EarthBound, USA - Worth the Wait?

when Earthbound USA was announced I was just starting Middle School I also had a lot of free time I loved Earthbound and had already been part of the fandom for several years by that point that trailer man that injected something into the community a real professional documentary about Earthbound maybe this could mean something to those not a part of our community maybe it could show them why all of this means so much to us then the big reveal in that trailer came I was lit up this was probably the first time I'd seen a toy above 240p this was going to be something amazing and it was coming out in 2015 and I'd be able to see it if I could wait that long by late 2015 when it was initially supposed to release surprisingly things had actually happened in our community both Earthbound and Earthbound zero now called Beginnings had been released worldwide as for the movie it was being delayed to 2016 understand understandbly as a lot of news had come out regarding the series in some time so it made sense to take a little bit of extra time to include those things however no matter how true it was or not hearing something in our community had been delayed felt like a death sentence we had our share of hearing that word delay and here we were again this was also more or less the last time we heard anything regarding a release date 2016 came and went then so did 2017 then 18 and 192 then in 2021 no update was released other than we're working on it it had now been 8 years since the documentaries announcement it was never coming out at least that's how many felt a lot of once's fans were turning their backs on the project one that many of them had even funded themselves but at this point most weren't really angry or sad they just didn't care anymore we'd all grown up and after all it's just a movie still disappointing for sure but I guess it wasn't the end of the world but it sure felt like one to my childhood all the hours spent on starman.net in EarthBound Central it was a long time gone by now this year was special to me though because that was the year I started this YouTube channel I didn't know really what I wanted to do with it but I was thinking along the lines of short joke videos just low effort stuff I could make quickly to keep myself connected to the Earthbound Community you see while back in 2013 I had all the Time in the World to sit online and read about the series all day and night by now I'd grown up I was now halfway through college I'd wanted to reconnect with this community because for some time I sort of moved on I saw this channel as my way back into the thick of it and boy did it bring me there it brought me to the Pinnacle of Mount Olympus I became a big deal I don't know I guess i' become something of an icon no no no but these last couple years have given me some of the greatest artistic fulfillment I've ever seen in my life and to me forming friendships with many I now consider some of my best friends in late 2022 though I needed a break I stopped updating everything and was all around interacting with very few people I'm not going to burden you with all my problems but long story short I needed some time away during this time though I randomly decided to read up on good old Earthbound USA then I saw something I hadn't expected the site had been updated with new graphics and an update I'll be at a very small one that made it seem as though it was coming soon was this really happening I talked to some people around about it and although many of my friends were still highly skeptical a trustworthy Source informed me that internally at Fan gamer there was a big push being made to make sure Earthbound USA was released in 2023 I'll believe it when I see it by this point the subject of the film's release had become nothing but a premise for jokes and ridicule of the Project's management and the idea of a documentary on Earthbound in the Mother series itself had also become somewhat p a in the Years spent waiting several people in groups had stepped up to the plate and released their own documentaries was it even worth the effort anymore the next July it was unveiled at mother direct 2023 Earthbound USA was the closing project shown with a revamped look in Direction and a release date at the end of November it was the final countdown and this time the they meant it later in October the film had its Premiere in Tucson Arizona the home of fan gamer and when the reviews came out they were good really good all that was left was to wait one more month would it be as good as it looked to me when I was just a kid the last month flew by and on November 27th 2023 more than 10 years since its announcement Earthbound USA finally released let's talk about it my biggest fear for this film was much like everyone else's that it was going to be really cheesy though there have been many Earthbound documentaries in the following years of waiting in EB USA's limbo they usually fell into one of three categories one history of the video games that you could easily find anywhere online two interviews with fans where they tell you how great earthband is and how misunderstood it was due to its marketing campaign or three both well that certainly would have tied many over because I think that's likely what many were expecting it to be since since the film's Inception I wanted more than that as someone who by this point has been part of this community for more than 15 years I know there is more to say for this community and what these games mean to us than earthband is quirky and Nintendo won't release Mother 3 frankly if this film didn't offer me more than that it would already have been a failure in my eyes and the weight would not have been worth it movies are not a simple Pastime they're art and can tell some of the most visceral and emotionally involving stories ever written written and with this being considered by many to be the definitive Earthbound movie the series and its fan base deserve far more than that so with that bar set how does it fair it is more I think the best decision this Earthbound movie makes is not really being about Earthbound it's just the inciting incident the movie is about Reed and tomato this film is about friendship surviving the terminal disease of growing up it tells its story well thanks to writer director and co-editor Jazzy Benson this is a Coming of Age story about finding one's place in the world and the simultaneous fear and indifference to the good times ending the film's professionalism and its presentation has been a common point of praise and yes it does look and sound great but I find a movie looking like a movie to be a pretty shallow form of Praise what I admire about its presentation is it uses it to elevate mood and character and that it meshes it all together to feel so cohesive as a story in a way this feels like the the most true way to use Earthbound in the movie as the connecting fiber as the link the parallel to juxtapose the actual lives of those involved in the rise of starman.net with as I'm writing this review I'm realizing more and more just how purposefully this was all set up I think many will walk away from this film thinking he was made because the filmmakers like Earthbound but it's not that simple it's a game that made its young audience grow up while playing it and that's why it's such an excellent subject matter for a film about actual kids growing up just as the mother Series has been endlessly praised for being realistic for being about kids using baseball bats fighting monsters in their own backyard this film is the story about those kids the ones that did play pretend and fool around with what was lying around and use it to go on adventures and how then they grew up but that childlike Essence still lives in them the more I talk about it the more one of the themes of the film it forced children to become adults and adults to become children becomes more and more profound s to me the film's not perfect yes it has its moments of hey look how cool these games are and some of the more over-the-top comedic moments didn't really work for me in that sense at times it does just sort of feel like uh you had to be there kind of thing while I do think the film does a good enough job of making it clear why certain reactions were the way they were it still does come across as something of a momento for those that were involved to an extent and while I understand and respect why they used what they did from their interview with with a toy man do I wish there was more of it in the film I understand though that as a film first and foremost you need to prioritize the narrative in order to maintain the quality of the story I'll probably pick up the Blu-ray too and although specifics of the bonus features aren't listed I'm hoping they include a full version of that interview in my view outside of emotionally engaging films need to be at least one of two things entertaining or interesting and they can switch off between these two or do both throughout a film's duration 100 minutes is a lot of time to fill after all but I'm no deterrent of including more of a good thing and seeing as a toys interview Falls very much in both sides of that V diagram I very much would have been in favor of some more of it being used especially any footage of I'm actually first meeting him while this might be due to budgetary reasons I actually really appreciated that the sets for the kids' rooms didn't feel Overkill a problem I see a lot in media doing period pieces on the ' 80s and '90s is far too much over decorating of bedroom sets just trying to fit in every single possible piece of Pop Culture they can to the point it's obnoxious the soundtrack was also quite good and feels very true to the Mother series sound while not feeling like the composers were just trying to make songs that sound like Earthbound and while I was slightly disappointed there wasn't more of other major figures from the starman.net culture of content creation I respect the artistic restraint expressed to keep the focus on the sight's creators which I also feel ends up making the film stronger overall it's really good it's not amazing but I don't think it needed to be I didn't need a film from this that was going to blow my mind and reshape everything I thought about the series and its fans what I needed was something that spoke to me on a personal level and that's what it gave me at one point during the interview with Mr at toy it's brought up how large the fan Community surrounding mother has become and the toy responds yeah it's not really a cult following anymore and that sort of feels like what this film's final release really is an uplog this film is the conclusion of an era the era in which Earthbound was a largely forgotten game that only a group on the internet knew about outside of Japan the era where many of us met our first internet friends and found a place where others understood us where the biggest worry we had was when the game we wanted to play so badly was going to come out or not our childhoods in the time I've spent waiting for this movie and as part of this community I've gone through all of school fell in love went to college met some of now who I consider my best friends met some of my heroes graduated married the woman I love and I'm now planning for the next stages of my life it's a conclusion to an Era but not the end of the story just the start of a new beginning but that doesn't mean we have to let go of what made those younger years so great we should remember them and we should look back fondly the important thing to remember is despite being past them there's still plenty to look forward [Music] to I took my love took it down climbed a mountain and I turned around and I saw my reflection in snow covered heels till the landslide brought me down now oh mirror in the sky what is Love Can the child within my heart rise above can I sail through the changing ocean tides can I handle the seasons of my [Music] [Applause] life [Music] well I've been afraid of changing cuz I've buil my life around you but time makes you Bolder even children get older and I'm getting older to [Music] well I've been afraid of J change it cuz I've build my life around you but time makes you Bolder even children get older and I getting older too and if you see my reflection in snow covered Hills where the land FL bringing down and if you see my reflection in the snow covered Hill well a land slide bring it down oh let's let's bring it [Music] down St

Channel: MonkeyNess

Views: 19,722

Keywords: earthbound, earthbound usa, movie, review, thoughts, mother 2, mother 3, earthbound zero, earthbound beginnings, toby fox, chuggaaconroy, stephen georg, fleetwood mac, steview nicks, landslide, documentary, nintendo, shigesato itoi, cut content, bonus video, blu ray, deleted scenes, full movie, interview, shigeru miyamoto, monkeyness, south park, super smash bros, premiere, jazzy benson, tomato, fan translation, mother to earth, the mother we share, nintendo life, film, 2023

Id: blFT1qu_fY4

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023