Nintendo had even decided to double the screening of the trailer at Comic Con of yet another Nintendo Direct exclusively devoted to this trailer: that is to say if we want to go all out to make Mario a new icon of animated cinema, while Sonic 2 or even Uncharted have hit box office records for video game adaptations – $400 million apiece is no small feat.
It was therefore its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto himself, who came to introduce the film from the Illumination studio, under the leadership of Chris Meledandri and the director duo Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath. Two of the film’s star actors, Chris Pratt (Mario) and Jack Black (Bowser), also popped in for the promo, with one stating that “Playing Mario was a lifelong dream“, Jack Black insisting on”the time needed to learn to spit fire“.
The first trailer introduces him to a band of penguins determined not to be invaded by an all-powerful Bowser, before heading to the Mushroom Kingdom to discover the face – and the voice – of this Mario passed through the Illumination grinder. Unsurprisingly, Luigi will also be there.
According to Meledandri, the first discussions around the film would have started more than 7 years ago, and at the moment, all the animation is on the way to be completed within a week; it will now be time to finalize the lighting and special effects. Finally, on the music side, composer Brian Tyler will go to the studio in 11 days to bring the series’ emblematic themes to life, in close collaboration with Kôji Kondô, the man who has imagined the melodies for the main episodes since 1985.