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So, Nintendo has officially announced that an animated movie featuring Super Mario is in development with Illumination Entertainment.
It has not been confirmed whether this is a film about Super Mario, or if this is a film that features Super Mario. There is also no release date.
For those who don’t know, there have been two previous attempts to make a Super Mario movie.
The first was an anime titled “Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach.” It was released in 1986 only in Japan. It has never been released outside of Japan, or on any video format other than VHS. Copies are extremely difficult to find, but luckily it can be watched on YouTube.
The second was a live-action film titled “Super Mario Bros.” It was released in 1993, and starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi, Samantha Mathis as Princess Daisy, and Dennis Hopper as King Koopa (as Bowser was known back then). The film received extremely negative reviews and bombed at the box office, but has since gone on to be a cult classic.
What do you think about this development? Do you think the film should be made? What do you think of its chances of success with the critics and/or the box office are? Should the cast be traditional voice actors or filled with celebrities?
Please comment!
ReplyIllumination is the perfect studio to do a Mario movie. Animated format in this age I think will translate really well. They need a great cast though, and solid writers. It will be a success and possibly surpassing Despicable Me success.
Also, I am waiting for an animated Legend of Zelda movie in the vein of Princess Mononoke.
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Illumination is probably the worst American animation studio outside of maybe Sony. This’ll probably end up worse than the 1993 film.
Illumination produces good animation, but it has a mixed track record when it comes to the critics.
So far, it has produced eight films. The highest Rotten Tomatoes rating for one of its films is 81% (Despicable Me); the lowest is 25% (Hop). The me/an Rotten Tomatoes rating is 62%. In comparison, the 1993 film has a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
So for the new film to be as bad as the 1993 film, they would have to bungle it up on what would be an unprecedented scale for them. Is it possible that will happen? Oh, yeah.
If the past 25 years have proven anything, it’s that film adaptations of video games are extremely difficult to pull off, even when animated. The highest Rotten Tomatoes rating for any video game adaptation released in the United States is 44% (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within). So in order for the film to even be good, Illumination would have to get it right on what would be an unprecedented scale for them, or anybody else.
If this film wants to succeed, there are three things that it absolutely must do. Messing up on even one of those things will almostguarantee critical, if not financial failure.
- Do not have the game dynamics drive the story. Audiences will not be pleased if all they see on the screen is something comparable to either (1) a YouTube video of someone playing the games, or (2) an extended cutscene. There must be some sort of coherent and understandable plot, and there must be character development. I know most of the characters are one-dimensional in the games. But that’s not an excuse for not having a plot or character development in a movie. Especially since many beloved characters did have character development in prior adaptations of the Super Mario franchise, such as the two previous films and the DIC cartoons that ran on NBC from 1989-91. Even if their characters weren’t written too well, at least they had character development.
- Do not write the story as a “random adventure.” This writing strategy works in video games and TV shows, but it never works in film. The story must be constructed in a way where a three-dimensional universe exists around the characters. There must be some sort of canon around the story. This can be done by (1) creating and emphasizing the backstories of the main characters; (2) laying out the boundaries of locations such as the Mushroom and Koopa Kingdoms and not subjecting them to changes in any potential sequels; and (3) having major events actually have permanent consequences, something which almost never happens in the games.
- Do not use the traditional Illumination formula. In other words, no random dabbling into outdated pop songs or other pop culture references. This is Mario, not Shrek. Unless of course, they resurrect the “Mario and Luigi came from Brooklyn” storyline that was the unofficial backstory of Mario and Luigi before the release of Yoshi’s Island in 1995. Then they can do it a little bit, but only with the Mario brothers themselves. Also, do not write the story that is not-so-subtlety intended for commercialization. For example, Goombas are not Minions. They are evil, but not in a comical way.
I have been a big fan of Mario since childhood and I myself even have an idea for a Mario movie that is based on a story I came up with (and not based on any game). Seeing as how it’s likely that that never will happen, I will have to release my idea as a fanfiction.
Illumination being at the helm is a little worrying since the only movie I really liked from them is Sing. But that being, Shigeru Miyamoto is directly involved with the movie, so that leads me to think that it will be accurate to Mario canon and not be that weird (but still fascinating) oddity from 1993.
I am cautiously optimistic about this movie and will probably see it opening day because I love Mario.
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I have been a big fan of Mario since childhood and I myself even have an idea for a Mario movie that is based on a story I came up with (and not based on any game). Seeing as how it’s likely that that never will happen, I will have to release my idea as a fanfiction.
What was your idea for a Mario movie?
ReplyCopy URLI have been a big fan of Mario since childhood and I myself even have an idea for a Mario movie that is based on a story I came up with (and not based on any game). Seeing as how it’s likely that that never will happen, I will have to release my idea as a fanfiction.
What was your idea for a Mario movie?
A while back, I actually wrote a screenplay for a potential animated Mario film, to save for if and when I make it big as a screenwriter in Hollywood. I even registered it with WGAW. It’s titled “Super Mario Bros.” and is 121 pages long.
ReplyCopy URLIllumination is probably the worst American animation studio outside of maybe Sony. This’ll probably end up worse than the 1993 film.
Illumination being at the helm is a little worrying since the only movie I really liked from them is Sing.
You two have good reasons to doubt Illumination. I just say the trailer for “The Grinch.” Brace for impact.
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