YouTuber Recreates Entire 'Hamilton' Musical in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
By Jack O'Dwyer
YouTube creator Guitar_Knight14 has set out to recreate the entire hit Broadway musical "Hamilton" using nothing but his own talent and Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Yes, you read that right. Fans of Animal Crossing and show tunes can finally come together under one roof to watch Hamilton: An Animal Crossing Musical thanks to the efforts of 24-year-old Peruvian YouTuber Guitar_Knight14. Originally launched in June 2020, his production of the show is currently ~75% done with regular uploads every week or so. It is available in parts on YouTube with each song broken into its own video.
So far, Guitar_Knight14 has compiled all of Act 1 into a single hour-long video and is working his way through Act 2. His last upload in the series was Saturday, Feb. 27, containing Cabinet Battle #2.
Hami-nal Crossing: The Musical
Guitar_Knight14 stumbled upon Hamilton long after its popularity hit the mainstream. According to him, he first found out about the musical after watching an analysis video by fellow YouTuber Jaime Altozano. Despite this being his first musical and doubting he would like the style, Guitar_Knight14 admitted he was immediately hooked.
Likewise, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was his first Animal Crossing game--which he greatly enjoyed. Eventually, after primarily playing solo, he found a community of other Animal Crossing fans uploading recreated TV show openings, movie scenes, and more. This inspired him to create his own videos.
His choice in the cast comes directly from the villagers he kept on his own island.
Raymond takes centerstage as Alexander Hamilton, himself, followed by Sheldon as John Lawrence/Phillip, Stu as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, Audie as Peggy/Maria Reynolds, and Phil as George Washington.
"These are the neighbors that I play with and I ended up getting attached to them," he said.
Raymond appeared on Guitar_Knight14's island at random. So, when casting for Hamilton, he noted that making such a popular character the main lead seemed like a good fit. Sheldon was his first villager and the first to give him a portrait so "who will better represent one of Hamilton's best friends" than his own? Not to mention the freckles, of course.
He is also a big fan of Audie—to the point where he spent 8 million bells on her. According to him, her Spanish name, Monica, is also the same name of his favorite character in the American sitcom, Friends. He also appreciated the "beautiful" backstory of her creation featuring the elderly woman who played hours upon hours of the franchise.
Not all the actors are villagers, however. Eliza, Angelica, Marquis de Lafayette, and Aaron Burr are all human player characters. When explaining why he made this choice, Guitar_Knight14 said that as this was a representation of the real production, he wanted some characters to be "recognizable."
"There are somethings that can only be done if they are humans," he added, detailing his use of custom clothing to recreate the Broadway costumes, "and you can move humans freely in Camera Mode...which gives more dynamism to certain scenes."
Regarding when the project will be finished, Guitar_Knight14 explained that each video takes him about a week to film, edit, and upload. Therefore, it should only take around five more months to complete the entire thing.
We suppose that fans will just have to wait for it.