Minecraft creators are already trying to fix the Minecraft movie
Animators, skin pack creators and players rally in the wake of dire trailer
When Warner Bros released a fairly abysmal trailer for the Minecraft Movie last week, there could be only one possible result: the game's legions of fan filmmakers, modders, texture pack creators, and garden-variety players would attempt to upstage it. That process begins with the speedy release of several fan reworkings of the trailer that use something like vanilla Minecraft graphics, rather than the original, unholy fusion of LB Photo Realism and Jack Black. This'll teach Johnny Hollywood to run his grubby hands all over our beloved Creepers, eh.
I've unearthed two of these reworkings so far. Both automatically look more charming than the movie, in the same way that having a nail pulled out of your leg is preferable to hammering another one in. The below is from Alumio, a 3D artist, modeller and animator who's known for making Five Nights At Freddy's videos using Minecraft's blocky visuals.
And here's one from QdAndy, who caveats that "I challenged myself to make it as fast as possible and thats why some of the stuff looks kindaaa weird? also its the best my potato Pc could do without exploding". Please bear in mind that in watching both of these videos you will be exposing yourself repeatedly to the soundtrack for the Magical Mystery Tour, a somewhat fusty late-career Beatles endeavour. Yes, I'm picking fights with both Warner Bros and Beatles fans in this post. We like our Mondays spicy round these parts. Come at me, groupies!
Meanwhile, Minecraft add-on creator Nogard has swiftly knocked out a Minecraft skin pack based on the film's cast. The race is on to determine which skinpacker can best capture the surly deadbeat involutions of Jack Black's beard.
One thing from the trailer that seems to have won some guarded enthusiasm is the usage of Ghasts as hot air balloons, but the movie can't claim to have invented the idea. Those Ghasts from the trailers don't even have cannons on them!
All these shenanigans aside, I'm hoping that modders, texture and skin pack creators will start applying some of the more... obscure Minecraft aesthetics and traditions to what we've seen of the movie. Where are my glitchpack reinventions? Please, Minecrafters, save us from Jack Black, Jason Momoa and all their doings. I keep stumbling on screengrabs of different points in the Minecraft movie sheep's baaing animation, and it's like stumbling on images of the five stages of grief.