Miyamoto and illumination explain why they choose Super Mario Galaxy for latest film

Mario has acquired quite a few adventures since his inception and some of you might be wondering why the team picked Super Mario Galaxy as the inspiration for the latest movie. Speaking to Polygon the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto and illumination CEO Chris Meledandri explained why they landed on Super Mario Galaxy for the latest film and it steams from the fact that the first film was set in the Mushroom Kingdom and they wanted somewhere new to visit and the endless possibilities of Galaxy seemed a natural choice.

Polygon: When it became clear that you wanted to make a Mario movie sequel, how did you figure out where to go next? Do you think about the world of Mario in the same way you think of the potential for sequels and spinoffs in the Despicable Me and Minions sense?

Meledandri: When we started talking about the idea, it begins our process of collaboration, where we began to discuss different possibilities. One could have assumed that we might’ve just gone to Super Mario World or Odyssey, and we talked about all those possibilities. But when we began to talk about [Super Mario] Galaxy, there were qualities of Galaxy that were immediately exciting for us; the cinematic possibilities, as well as some of the more dramatic aspects of Galaxy; just the whole feeling of the drama that’s associated with Rosalina as a character and how that’s reflected in the music of Galaxy. That feeling was something we thought could really inform a new story.

Miyamoto: In my discussion with Chris-san after the first movie, when we started talking, we never framed it as a sequel, but we framed it as the next movie. That left an impression on me. Within our discussion, from the Illumination side, the idea of Galaxy potentially came up. As I thought about it, that could work because the first movie really was about adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom and the next evolution would be to expand the world, go out to the galaxy, and it had a lot of potential, as Chris-san mentioned.

When we were making the first movie, we discussed and thought, OK, we’re not going to try to recreate the game. That wouldn’t be fun. But then as we’re working on the movie, we realized there are parts that really align with the game itself. Likewise, when we’re working on this second movie, we didn’t want to frame it as a sequel. And yet, as we’re working through it, there were elements that we thought could be based on the first movie, and there were moments where they were a sequel, and all of it kind of fit together.

Thanks to Greatsong1 for sending in the news tip!

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