Nintendo and Illumination are partnering on a movie starring Mario, co-produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri! pic.twitter.com/wVRPLIzcGJ
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 1, 2018
Just over two months ago, news broke that Nintendo was closing in on a deal to make an animated Mario Bros. movie with the studio behind Despicable Me and its Minions spinoff. Now, the company has confirmed that initial report, and there will soon be another Mario movie in the world.
Nintendo made things official with the above tweet, although there’s still not any additional information outside of Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination Entertainment Chris Meledandri producing, which is no real surprise. There’s not even any confirmation that the movie will be animated, although Illumination’s involvement makes that pretty likely. It should be reassuring, though, considering Miyamoto wasn’t involved in the 1993 live-action Mario Bros. movie, and we all know how that turned out (despite how some of us may love it as a bizarre piece of nostalgia anyway).
But, now that we know for sure that this is actually happening and not just one of the many, many rumors of such things that have disappointed us in recent years, the question remains: just what would make a good Mario Bros. movie? Illumination can certainly make it look good, but what kind of story do we want from the franchise that has basically told the same, incredibly simple story time and time again?
Should it be a straightforward Mushroom Kingdom tale, even if things are changed and updated to make the template feel fresh, or would a more self-aware, Wreck-It Ralph-type approach, playing with the nature of video games and their characters itself, ultimately make for a better movie? There are definitely ways to make both work, and some games in the franchise have certainly deviated from the expected in satisfying ways.
As much as Miyamoto’s involvement is likely intended to keep the movie from taking liberties that go too far, he’s no stranger to taking things in unexpected directions himself, so it should be interesting to see how this goes. Commence speculating!
If they did go the live action route, though …
The casting of MARIO and LUIGI for this live action #MarioMovie is a lot of things but “difficult” ain’t one of them. pic.twitter.com/7MFseRwiHu
— Ben Philippe (@gohomeben) February 1, 2018
(image: Nintendo)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
