Dreaming Adventures - Heartland (Animal Crossing Movie!)

The 2006 Animal Crossing Movie has always been something I have very much enjoyed, ever since I heard of the fan-dub and saw bits of it around 2013. I even dedicated an episode of SymphonicScore, my little home podcast talking about orchestral music in films and some games, to its incredible soundtrack. I was trying to find a wintery island with Animal Crossing GameCube aesthetics, but then found an article with this incredible island of Heartland, which is a direct tribute to the Animal Crossing Movie! Since I had just watched it a couple hours before with some friends, I was able to instantly catch most of the references thrown into the island-wide build. I can't wait to show it off to you in this kick-off post of my Dream Adventures series (officially)!

Note: There will be spoilers for the plot of the Animal Crossing movie in what I describe here, so if you haven't seen it yet, go do that and come back here!

Just by looking at the map above, you can see the two human characters are based on the two human characters in the movie, Ai and Yu. There are also the main cast of characters from the film: Whitney, Apollo, Margie, Hopper, Cyrano, Cesar, Alfonso, and Rosie. It makes for a great classic Animal Village!

As I headed straight down from the entrance to look at the presents, I saw I was in a beautiful recreation of the town hall plaza during the Fireworks Festival! I wonder if the ground textures are the same as in the "Frosty GameCube Town" TheBitBlock did a video on - that's the one I was looking for. Anyways, in the movie, Yu is dressed as a ninja when Ai first meets him, and that was the costume I got to wear. How fitting!

The town was saved during the cherry blossoms at sunset, too, creating this gorgeous Japanese vibe to it - perfect for the anime! Below you can see some of that - and the little stool K.K. Slider performs in next to an acoustic guitar! It's even on the classic Animal Crossing GCN dirt patch! Of course, K.K. Bossa was playing on several radios throughout the town. It was an important tune in the film.

I ran into Cyrano on the way to Yu's house - he still had it at the classic small size. It was also located in the corner of the island, tucked away from everything else, perhaps in reference to the fact Yu lives in another village in the movie. His house was really neat, referencing his love of fossils and bugs, and his other costumes on the wall.

I believe this beach was where the villagers were relaxing on a summer morning. And I loved seeing this recreation of the paw shirt from the older games!

I liked the inside of Hopper's house - I recently watched a video showing off the interiors of all the penguins' homes. And Whitney's home was close-by, with the chair she was reading in under the tree when Ai first met her!

I found myself underneath this section, which was a beautiful recreation of the observatory and the Roost! These two floors could be found in Wild World and City Folk in the museum, and were both featured in the movie, as well. I think thee Roost was trying to be the most accurate; it was really stunning! I love the little tiny Brewster as well. While we wait for Nintendo to add the Roost to the game, hopefully, this is a great recreation of Wild World's cafe!

I had to of course visit Margie (I think I had her in my first Wild World town!), who did have cherries in her fruit basket and growing outside her home! In the movie, cherries and Margie's cherry pie are important for her self-growth as a character, as well as Ai's. And, of course, Rosie! She's been in my City Folk town too, so I know her well.

I did visit Ai's home, but I really only recognized her main room from the movie as her living space. It was still really good though! Outside her house, the little porch she often sat at reading any letters she got was there with a book on, probably to indicate the letter. And below, those floating statues represented the message bottles I think, which was another subplot of the film with the miracle of the Winter Festival. In fact, a little further down, you can see she's planting cedar trees and cherry trees - she had to plant a bunch of pine trees around the map for this miracle to occur.

Here, the pathway was littered with pitfalls, like one of the pranks Yu and Alfonso did! And I also came across Hopper's fishing spot under the bridge - beautifully done! It even shows the items he fished up during the movie.

I was making a second trip around to catch some things I didn't notice the first time. I loved the "Vote Tortimer" sign outside the plaza! And later on the bridge, I did see Yu walking by! I also made my way to the forest of pine trees, where the UFO was, just like at the end of the film. And finally, I liked this cute art of Celeste outside the observatory.

I was walking toward Apollo's house, and Cyrano told me not to forget about him when I woke up. Apollo's garden of blue roses was trampled when Ai fell back in the movie, and there's Mr. Resetti yelling at her! I did finally find Yu (called Sam here), who was excited for beating Alfonso. This was a line he said in the movie.

And finally, I did find a sort of recreation of the cave they explore with the seisamasaurous. It's a really neat touch, tucked away in the back.

All in all, I thought this was a beautiful town, brimming with nostalgia and love towards the movie. Just like how Breath of the Wild can let you explore Hyrule like a Studio Ghibli movie (from "Beyond Ghibli" on YouTube, a video I've enjoyed quite a bit), this village lets you walk around the cozy village the movie portrays, and it's stunning! I would definitely recommend checking it out, especially as something to do in the game while we wait for E3!