Nintendo Confirms Animated ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Movie From Illumination
Officially confirming a report from late last year, Nintendo tweeted out a much-anticipated announcement: a Super Mario Bros. animated movie is in the works. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is on hand as a producer, alongside Chris Meledandri, the CEO of Illumination Entertainment. the studio behind animated hits like Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and those dastardly Minions.
Nintendo fans who are less enamored with the gibberish-spewing misadventures of sentient Twinkies may have hoped that Nintendo would partner with Disney or Pixar or Blue Sky on any kind of animated Mario Bros. film. But Illumination’s involvement makes sense from a corporate perspective for Nintendo. Illumination is co-owned by Universal and Comcast, which is already in the process of building Nintendo-based lands at various Universal Studios theme parks around the world. Making their animated films with their theme park partner ensures all of the pieces fit together, and enables cross-promotion for all these different products. This, as they say, is a strong brand strategy. (It may not be a strong creative strategy, but so it goes.)
Plus there’s already a trailer for the film. Check it out!
I’m sorry, my bad. That is the old Super Mario Bros. live-action movie. I get them confused sometimes. I promise I will stop making this joke. Eventually. (Actually, I might not. If Mario starts hanging out with the Minions I reserve the right to continue making this joke from now until the end of time.)