The Big Picture: Mr. Mario Goes To Hollywood
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You say "two Italian guys in overalls" as if Mario and Luigi are the strangest part of the Mario canon. What about pretty much everything else? Frankly Toad and goombas and Bowser and the like would all have to be CG anyway, and I'm not sure I want to know what a 'realistic' take on them would be.
I think a Legend of Zelda film would definitely be a neat thing.
I completely agree with what Bob said about live action and animation. Comparing to the Marvel movies, I saw the Avengers in theaters but I've never felt the need to watch any of the OVA's on Netflix. Maybe that can be attributed to the fact that I'm not fanatical to Marvel, but some things just don't generate appeal in certain formats. Let me take another example. I love Dragon Ball. I've watched the animated stuff and read most of the manga. Have I watched Dragon Ball Evolution? Nope. Not because its bad (I can't judge if its bad myself, since I never watched it, but that's the consensus the internet has given me) but because I just don't think it'll be all that interesting.
Bottom line, if it gathers great appeal to a very large audience and is well done (however subjective that term is), Mario can be a live action movie.
I completely agree with what Bob said about live action and animation. Comparing to the Marvel movies, I saw the Avengers in theaters but I've never felt the need to watch any of the OVA's on Netflix. Maybe that can be attributed to the fact that I'm not fanatical to Marvel, but some things just don't generate appeal in certain formats. Let me take another example. I love Dragon Ball. I've watched the animated stuff and read most of the manga. Have I watched Dragon Ball Evolution? Nope. Not because its bad (I can't judge if its bad myself, since I never watched it, but that's the consensus the internet has given me) but because I just don't think it'll be all that interesting.
Bottom line, if it gathers great appeal to a very large audience and is well done (however subjective that term is), Mario can be a live action movie.
LOL Live action Kirby already pretty much exists, albeit by a different name. A big pink thing that eats everything in it's path to get more powerful?Zachary Amaranth said:
Sounds like The Blob to me lol
captcha: Very doubtful. Fuck you captcha, i can make observations without you mocking them.
How would this even be done? The golden-age games were incredibly repetitive and made little sense. Mario has to traipse through a half-dozen or so themed worlds - either just linearly or to collect something - before finally meeting his nemesis and engaging the multi-ton monster in fisticuffs. Link, likewise, has to storm a similar number of dungeons/palaces/fortresses to gain a useful item and piece of whatever from each of them. Gameplay-wise, it's fine, but films don't have gameplay.
Neither of these concepts is filmable as is. They'd run too long and become boring quickly. You could show the first level, but then you'd have to montage away everything that happens in the middle to avoid the narrative dragging to a crawl.
And what narrative would you have, anyway? The Zelda series at least establishes a different Link each time and can start at his village (or whatever) shortly before he becomes the hero. But Mario? What do you do there? Who is this guy and why is he here? Granted, you could start in media res as though he's always been fighting Koopa and that the current story is just another adventure for him (and this may even be best), but that doesn't really allow for an arc as such. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens that doesn't resolve anything. If you do give him a backstory, you have to flesh out the world enough for this plumber and his pre-hero lifestyle to plausibly exist within it.
Neither of these concepts is filmable as is. They'd run too long and become boring quickly. You could show the first level, but then you'd have to montage away everything that happens in the middle to avoid the narrative dragging to a crawl.
And what narrative would you have, anyway? The Zelda series at least establishes a different Link each time and can start at his village (or whatever) shortly before he becomes the hero. But Mario? What do you do there? Who is this guy and why is he here? Granted, you could start in media res as though he's always been fighting Koopa and that the current story is just another adventure for him (and this may even be best), but that doesn't really allow for an arc as such. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens that doesn't resolve anything. If you do give him a backstory, you have to flesh out the world enough for this plumber and his pre-hero lifestyle to plausibly exist within it.
Oh Fie, Bob. If this New Super Mario Bros movie was animated (Hell, even if it was a japanese animation) and good you'll be singing on the rafters like everyone else who called the first movie a complete disaster.
I'd vote against Super Mario RPG because I think it would come off too fringe and weird; at least in the first movie, Mario and Bowser should be enemies, Luigi should have an actual role, and Mallow and Geno would be confusing to people who aren't in on the gag. Bowser's Inside Story is better.The Grim Ace said:
I wouldn't mind seeing a movie based on that Nintendo Power series of comics, though. That was pretty good storytelling.
Hyboria, Bob. Conan the Barbarian is set in Hyboria, which I think is supposed to be Earth in some lost prehistoric age (like Middle-Earth). On a related note, I hope we get a live-action Red Sonja movie (with comics-accurate costume, meow!).
i blame the Super Mario Brothers movie for the public's perception of video game movies being awful. Animating it instead of live action makes perfect sense, or else they'll just CGI its bollocks off. A Link and Zelda movie would be cool, but I see no way around having Link talk. They just have to do it.
I guess its the type of game their adapting into a movie that makes it easier. If it has a fairly linear narrative (so maybe not RPG's) or if it's part of a bigger universe and you can tell your own story that's set in it (like what they want to do with the Assassin's Creed movie). And yes, some things need to be changed, like in The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time when they gave The Prince a name.
i blame the Super Mario Brothers movie for the public's perception of video game movies being awful. Animating it instead of live action makes perfect sense, or else they'll just CGI its bollocks off. A Link and Zelda movie would be cool, but I see no way around having Link talk. They just have to do it.
I guess its the type of game their adapting into a movie that makes it easier. If it has a fairly linear narrative (so maybe not RPG's) or if it's part of a bigger universe and you can tell your own story that's set in it (like what they want to do with the Assassin's Creed movie). And yes, some things need to be changed, like in The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time when they gave The Prince a name.
how is making a movie of a video game a meaningful evolution? if anything it's a step down, from an interactive medium to a non interactive one. i never understood why people ever want video game movies, what could they possibly do that a video game can't? you can provide a way better narrative when you, the player, guides it or experiences it with the characters, watching a narrative unfold on a big screen is vastly inferior to fucking experiencing it as you play the fucking game. you wanna just kinda zone out and have stuff blow up? great, here play this video game and do the blowing-up yourself.
a movie based on a video game is a huge downgrade.
a movie based on a video game is a huge downgrade.
Isn't it ironic that Sony wants to make a Mario movie?
Sony is Nintendo's biggest competitor, how does giving Sony the rights to Mario (even if it's in movie form) make any sense for Nintendo? That would be like KFC giving the rights to their kind of chicken to McDonalds.
Sony is Nintendo's biggest competitor, how does giving Sony the rights to Mario (even if it's in movie form) make any sense for Nintendo? That would be like KFC giving the rights to their kind of chicken to McDonalds.
You brought up the best reason why no one should/would make a Mario movie again: Because it is so big, well known and on the air for 20 years.
At least two generations of console kiddies were raised by the TV and the Marios franchise. Can you imagine the backlash of all the internet crybabies over every single small detail in the movie?
Of course it would make money. Look the new Spiderman/Turtles movies. They are terrible and still make money, just because their name is so big. But i believe Nintendo is afraid that a new Mario movie will make money in the short term, but hurt the Mario franchise in the long term.
So they do just what EA should do.
At least two generations of console kiddies were raised by the TV and the Marios franchise. Can you imagine the backlash of all the internet crybabies over every single small detail in the movie?
Of course it would make money. Look the new Spiderman/Turtles movies. They are terrible and still make money, just because their name is so big. But i believe Nintendo is afraid that a new Mario movie will make money in the short term, but hurt the Mario franchise in the long term.
So they do just what EA should do.
You just described a scene from the Super Mario Bros. Movie: jump boots that made him practically float in the air. However I disagree with the obligation from the movies of explaining the how or why of everything. No one explained what the Force was in the original Star Wars movies, and everyone was OK with it.lord.jeff said:
All right here's my pitch for a super mario brothers movie:
Mario and Luigi are two young men who after failing out of college or the collapse of a small business venture are forced to turn to their father to get them a job in a local plumbing business. When the two brothers demonstrate their considerable acrobatic abilities an elderly plumber working for the company takes the two boys under his wing and inducts them into the Order of the Plumber. He reveals that the intricate mechanism of modern plumbing accidentally tap into the mystical nature of water as the source of all life allowing it to act as a portal connecting many different worlds together. The Plumbers are an ancient order that acts as guides and body guards for various dignitaries traveling between the different worlds. He teaches them a martial art style that combines parkour and taekkyeon or Muy Tai so that they are skilled at jumping through the air and kicking people in the face.
The boys complete their training and are assigned to escort a princess of the peaceful mushroom kingdom to a more hellish planet that's home to the Koopas (less dinosaur and more invincible iron skinned turtle people like actual kappas.) Talks break down, princess gets kidnapped, corrupt plumbers, Wario and Waluigi are sneaking a koopa army into the mushroom kingdom and Mario and Luigi have to put aside the ancient plumber creed of neutrality to save the princess by kicking turtle demons in the face.
End with post credits teaser that the sewer portals connect to various other Nintendo worlds as set up from potential avenger's style smash bros movie down the road.
Mario and Luigi are two young men who after failing out of college or the collapse of a small business venture are forced to turn to their father to get them a job in a local plumbing business. When the two brothers demonstrate their considerable acrobatic abilities an elderly plumber working for the company takes the two boys under his wing and inducts them into the Order of the Plumber. He reveals that the intricate mechanism of modern plumbing accidentally tap into the mystical nature of water as the source of all life allowing it to act as a portal connecting many different worlds together. The Plumbers are an ancient order that acts as guides and body guards for various dignitaries traveling between the different worlds. He teaches them a martial art style that combines parkour and taekkyeon or Muy Tai so that they are skilled at jumping through the air and kicking people in the face.
The boys complete their training and are assigned to escort a princess of the peaceful mushroom kingdom to a more hellish planet that's home to the Koopas (less dinosaur and more invincible iron skinned turtle people like actual kappas.) Talks break down, princess gets kidnapped, corrupt plumbers, Wario and Waluigi are sneaking a koopa army into the mushroom kingdom and Mario and Luigi have to put aside the ancient plumber creed of neutrality to save the princess by kicking turtle demons in the face.
End with post credits teaser that the sewer portals connect to various other Nintendo worlds as set up from potential avenger's style smash bros movie down the road.
I thought I heard a scream of anguish from down east last week.
While announcing intent is pretty far from ever seeing a film (remember the live action Evangelion), pre-emptive fearis warranted. Mario has some mythos, but too little in the way of specifics to work with. By that I mean serious specifics. The Mario RPGs are fun, but not exactly blockbuster epic. That in and of itself should push to CGI or animated to go for the childlike charm you lose with live actors.
As for live versus animation, while I'd like to say it depends, be honest, how many of the best scenes in The Avengers weren't already heavily CGI. Sometimes it works, if the attention is there, but if corners get cut something gets lost. I just saw that Street Fighter: Assassins' fist movie, and while it isn't bad by any sense, nothing in it has me cheering or involved the way the final fight of the 90s animated movie did. Animation just makes the dumb moves look real, while seeing them really performed makes them look a bit stupid.
While announcing intent is pretty far from ever seeing a film (remember the live action Evangelion), pre-emptive fearis warranted. Mario has some mythos, but too little in the way of specifics to work with. By that I mean serious specifics. The Mario RPGs are fun, but not exactly blockbuster epic. That in and of itself should push to CGI or animated to go for the childlike charm you lose with live actors.
As for live versus animation, while I'd like to say it depends, be honest, how many of the best scenes in The Avengers weren't already heavily CGI. Sometimes it works, if the attention is there, but if corners get cut something gets lost. I just saw that Street Fighter: Assassins' fist movie, and while it isn't bad by any sense, nothing in it has me cheering or involved the way the final fight of the 90s animated movie did. Animation just makes the dumb moves look real, while seeing them really performed makes them look a bit stupid.
That'd be awesome to do Kirby as a horror comedy. I think it starts off as an animated film for the first few minutes and then DDD hits Kirby with a hammer sending him flying off into space. The film then switches to live action (with kirby always being animated in cgi) and it plays out as a horror movie. The first people he encounters are some hoodlums/gangsters who find him and smack him around a little (like Attack the Block). Then he swallows one and gets a gangster hat and some related ability (maybe spray paint graffiti). As the movie goes on, people get more and more afraid of what to do with the adorable pink blob and the city descends into chaos while kirby thinks he is just playing around.Evonisia said:
OT: A zelda movie could work, but you would need a bunch of young actors to star in it. While some young actors are remarkable, they can be hard to find and an annoying child actor is just the worst. Not to mention that at some point a nine year old would need to sword fight a muscly older man and that could get ridiculous really fast (not that it can't work, it worked in Kick Ass).
Other than those few points though, a zelda movie could work very well. People are getting too hung up on the dungeons. These could honestly be mostly cut out. Make ganondorfs evils present and show link overcoming them, but the dungeons don't need to show him pushing boxes around to find a key. Windwaker seems like the choice that I'd go with for a movie, and some of the dungeons (earth/wind) could be presented as minor challenges link must face. Dragonroost and Forest Haven could involve link helping the poor people of the islands out and gradually learning that ganondorf is causing all this trouble and that he must be defeated, not just to save his sister but to save all these innocent people. I think Tower of The Gods would need to play out as more of a traditional dungeon however as the trials in the tower are important to prove Link's worthiness. I'd also have link spend more time with Tetra and pals so that more of a supporting cast could be around, but i wouldn't cut out the King of the Red Lions either.
Mario movie should be animated. All the non-human characters like bowser and Yoshi would look silly and the powerups/jumping would look ridiculous in live action.