‘Super Mario Bros’ Animated Film Heading To Theaters

After Bob Hoskins and John Lequizamo’s turns as the world’s most famous plumbers, it was hard for a lot of fans to imagine Super Mario Bros ever heading back to the big screen. Well, it’s happening, but this time in animated form. This time around, Nintendo will be teaming up with Universal Pictures’ Illumination Entertainment division (the ones who make all the Minion movies) for a film that will focus on Mario as the main character.

If you’ve been following the news lately, this announcement makes a lot of sense, especially for Universal. Not only have they recently announced a Nintendo themed attraction area for their Universal Studios theme parks, but it’s looking like a lot of their FOX properties (X-men, Simpsons, etc…) will be heading to Disney. Besides, next to Mickey Mouse, Mario is one of the most recognized characters in the entire world, so putting out a Mario Bros film is like printing money.

Now, it’ll be interesting to see if the marketing/ Merch machine that is Universal/ Illumination starts looking at the Goombas like their next Minion-style cash cow.