We found out recently that Nintendo is teaming up with Illumination for an animated Super Mario movie. During Nintendo’s investors call, Shigeru Miyamoto explained his involvement in the upcoming movie and how the partnership with Illumination came to be.
“I’ve been considering an animated film for many years now. There has long been talk that Nintendo could make a movie because “making a game is like making a movie.” But they are completely different to me. Interactive experiences are completely different from non-interactive media, and to make a movie I want a film expert to do the work. Thinking that way, I have talked with all sorts of different movie directors and producers, and eventually I was introduced to Illumination via Universal Parks & Resorts, with whom we are developing theme park attractions.
As a producer, Chris Meledandri (Illumination’s CEO) is noted here for movies like Minions and Sing, but he is a veteran with a ton of experience, including the movie Ice Age and stints at companies like 20th Century Fox Animation. When I talked with Chris, he said he had read a lot of interviews with me and felt we had a similar approach to creation. Talking about our similarities, we clicked and decided maybe we should do some kind of collaboration. 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.
We’ve talked together and share the feeling that 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.”
I’m sure the movie will be success
I am also sure it will be success.
100% yes
He worked on the first Ice Age? Faith restored.
But on the flip side he also worked on Minions
Can’t wait to watch this with my son
Illumination is not that creative like Pixar or others, that’s what bothering me. But I hope Miyamoto brings the flair and the team gets creative like in Ice Age or Despicable Me
Better than Blue Sky. They haven’t made anything original or great for years. Also, Pixar is losing a bit of it’s steam.
Coco would like to have a word with you.
I’m talking about in general. Not saying Pixar is irrelevant or unoriginal but they don’t make superb animations consistently like they use to.
Again, Coco would like to have a word with you.
Again, I’m not saying that movie sucks. I’ve seen this kind of story/idea done already so it doesn’t interest me.
I’m really excited for this movie they are planning.
Yeah, his involvement is to make sure they don’t fuck it up like virtually every other video game based movie outside of Wreck it Ralph which was it’s own thing.
Overall, I want the movie to feel like an official new Mario console game, but with dialog and cutscenes. Not a made-for-western-audience, typical Illumination/Sony/Dreamworks comedy, re-imagining or parody film.
If Nintendo ever does their own movie production or movie publisher team one day, good luck getting the movie publishing rights back from Universal as they are holding very fucking tightly to the publishing rights for the Hulk film rights.
That aside, this guy was involved in the first Ice Age!? *looks him up on Wikipedia to see what else he’s worked on* Ice Age 2, Ever After: A Cinderella Story with Drew Barrymore (loved that movie,) The Simpsons Movie, Horton Hears a Who!, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit… Well fuck! This guy has my support! I expect a great movie from him and Miyamoto!
Isn’t there a Sonic the Hedgehog movie in the works as well?
It would seem so. It’d be interesting to try and see what they could try to pull off. If’s either of these are half decent, we might see Sonic and Mario as rivals again in a whole new medium
Not much to be said from the previous article about the partnership.