Movie magic: Animal Crossing: The Movie (劇場版「どうぶつの森」); bought The Sims 2

(tags movie, Animal Crossing, Japan, character goods)

I wasn't planning on watching Animal Crossing: The Movie (劇場版「どうぶつの森」), even though I picked up the uchiwa last summer. On a whim I bought the official fan book for the movie (shown below) because of the included vinyl DS Lite pouch and there was section interviewing the voice actors and actresses. Who voices the main character, "Ai"? Only the seiyuu goddess, Yui Horie (堀江由衣). I'm there d00d.

So I went to my favorite movie theater for the very first showing on opening day. There were people waiting to get in the theater line, but as I figured out later, it wasn't a full house. Since this was a kids' movie, families and packs of pre-teens youngsters filled the seats.

As it was a kids' movie, it was very cute kawaii. But it was also vapid, illogical and unmemorable. It's not as bad as The Wizard (Super Mario Bros. 3 promotional movie, I also watched this one in the theater, ugh). In the beginning I kept wondering what plot device was going to move the story, since the game is so open-ended. Thankfully the movie makers designed to run with their own ideas. The central theme was finding one's own dream ("cherry-pie" in the movie), even if through working on other projects (Tom Nook! and one more), which properly ties into the game.

Of course, all of the default animal cast, music, and even dialogue (e.g. the initial cab ride in) from the game was faithfully rendered (and thankfully not overused). But there were some surprises. That K.K. Slider (とたけけ) part is a riot. With a potential cast of hundreds from the game, they missed some of my favorites, but I was satisfied with the kawaii cat character "Bouquet". But the friendly affection between "Ai" and "Sally" is the rewarding (and frustrating!) part of the movie.

So will this movie sell more DS systems or Animal Crossing games? I doubt it. I think the movie relies more on the kawaii cuteness and unique personality of the characters, whereas the game would give you a town full of animals and ask you to babysit them. Face it, you don't write letters to your townfolk for camaraderie, you do it to keep them in your town so that you can grab their furniture. Also the movie was aimed at the pre-teen girl, whereas the game would appeal to the kid in all of us. I don't think this would motivate people over the age of 14 to start playing the game.

And at the end of the movie, there was a tantalizing message: "See you on the Wii". Who couldn't see this game series continue onto the Wii? But this is the first time I've heard it from an "official" source.

Next post on this topic will be about how I got the ticket and a character goods photo-expose report.

As an aside, I was able to pick up the English version of The Sims 2 for PC (as The Sims 2 Holiday Edition) for cheaper than 3000 yen, w00t. Finally I can explore this Animal Crossing-like game, and maybe figure out for myself if that Will Wright (this game's designer and the current game designer hawtness) is any good.