Nintendo took over the animation studio which will be ‘Nintendo Pictures’

Nintendo has acquired CG production company Dynamo Pictures and renamed it “Nintendo Pictures”. The new subsidiary will focus on “Development of Visual Content Using Nintendo IP” and “Planning and Production of Visual Content with CG Animation”. The company’s IMDB page lists credits on dozens of titles, including Motion Capture work on Death Stranding and Persona 5 and post-production work on Metroide: Others.

The acquisition comes as Nintendo prepares for the most significant movie release of the year; Animated film based on the Super Mario Brothers franchise starring Chris Pratt. The film is currently set to release in the spring of next year, almost thirty years after the last major cinematic adaptation: the 1993 live action Super Mario Brothers starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. In 2019, a live action adaptation of Detective Pikachu, based on the Pokemon franchise, was released.

The acquisition comes amid the curiosity to transform video games into movies and TV shows. The second animated film based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise was released earlier this year, and a TV show based on Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us is currently in production for HBO. Sony, which has also recently released a movie based on its uncharted games, has suggested that it wants to continue expanding its PlayStation IP outside of video games in recent investor day.

The notice to Nintendo’s shareholders says it is acquiring 100 percent of the outstanding shares of Dynamo Pictures, which will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the video game company. The acquisition is expected to close on October 3, 2022.