Mario Movie by Illumination

I feel like the best franchises that will play exclusively to Illumination's strengths (bright cutesy art style and slapstick comedy) are Animal Crossing and Pikmin.

By Ganon, do you mean old school Boar Ganon or Ganondorf?

I've heard some say they would prefer a Zelda adaptation be a series (mini or otherwise) rather than a movie, due to how long and complex the plots tend to be. I'm in this camp as well as I don't think you get get away with rushing a Zelda movie the same way you can the Mario movie.

I'd just go the ocarina route and have the boar form be his final battle.

Edited by Kaiseror on May 21st 2023 at 7:07:53 AM

Zelda stories are not really that complicated as long as you're not adapting a specific game. That was really the key to the Mario Movie's success. It chooses an original story and deem what aspects of the Mario games would be best suited for the plot.

That's why it was never boring. Now imagine if they try to be completely faithful to the original Super Mario Bros game...

No Donkey Kong other than maybe an allusion. No Mario and Peach getting to know each other. No Mario Kart action sequence. And Bowser gets defeated when Mario uses the ax to break the bridge beneath him.

Seeing Hyrule's different groups, people, stuff like the dungeons and all the weapons... A series would be more fitting, if only to see the world.

They didn't adapt any particular aspect of any mainline Mario game besides the way Power ups work.

Being more faithful to say...any of the 2D games would've made for a slightly more interesting "adventure", but clearly they didn't want to do a traditional traveling story.

Edited by randomness4 on May 21st 2023 at 10:49:32 AM

Has been mentioned here before, but as a reminder, Universal has Dreamworks as another animation studio, plus Illumination has the "Moonlight" project for movies that aim for an older rating, so either of them could work for a Zelda adaptation.

Also @Weirdguy, another that I could see working for Illumination, which nobody in this thread has mentioned yet is Splatoon, though that may also be shifted to Dreamworks, if they want to give it a bigger "attitude" and focusing a bit more in the post-apocalyptic part of the series.

Edit: Oh, and Kirby might also be in the same boat: could be either Illumination or Dreamworks, depending of the level of eldrich horror included.

Edited by Shadow-Whisperer on May 21st 2023 at 10:40:08 AM

@FOFD

Link and Samus talk very often in their manga and comic adaptions so this would not be hard. I sincerely doubt that Nintendo will have Illumination do movies on either Zelda or Metroid and I doubt they'd be up for that anyway as it's a HUGE departure from their usual wheelhouse(Dream Works would work though). I very much second and champion the notion that they should be series as well since there's a lot of lore to unpack and explain that makes them work vs Mario's more simplistic takes.

For Illumination, Nintendo's more cartoony series would work and I definetly think they'd knock a Splatoon series out of the park and their use of tacky throwback music would fit right in with the 90's vibe of the series. For that I'd make there be two Agent 3's who are polar opposite twins in terms of style choices and weapon loads(this seems canon based on the Amiibo challenges).

If we go away from Nintendo for a moment, Illumination's work on the Super Mario Movie should be easy to translate into a Megaman Classic film. Battle Network should work as well, but I wouldn't want them to try an X or Zero adaption for tonal reasons; you really want the Megaman series that feel like a Saturday morning cartoon.

Technically, Fox owns the rights to a Mega Man film, but so far it is indefinitely in development hell.

x3 What I was thinking with the Splatoon movie, is that there could be 2 routes: focusing more in the sport aspect of the series (a team of 4 inkling trying their best to win the Inkopolis cup, showcasing a lot of the different modes as different events in the tournement); or telling the story of 1 (or more, like you said, a female and male duo, or maybe even 4 of them) inklings fighting against the secret octarian invasion (could even mix both a little bit, and having the inkling(s) having to choose between winning the tourney (being a lifelong dream, to give it some weight) or stopping the octarians).

Edited by Shadow-Whisperer on May 22nd 2023 at 8:48:52 AM

After the success of the their Mario film, i don't doubt it at all. Nintendo isn't looking to make high art, they're looking to make money.

Illumination's CEO is even part of Nintendo's board, Illumination working on more Nintendo properties would not be shocking.

I am also not sure that any other studio would be fine with Nintendo keeping a watchful eye like Illumination is.

Edited by Cortez on May 22nd 2023 at 1:31:05 PM

Even just to make money, they have to know the brand and be able to produce a fitting style. Too tonally different will alienate the biggest potential audience.

Except the "tone" varies from game to game.

Quick note, according to a Deadline article, Mario has surpassed the Incredibles 2 becoming the 4th (or 3rd if you ignore Lion King exists, like I prefer to do) highest grossing animated movie.

I suppose that's the case for Zelda at least to an extent, but I can't imagine a whimsical Metroid film.

Uh. Whimsical Ridley would be weird.

Even Disney prefers not to count The Lion King remake as an animated feature (but it's because they like to pretend it's live-action).

Apart from said movie, it's the two Frozen movies in the lead, right?

If you want to see the list, it's right here.

Yes. Weekend totals haven't finalized yet but based on the estimates, as of right now the highest-grossing animated films roster looks like this:

1. Lion King Remake - $1.66b
2. Frozen 2 - $1.45b
3. Frozen - $1.28b
4. Incredibles 2 - $1.24b
5. Super Mario Bros - $1.24b

We can reasonably expect to see Super Mario Bros. overtake Incredibles 2 next weekend, which will probably be good for around $6-7m domestic and about $9-10m international based on drop rates and global percentages. The release of Super Mario Bros. on streaming seems to have done little to adversely affect the film's drop rate. By this point, the only people going to see the movie in theaters are people who want to see it in theaters, specifically.

I don't know if the movie has enough steam left to beat Frozen, but it should have a few months left to try.

Edited by TobiasDrake on May 22nd 2023 at 11:05:26 AM

By any chance, has anybody seen the movie more than once? I'm thinking of seeing it again on Wednesday after the weather put a literal freeze on the fun outdoor stuff I was planning for that day. x_x It ought to be nice and warm in the auditorium.

Edited by Demetrios on May 22nd 2023 at 2:26:51 PM

I haven't yet, but I'm planning to now that it's available outside of theaters.

Today, it's finally out in Poland.

Also, the movie has done better than Lion King Remake in America. With that, the movie is the most successful movie (again, in America) to be certified Rotten.

Edited by Smasher on May 22nd 2023 at 3:38:22 PM

More successful than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom?

Edited by Snicka on May 23rd 2023 at 10:49:49 AM

Oh, yeah, easily. Super Mario Bros. blew Fallen Kingdom out of the water in domestic sales. Fallen Kingdom made its billion by being a smash hit internationally. It only made $418m in domestic sales, but it made more than twice that overseas.

It's actually incredibly rare for a movie to cross half a billion in domestic sales. Only 19 films have ever managed it, and Super Mario Bros. is one of them.

By contrast, there are 50 billion-dollar movies.

Edited by TobiasDrake on May 22nd 2023 at 1:41:40 AM