The most dreaded NES game has come to life as a major motion picture. See Jekyll fight off an angry mob of villagers, animals, birds, and insects as he slowly walks to the church where his bride-to-be is. See Mr. Hyde fighting various demons in the alternate world of the village Jekyll resides in.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The Game - The Movie is a fake-trailer and Short Film written and directed by James Rolfe (better known as The Angry Video Game Nerd), and released in November 2015, as an adaptation of the infamous Nintendo Entertainment System adaptation of the the Robert Louis Stevenson novel.
The video can be watched for free on the Cinemassacre
official website and on YouTube.
This video contain examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: In the game, the townsfolk are actually running away from the likes of the mad bomber, hence why they deal damage to Jekyll when they run past him. Other elements in the Jekyll levels are explained simply by Jekyll being in the wrong place at the wrong time, hence why other townsfolk elements damage him. The demon Letule, is also implied to have been responsible for the elements that impede Jekyll in his stages, as defeating him removes any hazards in stage 6. Here, they actively attack Jekyll for petty reasons.
- Adapted Out: The trailer makes no mention of the demon Letule, who is responsible for all the townsfolk being hostile to Jekyll and the source of the demons who attack Hyde. To be fair, the Angry Video Game Nerd never came close to encountering this boss until October 2023, long after this trailer came out, given the game's unfair difficulty and the cryptic steps in reaching the boss. Here, the townsfolk just plain hate Jekyll and the demons are there because reasons.
- Cane Fu: Like in the game, Jekyll attacks by poking with his cane. Also like in the game, it's utterly useless as a weapon and can't actually hurt enemies (represented in the trailer by him constantly missing whenever he tries to poke someone) except for one bee.
- Classy Cane: Jekyll carries a cane seemingly for no other reason but to make him look classy, since he doesn't use it to help him walk and keeps it tucked under his arm at all times. This is one of the reasons the townspeople all hate him.
- Dated History: The knockback direction from the bombs being inconsistent with the rules of reality inspired the scene of Jekyll being launched towards the explosion caused by the mad bomber. This video, released many years after the trailer's release explains that the unrealistic nature of the knockback in some instances is due to the fact that the knockback always launches Jekyll leftward regardless of his position to the bomb explosion as if the game was doing everything it can to impede Jekyll's progress moving rightward. This results in the trailer scene contradicting this fact, as in the scene Jekyll is attempting to retreat from the bomb moving left, and is instead knocked back rightward, which with this discovery would never happen in-game.
- Enfant Terrible: Billy Pones's father takes pride in the fact that he attacks Jekyll unprovoked with a slingshot. Pretty much everyone agrees that the pride is well-deserved.Bartender: The little laddie Billy Pones...
Everyone: Aye!
Mr. Pones: That's my boy!
Bartender: He's a good boy.
Man: I like him already! - Everything Trying to Kill You: "I won't rest until every man, woman, child, an' insect is after 'im!!"
- In Name Only: While the trailer markets itself as a faithful adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, it has about as much in-common with the book as the game did (which the film is an actual adaptation of).
- Irrational Hatred: All the villagers hate Dr. Jekyll for completely nonsensical reasons, such as his cane never touching the ground when he walks and him supposedly having eyeballs for testicles.
- Kafka Komedy: Dr. Jekyll is portrayed as nothing but a Nice Guy, but everyone seems to take his politeness as a personal insult to the point of absurdity. Over the course of the video, Jekyll is beaten-down by everyone and everything as he is slowly driven to the brink. It gets so bad, he takes obscene pleasure when he finally manages to kill a single bee.Bartender: Dr. Jekyll's getting married? Like he thinks he's better than the rest of us. Does he really think he's better than the rest of us?
Angry Drunk Man: Fuck Jekyll!
Bartender: He came to me, he said, "Good morning!"
Angry Drunk Man: The nerve.
Bartender: "I hope you have a great day!"
Angry Drunk Man: The nerve!
Bartender: And I was like, "WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO?!"
[Everyone cheers] - Mythology Gag: A lot of the jokes and lines of dialogue are all based off of the Nerd's gripes about the game in his original and "Revisited" reviews of it, while most of the announcer's lines are ripped from the back of the game's box.
- Outrun the Fireball: Jekyll attempts to escape from a lit bomb by slowly walking away from it. To be fair, running away probably wouldn't have saved him from getting sucked into the resulting explosion.
- Real Trailer, Fake Movie: The trailer was made to be a short film mocking the game it "adapts", and there are no plans for a full-length film.It's just a trailer. Not an actual movie. A one-time spoof. Not endorsed by the 80's video game, or Robert Louis Stevenson's corpse.
- Silly Walk: Jekyll walks desperately slow and fancy-like, which does more harm than good.
- Take That!: A lot of the jokes are done to mock the game's nonsensical story, its bad gameplay and all-around badness, including the townsfolk's unprovoked violent behavior towards Jekyll, his incredibly slow walk, his cane's uselessness as a weapon, the fact that Jekyll gravitates into the explosions instead of away from them and so on.
- Tempting Fate: When Jekyll's fiancee admits that she is worried about the wedding, Jekyll's response is literally "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" The next day, the entire town decides to form an angry mob at the pub, complaining about his punchable face and decides that he is deserving of death.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Upon seeing the Mad Bomber placing another inescapable bomb, Jekyll sighs in resignation.
- World of Jerkass: Jekyll gets attacked by people and animals of all forms without doing anything to deserve it.
