For a company that’s been around since 1889, Nintendo has always found ways to stay relevant. The Nintendo Switch is a massively popular console, the Pokemon series’ 25th anniversary has arrived, and people are eagerly awaiting each new announcement the iconic company makes. While fans are looking forward to Nintendo’s future, one video from the company’s past is making the rounds on the internet again.
Commercials are an integral way for video game companies to market their games and toys, and TV spots like one for New Pokemon Snap help generate buzz among fans. While Nintendo has often made use of commercials to sell its own merchandise for its flagship series like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokemon, it isn’t too often that fans will look back and reminisce about commercials from decades ago. As it turns out, the video making the rounds this time was one that Nintendo released in 1989.
The commercial features a teen walking into a store, only to see popular Nintendo characters, animated and running around the store while showing off Nintendo merchandise. Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser are all in the store, and Link from The Legend of Zelda appears as well. The World of Nintendo spot was marketing different Nintendo games and items that were sold at Roses Discount Stores at the time, such as backpacks, t-shirts, and lunchboxes.
It also turns out that a famous animator was behind the commercial’s 2D animation of the Mario and Zelda characters. Dale Baer was an integral animator for Disney through the years, and worked on films such as Robin Hood (1973), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), The Lion King (1994), and The Princess and the Frog (2009), to name a few. His most recent work was on the upcoming Bob’s Burgers: The Movie, which is now in post-production. Baer passed away earlier this year.
In an age before today’s impressive CGI, the props that were used by the animated characters were manipulated by crew members, and got hidden by the animation. The Nintendo characters are really charmingly animated, bringing to mind many of the great 2D animated Disney films that Baer worked on. Vintage commercials are often a great way to look at how a company has grown over the years, like Nintendo certainly has.
With Pokemon‘s 25th anniversary coming up on February 27, and The Legend of Zelda‘s 35th anniversary coming up on February 21, Nintendo fans will certainly be seeing some new commercials soon. Whether or not they are as charming as this one from the 80s, fans will just have to wait and see.
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