Pixels

Theatrical poster

Pixels is an action-comedy film released in 2015 and coproduced by Sony Pictures and Happy Madison Productions. Based on the 2010 short film of the same name, Pixels, the film stars Adam Sandler as Sam Brenner, a down-on-his-luck home theater installer who through a series of events is hired to train the US military in fighting aliens attacking Earth with monsters based on arcade game sprites, including Donkey Kong.

The movie was critically panned, with reviewers complaining about the plot, lowbrow humor, and the inaccurate and unflattering portrayal of games and gaming culture, although the special effects were praised. The movie was also a box office bomb, grossing US$245 million on a US$145 million budget.

Donkey Kong elements in Pixels

Donkey Kong in the climax of Pixels

The film begins with Sam Brenner playing the original Donkey Kong game and being beaten by Eddie Plant (Peter Dinklage), who uses a cheat code (despite the fact that the actual game does not feature cheat codes and doing so would be counter-productive for an arcade game). Donkey Kong haunts Brenner as "the one game he sucks at".

The climax of the movie has the cast fight the leader of the alien invasion, who has taken a form based on Donkey Kong and is on a board resembling 25m. Donkey Kong starts throwing barrels and Sam Brenner grabs a Hammer and manages to get to the middle of the board, but has a breakdown when he can't figure out Donkey Kong's pattern and his insecurity over not being able to win the game. Matty reveals Eddie Plant cheated, giving Brenner the confidence he needs to get to the top and defeat Donkey Kong.

Production

The original script of the movie did not feature Donkey Kong but he was included after meeting with Nintendo and convincing the company Donkey Kong would be “treated with respect”.

Note

• Eddie Plant is a caricature of Billy Mitchell, the controversial then world record-holder for the arcade version of Donkey Kong.