Nintendo has confirmed that the mysterious animated short it posted online on Tuesday is about Pikmin.
In its Nintendo Today! app, the company shared an updated version of the same video that includes Pikmin‘s signature little plantlike creatures. The original short film followed a baby playing around with what appeared to be a magical pacifier, but now, we know that Pikmin were behind the object’s unusual movement.
It’s still unclear what, exactly, this is teasing related to Pikmin. The series’ last mainline game was Pikmin 4 in 2023, while a mobile spin-off, Pikmin Bloom, dropped two years earlier.
Original story follows:
Nintendo posted an animated short to its social media platforms today that raises many questions.
Titled “Close to You,” the nearly four-minute video follows a baby who plays around with a magical pacifier after his mother leaves the room. Notably, the short is entirely dialogue-free and set to lively piano music. All in all, it looks like something right out of Pixar.
What makes this video really strange, however, is that Nintendo provided absolutely zero context for what it’s really about. Across all of its platforms, Nintendo simply repeats the “Close to You” title in the description. What’s more, the film simply concludes with Nintendo’s logo, rather than hint at any further information. Is this related to a game? A movie? Some weird accessory?
Naturally, this has led many to take to the internet to speculate. One common theory is that this relates to next year’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Besides the obvious animation overlap, the focus on a child has some believing this could be Rosalina, the fan-favourite character introduced in Super Mario Galaxy, who helps Mario on his adventure. One of the highlights of that game was learning about Rosalina’s backstory, which involved her travelling in a spaceship as a young girl. While Nintendo hasn’t yet confirmed that Rosalina’s in the movie, the fact that it’s based on Galaxy heavily suggests she’ll have a major role.
Who knows what’s going on here. The color scheme and those stars seem very Rosalina / Mario Galaxy- coded. We getting a Rosalina origin story in the new movie? https://t.co/i60rDQroq8 pic.twitter.com/4zfEkSHCvD
— ProfNoctis (@ProfNoctis) October 7, 2025
Another theory is that this is a Pikmin game. Some eagle-eyed fans spotted little figures moving in the background. They’re deliberately out of focus, but they certainly could resemble one of the red plantlike creatures.
I think Nintendo might be teasing a new Pikmin project.
If you look closely in the background during this scene, there is something moving that look like it could be Pikmin. pic.twitter.com/fn7vMOqUxD
— Stealth (@Stealth40k) October 7, 2025
Of course, this could also be something else entirely. Last year, Nintendo actually pulled a similar cryptic marketing tactic with a brief video titled “Emio” about a creepy man wearing a paper bag with a smiley face drawn on it. Surprisingly, this ended up being Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club, the first entry in the Famicom Detective Club adventure game series in nearly 30 years. Who would have seen that coming?
All of that is to say “Close to You” could be anything, really. For what it’s worth, Nintendo took a week to fully reveal “Emio,” so hopefully, it’s only a similarly short wait to get answers about the gaming giant’s latest mystery.
Image credit: Nintendo
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