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In the ever-growing medium of video games, few titles distill both the process and spirit of creativity as potently as Minecraft. Underneath the blocky and simplistic design of the characters and world, Minecraft boasts a limitless sandbox wherein players can construct whatever their minds can conceive and their skill can muster.
Consequently, when Minecraft was due for its inevitable film adaptation, the team at Warner Bros. was left with the unenviable task of trying to encapsulate that limitlessness in under two hours. “We’ve really just scratched the surface — in terms of the movie — of what the game has to offer in terms of storytelling and possibility,” says A Minecraft Movie’s VFX supervisor Dan Lemmon. “Absolutely, there could be any number of different takes and different genres even.”
A Minecraft Movie is a live-action/animation hybrid that features four human characters (played by Emma Myers, Sebastian Hansen, Danielle Brooks and Jason Momoa) entering the fantastical realm of Minecraft known as Overworld. Initially overwhelmed by their new surroundings, the quartet finds themselves under the tutelage of Steve (played by Jack Black), a master crafter who shepherds them through the Overworld. “When the characters first arrive in the Overworld, their first response is … ‘Oh, my God, this place is amazing. Everything is made out of cubes. It’s vast. I can break a cube and put a cube down, and I can build things.’ It’s the experience you have when you first play the game,” says Lemmon. “We tried to re-create all those experiences that fans have when they’re playing the game.”
Blocking the Adventure
As a longtime fan of the game, Lemmon knows full well the myriad expectations Minecraft fans undoubtedly have for A Minecraft Movie. “I come from a creative family. One of my brothers would host a [Minecraft] server, and we would all build things and compare and admire each other’s work. It was a way to stay connected,” says Lemmon. “[Minecraft] was a way for us to hop on a server and create stuff together.”
Beyond his personal affinity for Minecraft, the intergenerational appeal of the game also shaped Lemmon’s perspective on how to bring its vivid world to life successfully. “With my kids, it was a way for them to connect with their uncles as well, and they got into [Minecraft] in different ways,” says Lemmon. “Like my daughter was really interested in building really interesting things … she treated it almost like Legos in a sandbox.
“My son wanted to go on quests and find the most diamonds,” says Lemmon. “It was interesting to see the way they approached it differently.” Hoping to stay true to those diverse experiences of the game, the team behind A Minecraft Movie spent years deciding how to adapt the multifaceted intellectual property. “Famously, [Minecraft] is the most popular video game of all time, yet it doesn’t have a really clear pathway,” says Lemmon. “Most games have a beginning, middle and end, and you can win the game. Minecraft didn’t have an ending for a really long time, and still people were really engaged with it.
“Warner Bros. optioned the film, I wanna say, in 2012 or 2013,” says Lemmon. “It was shortly after the game came out, yet it’s been through nearly 50 writers attached to the script. It’s been through at least three or four directors.”
During its lengthy gestation period, Warner Bros. Entertainment made a bold and slightly controversial decision about how to make A Minecraft Movie. “One of the big decisions, frankly, was [if] it going to be an animated film or a live-action film.” says Lemmon. “The fans had certain expectations based on things other people had made and their experience with the films. We tried to honor that but also make it unique and special.”
By the time Lemmon joined A Minecraft Movie, Warner Bros. and Mojang Studios —the company behind the video game — were already committed to making the film live action, leading to a mixed response from the game’s preexisting and passionate fan base. “Without any context, people got a little nervous,” says Lemmon. “What it highlighted was how wildly different hardcore fans’ ideas were of what Minecraft was all about.
“I saw comments with people saying, ‘Well, gosh, I hope this isn’t a comedy. It should be a horror film. Minecraft is scary,’ and other people were like, ‘Oh, gosh, I hope this isn’t a horror film; Minecraft is about adventure and exploration,’” says Lemmon. “We’re trying to make a movie that has elements of all those things.”
Crafting a Legacy
Lemmon credits A Minecraft Movie’s director, Jared Hess, for his ability to reconcile the game’s style with live-action actors. “Jared Hess was an inspired choice for the director because he lives in that world of goofy and charming,” says Lemmon. “His aesthetic and sensibilities really lent itself to adapting that material in a way that wouldn’t lose its charm.” Adapting any video game carries challenges, but Minecraft’s distinctive blocky style created several interesting hurdles for the animation and visual effects team. “One of the big things for us was how we’d handle the design of the characters,” says Lemmon. “The game is so low-fi and simple … and that’s part of the charm of [Minecraft].
“[Minecraft] is so abstract that it’s kind of like a Rorschach blot; like people can look at the characters in so many different ways,” says Lemmon. “So, since we’re making a movie, and we have live-action actors in that movie, we have to bring [to the animation] that sort of low-fi aesthetic, honor it and put it in a context where it can sit side by side with photographed actors.” For the animation and visual effects team, trying to imbue life into the iconic characters of Minecraft, such as the traditionally mute antagonists known as Piglins, proved more complex than their character design. “How would a walking, talking pig make an ‘ooo’ sound?” asks Lemmon. “This is like classic character animation stuff where you have to figure out these problems, but there was a real question of how far do we push these designs to make speech, articulation and facial expressions legible.
“Spiders from the game are featured in the film, but in Minecraft, nothing has elbows or knees, so the spider legs are literally rectangular sticks,” says Lemmon. “And from an animation standpoint, we can’t do that … so, controversially, we put joints on the spider legs. We kept everything cubic, and its cross-section is square, but we just needed joints just to do some animation.
“Same with the skeletons and zombies … Not just the shapes but the animation is abstract in the game, and we needed to take license with it,” says Lemmon. “It was really a balance of trying to bring as much naturalism into the film but also keep the cubic nature alive.”
A Minecraft Movie opens in theaters on April 4.
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