Nintendo unexpectedly posted a four-minute animated short titled “Close to You” on YouTube, the Nintendo Today app, Instagram, and X without any press announcement or warning. Fans expected Mario or Zelda characters, but received something more personal.
A child rests on a patterned rug, surrounded by blocks and soft toys, his mother kneeling next to him, her blonde hair catching the sun as she offers him a pacifier. Then there’s a subtle shift: the pacifier emerges from the child’s lips and drifts upward, and the toys nearby begin to move.
Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle
- The next evolution of Nintendo Switch
- One system, three play modes: TV, Tabletop, and Handheld
- Larger, vivid, 7.9” LCD touch screen with support for HDR and up to 120 fps
Speculation began almost immediately after the post, with some focusing on the mom’s blonde hair and the starry window light, drawing comparisons to Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy. After all the game is back on Switch and Switch 2 and a full film adaptation is coming in 2026. The eye color doesn’t exactly match but the connection is there, hinting at origins: a child seeking wonders in a room-sized galaxy. Others disregarded the similarity and focused on the invisible forces at work—the way objects move without visible hands, like in Pikmin.
One individual broke down the floating pacifier frame by frame, claiming it was a preview of Pikmin 5. Nintendo has previously produced short films, and Shigeru Miyamoto has allowed videos for entertainment rather than marketing purposes. Despite the playground setting, no commercials for the My Mario toy line were shown.
Nintendo Pictures (previously the animation department) attempts to develop visual storytelling based on Nintendo’s huge intellectual property. With a live-action Zelda film coming in 2027 and Illumination projects in the works, these shorts represent a new approach.
