Another week. Another video game movie adaption. A Minecraft Movie is based on the best selling video game of all time. A far cry from its humble beginnings in Mojang, a small town in Sweden. Since its full release in 2011, over 300 million copies of the game have been sold, with almost 140 million monthly active players. Now it’s time for the movie treatment.
The film is written by Chris Bowman & Hubbel Palmer and Neil Widener & Gavin James and Chris Galletta. It’s directed by Jared Hess, who’s made a name for himself with his quirky comedic sensibilities in Napoleon Dynamite (Vote For Pedro), Nacho Libre and Thelma The Unicorn.
Minecraft thrives on one key ingredient – imagination. It’s essential to solving everyday problems and ensuring your survival.
Since the Minecraft is an open world game choose your own adventure, there are numerous possible story permutations and characters. During the development phase, the filmmakers had to decide on one over-arching story and a handful of characters while still maintaining the “gamey” elements.
Four misfits Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks) find themselves pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld, a cubic wonderland. That’s the premise of the movie; to expand the creative minds of the characters and the audience alike.
Imagination is the driving tool that protects them from the evils of the Overworld. The quartet add expert “crafter” Steve (Jack Black) to their brood as they try to find their way home by determining what makes each unique and uniquely creative. It’s also collaboration and community that will help them find the exit to the Overworld.
A Minecraft Movie still contains the fantastical elements of being thrust into alternative worlds, with new and exciting characters (not all of them friendly), while promising a personalized adventure for each character.
“You can manipulate the environment, you can explore, you can mine, you can just sit around and gather resources and build your perfect house, mansion, hideout, or base. You can do what you want,” says Director Jared Hess.
Iron Golem. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment
Adapting The Video Game
The filmmakers drew upon the vast breadth of actual video game adventures to craft their visually-stunning masterpiece. It’s a large sandbox game without a preset narrative. One of the challenges of the adaptation process was to transfer the individual player character arcs onto the screen. Given that audiences couldn’t exercise the bajillion mining permutations of the game, the movie had to focus on one key story to be manageable. This story had to appeal to the lore and the values of the gaming audience while also speaking to audiences who have never played the game before.
Deciding on the story that would be told in A Minecraft Movie came down to a bunch of gaming influencers. The movie had to speak to them first and foremost. It had to capture the spirit and ethos of the video game and also appeal to movie lovers who don’t play video games. The filmmakers consulted a YouTube influencer to help them design the Redstone traps that Steve built.
Given that the exact goals of the video game cannot be truly defined, the filmmakers sought to capture the confusion and anxiety of playing the game for the first time before orienting oneself in the movie too. It achieves this with its off-beat adventures during the day which the crafters have to tackle. Then the sun sets and skeletons, zombies, and creepers (exploding green monsters) come out at night. What should the crafters do? Hide or fight until they’re safe.
Producer Cale Boyter describes the film as “a little bit of a mashup between ‘Goonies’ and ‘Fellowship of the Ring,’ with a lot of ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ mixed in.”
Pandas. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment
Creativity And Survival
These are the two thematic pillars of A Minecraft Movie. They feed into each other both in the metaphorical and the literal sense. The principles of using creativity to survive not only apply to the Minecraft game, but also in real life. This principle informed the storyline.
There’s something anti-narrative about Minecraft. There’s only a thin sketch of a three-act structure. It mainly relies on a series of vignettes as the crafters stumble upon a series of life adventures along the way. It relies on building communities and coalitions since the game runs on simultaneous multiplayer participation to achieve a goal.
A Minecraft Movie is more than fun and games. The Overworld is full of happy accidents, but the Nether where the crafters also find themselves, is full of dangerous creatures called Piglins. Nether is ruled by the evil sorceress Malgosha (Rachel House) who wants to exact her revenge on the Overworld by blocking out the sun and destroying everything creative and beautiful.
The third realm of the Minecraft world is the End – a dark dimension which houses the ender dragon and the endermen.
Steve (Jack Black), Dawn (Danielle Brooks) & Garrett (Jason Mamoa) Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment
Meet The Minecraft Crafters
The crafters are a motley crew of unlikely heroes. Let’s meet them:
Steve
He’s the trusted steward and wizard of the cube. He knows almost everything about the Overworld. He’s an explorer with a child-sized imagination who never fitted in on Earth. Even a spell in the Nether hellscape and some vicious fight scenes can’t deter his child-like wonder. He nourishes his creative desires and bonds with the human misfits. Not to mention his emotional support animal – a wolf called Dennis.
Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison
Garrett is an 80s video game savant, but not much good at anything else. He’s stuck in the video arcade world and his long-gone successes there, but can’t move on from that. He’s fearful and sensitive and just wants to find his tribe. He papers over his loneliness with fake bravado.
Henry
He’s the new kid on the block and arguably too smart for his own good. He’s shy and withdrawn, still reeling from being punished for his creativity in school. Then he enters the Overworld where he knows what he’s doing and is appreciated as he’s creativity is unleashed.
Natalie
Is the parental nurturer of the group. She’s spent most of her life raising her younger brother Henry following the death of their mother, with some resentment. Her life is effectively on hold until she’s drawn into the Overworld.
Dawn
Is a multi-hyphenate dreamer. She’s a realtor and has multiple side-hustles including a petting zoo. She has plans for expansion, but her fear of failure keeps her stuck in second gear. The Ovcrworld helps her plan and shift her plans into action.
The collective misfits find a sense of family, purpose, and possibilities in the Minecraft universe. Much of their unhappiness stems from their stagnant mindset which creativity helps to shift. All it takes is for them find their tribe and fulfil their potential.
