5 Unlikely Pop Culture Influences On Nintendo Games

2. A Clockwork Orange

Both works prominently feature a milk bar spiked with alcohol and possibly other mind-altering drugs; while this is outright stated in A Clockwork Orange, it is only implied in Majora's Mask. There's a reason why children aren't allowed to drink the milk in the game, and ranch owner Cremia makes an exception for her younger sister in the final hours before the apocalypse. Now that the obvious connection is out of the way, lets compare the characters of Alex DeLarge of A Clockwork Orange and the Skull Kid: both are mean spirited and lack any sense of empathy, and are outcasted by their usual friends (the giants, and later fairies, in Majora's Mask, and Alex's "droog" pack from A Clockwork Orange). They both commit random acts of violence, whether it be beating a homeless man or a travelling mask salesman in the woods. Just look at the menacing stare of Majora's Mask, which Skull Kid happily wears about, and that of Alex DeLarge in the opening scene of A Clockwork Orange. Get the same vibe? Remember when Alex screams in terror when he hears Beethoven during the Ludovico treatment? Its sort of an inverted shriek, going from a lower octave to a higher one. Compare it to the shriek that Skull Kid makes after hearing the Giants' song in the game's climax. Look, this comparison might be over-analysing things, but would Nintendo ever go out and say that a movie predominantly about rape and violence would influence a game made primarily for children? Actually, yes...