Animal Crossing fever has gripped the world of Nintendo thanks to the impending arrival of New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch. But did you know that an animated Animal Crossing movie is a thing that exists? We're ashamed to admit we didn't know either until today; we'd better hand in our 'Diehard Nintendo Fan' badge.
Dōbutsu no Mori launched back in 2006, around the time that Animal Crossing: Wild World launched on the Nintendo DS. The story involves an 11-year-old girl named Ai who moves to a village populated by (you've guessed it) talking animals, and was only ever released in Japan.
In fact, it has been confirmed this week that the movie will be broadcast on Japanese TV channel Kids Station at 4PM Tokyo Time on March 20th to celebrate the launch of New Horizons.
The bad news? The movie never got a western release back in the day, and there don't appear to be any plans to change that, even with Animal Crossing mania at its height in this part of the world. Shame.
[source mynintendonews.com]
Comments 75
Y'all late on that
It was pretty good too
That movie has the best version of K.K. Bossa ever. I watch it every once in a while just for it. I wish the movie was translated so my daughters could watch it.
Watched an English dub of this years ago.
....Yeah I knew about this. lol
Anime was a mistake.
Ah yes Animal Crossing B.I (Before Isabelle)
So none of the people working at NL knew about this movie? At least that's what the title makes you believe.
Oh, here we go again. Nintendo Life thought 3-day-old news was not late enough, so now we're 14 years late. Bravo!
There have been fansubs of this for ages now lol
I knew about it and I dont even like Animal Crossing. Guess im cool
@mesome713 That Linkle avatar of yours takes big influences from the anime art style.
@Monkeido I genuinely didn't know this thing existed, nope.
Funny, I seem to remember first hearing about it on this site years ago. Unfortunately, your site's search doesn't go back further than 10 pages so I guess we'll never know.
@Ardisan Its a joke, the creator of Anime felt Anime was a mistake. I was just using his quote for giggles.
Of course I knew this existed. It's frigging adorable.
I watched on YT years ago, so I didnt miss it.
the movie is a pretty pleasant time, and a fine enough plot for an AC movie. it was really nice seeing all these npcs as actual characters and friends, really emphasizes how different peoples AC experiences can be. theres also a high quality fan dub you can easily search if thats more your thing!
Turning on English subtitles gives you some odd results...
"It's okay to buy the inside while you're in a hurry! Even if your husband, who is close to the age of the old one, also has a branch when you watch more movies!"
wtf?
The only thing I saw from the anime was this comedy edit someone made with Tom Nook clips combined with a Busta Rhymes song.
I've seen a trailer couple of times but never got around to watch the full movie.
I guess I'm just gonna join everyone else and pretend I knew about this also. Man this is old, I already knew about this. Whatchu talkin bout Willis.
@mesome713 That comment actually made me chuckle, +1 to you
I highly doubt Nintendolife didn’t post something about this movie way back when. I even remember it. Just forgot.
@mesome713 “the creator of Anime”...?
I remember when this came out but I'd have said it released sometime around 2010-12. 2006? I feel ancient now...
@Markiemania95
You've never heard of John Q Anime?
@mesome713 I know the joke from osmosis. Just seemed kinda ironic.
Wait Miyazaki isnt the creator of anime, Osamu Tezuka is.
@BLD Ah yes, my mistake
@Ardisan Osamu Tezuka is the father of manga, not anime.
@Ardisan Not to mention that Miyazaki never actually said that.
It's pretty cute. We ordered it on DVD from Japan at around 2008 when my brother was way into Animal Crossing. It even came with a nice DS Lite case or a pencilcase or something.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/2950/Doubutsu_no_Mori
Members 17,008
Virtually unknown lol
Basically the whole internet just found out about this now, thanks to Nintendo Life.
Saw this years ago on CrunchyRoll. Does exactly what it should on the tin, very faithful.
Yeah this came out forever ago and...actually wasn't too bad.
I already knew about Animal Crossing movie. 😏
Btw, i found a FULL movie in English dub (fan dub but sounds like official) from Youtube.
Well... It just only part 1 from 2. 😅
But at least better than nothing.
Enjoy the movie. 😀
@Damo I understand you [one person] not knowing, but the title says "we", which implies no-one at Nintendo Life knew about this movie.
@mesome713 as an anime fan, I can agree
@mesome713 bruh not the creator. You got this from dunkey
@Markiemania95 he got it from a fumble dunkey joje
@RazumikhinPG I knew about this when I was like 7 or 8
@RazumikhinPG I did more research on it and he seems to be a major pioneer and father of manga (like you said) who had the first popular japanese animated series on Japanese television (premiered on Fuji TV) in 1963 called Mighty Atom aka. Astro Boy. But, a more earlier pioneer is Oten Shimokawa, who created the first professional anime film in 1917 called "Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki". Shimokawa being apart of the first generation of animators alongside Jun'ichi Kouchi and Seitaro Kitayama. So I guess they are the fathers of anime.
I knew about this a long time ago. It was jarring at first with the Japanese names, but it's a great movie.
To be fair it’s junk. Seeing the animation and how true it is to the game is cool tho
Really? I figured a majority of AC fans knew about the movie. It’s nothing new. But way to make a sweeping generalization, NintendoLife.
it’s a nice story. I saw it a couple times years back. And coincidentally saw a english dub last night. It was really interesting to see animal crossing daily life and its video game elements envisioned as a animated movie and go outside it’s customary with the adventure bits. And It was really cool how they large they made the town and environments I wish the towns in the video games could be that large
I know the movie, but didn't know KK music covers were a thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n6FYAu0i8s
Watched this ages ago. It was... forgettable.
@Anti-Matter and here's both parts
AC: Movie - English Fan Dub
Part 1: https://www.veoh.com/watch/v78861668dxT79kAD
Part 2: https://www.veoh.com/watch/v788629102QzkTsJ7
Just watched it though I knew of its existance for a while now. Cute movie, but nothing ground breaking. I would really only suggest it to Animal Crossing fans.
It stared a cute little girl at a time when you could probably count the number female Animal Crossing fans you knew on one hand, and almost no males who watched it were going to admit to doing so. No surprise it never made it to America.
I've actually seen this movie. It's adorable. Despite it not being released in the West, there is, in fact, an English fandub of it that is actually done quite well. You'd almost think it was professionally made, it was that good.
@CowCatcher After all those years of hearing Charles Martinet as Mario, shouldn't most of us be immune to annoying voices by now?
Yes, I saw the English dub of this movie (that someone uploaded to YouTube) years ago as well..
Even grouchy old men like me knew about this but never got to see it, hence, the grouchiness.
A little strange that they still haven't dubbed and released it internationally. Professor Layton is far less popular and their movie even got a Blu-ray release in some territories.
I actually really like this movie. Having it released officially would be amazing.
The song is beautiful...
I thought this was pretty common knowledge tbh.
I heard about when it came out.
I pegged KK Slider as having a voice more like iggy pop
"either"
Ok then.
I have this movie with English subtitles. It's GREAT! I even cried once! This movie does the Animal Crossing franchise Justice and really could use an official Western release.
I knew that this was a thing for a long time!
You're suggesting Zion and Alex - both of whom are massive AC fans, didn't at least know about this movie? I find that hard to believe.
I love how every commenter but one, allegedly knew about this movie. A movie no one talks about, and barely had any view (17k). Lmao. Anyway. News to me and everyone around me. Cool stuff.
Yeah, I never heard of it.
How the heck did everyone in Nintendo Life not know about this movie?! Is almost 15 years old, even i knew about it when i was a kid because I read about it in a Gaming Magazine on my local video game store (Electronic Boutique, but is long since changed into a GameStop) I'm baffled by this confession of yours, Nintendo Life! Wow!
Someone at NintendoLife listened to Retronauts yesterday, it seems...
Nintendo life doesn't even know news it posted one week earlier.
If i get my hands on Animal Crossing, i'd re-ENACT the whole movie as a setting!
I believe I understood the major plot points, regardless
Nope, I was wrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dbutsu_no_Mori_(film)#Plot
@mesome713 I assume you're referring to an often mistranslated and commonly misunderstood quote from Miyazaki, a man who never said anything even vaguely related to the concept that anime was a mistake and also wasn't the "creator" of anime. He created some anime, so I guess that's something.
There was an interview where he said he didn't like the fact that a lot of current animators didn't take the time to observe real humans and their behavior before making their anime. He believes understanding human behavior is key to capturing realism in anime. Somehow someone summarized that as "Anime Was a Mistake" and circulated it.
I'm glad other people knew this existed. I loved this movie when I was younger. I always wanted an official dub.
Watched it. It's lovely.
You all must have some awfully young new hires if you didn't know about this movie, lol. Can we expect to see this article come up again in another few years? Lol!
I am not a Animal crossing fan, and yet I knew this movie existed.
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