A website for a new animation studio called Nintendo Pictures has gone live; it’s currently only in Japanese, but you can check out a roughly translated version of it here. Though its appearance may seem sudden, prior reporting gives us a clear picture of its origin. Back in July, it was reported that Nintendo has acquired a Japanese CG studio called Dynamo Pictures which would “focus on the development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP.” That acquisition was set to finalize on October 3rd, 2022, so the website’s recent launch is no surprise.
Dynamo Pictures had been in the animation field for over 30 years. They had created CG content for movies and TV, as well as games. The studio’s portfolio includes work on titles such as Death Stranding, Monster Hunter World, and NieR Replicant. With that being the case, it was unclear if the purpose of the acquisition was simply to aid Nintendo in CG trailers and cutscenes for their games or to form a new in-house division that could create Nintendo TV & movie adaptations, so they wouldn’t need to commission outside studios. Now, with its website launched, the goal of Nintendo Pictures… is still quite unclear.
Its first message reads that the division’s goal is to have consumers “learn about Nintendo characters through video.” Though it’s a relatively vague sentence, and it’s been roughly translated, it does seem to suggest that Nintendo Pictures’ productions, at least some of them, will be an introductory point to Nintendo characters; possibly stand-alone projects.
On the other hand, the ‘About’ page states that the division’s business description will involve “video production using Nintendo IP,” and “provision of motion capture recording services.” The latter here suggests that their motion capture know-how will be used by other Nintendo divisions, as they will provide these services, likely for CG cutscenes in Nintendo games. An interesting tidbit is that Nintendo often doesn’t use motion capture as their characters are rarely realistic enough to warrant such a technique, but it’s possible that certain future projects of theirs will need it.
Nintendo’s most significant venture into adaptations is the highly anticipated, still unnamed, Mario Movie. It’s a partnership with Illumination, the animation studio most known for its creation of the Minions. The movie has yet to receive a trailer, and little is known about it besides the cast, but it’s been confirmed that the movie’s first teaser trailer will come October 6th, 2022, during New York Comic-Con.