Pikmin Short Movies
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The Pikmin Short Movies are a trio of animated films, showing Pikmin interacting with the environment of PNF-404 alongside Captain Olimar. These films are drawn using computer generated 3D graphics. They were produced by TK3 Inc. and Nintendo Co., Ltd, and were animated by Dwango Pictures, Inc., with Shigeru Miyamoto as executive producer. The three shorts are called The Night Juicer, Treasure in a Bottle, and Occupational Hazards.
In addition to the shorts, four bonus clips exist. The bundle consisting of shorts and bonuses is available on the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS, on each of the respective platform's eShop. The 3DS version is in stereoscopic 3D, and is referred to as "Pikmin Short Movies 3D", while the clips on the Wii U are referred to as "Pikmin Short Movies HD", and are rendered in high definition. Each version of the bundle costs $4.99/£4.49/€4.99.
The shorts are all based on the first two Pikmin games. They focus more on the Pikmin's interactions with the environment, as well as each individual Pikmin's behaviors and actions. These aspects cannot be elaborated on inside the games, due to technical and visual limitations, as well as deviating from the gameplay purposes of the games. Some of the actions the Pikmin perform in the shorts contradict what is known to happen in the game's canon, meaning that it is not clear if the shorts take place in the same canon as the games'. These include the Pikmin being able to open up their leafs or buds into flowers seemingly at will, and White Pikmin being able to spit acid.
Controls
Wii U
When the Pikmin Short Movies app is booted, a menu with 4 options is presented on the GamePad, three for the shorts, and one that opens the bonus menu. A short or bonus can be picked with either 
and 
or by touching it on the touchscreen. During this menu, the TV screen shows a static image of the Pikmin Short Movies HD logo, and if the viewer is on the bonus menu, the word "Bonus" appears below it.
When playing a short, the TV always shows the short, and the GamePad screen can either show the video or detailed playback controls; a button on the bottom-right corner toggles this option. When in the detailed view, the top of the GamePad screen shows the name of the short, followed by the current time and the total duration. Below that is a seek bar, which the viewer can drag to seek through the movie. Below that are three control buttons. The buttons to skip forward and backward move the movie 5 seconds forward or backward, if it is paused, and if not, it fast-forwards forwards or backwards, 5 seconds at a time. The play/pause buttons starts or pauses the playback. Finally, a button on the bottom-left returns to the main menu.
In the GamePad view mode, only three controls exist: a button on the bottom-left plays and pauses, a seek bar is in the middle, and the button on the bottom-right toggles the mode.
3DS
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The Night Juicer
This short features Captain Olimar, and Red, Yellow, and Blue Pikmin, inside an unknown room, with Captain Olimar using a small blender to make a juice-like drink. The three Pikmin see this, and go to investigate, only to see what appears to be a vivisected red Pikmin on a cutting board. Olimar turns to the Pikmin, and they begin to back away in fear under the impression that Olimar intends to make juice out of them. The three Pikmin cower and begin pushing each other towards Olimar, as Olimar slowly extends his arm out for them. The Pikmin, trembling in fear, bump into a box of Pikpik carrots, what Olimar was really blending. Olimar grabs a few carrots, ignoring the bewildered Pikmin, and returns to the blender. The Night Juicer is 1:55 in length.
Treasure in a Bottle
This short beings off with a red Pikmin chasing after a large white butterfly, eventually coming across a Ramune bottle with a blue marble inside. By climbing a nearby plant, the Pikmin manages to eventually land inside the bottle's and reach the marble. After a few attempts, the Pikmin lodges the marble inside the mouth of the bottle. The marble then falls back inside the bottle, causing the red Pikmin to fall to the lower compartment of the bottle and become trapped. There, the Pikmin calls for help from a passing pair of blue and yellow Pikmin, which laugh at the red's plight. A fellow red Pikmin also comes and laughs.
After assessing the situation, the blue, the yellow, and the red all begin thinking about ideas on how to free their trapped friend: The blue Pikmin gets an idea first; running off into the foliage and returning with a small bucket of water; its idea is to fill the bottle with water and have the red Pikmin swim out. The trapped red, however, refuses, realizing it will drown. The second idea comes from the yellow, who runs off into the foliage and returns with a lit bomb rock. The red and blue flee, while the yellow lays the explosive beside the bottle, and runs away. The bomb rock explodes, sending the trapped red Pikmin and the Ramune bottle flying into the air, freeing the red. However, the bottle lands upright once again, remains unscathed, and the red falls back in, landing at the bottom. The three remaining Pikmin return to the bottle, seeing that the bomb rock did not work. In the meantime, a few blue Pikmin are hanging onto the white butterfly in a chain. A purple Pikmin tries to join them but immediately weighs the Pikmin down, and the butterfly flies away, to the Blue Pikmin's dismay. After seeing this, the three Pikmin unanimously reach a solution.
The Pikmin call on more of their friends to form a huge chain that leads all the way to the bottom of the Ramune bottle, with a purple Pikmin on top, holding onto the chain. Ultimately, the trapped red Pikmin is freed, which it is quite thankful for. Before it returns to the ground with the group, it looks back at the marble, still sitting inside the bottle. The scene then changes, showing the red Pikmin sitting proudly atop the bottle as the other Pikmin carry it into the foliage with the purple Pikmin running slowly behind. The length of Treasure in a Bottle is 8:00.
Occupational Hazards
This short begins with various types of Pikmin working about to dismantle an abandoned Backhoe for the Hocotate ship. While most of the Pikmin are hard at work, some of them are slacking off, such as a group of several yellow Pikmin playing with an electrical current of the engine's battery (which accidentally kills an unsuspecting blue Pikmin) and white Pikmin spitting poison fluids at various parts of the machine, which results in portions of the machine getting damaged. Olimar is on the top of the machine, and has a miniature seesaw device so that the Pikmin can reach the Ship's pod. A white Pikmin accidentally gets launched high into the air after 2 purple Pikmin jump on the other end of the seesaw.
Meanwhile, a group of Pikmin run off to rummage through some metal pipes and accidentally wake up a sleeping Fiery Blowhog, who then stampedes after them. A few red Pikmin jump on its back and cause it to careen into a puddle of mud, dousing its flames and causing it to spew a fountain of mud, much to the joy of the Pikmin. While playing in the mud, a yellow Pikmin wanders off into a nearby sewer entry after noticing a shiny bolt on the floor. The yellow Pikmin bumps into what it believes to be a large Spotcap, but when it starts to move, the frightened Pikmin drops the bolts and flees in terror as the other Pikmin still playing in the mud realize what it was the yellow Pikmin was running away from; an angered Red Bulborb.
The Bulborb chases the Pikmin out of the mud and scoops two of them into its mouth. However, before it can swallow them, they crawl out of its nostrils and onto its eye stalks, temporarily distracting it while the other Pikmin continue to run away. The Bulborb shakes off the Pikmin and is halted by a moving glove. Right as the glove hypnotizes the Bulborb into submission, it realizes the hand was just the Pikmin controlling a glove and continues its chase, ripping the glove off and sending the Pikmin flying. They land inside the rim of a car tire and hide within it while the Bulborb attempts to unearth the rim from the ground. When Olimar climbs to the top of the machine, he sees the Pikmin fly through the air as the Bulborb sends the rim flying. Olimar whistles, and the Pikmin scurry towards the machine as the Bulborb gives chase. After it eats two of them, the Bulborb corners the Pikmin when they run into the scooping mechanism of the Backhoe.
Meanwhile, the yellow Pikmin, who were playing with the electrical current at the beginning of the short, successfully complete a circuit which activates the machine; the sudden rumbling causes Olimar to fall backwards and land on a lever that makes the scoop mechanism lift up into the air, causing the trapped Pikmin and the Bulborb to get lifted up with it. It them drops them, sending all of them plummeting to the ground. The Pikmin sprout flowers which act as parachutes, but the Bulborb falls to its death.
Olimar and his Pikmin approach the defeated Bulborb, with Olimar looking on as the Pikmin ravage the carcass. Suddenly, the excavation machine begins to fall apart with so many of its components having been taken apart, and Olimar commands the Pikmin to run away as the machine collapses, crushing the Bulborb's carcass. Olimar appears distressed at the loss of the machine, but the Ship Pod comes and claims that the resulting wreckage is worth a total of 10 Quadrillion and Seven Pokos, much to Olimar's joy. The length of Occupational Hazards is 12:45.
This movie features a total of 500 Pikmin onscreen at once, an impressive feat that is technically impossible in the contemporary games.
Bonuses
A bonus section exists bundled with the shorts, featuring four clips on the 3DS and Wii U, plus two more bonus clips exclusive to the 3DS version.
TOHO CINEMAS 2012 Logo
This starts off with a red Pikmin atop a red ball. It spins the ball around, revealing an opening in the ball. Pikmin come running out of the opening, carrying various letters. They set the letters down, which eventually spell out "TOHO CINEMAS". The red Pikmin jumps off the ball. Afterward, the ball begins to bounce towards the red Pikmin until it remains fixed atop the words. The red Pikmin then runs off. Length: 00:31
TOHO CINEMAS 2013 Logo
This is just like the first logo, except now, the ball is carried above the letters by a few winged Pikmin. The red Pikmin also stays on top of the ball. Length: 00:37
Treasure in a Bottle: Storyboard by Shigeru Miyamoto
Like the name implies, this is a storyboard Miyamoto used to develop Treasure in a Bottle. It was created using Flipnote Studio 3D, a 3DS application that was never released outside of Japan. Length: 01:23
Occupational Hazards: Storyboard by Shigeru Miyamoto
Similarly, this is a storyboard created by Miyamoto for Occupational Hazards. Once again, it was created using Flipnote Studio 3D. Length: 02:05
Easter eggs
- On the 3DS version, pressing
while playing any movie will play a sound. - At 00:24 in The Night Juicer, numerous articles and photos are posted on a bulletin board.
- Two photos feature Olimar's family, his wife, his son, and his daughter.
- Another photo features the Pikmin game art from the first game.
- Another photo features Olimar and the Hocotate ship from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- There is also a news article that features Hocotate from Pikmin 2.
- Treasure in a Bottle shows a White Cabbage Butterfly throughout the short, although with added tufts of white hair on its antennae.
- Treasure in a Bottle features a Nintendo ramune bottle.
- At 02:54 in Occupational Hazards, there is a green pipe which a red Pikmin pops out with lint portrayed similarly to Super Mario's hat, nose, and mustache. Numerous coins from the Super Mario Bros., as well as a short excerpt from "Super Mario Bros. Overworld Theme".
- In Occupational Hazards, there is a scene where a red and blue Pikmin are running beside each other in an attempt to evade a rampaging Bulborb. During this scene, a police siren can be heard, referencing how police lights are generally red and blue.
- At 09:20 in Occupational Hazards, there is a remixed variation of the theme of The Final Trial.
History
In an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto in March of 2013, the creator of the Pikmin series announced Nintendo was working on a cartoon based on the franchise. In the interview, Miyamoto revealed that these cartoons would be released at some point in 2013 but before the next game in the series, Pikmin 3, which was still in development. The idea was to distribute them as 3DS videos, and he considered the idea of selling them if they become something bigger.
The idea for these cartoons came around when Miyamoto was trying to "give more life to the Pikmin characters". When asked if this was an attempt to make the 3DS less of a gaming-centric console, Miyamoto declared he hadn't thought about it that way. Instead, it's just taking advantage of the Pikmin series, and expanding its potential. If the idea were to flourish, Nintendo would do cartoons on other franchises as well.
Miyamoto stated that they’d considered doing something like this for Nintendo’s characters many times in the past, but avoided it because of the difference between an interactive game and a film. A film also requires much more "setting in stone" about the characters and world that could be limiting for the company when it comes to future games. However, with Pikmin they’re very small inside the game and players can’t see them well without zooming in close. So he thought shorts might be a good fit for the Pikmin series as it’d allow there to be more focus on the actual Pikmin.
In September of 2014, Miyamoto announced that three short animated movies would be shown at the Tokyo International film festival, which would happen from October 25th to October 31st. These short movies will be titled The Night Juicer, Treasures in a Bottle, and Occupational Hazards.
On October 25th, 2014, the movies were premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival. According to IGN, Miyamoto has completed 20-30 short films, yet has only left the three movies listed above for public viewing.[1]
After the shorts were presented, Shigeru Miyamoto and Dwango chairman Nobuo Kawakami held a press conference, and revealed more info on the shorts[2]. The two stated things such as the shorts soon after coming to the eShop. They also announced that they made the storyboard using Flipnote Studio 3D. Each film was planned to be 10 minutes long, but they ended up scrapping the idea and made some slightly longer and shorter ones. Other minor details were announced as well.
Nintendo Direct
On November 5th, 2014, Nintendo released the Pikmin shorts, for both 3DS and Wii U. The 3DS version featured 3D elements to it, while the Wii U version is in HD. He explained that storyboard was created using Flipnote Studio, instead of Flipnote Studio 3D that he said in a Japanese interview some time ago, possibly a form to hide the Flipnote Studio 3D delay since July 2013 in North America, Europe and Australia. During the Direct, Miyamoto also mentioned that a Pikmin 3 demo would be released after the direct, as a way for people who enjoyed the movies to get a feel for what Pikmin was like. During the same direct, Miyamoto stated that they would be holding various Pikmin events via Miiverse, the first of these being an Art Academy: Sketchpad contest. After the direct, Miyamoto also stated that "continuing campaigns such as these may lay the groundwork for the next iteration in the Pikmin series", leading fans to believe that Miyamoto may have hinted at a fourth Pikmin title being worked on for the Wii U.[3]
Miiverse Miiting
On November 22nd, 2014, a Japanese Miiverse user by the name of Marichan interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto about the movies. During the interview, Miyamoto revealed professional screenshots of the official storyboard, concept art of the opening to The Night Juicer, and gave a better look at the bulletin board seen in the same movie. He also discussed the making of the movies and some more minor details. The full interview can be seen here. In the Japanese edition, Miyamoto talks about Flipnote Studio and its sequel never released outside of Japan, but in the English version, Nintendo censored all of these mentions.[4][5]
Gallery
Concept art of the intro to The Night Juicer, revealed during this interview.
Trivia
- In the intro to The Night Juicer, Purple and White Pikmin erroneously have white flowers as opposed to pink ones.
- At 1:21 in Occupational Hazards, there is a Purple Pikmin at the top of the screen which has a pink bud, and another towards the bottom-left which has a pink flower; these are the only two Purple Pikmin with correctly-colored flowers in any of the shorts.
- In The Night Juicer, Olimar is seen without his helmet while on PNF-404, and outside of his spaceship. It is assumed that it is outside, because Pikmin are seen in the same room.
- On the Pikmin 3 boxart, a Red Pikmin is seen inside a bottle. It could possibly be an inspiration to Treasure in a Bottle.
- There are a total of 3 Pikmin deaths withing the short movies, all of which occur in Occupational Hazards. A Blue Pikmin gets electrocuted, and a Red and a Blue Pikmin get eaten by a Bulborb.