Highlights
- Stray, the award-winning video game, is getting an animated film adaptation due to its compelling story and popularity.
- Annapurna Animation, the studio behind Netflix's Nimona, plans to adapt video games, starting with Stray, which features a cat and robot buddy comedy.
- Although Stray isn't a big franchise like Mario or Sonic, its narrative-focused gameplay makes it a perfect choice for adaptation, and fans should be excited.
An animated adaptation of the award-winning video game Stray is in active development a year after it was released. In Stray gamers play as a stray cat that is lost in an underground city which is only inhabited by robots and mutant bacteria.
The game won Best Independent Game and Best Debut Indie Game at The Game Awards along with being nominated for four other awards including Game of the Year. For a game where you play as a stray cat, it has quite a compelling story which makes sense for it to get a film or TV adaptation.
It was first announced by Entertainment Weekly that Annapurna Animation, the studio behind Netflix’s Nimona, is looking to capitalize off of their recent success with a new phase of movies. A part of the plan is to adapt projects from their video game division Annapurna Interactive. The first video game adaptation that the studio plans to create is Stray. The studio has not said what other games they plan to adapt, but the studio executives Robert Baird and Andrew Millstein explained to EW in an interview that they chose Stray to be the first adaptation because “it is just wildly popular”
In the Interview Baird and Millstein also explained what the film is going to focus on and the challenges in making it. “It's a buddy comedy about a cat and a robot, and there's such a hilarious dynamic. So, there's comedy inherent in this, but there's not one human being in this movie. I think it's one of the reasons why the game was incredibly popular” Baird continued “You are seeing the world through the point of view of an adorable cat. How did they pull that off, and how are we going to pull that off in the movie? We will, even though sometimes it feels impossible”
Stray seems like an oddly perfect choice for an animated film adaptation. At first, it seems weird because it isn’t a big franchise like Mario or Sonic who had to wait years to get a good adaptation. Although it will have its difficulties trying to recapture the charm of playing Stray, the game is still based on a lot of narrative rather than gameplay which makes it a great choice for an adaptation.
Fans of Stray should be very excited for the film adaptation and fans of other Annapurna Interactive games should keep an eye out for future announcements on film adaptations.
Source: Entertainment Weekly