Nintendo Is Making An Animated Super Mario Bros. Movie, Says Report (gizmodo.com)

According to The Wall Street Journal, Nintendo has made a deal with Illumination Entertainment -- the animation studio that makes the Despicable Me movies -- to make an animated Super Mario Bros. movie. The film is currently in "early development," but the report comes as a surprise given how protective Nintendo is of their intellectual properties. Gizmodo reports: According to the report, the companies have been in negotiations for a year and the fact Universal (which finances and distributes Illumination's movie) has partnered with Nintendo for several theme parks was helpful. Right now, the deal is one for one movie, but there is potential for more. Of course, Nintendo is almost laughably protective of their intellectual properties, especially after the disastrous 1993 live action Super Mario Bros. movie. They've made Pokemon movies but, beyond that, rumors of movies based on Mario and The Legend of Zelda have been around for years. This is the vide game company's first big move forward in a long time, and the implications are extremely significant.

Comments

Aiming low

[Opportunist]

You know, most movies today are remakes, rehashes or reboots. And they suffer from one fatal flaw: They have to stand against a timeless classic, a masterpiece that has entertained generations before, that people remember fondly and that even draws a lot of viewers whenever a rerun is shown on TV. Why? Because you only make remakes and reboots of successful movies.

This movie, though, will have to stand against this.

And 2 hours of Mario jumping and saying "Itsa me, Mario!" would beat that in story, credibility, faithfulness to the original material, acting and general entertainment.