Over a decade after it became a gaming sensation, Minecraft’s big-screen debut is fast approaching, and now kids, long-time fans, and curious onlookers can gaze upon what the voxel crafting game’s transformation to green screen live action will actually look like. Welcome to the uncanny valley.
Warner Bros.’ Minecraft movie, whimsically titled A Minecraft Movie, stars Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastien Eugene Hansen as everyday people transported into the world of Minecraft while Jack Black plays Steve, the game’s iconic protagonist builder. Jennifer Coolidge, Steve Carell, and Matt Berry also have cameos, but the first teaser trailer focuses mainly on showing off the world and on revealing Black as just a regular dude in a blue shirt.
Here’s a look:
Minecraft players will spot familiar mobs throughout the teaser, though not all of them have seen their adorable blocky forms elegantly translated into realistic CGI. The screaming goat, for one, looks terrifying. Also, what is Momoa wearing and why does he look like he just walked off the set of Borderlands? The whole thing is set to a very odd, Ketamine-fueled remix of The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour.”
In the end, the movie will succeed or not based on how kids like it, as well as those who were hardcore players when the game first blew up after its 2011 launch and now possibly even have little ones of their own. Since then, Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess has spoken to the Salt Lake Tribune about making his first big-budget movie, and his fears of 10-year-olds’ wrath that comes with it.
“There’s got to be a fun, ridiculous movie here,” co-writer and director Jared Hess said in an interview earlier this year while talking about the opportunities and challenges of adapting a sandbox game beloved by millions who have played for thousands of hours each. “I think anybody that does any IP, they just want to avoid an ‘ugly Sonic’ situation,” he said, citing the fallout around the blue blur’s initial CGI appearance in the first Sonic trailer.
A Minecraft Movie isn’t slated to arrive in theaters until April 4, 2025. Maybe this first teaser is a weather balloon to gauge reactions while the movie is still in its extensive post-production VFX phase.