Listeners who kept an ear out while enjoying Nickelodeon’s latest Animation Podcast may have discovered a link between the venerable animation studio and another “Big N,” namely Nintendo. At 31:52 in the video above, Fred Seibert — the namesake of Frederator Studios, who’s worked on such beloved franchises as The Fairly OddParents and Adventure Time — talks about the studio moving forward on a project involving “one of the most world-famous video games.”
“We have a project now that we’re doing that needs to go unnamed, based on one of the most world-famous video games of the last 30 years, that we’ve had in our shop for twelve years without being able to get it started. But there were great characters and a great story, and eventually we got it going.”
There’s no explicit reference to Nintendo, obviously, but there’s more than enough reason to believe there might be one of the Japanese giant’s properties at the centre of this deal. For one thing, President Tatsumi Kimishima has been open about discussing the use of the company’s IP in other business ventures with various partners, including feature films and the new Super Nintendo World theme park.
Earlier this year, he told shareholders:
“If anyone wants to partner with us, we’ll hold discussions. The fact that there are many interested parties is something we’ve already mentioned.”
For another, Kimishima explicitly stated the desire to go for hand-drawn or computer animation as opposed to live-action — the route of the disastrous 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie, now legendary for its poor reception and odd take on the franchise (seriously, who decided to cast Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as the titular brothers?).
On the other hand, Kimishima also stated that Nintendo wanted to do as much of the work on films in-house as possible. That doesn’t necessarily mean the company isn’t open to partnerships, though, especially given his earlier comments. Either way, it’s exciting to hear that such a beloved animator has his hands on a video game property — after the crushing disappointment of Assassin’s Creed and Warcraft this year, we’d love to see Nickelodeon’s take on a “video game movie” finally smash the reputation surrounding game narratives once and for all.
Tell us, do you think this rumor holds any weight? If so, what Nintendo property would you like to see Nickelodeon take a crack at? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned to We Got This Covered for updates on this potential story.
