Video games are intricate and complicated enough as it is, but fans dive even deeper and go so far as to create animated films through the games they play. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the latest games to be used to make films from the gameplay and graphics. More often than not, ACNH machinima is done through Harv's Island in his studio, but others have done it just by recording their activity on their island.
Machinima is the official name for the method of making a film using gaming software. Horror movies have a tendency to be the most popular amongst ACNH machinima, but creators expand their horizons into other genre short films, takes on conceptual art videos, games within a game, and even musicals. It has also been a way for YouTubers to change the monotonous lives of their villagers and do things like have Chadder go on a date, or Merry celebrate with a Christmas party.
Animal Crossing: All Mine
Milan Machinima Festival is an official Italian event that showcases work from all over the digital world. All Mine was created by Brent Watanabe to represent how ACNH is a "shameless celebration of capitalism."
With the installation of New Horizons being a way for players to escape the normal setting of other Animal Crossing games by setting up a deserted island, players also fall into consumerism and repetitive tasks to keep the island running. According to Brent's synopsis on his piece, he collected and spent over 150 hours hoarding and set up as many goods as possible all over his island to display for the machinima.
Beau's Not-So Valentine's Day
Crossing Chronicles on YouTube consistently creates Animal Crossing machinima in a short film style focusing usually around one specific villager and theme. One of the most recent short films is about Beau, the lazy deer villager, and his pursuit of love with Pekoe, the normal cub villager.
The videos feature remixed Animal Crossing music and visual captions on the screen to provide conversation between the villagers. They use catchphrases and reactions to capture the meaning of the movie.
A Game Within A Game
Nikachu on Youtube created a crossover series of Animal Crossing villagers playing Among Us. They put seven villagers in an "arena," chose one imposter, set up stations like microphones and chairs, and the villagers are able to capture others to eliminate them. There are even tasks presented at the beginning of the game, such as villagers singing together, whipping out food, and sitting down.
By the end of the machinima, Nikachu reveals the imposter and if the villager managed to get away with it. One of the cutest parts of this machinima is the game room where the player and villagers are sitting at laptops to simulate that they are playing Among Us.
Animal Crossing Noir
DrKendoCommentaries uses the humor of Animal Crossing, a mix of black-and-white and targeted color graphics, a detective-style voiceover, and the mystery of the 'Deserted Island Getaway Package' to build an ACNH detective noir film.
This four-minute film covers what it's like to deal with the incessant amounts of talking from Timmy and Tommy and the way Tom Nook just expects things to happen now that the player is on the island. There is some adult language used, so it is not recommended for children. This film is the first in what's expected to be a multi-part series.
Animal Talking With Gary Whitta
Gary Whitta's Animal Crossing talk show is a great example of using video game graphics to build something else completely. Whitta is an English screenwriter, author, and video game journalist.
Animal Talking was born of boredom in 2020 after Animal Crossing New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch took the world by storm and has the same basic layout of talk shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with everything from a cameraman to the musicians, stand-up comedians, and celebrity guests.
Mermaid Crossing
A movie trailer by Evil Imp, Mermaid Crossing is proof that, with the right angles, collections of items, sound effects, and teamwork, the silliness of an Animal Crossing island can be turned into a movie.
This very dark and twisted story seems to take inspiration from horror films, with a dash of Pirates of the Caribbean added in for good measure. The use of the aquarium area of the museum, the swimming feature, and the intense music make this trailer feel like a movie already. Seems to be that Gulliver, Celeste, and Pascal will be the heroes of this short film, and that in and of itself makes this movie worth the watch.
6th Station
For some strange reason, one of the most common genres gamers are covering in ACNH machinima is horror. 6th Station is about the main character gaining back their memory, but the audience isn't clued in on any of the finer details. Viewers will join the main character on an island with mysterious spatters all across the area alongside terrifying sound effects and voice features. It plays out almost like a mystery game, with the protagonist reading notes left around and solving a potentially unsolvable mystery.
Once inside the main character's house, they make an attempt to escape the presence of a doll sitting in the middle of the floor, but they seem to constantly be returning to the same room. The creator, No One on YouTube, even commented on how scary the creation of the film was.
New Horizons
This three-part series by Evil Imp on Youtube starts out with the characters being introduced through the New Horizons setting, followed by the sequel titled "Paradise" and the final part, "Animal Forest." The first installation is simply called "Animal Crossing Movie (Part One)" and begins in a horror movie style and what feels like a Stranger Things title page before truly diving into the story.
The first part seems to take place in space, and they use animalese and captions to convey the conversations. The main character gets trapped on a mysterious and creepy planet, which seems to be one of the game's many deserted islands. This is absolutely one of the best machinimas for character design, story creativity, and sound effects.
Hamilton: An Animal Crossing Musical
With the combination of costumes, the music from the musical Hamilton, and reactions from the villagers in the audience, GuitarKnight14 was able to completely recreate Hamilton in ACNH. The story is broken into a staggering 35 YouTube videos featuring the beloved musical numbers and villagers as the fellow stars of the musical.
Like many other ACNH machinima projects, it used a combination of Harv's studio and the creator's own island. The hardest part that this project likely ran into is that, when the villagers and players sing, they have automatic movements that go along with that, so, instead of using that feature, Guitar_Knight14 was able to use props to their advantage. For example, when Alexander Hamilton reads all the treatises, Raymond, the cat villager playing Alexander Hamilton, slowly gets surrounded by more and more books rather than just standing in the middle of a makeshift stage doing reactions to portray singing. This is a very creative project and could not have been an easy endeavor.
Animal Crossing: Don't Peek
The original horror short, created by Julian Terry and Nightlight Motion Pictures, is currently being developed into a full horror film. Unfortunately, the theater release will not feature Animal Crossing graphics. But, the original creator's vision and execution from the ACNH game graphics is one of the most unique and viral machinimas to come out in recent years.
Released in October of 2020, Don't Peek was made with three people and a Blackmagic pocket camera during quarantine. Julian and friends immersed both real-world and ACNH graphics to create a film where whatever the player does in the game also happens in real life, but with a malicious twist. For being only six minutes and 46 seconds, this film will make viewers feel like they've just sat through a two-hour thriller.