With the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it makes sense that Nintendo might want to continue this endeavor to adapt their games into a film format. Many of their titles are incredibly popular, and so there is likely a large audience for any potential movie version of their IP that they might want to release. Illumination has recently denied rumors of a Legend of Zelda movie in the works at the studio, but that doesn't mean that they won't ever touch another Nintendo property again in the future. In particular, there are a lot of Nintendo fans who might like to see the Animal Crossing games adapted for the big screen.
Animal Crossing has been one of Nintendo's tent-pole franchises for a long time, but the newest entry, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, releasing right at the beginning of the pandemic when many people were stuck in their homes on lockdown catapulted the series to even greater popularity, even finding some new fans. Nintendo actually did create a Japanese Animal Crossing movie in 2006, but it's not very well known. There are a lot of ways in which Animal Crossing would make a fantastic story on screen, and other ways in which it would be quite a difficult endeavor. Would Nintendo be able to pull an adaptation of this property off?
What Parts of Animal Crossing Would Make A Good Movie?
Animal Crossing is a game that includes a colorful cast of characters, from the mainstays that return for every game (like Tom Nook or K.K. Slider), to the hundreds of villagers that could make up the population of a player's island. These kinds of wacky personalities could slot into an animated movie really well, and be super fun to watch on-screen. There are five main games to pull from (as well as some side titles like Pocket Camp or Happy Home Designer), which means that there is a whole plethora of characters and elements that a potential screen adaptation could use to merge the different aspects of this world together. The character themselves have cute and unique designs that would be visually interesting to watch on screen, for both children and adults alike.
While there's not a lot of story in Animal Crossing games, the basic premise of all of them is that a new villager arrives in town (which is the character the player enters the game as), and has to learn their way around, making relationships with the other villagers and improving the town along the way. This would serve as a perfect entry point for a story, as it would be able to introduce the town and the characters organically to the audience, and would also give space for the story and main character to grow. They could even adapt something like the storyline from New Leaf, where the player is suddenly thrust into the role as mayor of this town that they just moved to, which could create a lot of funny situations in a movie.
The screen adaptation would also likely be a big success, no matter its actual quality. Fans of Animal Crossing are passionate about it, and would love to see their favorite characters on screen. This would also give the potential movie a fun opportunity to put in recognizable items and locations from the series, in the form of furniture seen throughout the world (as furniture and decorating a house is such a massive part of the game), as well as including some of the regular activities that one might perform while playing the game (such as fishing, catching bugs, or digging for fossils). These kinds of things that exist in the game would just be really fun to watch on-screen for those who are big fans of the franchise and have been following it for a while.
What About Animal Crossing Would Be Difficult To Adapt?
There are still some challenges that would be present in any attempt at an adaptation of Animal Crossing, of course. One of the major ones is the fact that the protagonist of the games (aka the playable character) is silent. Much like Link in The Legend of Zelda or Mario, the villager in Animal Crossing doesn't normally say a whole lot. This would probably have to change for a movie adaptation, as the audience might have trouble relating to a character that doesn't speak when they're not actively controlling their movements. However, Nintendo did manage this pretty well with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as making Mario more vocal ended up feeling pretty natural in the film. This bodes well for any future Animal Crossing adaptation, as making this protagonist have more of a personality would work well with the subject matter.
Additionally, though there is a standard base plot that gets the ball rolling in each game, it doesn't really go anywhere, as the entire point of the gameplay is that it's open for the player to create the town that they want and explore things at their own pace. This means that any adaptation wouldn't have much to work with in terms of plot, and would have to entirely create an overarching storyline. This might prove difficult with the tone of the games, and attempts to do so might start to feel too far removed from what makes Animal Crossing what it is. However, this kind of open-endedness might also prove to be an asset, as it would allow the writers a lot more creativity as to where they could take the story. Ultimately, as long as the movie is in competent hands and made with a lot of care towards the original game, the potential drawbacks are pretty minor, and there's much more chance of overall success.