Nintendo Boss Talks “Super Mario” And Animated Adaptations

Nintendo is one of the biggest game producers on the planet, with major IPs, such as the Mario franchise and The Legend of Zelda, that continue to be huge hits to this day. In fact, many think the games are better in the modern era than they have ever been before. But even with the quality of games maintaining, and even increasing, over the years, Nintendo has been very gun shy about allowing adaptations of their properties.

This all stems from the failed film, Super Mario Bros., from the early 1990’s. That movie starred the late Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi, respectively, but that was about the only similarity that it shared with the game source. The story notoriously deviated from the established canon, in an effort to make it more cinematic, but in the process the film failed to capture what makes the game truly special.

It has been well over twenty years since that attempt, and it’s only recently that Nintendo has decided to dip its toes back into the realm of film adaptation, with the company partnering with Illumination Studios (Despicable Me) to produce an animated Super Mario Bros. animated feature. While nothing about that film has been officially released, it is expected to hit theatres sometime next year.

Now, Nintendo’s global president Shuntaro Furukawa has opened up about the choice to go with an animated film over live action, as well as other future options from their vast catalog of properties. Speaking with Fast Company, Furukawa specifically stated that:

Animation, in general, is something that we are looking into, and not just this franchise. Although the ways we are expanding our IP are increasing, we are very, very careful about where and how our IP is licensed. We are not deploying our characters and worlds merely to increase public exposure. [Any project] must make sure that the results are true to the players’ experiences, and that they would never prevent Nintendo’s developers from making another unique game featuring the same characters.

This is certainly a more positive outlook than the company has previously shown, though it’s good to hear that their focus is on maintaining the quality of the product. Fans can likely be cautiously optimistic about seeing film adaptations of their Nintendo favorites, but don’t expect them to come quickly.