Recently, it was announced that Nintendo might be teaming up with Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind Minions, to create an animated Super Mario Bros. movie. As a lifelong Nintendo fan, I don’t see the point of this.
Now, from a business perspective, I totally get it. A Super Mario Bros. animated film has potential to make insane amount of money at the box office. However, as a fan, it annoys me that Nintendo has such a rich library of characters and neglects to use them for a film.
There are dozens of franchises that have better movie potential than Mario. Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, Fire Emblem, and Xenoblade are all choices that have infinitely more to pull from. Super Mario Bros. is an incredible video game franchise, but that’s because it has continually stepped up its game.
Super Mario Odyssey is so well renowned because of its innovation within the series, along with its ability to let the player capture tons of new enemies. Additionally, its controls are incredibly fluid, making for an overall great experience. Narrative-wise, it is nothing special, and this is the fundamental problem when floating the idea of a Super Mario Bros. movie.
For a film to work, the characters and plot must be engaging, and whether fans like to admit it or not, that’s exactly where this franchise lacks. It’s constantly the damsel in distress story; Mario has to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. It works in the games because it takes a backseat to the fun gameplay. In a movie, the story and characters must be a point of emphasis. Given that this is where Mario is oftentimes unsuccessful, it makes me nervous that this is the film they’re working on first.
Video game movies already have a bad track record, and this news leads me to believe that the Super Mario Bros. movie will do nothing to break the trend.
Do you think this is a good idea, or would you rather see Nintendo make movies based off their other franchises? Comment below, let us know.
