Nintendo drawn into big-screen animation

TOKYO--According to the Nikkei Journal, Nintendo has announced that it will enter the movie business and produce its own animated motion pictures. Its first movie is slated for release in theaters in 2006.

While companies usually coestablish a production subsidiary with an animation studio for a new project like this, Nintendo will be launching its own in-house production group from scratch, which will handle the entire creative process of the films, from initial planning all the way to production.

Talks about Nintendo going into the animated movie business first came up in late September, when former president Hiroshi Yamauchi--who still has a strong voice in the company--commented to the press that he planned to propose a move into animation. Up until now, all of Nintendo's animated movies, such as the Pokemon series, were being produced by external studios under licensing agreements.

Although going into the animation business on its own will be a challenge for Nintendo, it will give the company more control over its content and allow for better synergy with its games. In the future, the company may also make games that are based on characters that debut from its anime movies.

Details on Nintendo's first animated motion picture are still to be revealed, but it's most likely to be based on one of Nintendo's games, or as suggested by Yamauchi, a movie about Japanese poetry. Additional details on Nintendo's first movie should be revealed early next year.