The creator of the iconic Mario character was candid about the challenges of bringing the game series to the big screen for the recent success The movie Super Mario Bros.
Despite Mario being created in 1981, it takes until 2023 for a proper animated feature based on the character to be created. Of course, there was the awful Super Mario Bros. 1993 movie, but it’s best to pretend the fever dream never happened.
While the film may have landed poorly with critics, it has performed incredibly well at the box office. Not surprisingly, it’s a crowd pleaser—and anyone who’s ever touched one Mario The game will find something to enjoy within its comfortable runtime.
As you might expect, bringing such an iconic character and world to life was no easy task.
The difficulties of bringing Mario to the big screen
In an interview with The rolling stoneMario creator and producer for The movie Super Mario BrosShigeru Miyamoto, spoke candidly about the difficulties of making the animated project a reality.
When asked about an early scene showing its classic side-scrolling platforming action Mario games, Miyamoto shared that they “In the beginning I faced many difficulties” translating it ‘abstract idea of what action Mario the game is like on the screen:
“[When] We are talking about Mario games, there is the experience of playing a “Mario” game and I think there are many difficulties. We initially had a lot of difficulty trying to get that abstract idea of what a ‘Mario’ action game is like, and then recreating that visually was something we struggled with. And it was hard.
A basic approach was simply to use objects “like assets” from the games to help them “create something that was compelling and felt good:”
“But as we’re trying to work on the film, we were able to make a few select scenes that really capture that… Like you mentioned, the first scene where they’re running down the street or even that lesson that looks like it’s made fromMario Maker,’ Such things.
And as we’re finalizing these scenes, we realized that even if we’re using things that look and feel familiar to people who have played the games, like the elements and everything, we were able to create something that was convincing and felt good, and I think after this became much easier to handle and much easier to think about.”
But why did the creator choose Illumination as a project partner? According to Miyamoto, the two parts “I found that [their] philosophies and way [they] I think so” was in sync:
“Following this decision to take the more IP focused approach, we had been talking about potential partners and then our meeting with Chris [Meledandri] it was interesting as, as we got to know each other, we realized that our philosophies and the way we think about creating something new are very similar.
We thought it would be a great match and decided, let’s work together to create something new. And it was just that kind of combined forces of these two different creatives, and then we finally decided to make a new film, and from then on, it’s been a smooth process from there.”
He went on to say that while most people approached making a Mario movie as a business proposition, Chris Meledandri just wanted to “create something new:”
“There were times when people would come to the original creators, Nintendo, and say, ‘Here’s the kind of movie you want to make. And here’s how we can extend that to the business.” And that’s when we changed approaches, we started to feel like it should be Nintendo that’s creating these kinds of things.
With Chris it wasn’t, ‘Hey, let’s make a Mario movie.’ It was like, ‘Let’s create something new,’ and that kind of shift in perspective and how we approach creating something is what really made this collaboration work.”
The success of The Super Mario Bros
The play is undeniably a huge success despite its dark standing with critics.
While Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri recently stated that it is “We are not allowed to talk about” the possibility of a sequel, the box office performance of the first film was “beyond [his] expectations”.
Given that the film had a post-credits scene that set Yoshi up for an upcoming debut, it’s hard to imagine that Nintendo hasn’t already commissioned a sequel.
More spin-off movies are almost certainly guaranteed as well. One of the ideas that fans have been floating around for quite some time is a Luigi’s Mansion adventure with the character of Charlie Day.
Super Mario Bros. is now playing in theaters worldwide and will be available for purchase on premium video-on-demand platforms on May 9.
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