The Minecraft movie, written by Jared Hess, was released on April 4th, 2025. Before it was officially released, it became one of the hottest topics among young children. Part of this was because of its special guest appearances that were well-known by Gen Z. The magic of the movie came because people felt seen and like a piece of their childhood being represented. Seeing an entire generation come together in the theatres to watch this movie was an almost heartwarming experience, showing how humans are always connected. This movie had likable aspects, including its engaging advertising as well as its ability to bring the generations together, but it also has its downfalls, like the unappealing content of the mvovie.
The Minecraft movie was inspired by the 2009 video game. During this tale, we start off in the story with two misfit siblings moving to a new town where they meet their quirky real estate agent Dawn, and a goofy man-child who calls himself Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison. Garret, in a search for a better life, and Henry (the main character), in a creative spur, accidentally lead themselves and the others to the world we know as Minecraft. Here they take part in a long quest to return home along with their guide Steve, a main character from the original game.
In the beginning, what was definitely the most promising factor of this movie was its advertising, both the production and its presence in mainstream media. Specifically the favored ‘Minecraft Meal’ that McDonald’s had launched as well as the TikTok trending “Chicken Jockey” videos. McDonald’s being the largest U.S. restaurant chain, according to foodindustry.com, really helped this movie reach new audiences. Having an interactive collectible figure that people could go and find engaged the audience and seemed to drag many out to the theatre after gaining their interest.
[a picture of a minecraft meal being held by Annali Zhao at a McDonalds]
After the Minecraft game came out in 2009, it appealed to kids ranging from the ages of six to thirteen for years. Minecraft’s peak period is generally considered to be around 2011-2018, with 2018 being the year it reached its highest global annual revenue of $500 million, according to searchlogistics.com. So if we do the math, we can see that the kids that would’ve been most interested in this game at its peak would be kids being born from 2001 to 2009. Those of which would be the ages of 15-24. After this movie came out, we were able to see all of these different kids in high school and college collectively come together to support their beloved game once more. The ability this movie had to bring together this group of kids was truly astonishing and heartwarming. It shows that as a society we were all once kids and in some ways still are. It allowed many of us to reflect and remember positive parts of our past together.
After watching this movie, for many kids in The Village School community, this felt like a full-circle moment. We grew up together with this game; we would go home and build houses, explore biomes, and watch the Minecraft streamers every day. And now we sit in theaters years later watching these fun hangouts turn into scenes, and we get to think back to what it was like when we were kids. It made this movie personal. After the movie came out, you could hear people in classrooms or hallways singing the little made-up songs from the movie or talking about parts that they found funny or even what toy they got in the Minecraft meal. This game connected us into a community then, and now in another community, we are reminded of that unity once again. It’s a nice reminder that something as simple as a video game or YouTube streamers can grow up with you.
While it was amazing for all of these kids to watch this movie together. When it comes to the actual movie content, this film falls disappointingly short. Because this movie was originally targeted at kids the ages of 8-12, it was shocking to see that most of their audience was in the higher young adult stages. This caused the content to be particularly boring and cringe to most of the audience actually watching. The directors weren’t able to predict this surprising audience, so they fell short of targeting the wrong people.
If we look at this movie from its overall perspective, combining the content, advertising, and casting. I would rate this movie a 7/10. I do obviously have to pay attention to the lack of appeal in the content; however, I do believe that its connection to our community and its engagement in both the advertising and cast dragged a bunch of adults out to see a “kids’ movie,” which I believe is truly valuable.
