There are a lot of things you may have forgotten lately: what it feels like to shake hands with someone or have a drink at a bar or dance to music at a concert. Well, here’s another thing you may have forgotten: an animated Super Mario Bros. film is currently in development.
It slipped my mind too, to be honest. But then I was reminded because of this story at Deadline (via Nintendo Life). The article, about how coronavirus has affected animated productions, has this little blurb about Illumination, the studio that has been long-attached to the Mario movie:
Illumination’s artists and executives are continuing to work remotely from their Santa Monica HQ and studio Illumination Mac Guff in Paris on all aspects of development, production, and marketing. Already because of the daily collaboration between their Paris- and Santa Monica-based producers, artists, designers, editors and many others, Illumination has been well prepared because they’ve always worked remotely.
Apparently Illumination’s last few months have been “extremely productive, innovative and creative.” Well, it’s nice to know that not everyone is stuck at home doing little-to-nothing. It sounds like their Mario is trucking along and is showing no signs of slowing.
Last we heard, the animated Mario was slated to hit theaters in 2022. It’s likely that release frame is still doable despite the COVID-19 pandemic. That means we are only a couple years away from seeing Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach bouncing around on the big screen. I am not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I grew up with Mario and am genuinely excited to see how he converts to celluloid. On the other hand, I have a lot of questions: How do they create a plot out of the Mario games? How does Mario lead a film when he typically doesn’t even talk (aside from saying his own name and a few other minor sound bites)? And what does the success or failure of this film mean for the future of Nintendo adaptations?
Are we about to enter a golden age of Nintendo movies? The video game powerhouse has been notoriously shy about venturing back into Hollywood ever since the Super Mario Bros. debacle of the 1990s. Maybe Illumination’s Mario film will reignite a passion to turn their games into movies. How long until we have an Avengers-style Super Smash Bros. film?