Villagers and Pillagers - Part I

Villagers and Pillagers - Part I is a 2023 animated comedy-drama adventure musical fantasy film, produced by Warner. Bros Animation in association with Mojang Studios and was released by Warner. Bros Picture. It is directed by Jared Hess (who would co-wrote the story), produced by Ruben Ortiz and the game creators Markus "Notch" Persson and Jens "Jeb" Bergensten from a screenplay by Dean DeBlois (who both directed and wrote the 2002 film, Lilo & Stitch) alongside, Chris Bowman and Charlie Kaufman, plus a story by Jared Hess and David Callaham. It is largely based on the popular, best-selling video game, Minecraft that was released back in 2011 and it is marked by many to be the second film ever that is based on the game itself since Minecraft: The Movie in which released a year prior in November 2022 to mixed reviews, but was highly successful.

The film stars the voices of Mo Ankir as the voice of Norman, alongside David Snyder, Zechariah Eubanks, Samuel Code, Yotam Ofek and Esteban Vasquez. The score was compose by composer Ludwig Göransson while the songs were written by well-known songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (who wrote the songs for the 2013 and 2019 Disney film, Frozen and Frozen II). The story follows about an adult villager named Norman "Norm" who get revenge after he was kicked out with his team for doing crazy stuff that wasn't allowed. The idea of the second feature-film based on Minecraft was brought up during the production of Minecraft: The Movie. It was announced at the end of Minecraft Live 2020 with Jared Hess set to direct and later started early development with the working title, The Pillagers. It is the first feature-film based on a video game to be in the traditional (2-D) animation style. Animation and production on the film went underway after Mojang would opened up a new company, named Mojang Animation.

After getting delayed a couple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Villagers and Pillagers - Part I had its world premiere at the Paris Theatre in New York City on September 19, 2023, then opened theatrically in limited release on October 5, 2023, before expanding into a worldwide release on October 26, 2023 in 2D, 3D, IMAX, RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema and 4DX formats. Upon its release, the film received near-universal acclaim from critics, audiences and fans of the video game with praise aimed at its voice acting (especially Mo Ankir, David Snyder and Samuel Code), screenplay, themes, animation, Ludwig Göransson's score, musical songs, emotional weight, charm and its faithfulness to the source material. Also, it was a huge commercial success, grossing a worldwide total of over $500 million dollars at the box office against its $90-100 million production budget; crossing the half-billion dollar mark and became the highest-grossing video game in the United States behind Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), the highest-grossing video game of all time and the sixth highest grossing film of 2023. Villagers and Pillagers received numerous awards and nominations, including one awards for Best Animated Feature Film, a nomination for Best Sound at the 96th Academy Awards, and three awards at the Annie Awards. It resulted in the movie to launch a new film franchise that would includes, a feature-length sequel, titled Villagers and Pillagers - Part II in November 2024, a spin-off series, The Villagers in December 2024, a third film, titled Villagers and Pillagers - Part III in November 2025 and a upcoming feature-film, The History of the Villagers scheduled for release on June 1, 2026.

Plot summary
A press release from mid-July 2022 describes the story as follows:"When a young villager named Norman find a base underground that is full of potions while playing with his friend named Jim, he finally found his dream job. Years passed by and Norman is an adult who works as a cleric with a group of villagers until one day, someone ended up finding the base and kick them out. Now, Norman want to get revenge and would do something horrible to create his army"

Cast

 * Mo Ankir as Norman, a 20 year old villager who works as a cleric with his team and a friend of Jim. He is the main villain of the film and was originally meant to be a pillager, but in the updated script, he is a evoker in which can spawned ghosts from the ground.
 * Martin Stephens voiced Norman as a child


 * David Snyder as Jim, a 22 year old villager who works as a farmer just like his father and mother is. He is kind, helpful and a friend of the villain, Norman.
 * Noah Jupe voiced Jim as a child
 * Zechariah Eubanks as Arila, a 17 year old teenager who is still choosing a job and a friend of both Jim and Norman.

Development
During the production of Minecraft: The Movie, Notch posted a blog on November 12, 2019 that he and Jeb were reporting to be already producing a another, but secret feature-film that was once again, based on their game, Minecraft from the many ideas that screenwriter, Chris Bowman pitched to them. Before the announcement was made, Hubbel Palmer started to work on the screenplay in which was entitled as The Villagers and the Pillagers for least about two months.