem would probably have to be introduced at least a few phases in, perhaps as a follow-up epic fantasy franchise after the inevitable Zelda trilogy closes out. As for Kid Icarus, I don't know much about it in terms of supporting characters and storyline and what-not, but the world itself would definitely be well suited to a Thor-type franchise. Pit could be a great character to show grow from meek to a warrior throughout the course of a trilogy.

Joker, you're definitely the EarthBound expert! The only reason I was thinking "dark and gritty" was because of the very nature of the Gygas character. Having never played the games I'm only going based on what I've seen in Smash, which is oviously very little. Goonies is a good goal to reach for. The only thing I worry about with starting the entire thing off with EarthBound of course...is that it's simply not one of Nintendo's most recognizable franchises. I was thinking you could work it into the second half of phase one after the high profile Mario/Metroid/Star Fox movies come out, and have Nes and Lucas as two of the main characters in the first Smash Brothers. I think Mario Brothers works equally well as a gateway into the Nintendo world if you treat the first act or so establishing the relationship between the brothers doing their job as plumbers and then at the end of act one they get transported to the Mushroom Kingdom through a sewer or something. Darn You SCAPELLI!!!

Not entirely familiar with XenoBlade. Is it originally a Nintendo franchise? I think you'd have to be very tricky with non-Nintendo stuff and really only work with franchises that have already been introduced in Smash. Having a Metal Gear Solid movie in phase three with Sonic showing up in the Smash Brothers movie would be epic! Mega Man would also make a fantastic "superhero" franchise in the same style as Iron Man with all the customizable armor and everything.

 

[tcool]

I've definitely thought about both Fire Emblem and Kid Icarus as part of the cinematic universe. I think Fire Emblem would probably have to be introduced at least a few phases in, perhaps as a follow-up epic fantasy franchise after the inevitable Zelda trilogy closes out. As for Kid Icarus, I don't know much about it in terms of supporting characters and storyline and what-not, but the world itself would definitely be well suited to a Thor-type franchise. Pit could be a great character to show grow from meek to a warrior throughout the course of a trilogy.

Joker, you're definitely the EarthBound expert! The only reason I was thinking "dark and gritty" was because of the very nature of the Gygas character. Having never played the games I'm only going based on what I've seen in Smash, which is oviously very little. Goonies is a good goal to reach for. The only thing I worry about with starting the entire thing off with EarthBound of course...is that it's simply not one of Nintendo's most recognizable franchises. I was thinking you could work it into the second half of phase one after the high profile Mario/Metroid/Star Fox movies come out, and have Nes and Lucas as two of the main characters in the first Smash Brothers. I think Mario Brothers works equally well as a gateway into the Nintendo world if you treat the first act or so establishing the relationship between the brothers doing their job as plumbers and then at the end of act one they get transported to the Mushroom Kingdom through a sewer or something. Darn You SCAPELLI!!!

Not entirely familiar with XenoBlade. Is it originally a Nintendo franchise? I think you'd have to be very tricky with non-Nintendo stuff and really only work with franchises that have already been introduced in Smash. Having a Metal Gear Solid movie in phase three with Sonic showing up in the Smash Brothers movie would be epic! Mega Man would also make a fantastic "superhero" franchise in the same style as Iron Man with all the customizable armor and everything.

Shulk is in Smash. He is second party, but that it good because Sonic, Metal Gear and Mega Man are third party which their not at all Nintendo. A good of second party is Pokemon.

Xenoblade is getting a spiritual successor.

Ive played Kid Icarus: Uprising and it is split into chapters, and that game can be a trilogy easily. Never played the original, but I know enough that love breaking 4 wall. Like when Pit mentioned an enemy looked like a Metriod and was stopped by Veridi.

Luvas is from Mother not Earthbound idk if there's a difference.

For Fire Emblem the games with Marth as a main character should be made.

 

[JokersWild]

\
Luvas is from Mother not Earthbound idk if there's a difference.

Mother and Earthbound are the same thing. Earthbound is actually Mother 2. The original Mother was going to be called Earth Bound in the US, before that got canned, as well. Mother has had a really weird history in the US, but that's beside the point. Lucas is from Mother 3, and though you could argue that both Ness and Lucas could meet in a film, I personally wouldn't have that happen, because both the stories of Earthbound and Mother 3 are in completely different time periods (Mother 3 taking place in the distant future and Earthbound taking place in modern times.) Their stories are entirely separate from each other, though both could make great films in their own right, Mother 3 especially which is definitely the most cinematic of the 3.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

There's also the Wonderful 101.