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Chris Meledandri, CEO of Illumination Entertainment, nominated to be Outside Director of Nintendo [Update: Officially selected]

Peleo

Peleo

Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,656
Was quite surprised by this, I wonder what else he will be involved with
 
MegaXZero

MegaXZero

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jun 21, 2018
5,079
We are one step closer to a minions x mario x rabbids crossover of our dreams.
 
lexony

lexony

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,518
Yeah. Still don't know what this is exactly supposed to mean for Nintendo in the future, but it seems huge.
 
darksider321

darksider321

Member
Dec 8, 2020
675
Oregano said:
Basically means he'll be on the board of directors but not a Nintendo employee. It's not uncommon, but I think he'll be the only outside Director for Nintendo?
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That's quite interesting. It does mean that they really trusted him to make him part of the directors. Hopefully this means good results for the mario movie.
 
APZonerunner

APZonerunner

Features Editor at VG247.com
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
1,725
England
Oregano said:
Basically means he'll be on the board of directors but not a Nintendo employee. It's not uncommon, but I think he'll be the only outside Director for Nintendo?
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There are currently three other Outside Directors, so he'll be the fourth. Notably though he is the first non-Japanese one, I think.
 
RagnarokX

RagnarokX

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,773
Illumination Xenoblade

E0iu7WqUcAEPpwO
 

Jackano

Member
Oct 27, 2017
575
darksider321 said:
What does outside director mean in terms of the company?
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He will be there in the board of directors meetings (maybe twice a year) where top strategic decisions are discussed. It's not uncommon for big companies to have an external view.

As far as Nintendo goes, I can only think of Howard Lincoln and Reggie Fils-Aime being the only previous non-japanese members of the board.
I also think I remember non-Nintendo employees entering the board of director is a fairly new thing for Nintendo. Like just when Shuntaro became president.
If people can confirm I'm not sure of all of this.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,445
Ibis Island
I'm guessing Illumination is giving that Nintendo movie their all. Which is great to see since the current feelings on them in the animation community is that they're pretty soulless/safe when it comes to their current works barring the first despicable me.

Should make for a nice redemption arc going forward in that aspect
 
OP
OP
Oregano

Oregano

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,878
I looked up their other outside Directors out of interest and it looks like they have

Asa Shinkawa - legal counsel
www.nishimura.com

Asa SHINKAWA | People | Nishimura & Asahi

Asa SHINKAWA's profile, representative work, awards, N&A newsletters, seminars, publications, news, education and professional experience.
www.nishimura.com www.nishimura.com

Katuhiro Umeyama - accountant/auditor
gb.wallmine.com

Katsuhiro Umeyama Net Worth (2024) – wallmine.com

Katsuhiro Umeyama has been serving as Independent Director in Nintendo Co., Ltd. since June 2016. He is also a member of Audit Committee of the Company. He i...
gb.wallmine.com gb.wallmine.com

Masao Yamazaki - accountant/auditor
gb.wallmine.com

Masao Yamazaki Net Worth (2024) – wallmine.com

Masao Yamazaki has been serving as Independent Director in Nintendo Co., Ltd. since June 28, 2018. He is also a member of the Audit Committee of the Company....
gb.wallmine.com gb.wallmine.com
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,932
Well I guess they're definitely going to be doing more than just the one movie.
 
Joltik

Joltik

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,762
Jawmuncher said:
I'm guessing Illumination is giving that Nintendo movie their all. Which is great to see since the current feelings on them in the animation community is that they're pretty soulless/safe when it comes to their current works barring the first despicable me.

Should make for a nice redemption arc going forward in that aspect
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Illumination pulling a "Into the Spider-verse" equivalent with the Mario movie after a long run of "Emoji Movie"-tier entertainment would sure be something.
 
ultramooz

ultramooz

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,339
Paris, France
Beyond movies or tv series, a company like illumination could help with all the cg work and cutscenes you find in games, they have the tools, talent and software to help.
 
jett

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,655
They must really like what Illumination is doing.
 
cw_sasuke

cw_sasuke

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,399
ultramooz said:
Beyond movies or tv series, a company like illumination could help with all the cg work and cutscenes you find in games, they have the tools, talent and software to help.
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What makes you think Nintendo doesnt have access to resources and know-how these things ? Its just not something they are too interested in otherwise it would be in more of their games ala Smash Bros.
 
ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

DF Deet Master
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
61,987
Massive vote of confidence. I guess the next Nintendo movie will be by them as well

Comcast is gonna spend big on tbis
 
ultramooz

ultramooz

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,339
Paris, France
cw_sasuke said:
What makes you think Nintendo doesnt have access to resources and know-how these things ? Its just not something they are too interested in otherwise it would be in more of their games ala Smash Bros.
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Of course they have the ressources, but if illumination has already all the characters modelized, rigged and animated for the movie, it's may be a substantial gain of time and ressources to ask them to do some CG's for the next Mario Party; instead of making another company re-do all the work from scratch or doing it in-house.

They already use many partners to do modelling and animation on all their games. I think a close partnership would be beneficial for both Nintendo and illumination.
 
cw_sasuke

cw_sasuke

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,399
ultramooz said:
Of course they have the ressources, but if illumination has already all the characters modelized, rigged and animated for the movie, it's may be a substantial gain of time and ressources to ask them to do some CG's for the next Mario Party; instead of making another company re-do all the work from scratch or doing it in-house.

They already use many partners to do modelling and animation on all their games. I think a close partnership would be beneficial for both Nintendo and illumination.
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There are plenty of cheaper studios who do the same work and already work with Nintendo - again the main point is that these things arent missing from Nintendo games because they cant afford them or dont know how to produce them...its just a lack of interest otherwise these things would be in the game.
 
lexony

lexony

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,518
ultramooz said:
Of course they have the ressources, but if illumination has already all the characters modelized, rigged and animated for the movie, it's may be a substantial gain of time and ressources to ask them to do some CG's for the next Mario Party; instead of making another company re-do all the work from scratch or doing it in-house.

They already use many partners to do modelling and animation on all their games. I think a close partnership would be beneficial for both Nintendo and illumination.
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In most of their games they don't use any pre rendered cgi anymore. And I'm sure they already have high res. models of every character. Also art style in every game always differs a bit from each other. You can't just use the same models for every scenario.

But what I see that the movie could help redefining the characters by giving them more depth with showing more emotions or better animation quality (which isn't exactly Nintendo's strength). Also it could do much on how a more story-driven game could work and expanding the worldbuilding of the mushroom kingdom. If the movie is a success, it could inspire Nintendo in their future games, which could in the best case even revolutionize their approach to their IPs.
 
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FormatCompatible

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,071
I generally dislike Illumination's output, but with Nintendo believing in them to this extent and working closely to develop movies that are at the very least respectful to the franchises they adapt I'm on board to see what they deliver.
 
KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,089
Illumination never did anything great with the Dr. Suess license, I'm still not expecting anything from them with Mario.
 
SunBroDave

SunBroDave

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,154
...They don't want to wait for the movie to actually come out and see the audience reaction? Seems like a premature decision imo, but Nintendo gonna Nintendo.
 
erlim

erlim

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,508
London
I fully believe that the Super Mario film has the potential to be the highest grossing film of all time. Everybody and their mother is going to see it.
 
Einbroch

Einbroch

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,994
Absolutely zero faith in what Illumination does. They have admitted that all they do is make kids movies as cheap as possible as quickly as possible, quality be damned.

No thanks.
 
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