Would EarthBound Work as a Movie? 

Before responding to the question in the title, (even if it's "It should be a TV series!") I highly suggest watching the video first.

I think Giygas could be made into a good constant threat if they really fleshed out the idea of Giygas' control over people and creature's minds being the reason for them becoming violent. In the game it's just there as a way to explain the diverse cast of enemies but in a more cinematic medium they could really take advantage of it by showing how people would fall into subservience to a cosmic evil.

I feel like it would work best as an animated series, Earthbound’s structure already feels very much like a Saturday morning cartoon

People aren't asking the correct questions, we shouldn't be asking "Would EarthBound Work as a Movie?", we should be asking "Would EarthBound make a good Off-Broadway musical?".

Mother 1 - the most simplistic of the three, thus you could do whatever you wanted to it. Only a few key battles prevents too many fight scenes. The characters got enough personality to generate dialogue. It’s problem is recognition, not many people recognize the name Ninten. Mother 2 - The most recognizable and definitely a fun plot, but alas, it doesn’t translate the best if you want to retain the sanctuaries as that is just too many fights. Mother 3 - Most easily translated into cinema, beautiful story, and lovable characters. As for the size of the plot and the number of fight, we run into our first problem. It would have to be more than one movie, likely a trilogy, and that requires faith. And that leads to second problem, the lack of localization, which translates to lack of faith. Of course we must keep in mind that Nintendo does take less known genres and bring them j to light, such as Kid Icarus on Smash Bros.

If Earthbound/Mother gets a film adaptation or a TV series, then stop-motion animation would be the right choice, hence the clay models that appeared on the game's instruction manual.

A game that took me an entire month to playthrough should not be crammed into a 2 hour movie.

A silent protagonist could be achieved by everyone always interrupting him

I personally think Ness can still be a silent protagonist in a TV series, and still work as an emotion-filled character. However, the only way I see Earthbound working is with these conditions: 1. Mother 1's story is briefly explained 2. Some fan theories have to be confirmed. If Buzz Buzz was Ninten, the entire beginning would be so much more narratively compelling, and he could give a lot of exposition. 3. The Sanctuary Guardians need to be some sort of depth to them. I once saw a video that had little bios for each Guardian, and it made them so much cooler. If the entire cave/dungeon were specialized for the specific Guardian, it'd definitely make it more compelling. 4. Additionally Paula, Jeff and Poo all speak, but Ness does not say a word. 5. Itoi has to be in charge of this project or else it'll be not good. With these 5 conditions I feel like it could legitimately be a fun show. That being said it's totally not happening, especially with the fifth condition.

The Nintendo cinematic universe is an ever expanding dream

If Earthbound gets a movie adaption imagine the Giygas fight

I think your video about Ness being a silent protagonist answers your question about what the main drive for a theoretical EB movie could be. A movie about self doubt, worth, and the responsibilities of growing up. Making each sanctuary location have enough weight and balancing them with everything else doesn’t sound like the way to go in an about 90 minute experience. I’d expect something similar to the Scott Pilgrim movie where it skips over some parts to make room for others. Making time for important character introductions/moments, Porky’s reoccurrence, Saturn Valley, Magicant, The Runaway 5, Onett overtaken to Giygas lead up, and maybe a few other noteworthy locales would get something across much better. With a template sort of like that, I think it’d be very possible to make a movie about EB. It can’t be everything, but it certainly can embody the spirit of what the series means to the fans and that’s what should matter before everything else.

Outside the topic of a movie/show, I always love seeing fan art depicting the Mother/Earthbound series. How would this enemy move? How would this character sound? How does this move even work? Etc

As an Earthbound Beginning fan it hurt when you said the fandom cared the least about it

An Earthbound TV show could work but what I fear is that every episode will feel like filler they either just remake the game or they make some shorter form of video media for Earthbound.

If Nintendo really plans to do a cinematic universe for the eventual smash bros movie, they will have to find a way for it to work considering Ness is part of the original 12, the rule is those 12 are always in any kind of smash media. It could work as an animated series and then for Lucas a movie.

I feel like earthbound would work better as an anime or a cartoon so it can go over a lot more of the story and other content that was in it.

In my opinion if we did get a earthbound movie it would definitely be a side story that happens during when ness is on his quest but has a different character in a different story while also some overlap with the game and the movie. Like maybe the character(s) are on a quest to help ness out yet fail to so much that ness doesn’t even notice, except the end where they indirectly help him and his friends (maybe explaining how they ness and everyone else got back to the present after killing gygus. But it could just be set in the earthbound world because of all the things different from our world and earthbound’s.

When I watched the first season of Stranger Things, a lot of it reminded me of Earthbound, what with all the magic and kids exploring paranormal stuff. The problem is though as you said, a lot would have to be changed. If Earthbound was made into a movie or show, I feel like it would be good, but it would kind of just be stranger things again. The main four (and most other characters in the game) would have to be changed a lot to the point they aren't really the same characters anymore.

A big thing we would have to consider is if Itoi would want it to be made in the first place.

It Deserves A Movie Trilogy After All It's Nintendo First True Rpg Game And Deserves More Love

It would be pretty hard to translate giygas's defeat to film. In my head I'm imagining all the side characters singing pollyanna which would sorta be like a combination of how he gets defeated in mother 1 and 2 but it would probably be hard to pull that off without it being really cheesy

The term "pure Video gaming" needs to be used more

I dunno why people are asking for Movies of every Nintendo property when most of em wouldn't work as movies, i'd rather have a Mother 1 remake.... Also, that Mr. Saturn minion-ization you mentioned, i feared that with the Toads in the Mario movie, and it thankfully ended up not happening. But if it did happen, it would also extend to the Tendas, since they're basically an parallel species to Mr. Saturn (Shy and speak normally instead of outgoing and weird, help the player, free hotel and hospital, hot spring)

For an earthbound movie, itd need to be made by anyone who could make a legend of zelda. People who can make a light hearted story with deep and dark portions and undertones

For the future it probably could happen, i really wish Nintendo Will accept it

It could work as an animated series instead of a film

I would LOVE to see what they do with Giygas, especially if it's live-action or made with 3D animation.

3:40 It's funny, I didn't think of it that way when I discovered Earthbound. At about the same time I discovered a band called Social Distortion. The lead singer's name is Mike Ness. So I literally thought that Ness from Earthbound was Mike Ness as a kid lol

Yes!!! I remember when we talked about this awhile back, I think we came to the conclusion that if it was in some kind of funky Wallace and Grommet claymation or 3D like the Peanuts (2015) with perhaps the style of a Wes Anderson-esque film (Isle of Dogs, maybe?) Whoops, sorry I got a little carried away there just was super excited you made this video (and everything considered Im just glad something like Mario is now getting a proper movie treatment and honestly just wait a few years and heck there will probably be an AI generated EB movie anyway we sure are living in some crazy & incredible times)

excellent video.

i feel like it would work good as a live action movie with the right amount of quietness. there are a lot of moments that are best described thru the feelings inside rather than anything actually happening.

The lack of inner character group dialogue of the 4 just would bomb.

If it was made in the 90s, definity would be a wonderful animated picture. That was around the time I was too young to really watch trailers and make sense of it which added wonder to every VHS tape in my parents closet.

Ridgway Films there a bunch of fans who have been making an Earthbound fan film adaptation since 2009 look them up.

Honestly what halts it for me is the game has multiple points where it makes natural intermissions. Threed to winters is the first big one, but you also have summers to dalaam, and then the whole issue of going back to pink cloud and magnet hill, theres just no hints there naturally that the characters think to do that sure, the intermissions could help in the long run, and even add reasoning to the length. But that second issue? big problems there.

Animated show, 3 seasons, about 13 episodes each season, 30 minutes each episode, a Subspace Emissary teaser at the very end of the show, the Smash Bros Cinematic Universe is on!

1:16 oh shit I made that, I got jumpscared by my own render

an episodic series about the chosen 4 after earthbound would be great

An earthbound tv show would likely be like the pokemon anime, not fully true to the source and likely with different characters

It could possibly work as a series of movies.

If they do make a movie about said game, I definitely think Daisy Edgar Jones would be the perfect Ness voice. Poo could be played by Daisy’s costar from one of her films named Taylor John Smith.

I just found your channel and I gotta say; I really like your work! I had the idea for a video you're welcome to steal from me and it's one I haven't really seen anyone else do; Was EarthBound a good localization of Mother 2? I've thought about this a lot and, after looking at the many differences between Mother 2 and EarthBound, I'm not really sure myself and would love to see your take on it.

i think it could work out, maybe have different movies focus on different characters, probably all leading to the fight of giygas; kinda like avengers, pt 1 and 2. damn, just thinking about it sounds like a legendary project; hope it exists someday.

Parhaps this could work well as a multi-part movie like Lord of the Rings or Endgame. This within itself is a difficult task, but it's an option! Maybe part one ends at the coffee break at Saturnland

I think a Mother 1 Movie would work pretty well as a eightiesesque live action classic, earthbound and mother 3 tho could be better as an anime series

if Earthbound was brought into animation..i really feel like the people that had animated the Peanuts movie (and the TV shorts as well i suppose) would REALLY fit the style of Mother/Earthbound

ditto that an earthbound series/movie animated in stop motion would be amazing. I think it would just need the right art style and match the cartoonish tone and spirit of the game. maybe something like an OVA (sonic and street fighter have OVAs) would work better considering the original medium. just something more short form

"Ness has to speak." The auteur in me: 2 hour film about children who don't talk! They are never given the chance to speak as they are shuffled from one scenario to the next by pushy adults and alien invasions!

Also nice vid

Been there done that!

As a MOTHER fan, the idea of an Earthbound film was always an idea I loved and would find if given the option. But now, the more I think about it I feel like it just wouldn’t work, a film adaptation at least. Like you said Earthbound is a LONG game, and has a lot of plot points that would seem jarring or out of place in a film. Dungeon man, the Happy Happyists, Giygas in general. A lot of stuff would either have to be cut out or “kid-iffied” and that’s the last thing I think any MOTHER fan would want. If Earthbound was made into a movie, it would fall into what I like to call the “Akira Struggle”. I’m pretty sure at least some of us have heard of the 1988 cyberpunk masterpiece called “Akira”. It’s often regarded as one of the best films of all time particularly in the field of animation. And while Akira is one of my Top#5 favorite films of all time, I think we can agree that plot wise it’s a little disjointed. Me personally I don’t think the narrative starts to suffer until the ending (which I personally think is a bit rushed, albeit with a reason for it). But when you compare it to the Manga, you can truly see all the plot elements that had to be either cut out or condensed to fit a 2 hour runtime. Important characters like Lady Miyako, who was really important in the manga being reduced to a mere background character that is killed off quickly, Tetsuo’s betrayal of Kaneda being rushed and sort of outta nowhere, and the second HALF of the manga being completely omitted which brings me to the whole point I made this. The Akira manga is 6 massive volumes worth of 2000+ pages of content and the movie really only covers the first 2 with a couple elements of the 3rd and 6th. The Akira manga being a massive story couldn’t have its entirety told in just 2 hours of runtime and it would really need 2 possibly 3 movies to accurately tell it. An Earthbound film could and likely will fall into that trap and even if the film was a 2 or 3 parter it wouldn’t be enough. I am aware that films that are over 20 hours long exist but they are rare and really only experimental. So in short I feel like maybe we should just appreciate what we have now. Stranger Things’s first and second seasons feel like tv adaptations of MOTHER and MOTHER 2 respectively and even Akira is very Earthbound like, I’d say.

I'm thinking of adapting it into a 3d experience due to the immersivity factor.

I truly don't understand why people feel a two hour long movie is the highest place for media to be adapted. Games provide much longer, more potentially personal and thorough experiences, as do books, but they are seen by a lot of people as just source material. Feels so backwards, yet this is something people unironically believe.

Bro Giygas would be terrifying in a movie

Yes but it would do terribly in the box office.

I think it may be implied that Ness had subconscious feelings of doubt, discouragement, and possibly even self-hatred regarding the adventure, since these sorts of feelings may be what Ness’s Nightmare represents. Could these perhaps give hints as to what Ness’s dialogue could look like?

1:17 I’m not saying that I need this, but I NEED THIS

earthbound is a franchise with a lot of untapped potential

In the movie they chould defeat giygas with music like in mother 1

Well a Hispanic channel called SOYPEMSU made a fanmade movie about Mother 1, and it's actually pretty good, it can work for sure.

What if they make a movie like for FF7 Advance children, not an adaptation but more of a sequel of either Earthbound 0, 1 or 2

Maybe all three mother games could be adapted all in one super massive movie

I'd see M1 or M3 more as a movie for M1 it could be like a 70-80s retro road trip/sci-fi movie and for M3 come on, its M3

I agree completely with you ,people always tend to forget games are a completely unique medium and it's not just(well this is more interactive or LMAO this looks 10 times better so obviously this better ) type off deal , I feel that earthbound could work as a movie but not as a faithfull adaptation ,a movie could take advantage off what it can do better than a game and build its ground work off that but that's the issue tho its a different take that could only be appreciated if you played the game cause let's be honest the main reason gyigas and the masked man work is because off all the little things itoi and the team did that made you love the mother universe I mean mothers 3 ending is based completely on what happens to the world that we experienced , and yeah let's not forget that gyigas would just not work ,so many things have to been done perfectly to not just come off as a edgy final fight ,many games have tried to replicate gyigas like omega flower but they come as underwhelming, cringe or just boring in the end my heart goes out to itoi and the team for taking every advantage games as a medium offer and making something special

Oh hey I'm on TV!

How about a CLAYMATED series? I don't care how long the wait between seasons are, that would be an AWESOME medium for it.

In our dreamssssss..!

What if they got studio Laika to make an EarthBound/Mother 2 film? I feel like with their style of character models and writing it would make for a great movie (Yes they might have to cut some things out but still just think about it!)

Cast announcement: Ness will be voiced by Chris Pratt

8:56 Where is that Mario footage from? I dont think I've ever seen it before. I never considered Ness actually getting characterization in an adaptation. That kind of thing really can be make or break, eh? This was a fun one.

I mean, who says an Earthbound movie/series would have to even be an adaptation? The Dragon Quest: Adventure of Dai series is more beloved than the Dragon Quest: Your Story movie.

OUH YEAH!!!

Well you could make a earthbound movie off the movie 1 and movie 2 novels as it gives a lot of emotion to the characters and even protagonists but that means no mother 3 because at the end of the mother 2 novel/earthbound pokey does not sneak off to mother 3

How faithful would someone want an EarthBound movie to be is my question. 🤔

I think an animated series would adapt well to all the craziness that games have. I wouldn't particularly complain if they made something like Cuphead, where there are things faithful to the games but the lack of sense games have. I can easily imagine several things happening in Onett that would make for funny episodes.

What if the movie was a prequel to EarthBound Beginnings following George and Maria?

I'm actually curious where the anime-ish fanart in the beginning came from

10:22 so maybe in the tv Show gigyas is still a normal alien and not an eldritch abomination

If Porky can do it we can do it.

if they adapt earthbound they gotta adapt mother and mother 3 as well (especially 3)

It could either be a live action show or animated

Yeaaahhh

The answer to the titles question is "No."

Saying what I thought while watching the Mario movie

I like the notion of Earthbound being ported to another media, but it's also made in such a way that, as you said, makes it difficult to do properly. Earthbound already exists as a video game and has now for decades, meaning it's seemingly the purest form of what Earthbound was intended to be. What about adaptations of other games & media like One Piece? Thankee!

Copyrighted music blood god so long (Ninetendo) NOPE

I feel like mother 3 would work better due to their being more dialogue between the main characters

AWW YEAAAAAAAAAA

I would love to see moonside in and eartbound movie

Yes

i think a road trip, sorta episodic, and mostly not serious about the whole "overarching plot" Also, lets not forget Fobbies are Borang

It's always going to be hard to use a rpg as a feature film. To try and capture the full magic of thr source material, you'll speed through the material way too fast or you will already set up garunted sequals and raise expectations do to the perceived arrogance of sequals before even releasing the first.

It would be rated PG-13

Alright, before I watch this, I think an Earthbound film should be made by Studio Ghibli. Enough said. Thank you for your time.

This isn't an Earthbound video, it's a Nissan Sales Event ad

I feel like if anything, Mother 1 would be a much better adaptation.

i think with the first line you meant the title to be "would earthbound be good as a movie"

personally i'd love an earthbound rock opera

Depends on what you want.. a successful adaptation (economically) or a faithful adaptation (good script). Looking at what the Mario movie has achieved by what they put out.. I don't think Mother would fare well..