Nintendo 'needed to be involved' in new Mario movie, says Miyamoto
When Shigeru Miyamoto first created a princess-rescuing plumber more than four decades ago, Nintendo's future mascot was just a collection of pixels who didn't have a flamboyant Italian accent—or even a name.
This Wednesday, Mario, now the most famous character in video game history, stars in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," a major new animated film released in theaters by Hollywood giant Universal Pictures.
"I don't think anybody thought Mario would be this big, including myself," legendary game designer Miyamoto told AFP.
"It's like seeing a 2D illustration come to life as a 3D puppet, and then that coming to life, becoming a human."
The movie—released in the wake of recent, successful video game adaptations such as "The Last of Us" —- is the second attempt to bring Mario to the big screen, after an ill-fated, live-action 1993 movie.
Back then, Nintendo handed over creative freedom to Hollywood producers, who delivered a bizarre dystopian fantasy set in a dinosaur kingdom.
This time the Japanese gaming giants took no such chances.
Nintendo dispatched Miyamoto himself to co-produce the movie along with Chris Meledandri, founder of Illumination—the Paris-based studio behind "Despicable Me" and "Minions."
"We wanted to develop the movie ourselves, instead of licensing it," recalled Miyamoto.
"That's when we met Chris. If Chris and his team would develop this together with us, we would feel confident."
Japanese producer and video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto is sometimes billed as the Steven Spielberg of video games.