A Mario movie from the makers of Minions is in the works

There’s an animated Mario movie on its way to your screens, and given who’s producing it, there’s every possibility it’s going to be good (or at least successful).

The flick comes as Nintendo finalizes its deal with Illumination, the production house behind such animated hits as Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and Minions. Love them or hate them, the little yellow critters made a big splash, and now it looks like Illumination is turning its attention to everyone’s favorite plumber (yeah, we know, he’s technically not a plumber any more, but he always will be in our hearts).

Given that the deal’s only just been announced, the film is in the early stages of development, which in the world of animated films means it’s going to be years before the film actually hits the silver screen.

Avoiding the banana peels

For those with long enough memories, the idea of a Mario film will bring back some very vivid images of Dennis Hopper with...um, interesting hair. Not only that, but Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as the titular Mario and his brother Luigi.

The film was (to put it lightly) not as successful as the games that spawned it, but we’re hopeful that an animated film will be able to be a little more faithful to the source material. While films about games are generally pretty hit-and-miss, the success of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph shows that you can make a successful animated film about games.

The news of the film came from a tweet from the Nintendo of America account:

Nintendo and Illumination are partnering on a movie starring Mario, co-produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri! pic.twitter.com/wVRPLIzcGJFebruary 1, 2018

Mario is currently riding high, with recent release Mario Odyssey being one of the big hits on the Nintendo Switch. It definitely makes more sense to make a film out of a pre-existing franchise like Mario than about, say, emojis. Fingers crossed.