Nintendo Just Shared A Mystery Pixar-Like Animated Short

We’re fairly used to Nintendo making strange or iconoclastic decisions, whether it’s releasing folding two-screen portable gaming devices or announcing a Virtual Boy peripheral for the Switch 2, but even now the Japanese games company is capable of surprises. It has just uploaded to its various worldwide YouTube channels a stunning four-minute animated short called Close to You, about a baby learning to take their first steps, and there’s no explanation for why. Is it a Princess Peach origin story? Something to do with Rosalina? Is it something to do with Pikmin of all things?

It is a truly wonderful cartoon. Evoking Pixar in almost every possible way (complete with Incredibles-like faces), the short shows the mother of a baby just popping out of the room, after which the baby’s toys begin to become animated. Wooden blocks hop about and a rattle rolls itself to the baby’s foot. While enjoying the rattle, the kid’s pacifier falls out of their mouth, and that too comes to life, playfully moving around and evading the baby’s attempts to grab it back. In the end, it gets wedged in a mobile dangling above the baby’s crib, giving the tyke the motivation to reach higher and attempt their first steps.

There’s obviously no way to know if this baby is a boy or a girl, let alone the child form of a particular character. Given the kid’s white with blonde hair, it could be either Zelda or Link, or Samus, or pretty much any gaming character bar Mario or Toad. Hell, my hair was that blonde as a baby, maybe it is Mario. (It isn’t.)

Someone has claimed that there’s a Red Pikmin appearing in the video at 1:40. Um, I paused it there, and here it is! But there are musical nods to the Pikmin series in here, and they’re certainly the sorts of mischievous creatures who would move toys around a room.

The only credit at any point is “© Nintendo” at the bottom right at the end of the video, with no mention of Illumination, the animation house behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie and its forthcoming Mario Galaxy sequel. It’d make some sense if it were related to that, perhaps depicting a moment from Princess Peach’s childhood? She’s fairly magical, and the pink of the pacifier points in that direction. Then again, the blue of the onesie implies Rosalina. Actually, that’d make sense, given the next movie is set in the Super Mario Galaxy universe, and that’s the game in which she first appeared. Let’s go with that! Starting over…

Nintendo today has posted a four-minute animated short to its YouTube channels, revealing the beginnings of fan-favorite Super Mario Galaxy character Rosalina, to coincide with the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Rosalina, the resident of the Comet Observatory and mother figure to the game’s star-shaped Lumas, will obviously play a central role in the forthcoming film, so it only makes sense to see her being highlighted here…