The Mario Movie Could Be the First of Many Nintendo Animated Projects


Nintendo’s Mario movie is still moving forward, but company president Shuntaro Furukawa suggested Nintendo is interested in moving beyond both Mario and movies. Speaking with Fast Company in an exclusive interview, Furukawa said “Animation, in general, is something that we are looking into, and not just this franchise.”

He didn’t elaborate further on what franchises or mediums Nintendo might consider for future animated projects.

Either way, it’s the second time Furukawa reaffirmed Nintendo’s commitment to animation and more visual content. In 2020, he also said Nintendo had “already embarked on multiple other visual content projects,” which Video Games Chronicle speculated could be anything from a TV series to comic books.

The Mario Movie Could Be the First in a Line of Nintendo's Animated Projects

While Nintendo-themed graphic novels aren't new — there's an entire Metroid prequel manga, for example — Furukawa's commitment to animated content suggests it's mainly movies and TV shows the Big N has in mind for now.

Furukawa also discussed Nintendo’s philosophy about adapting its IP, which goes a long way toward explaining why that Zelda Netflix series never happened.

“We made sure that although people who deeply understand the characters and deeply understand the game are involved, that we keep the number of people involved to a minimum,” he said.

The goal is balancing the number of people working on game development and other projects to avoid stretching resources too thinly.

That could explain Monolith Soft's recent hiring spree, but it also means whatever other TV shows, comics, or what-have-you Nintendo has in store, don’t expect them to release in a steady, Marvel-style stream.

[Source: Fast Company]

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