Nintendo has been on a mission to expand its IP and brand exposure beyond the basics of console gaming. We’ve seen that in the last five years with the arrival of many Nintendo-approved mobile games, as well as the debut of the Super Nintendo World theme park in Japan. And in 2022, we’re going to get the arrival of the Super Mario Movie via studio Illumination (who made the Minions movie).
But in an interview with Fast Company, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa acknowledged that they are looking at animation projects beyond Mario:
“Animation, in general, is something that we are looking into, and not just this franchise,” he says.
Granted, he didn’t go beyond that, but if the Mario movie does well, many others will likely want to dip into the Nintendo animated realms.
The funny thing about this is that…Nintendo HAS done this in the past. There was a Super Mario Bros cartoon, as well as a 3D Donkey Kong cartoon, the famous “Kirby Right Back At Ya“, the F-Zero anime that still is talked about to this day, and of course, Pokemon.
Not to mention, they’ve done Kid Icarus shorts and the character reveal trailers for Super Smash Bros in recent games have been their own movies of a sort.
So the real question becomes…what one will get the tap after Mario first?
