Sony Attempting To Secure Rights For An Animated 'Super Mario Bros.' Movie

The last time a US company made a movie based on Super Mario Bros., things did not go so well. The terrible production, awful film and disappointing results pretty much soured Nintendo on making live-action movies of their characters, period. Still, the popular video game company did continue to make some animated films, mostly based on Pokemon. It seems they were more open to that idea with their iconic roster of characters.

Now, revealed in the mountain of leaked e-mails coming from Sony was the revelation that producer Avi Arad (Spider-Man) was in the process of securing the rights for Sony to make an animated Super Mario Bros movie.

Buzzfeed was the first place to report on this very surprising news.

According to their report, in the e-mails illegally obtained in the Sony hack, Avi Arad had emailed Sony studio head Amy Pascal in October 2014 and told her "I am the proud father of mario the animated film." In the e-mail were photos of him with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata. Pascal then forwarded that e-mail to TriStar head Tom Rothman saying "Avi closed Mario brothers. Animated."

After first reporting this, Arad contacted Buzzfeed and told them the negotiations were real but had not closed. They were "just beginning." That seems to be in conflict with the emails from October, but who knows.

Frankly, I'm surprised Nintendo is considering this at all. Mario seems to be doing just fine on his own. His new WiiU games, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. are massive hits, almost every game before that has been a hit, and Nintendo continues to thrive.

I guess, if they were dead set on making a movie, this would be the safest bet. You wouldn't have to worry about Mario not looking the way people think he looks, and there would be no limit to what the character could do. Nintendo might even be able to create assets to use in animation. Still – I don't know. I kind of like Nintendo's policy of keeping Hollywood at arm's length.

What are your thoughts on a potential animated Super Mario Bros movie?

Header image: Taringa.net