Nintendo Plans More Animated Films After Super Mario

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Nintendo is planning more animated films after Super Mario. Nintendo has been one of the most beloved video game developers in the history of the art form and their vast catalog of characters includes their mascot, Mario, alongside other famous characters like Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Link, Samus, and Kirby, just to name a few. Yet despite these characters being pop culture icons, very few have made the leap to the big screen.

Nintendo has been protective of their characters ever since the film adaptation of Super Mario Bros. in 1993 was a critical and box-office bomb. Since then, aside from the Pokemon franchise, none of the Nintendo properties have been given the big-budget treatment. Yet in recent years the company has started to be more open to their characters appearing in film, with Donkey Kong being a major set piece in the 2015 Adam Sandler film Pixels. In 2018, Nintendo partnered with Universal Studios to bring Nintendo-themed worlds to their various theme parks, and that included the announcement that Illumination Entertainment would be producing an animated Super Mario film.

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Now it appears it is more than just a one-time collaboration. In an interview with Fast Company, Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo's global president, stated that they are looking into doing more animated films than just Super Mario. Furukawa doesn't state which characters they are looking at, but he does reiterate how the studio is still protective of the characters. Furukawa said:

"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."

Nintendo is taking a very hands-on approach to managing their various characters, similar to how Marvel Studios launched as a way to have more say in how their characters are handled. With a new theme park deal set up with Universal Studios, it is safe to assume the various Nintendo projects will be with Universal Pictures and, if they are animated, can be produced by either Illumination Entertainment or Dreamworks Animation. While Super Mario currently doesn't have a definitive release date, the projected timeframe is 2022, so any other projects would be in the following years.

While it is unknown what characters Nintendo has plans for, there are some safe guesses. Earlier this year Nintendo canceled a series based on Zelda for Netflix due to news of it being leaked. Given the popularity of the Zelda property, Nintendo might bring the project to Universal and Illumination. Both Kirby and Donkey Kong have had animated series based on them in the '90s and 2000s, which would make them prime candidates for animated films. Given the massive popularity of Animal Crossing, that could be a top priority for Nintendo, Universal Pictures, and Illumination Entertainment following Super Mario.