Is It Time For The Animal Crossing Movie To Be Released In The West?
In April 2001, a brand-new Nintendo game was released for the first time in Japan. Animal Forest, as it was known at the time, was a life-simulation game for the Nintendo 64 that allowed a player to live in a small village with animal neighbors. Later released under a new title, Animal Crossing was ported to the GameCube, where audiences outside of Japan could finally fall in love with the game and play it for the very first time.
Following the success of Animal Crossing (2001) and Animal Crossing: Wild World (2005), Nintendo had an idea: What if we turn this budding franchise into a film? The game itself already had a unique plot, and wouldn't have been too difficult to shape into a film. So in 2006, Nintendo, OLM, Inc., and VAP decided to produce the first (and only) Animal Crossing movie, Dōbutsu no Mori.
Animal Crossing Needs a Television Adaptation
For the uninitiated, Dōbutsu no Mori, which translates to Animal Forest, follows an 11-year-old girl named Ai who moves to a new village populated with animals. She works hard to make new friends and follow her dreams, while also unraveling the village's mystery surrounding bottled messages (sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it?). The film was only released in Japan, and Nintendo of America currently has no plans for an English release. However, with the continuous success of not only Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but the Animal Crossing franchise as a whole, many fans wonder: Is it time for them to change their minds?
When Dōbutsu no Mori released in Japan, it grossed approximately $16 million (¥1.7 billion) at the box office. While that number seems small in comparison to films today, Dōbutsu no Mori actually did well for its time. Japan-based fans gave the film a warm
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