Netflix is Removing Its Interactive Films and Shows - Now is the time to save them

BirdUp said:
"Cinematic video games" like The Last of Us tell a linear story through cutscenes and have "gameplay" that consists of walking around, doing quick-time events, and choosing dialogue options. In other words, they're movies pretending to be games, without the benefits of either medium. Interactive movies like Bandersnatch aren't rendered on your computer, don't waste your time with bullshit "gameplay," and present you with choices that actually affect the story.
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Maybe cinematic games was the wrong choice of words I meant, games with cinematic level visuals and story telling, not necessarily cinematic style games. Honestly, I went to try and watch that black mirror one and it just reminded me of those movie games from back in the day. Same idea and they've never really been that great.

Dysnomia said:
Looks like several of them are for kids. So it could be some kind of edutainment. I actually didn't know about any of them other than Bandersnatch.
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To be fair that's the only one I knew about too.
 
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How will I watch Escape the Undertaker now? (:_(

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BirdUp said:
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was pretty good, if a little pretentious.
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jakkufurosuto said:
i liked bandersnatch for what it was, it's probably the most interesting black mirror ever got before regressing back into "le phone... LE BAD?", and i dig anything involving a game developer protagonist
i don't see them making anything more neat than that though, and judging by all these titles i had no idea existed, seems like they never got anything else to work again. oh well, a (good) visual novel is more worthwhile and won't be lost to video streaming's march of "progress".
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That utterly infuriated me because the episode name fucks up all your searches if your searching for the ACTUAL unreleased "megagame" that it was based on.
 
Borax Bozo said:
Given Blu-ray's interactive capabilities, perhaps a version of Bandersnatch could be made for physical release like one of those old DVD games in the era of advanced DVD releases?
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It was entirely possible even on DVD. Take, for example, the 2010 interactive film The Weathered Underground, which had 310 minutes of footage:


There were many other interactive movies released on DVD. In fact, such films predate even DVD - for example:




Netflix's animated feature We Lost Our Human (2023) is probably the most intricate interactive movie ever made (despite receiving very little attention), but that certainly doesn't mean that it's very good. It's the ultimate in ADHD cinema, stringing together a bunch of completely random nonsense and changing the plot every minute or so (yet still managing to go on endlessly). Even so, the amount of time and effort put into it is nothing short of incredible, and it certainly shouldn't be lost forever, nor should any of these other interactive films and shows.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was, many critics would say, the most artistically successful interactive movie, thanks primarily to it being so meta and self-aware. It's still not great by any means, but it's a fascinating experiment that positively oozes potential, and the writing is much better than in most other interactive movies.
 
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I once watched the interactive Buddy Thunderstruck episode. Basically these friends can't decide what fun thing to do today so they try different silly stuff, chosen by the viewer. It was cute. Like someone said, really reminds you of those old interactive DVD features... Man this really really sucks. I hope all these specials get preserved somehow!
 
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Aw, man, Bandersnatch? That will suck if they pull Bandersnatch. The interactivity is the whole point of the episode and gives it its horror value.

Also my kids really liked Boss Baby Get That Baby. They were playing it again the other day. The Boss Baby show is actually really good.
 
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So no more Bandersnatch?
But I hardly know her snatch.
 
isalaide said:
Aw, man, Bandersnatch? That will suck if they pull Bandersnatch. The interactivity is the whole point of the episode and gives it its horror value.

Also my kids really liked Boss Baby Get That Baby. They were playing it again the other day. The Boss Baby show is actually really good.
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Idiotron said:
So no more Bandersnatch?
But I hardly know her snatch.
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Bandersnatch isn't getting cut, but only 4 of their interactive shows will survive, those are Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (2020), Ranveer vs Wild with Bear Grylls (2022) and You vs. Wild (2019)
 
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Bandersnatch is actually worth watching? I got frustrated because I was too slow on the draw out of the gate and gave up immediately, I've considered just watching it without selecting anything.
 
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