PARACINEMA: EARTHBOUND, USA
Taking ownership from Nintendo
Spoilers for Earthbound, USA (2023)
Shigesato Itoi’s Mother series of RPGs for Nintendo consoles could have easily become another Japan-only curio; talked about by fans and video game journalists with either exclusive access or other ways to find out about it. The first game wasn’t even released outside of Japan, and the second game was marketed in the Western world as Earthbound.
Yet as Jazzy Benson’s lovingly crafted documentary shows, the critically acclaimed yet commercially ignored Earthbound would cultivate a fandom that remains incredibly dedicated.
Benson, a self-proclaimed fan of the game, pulls together interviews with people like Reid Young and Tomato (Clyde Mandelin), who were pivotal figures behind the site Starmen.net – a fansite for Earthbound. Rather than simply focus on their love for the game, the interviews also show how the interaction on the site brought these people together, starting relationships that ended in marriage and children, starting friendships that have persisted for decades, and even leading to the establishment of a major merchandise business in the shape of Fangamer.
Their dedication leads to them actively petitioning Nintendo to release the first game in the series in America, something that is ignored by the company, and then collecting 31,000 signatures to convince Nintendo to release the long-awaited Mother 3 in America as well. Both attempts were initially ignored by the company, leading to Tomato overseeing a fan-made translation of the game alongside his full-time job translating various anime series into English.
The filmmakers also get access to some key figures at Nintendo of America, providing a grounded look at why Earthbound floundered on the Western market and some insight into why the company ignored the Earthbound fanbase for so long. However, it often glosses over some of the harsher tactics from Nintendo, with only a passing mention of one cease and desist letter, despite the company having a history of responding quickly and harshly to any perceived use of its intellectual property.
However, Earthbound, USA doesn’t need huge amounts of time dissecting the legal ins and outs of what Starmen.net was doing. The joy of the film is seeing how video gaming and the relatively new methods of communicating online – the fansite was set up in 1997 – were able to bring people from across America and the world together.
It also shows that for all the criticisms that video games are subject to, they often spark the creative nature of those who play them. Tomato discusses at length how Earthbound kickstarted his love for Japanese culture and led to his career in Japanese translations, while Young quite literally built Fangamer off the back of the community he helped develop at Starman.net.
Benson intercuts the interviews with reconstructions, that are shot in an infomercial style, showing the hype and eventually commercial failure of Earthbound, as well as the users of Starmen.net interacting and creating artwork and fan fiction around the franchise. They also get access to home movie footage from the various meetups that the most active members participated in.
Regardless of your interest in the Mother series, or video games in general, this is a lovingly put-together documentary that gets to the heart of what a loyal fanbase can do. It’s hard not to be moved when Young finally comes face to face with the creator of his favourite game late in the film, especially when the charismatic and eccentric creator explains that he was aware of the work being done by a group of teenagers thousands of miles away.
Writer/director: Jazzy Benson
 | A guest post by
|