I can only imagine how much fun it must have been to work on the set of A Minecraft Movie, surrounded by incredible sets, Minecraft memorabilia, and, of course, getting to watch Jack Black as he mined mountains of lapis lazuli. But it turns out that the best part was just how creative and enthusiastic everyone on set was.
"People were playing the game a lot when we weren't shooting, in the evenings, and over weekends," producer Torfi Ólafssonon tells me. "Everyone talked about the game between shots. There was this sense of unbound, collaborative creativity and adventure, which you experience when you are playing with friends on a Minecraft server."
The vibe of working with friends towards a shared goal on a Minecraft server is unmatched. I've created mutant chicken farms in Tekkit, survived for years on a shared skyblocks server, and created a massive white room underground, which we then proceeded to fill with endermen trapped in boats. You know, good Minecraft fun.
"The fact that we were all there together in New Zealand, the set designers, the choreographers, it reminded me of the vibe of being in an indie game studio," Ólafssonon continues.
There are a ton of cool moments in A Minecraft Movie, which make it clear that the people working on it do have a special love for Minecraft. Other than showing off cool areas like redstone mines and the Woodland Mansion, I noticed a nice little nod to Technoblade as a little pig wearing a crown waddled into shot. It may seem small, but I'm sure that's a moment which will mean a lot to Technoblade fans and longtime Minecraft players.
Seeing the core group of characters travel through the Overworld, crafting cool weapons, and encountering things like iron golems, villagers, and the piglins for the first time was also a lot of fun. But my favourite moment had to be the chase scene in which Henry, Garett, and Steve all jump off a cliff to escape a group of piglins, only to fly off through the mountains with the help of elytra. It was the best depiction of what it would be like actually to use these wings that I could've hoped for.
If nothing else, A Minecraft Movie has brought on that bi-annual itch to return to that one unfinished Minecraft world and carry on my hard work.
