A lot of people like to say that Nintendo is old fashion, they're averse to change, re-hash all their franchises and so on.  They're like the grandfather who would rather use his old typewriter than a modern computer with simpler delete capabilities.  That being said, there is at least one recent entry to their repetoire that's innovative enough to call a stand out; Nintendo Direct.

When it comes to a relationship with media, they're like social retards, well, less now becouse of ND.  When you think Sony or microsoft in relations to the media, you think of Sony with Kevin Butler, giant screens at E3, live celebrity endorsments.  Microsoft with their over the top production for a Halo commercial, all their advertisments in xtreme games, movies from the fast and furious franchise.  Both companies bring the wow, explosion, the modern day revalence for your common consumer, Rock n Roll.  In comparison, you have the weird quirkiness like the 'Wii would like to play' campaign, the confusing 'who are you' rhetoric, and their terrible strategy of lumping games together in one advertisment and thinking that's the way to advertise a game.  Each time, missing the target that Sony and Microsoft seem to get right.

Nintendo Direct is a departure from their usual stubborness when it comes to how they do things.  This is new, it's something that you'd expect Microsoft or Sony to do, like an MTV segment with a bombastic VJ spouting out the most recent breaking news(I'm looking at you Sway).  But of course it's done in a nintendo way with the same quirkyness we come to expect.  So, where does it lead to in the next couple of years; if it continues.  Does it eventually spur new ideas relating to nintendo directed media?  Say a movie studio, a TV studio?  Can I say what we're all thinking: Nintendo NOT the next Disney, but they are Disney.  Mario is the new Bugs, Mickey, lesser lesser lesser extent Spongebob.  Nintendo Movies (Please no Live Action), Nintendo shows, Nintendo Land in real life.  With ND, it's signs that they're breaking from their shells.  If the small clues to Iwata's showmenship is any indication, they'll move pass videogame anouncements and move towards a wider range of media. 

Imagine a Star Fox space epic, where Samus makes recurring cameos.  An episode of Earthbound where we see a baseball league of Ness, Ninten and Lucas' teams vying for top honors.  In this episode, Wario is trying to scam the elderly into putting all their money into his new casino.  Will Kat and Ana be able to expose his dastardly schemes?  Has anyone seen the Kid Icaus short anime?  I certainly wouldn't mind a more dedicated effort into launching it as a complete series. 

What do you think?  Or should they just stick to gaming; which would be a shame seeing as their IPs can be very strong characters.

...Huh?

If they really wanted to do stuff like that it's better to just make a cartoon series like they did with Pokemon.

I think most of what you mention could happen considering what we know about Nintendo and also how they have done different tv shows and movies in the past - I could definitely see Nintendo and Disney teaming up to do something like a theme park in Japan or or even some type of show.

Such might not be for the Hardcore gamer, but it could make Nintendo loads more money (ala Pokemon, Nintendogs, etc) and keep them relevant in the eyes of many generations of gamers to come. With Nintendo anything is possible.

Nintendo should stick to doing what they do well. Make great games. While there would be definite merit to putting their IPs in different formats (which has been done already), the best way to do it would be to partner with a studio like Disney that knows how to do that properly, while maintaining a large degree of creative control to zeto things like, "Well, Exccuuuuuusse me Princess"

Give it to Disney, haha, please no.  I hope not, worst thing they could do.  Disney right now has no respect for their cartoons, at least their tv cartoons.  If Nintendo were to give it to Disney, they would butcher it, take away the magic of their characters and give us all 'Pooh Bear' fluff. 

Japan is known for anime, they're the best in the world.  If the Kid Icarus short anime was any indication of what their IP could go through, it would be best to stay clear the Disney route.  And I do hope it's not American tailored, but do hope its more western. 

If there was one place to head to that made great impact on Cartoons these days, it'd have to be Cartoon Network.  At least there, they have some respect for the toons they create.

Nintendo was fine with the media until it became obsessed with the overly bombastic productions that people like to call games. The problem is that the media breaks embargoes and leaks things all the time....Nintendo is secretive and has extremely strict NDA's.

They created the ND's to cut out the media to give the news directly to the people. No exclusive stories, no exclusive demos before a game is announced, nothing to be leaked before it's ready.

They should stick to gaming and just keep with the Pokemon movies and show. They tried the whole "let's put our characters on tv" thing back in the 90's and it backfired. The "Super Mario Brother Super Show" was basically what you described with different cartoon things each episode, but it was just terrible. It also cost a bunch of money with little return and it would only be worse now with how high production costs have risen. It might do okay in Japan, but it would be a money sink in the West.

The Pokemon anime, while childish, is a genius way of not only teaching kids how to play the games, but making them WANT the games - any more tv shows that can do what that anime is still doing would be welcome