Last month’s announcement that a Super Mario movie was in development took many fans by surprise. The film is to be produced in a collaboration with Illumination Entertainment CEO Chris Meledandri, as confirmed by Nintendo’s co-representative director Shigeru Miyamoto, who stated:
“We started our conversation over two years ago, and finally reached the stage where we could make an announcement. Chris is extremely cost-conscious and time-conscious in his quest to make successful movies. We decided to try making a movie together, and distributing the completed movie globally through Universal Pictures.”
Miyamoto has reportedly been considering a Super Mario movie adaption for several years, but has always remained cautious about the prospect - rightfully so. We all remember that bizarre live-action Super Mario Bros. film that was so hilariously awful in every conceivable way, it’s practically a masterpiece (the story behind it is quite fascinating - worth a read).
But adapting any video game to film is a frightfully difficult task, and one that has never really been accomplished successfully. So adapting Mario, the most iconic video game character of all time, to the big screen is a mammoth endeavor, with multiple hurdles standing in the way of success, such as ...
Lack Of Personality
The inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom are an adorable bunch, each one a doe-eyed masterwork of cutesy Japanese design. But none have anything remotely resembling a personality, especially the main man himself, Super Mario.
For Mario is more of a logo than a character, his image a seal of approval from Nintendo, a guarantee that the game you just purchased is worth all the hours you’re about to plough into it. Like many silent video game protagonists, he is meant to embody the player, and the fewer personality traits he has, the better.
This is great for gameplay immersion, but terrible for storytelling. How is a narrative supposed to revolve around Mario, who has never expressed a desire of any sort, other than to free the princess?
And Princess Peach herself is nothing more than an object waiting to be acquired, a victory trophy gained after defeating the dragon. But her personality has, admittedly, been fleshed out recently; in Super Mario Odyssey she even expresses free will, which was such a dramatic turn it was viewed as a twist ending.
Imbuing wants, desires, and stirring conflicts between these on-screen icons is going to be a challenge, but for an audience of longtime Mario fans, seeing these figures express real emotions is going to feel borderline blasphemous.
For the movie must create a dynamic between Mario, Luigi, and Peach, which is just going to be weird. To players, these three are empty vessels; they stand around waiting for Bowser to do something bad so they can spring into action. They don’t have conversations in their Mushroom castle, surely. What an unsettling concept.
And speaking of conversations, is Mario going to talk in that squeaky “Italian” accent, the one that sounds like a low-budget anime dub? I kind of hope so.
Building A World
Everything I said in the previous paragraph has technically already been addressed in the Super Mario RPG, and Paper Mario series, which do provide plot and personality to the gang. The story is actually quite imaginative, and the characters memorable, though Mario remains a blank slate.
But these games don’t really seem canonical - they feel like a fun deviation. For Mario’s adventures have no real setting, no roots. All the adventures we’ve experienced with Mario aren’t part of a large, progressing narrative - they’re more like dreams.
The setting, gameplay, and rules can be built and thrown away at Miyamoto's command - there isn’t an established framework for Mario’s world, which is why the games are free to meander down whatever path looks to be the most enjoyable.
When you create a film, expectations change. A real setting is built, and adhered to. The boundless, borderless Mushroom Kingdom must be mapped, rules need to be drawn up, and time must progress.
Mario’s dreamland must be carved into cold, hard, definable reality, where major events actually have an effect on the future, and characters learn from mistakes. I doubt this will have any bearing on the games at all, or Miyamoto's limitless imagination. But it will have an effect on our perception of Mario himself.
And sure, this road has been traveled before, with a Saturday morning cartoon series and comic book spin-offs. But really, who even remembers those? This movie is going to be created by Illumination Entertainment, the ones who birthed Despicable Me, Minions, and The Secret Life of Pets into the world.
People watch these films. They are extraordinarily successful and influential - just look how many Minions memes your annoying relatives share on Facebook. This film is going to redefine Mario, and once the marketing machine is powered up, there’s no going back.
Illumination Entertainment
Wait, what? Super Mario is being handed to the Minions guys? At first glance, this seems like a disaster - are Mario and friends going to start dabbing to outdated pop songs and making cringe-worthy pop culture references?
Hopefully not. But on the other hand, perhaps this animation studio is the only correct fit for Mario, who could be damaged by a depth of personality. Pixar would undoubtedly make a brilliant Mario movie, but it would be, like, all artsy and deep, and Nintendo doesn’t necessarily want that.
Nintendo knows that Mario is their brand, and they want a light, colorful, easy-to-digest movie that will resonate with the masses. And Illumination will likely succeed - that’s what they do. But Mario, being the pop culture juggernaut that he is, a money-printing machine just waiting to be switched on, has the potential to be extremely ... annoying.
Once he’s given a voice, is he going to start appearing in commercials? Branding breakfast cereals, sugary snacks, and multivitamins? Are the Goombas destined to be the new Minions, flooding the world with an infinite supply of disposable merchandise?
Actually, Mario already does all of these things. But it’s always been on a fairly subdued scale - he may be one of the world’s biggest icons, but you don’t really see him around the supermarket. He doesn’t intrude, outside of HMV, anyway.
You’re far more likely to see an adult wear a Super Mario Bros t-shirt than a child, and Toad plushies tend to dwell on the dusty shelves of student dorms rather than nurseries. But if Illumination cracks the code, the floodgates will open; a tsunami of Mario movie merch will engulf the world, and transform an endearing icon into an irritation.
On the plus side, it certainly sounds like Miyamoto is aware of the danger of diluting his beloved creation, as he elaborated on his collaboration with Meledandri, stating:
“… if we can’t make something interesting we’ll just call it quits. But we’ve already met a number of times to hash out the screenplay, our talks together are progressing, and I hope to make an announcement once we’ve ironed out some things like the schedule.”
If Miyamoto manages to retain a degree of control over the creative process, then things might turn out rather well. If not, hopefully he’ll be able to sink the project before it starts gathering steam.
