Returning to Monkey Island - Noclip Documentary

We talk to the original creators of Monkey Island about the legacy of the franchise and how that impacted their journey to bring the series back in 2023.

Noclip's work is 100% crowdfunded.

Edited by Danny O'Dwyer
Filmed by Jeremy Jayne & Danny O'Dwyer
Gameplay Capture by Danny O'Dwyer

0:00 - Intro
2:45 - Part One: Looking Back
16:25 - Part Two: An Unlikely Voyage
24:45 - Part Three: Assembling the Crew
31:24 - Part Four: Building the Game
41:22 - Part Five: Islands & Characters
1:15:34 - Part Six Revealing the Secret
1:28:09 - Epilogue: The Final Chapter
1:34:05 - CREDITS

[JuliaMinamata]

Hooray! I was super surprised and happy to see the portraits I made for the Limited Run Games Monkey Island Anthology book make it into the video! Keep up the amazing work!

[carlosla]

This is the second longest Monkey Island documentary I've ever seen

[Zaborpila]

One of my fondest Monkey Island related memories is finishing the original game along with my cousin on my uncle's 286. It was 4 AM and after the credits rolled we got the "Turn your computer off and go to sleep!" message.

[whmchrish]

Seeing a Noclip documentary about Monkey Island on my feed made my week. I grew up with these games. They've helped shape my sense of humor, my appreciation for videogames as a storytelling medium, I learned English in order to understand and figure out their puzzles, and making a silly fansite for these games during the early days of the internet was the first step towards my eventual career. It's always nice to see the faces behind the curtain - especially when they radiate that passion and love for the thing they've created.

Hearing Dominics voice as Guybrush over the years have always felt like catching up with an old friend. I hope we get more - but even if this is closing the book on Monkey Island, it's been a heck of a ride.

Wonderful job on the video - as always!

[jerekarppinen]

Monkey Island franchise was a great way to extend vocabulary when learning English. Played these games as a kid when English lessons had just started.

[bross]

“I don’t like to make people cry”

-Lies from a co creator of the Monkey Wrench puzzle

[mondoprime]

Dominic Armato was born to play Guybrush. Just perfect!

[saturninus]

My parents brought home The Secret of Monkey Island on CD-ROM in 1992, when I was 6 years old. I still remember that night vividly. I was in the middle of taking my bath when I could hear the opening music play, and I rushed out to my mom's computer to see what was going on. I was amazed at how gorgeous the game looked and sound, and it immediately became "my" game in the family - the one I imprinted on. Monkey Island had a huge influence on me. It probably helped me to finally learn how to read and write, and it was really formative on my developing imagination. I would write about it constantly at school. I was just a little kid, but Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and Tim Schafer became these abstracted heroic figures to me for creating this weird, funny world. I've played all the Monkey Island games since, and for me, Return was a perfect reflection, if not conclusion, for that journey. Who could have figured that 30 years later they could still create something so emotionally resonant with me? What a triumph, honestly.

[gossipmongersaunt]

So much nostalgia. I’m 14 mins in and I am obsessed.
So true about monkey island 3 when it came out. Took a minute to get used to the new graphics but once you did, it was like 1080 now days.

This game was part of my childhood

[UnknowCat]

Thank you guys for making this Documentry.
If the Dev's ever see this, thanks for creating the Monkey Island series.

I've always loved the mystery behind Monkey Island and the comedy in it. I have a wee bit of hope that another Monkey Island will pop out of nowhere again... it will always be there even if it never comes to pass. Memories of a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle and the blabbering Murry xD fun times I'll never forget :D

[Daniel-ecfj]

this series is gold. curse is a total masterpiece. return was great too. thanks ron, dave, tim and lucas arts! lots of creativity and soul.

[Fov]

God we are spoiled to have a channel like Noclip! It's absolutely fantastic. I sold Monkey Island to somebody in high school during my first year, which led me to meeting and forming my lifelong group of friends.... so I can say Monkey Island had a profound impact on my life!

[Tayne]

9:37 "Optional Easy Mode for beginners and magazine reviewers"

Even back then, they knew.

[keylockmvp]

The clock on ron was so good. Editors doing gods work there.

[philtaylor]

My fave series. I don’t think it can be understated how much Dominic Armato’s voice work added to the character of Guybrush. He took a good protagonist and made him great!

[cbiddy]

1.5 hours of monkey island documentary? Plug it straight into my veins!

[gerisk]

1. Love how Noclip wrapped the whole documentary around memory bias.
2. I always want to become a video game designer after watching Noclip docus.

Superb as always. Keep them coming!

[Damarious]

I never knew why my mom named me Bobbin Threadbare until I played these games

[Ignunlocked]

I'm only three minutes in and I've already got goosebumps hearing that Monkey Island music as Part One of the doc starts. Thank you so much for this Danny and team! -Ryan

[IntermissionNovel]

I was lucky enough to run into Dom at a Walgreens a few months ago. He is such a lovely human being. Thanks for this gift of a documentary!