The Making of ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’

From Sing to The Secret Life of Pets to Despicable Me, Illumination franchises have enjoyed worldwide popularity and cultural relevance, which made the partnership with Nintendo a perfect match.

“At Illumination, we are a character film studio first,” said Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri. “The way we’ve approached [‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’] is to make it for fans. We were committed to honoring this incredible game and these beloved characters.”

Nintendo + Illumination

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (and the Nintendo/Illuminations partnership) marks the first time the creative worlds of gaming and animation have been brought together, but Melendandri notes, “the core elements in Nintendo’s game franchises lend themselves to become really distinctive, imaginative, and fun movies for audiences who have never even seen the game.”

Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Super Mario games and producer of the movie, agrees that the success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is due to the two companies having “likeminded creative visions.”

“Whenever I meet a Hollywood producer, they tend to start talking about how our intellectual property can be a success as a movie,” Miyamoto said. “But the conversation with [Melendandri] was mainly about how our thoughts about creating things are alike. As a result, the way the film was produced was very close to how I usually develop games.”

Having similar philosophies definitely came into play when the filmmakers had to figure out the story, which characters should be included, and most importantly, what Nintendo fans would be expecting to see on screen.

After all those questions (and many more) were answered, it was up to screenwriter Matthew Fogel to tell the story about Mario and Luigi, who are separated while trying to solve a citywide plumbing issue, sending Mario to the Mushroom Kingdom and Luigi into the Dark Lands ruled by Bowser. After that, Mario has only one objective: to find his brother.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” Directors

Illumination and Nintendo agreed that whoever directed “The Mario Bros. Movie” needed to honor the iconic game while still effectively telling this new story. Because of that, they chose Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, both fans of the game.

Horvath and Jelenic wrote and produced “Teen Titans GO! To the Movies,” but “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”was the first time they directed a film together. To approach the project, Jelenic drew on his own childhood memories of playing Super Mario Bros. games after school.

“Playing these games was always an adventure filled with lots of emotions,” he said. So, when we got the chance to work on this project, the most important thing for me was translating those emotions that I had as a child playing the game into a cinematic experience.”

The directors also wanted to make something that was visually beautiful as these beloved characters transitioned from video games into the world of the film.

“We started by looking at the games and designs and finding the most common design elements that recur throughout all of the Super Mario games,” Horvath says. “[Then] we took these iconic elements and pushed the level of detail to make them look believable, almost as if you could reach out and touch them. The biggest challenge was to ensure the audience would believe that these are real characters with real emotions, families, hopes and desires.”

Both directors came from a TV background, which is a very different process than feature film production, and Jelenic says they learned very quickly that even a great script changes throughout the process of making a movie.

“We made this movie so many times, and each time it was the best movie ever, but we kept saying, ‘We can make it better,’” he said. “That’s the nature of feature animation. You’re always massaging and shaping great ideas into better ideas.”

During this “messaging and shaping process,” the movie’s overall theme emerged.

“The most important theme of the movie is perseverance,” Horvath says. “It’s about never giving up. The only way to lose at a Super Mario Bros. game is to give up, and if you just keep playing, you will get better and eventually defeat Bowser. So that became the theme of the movie.”

The Cast

Choosing which characters would appear in the movie was one challenge; casting them was another.

“These characters are all basically avatars in the video game format, so the cast had a huge challenge to step in and make the characters real, believable, nuanced people,” Jelenic said.

Chris Pratt as Mario

Mario carries the storyline as the movie’s central character on a search to find his lost brother, but he also communicates the theme of perseverance. A fan of The Super Mario Bros. games since he was a kid, Pratt’s proven ability to play an “everyday hero” also contributed to the filmmakers casting him as Mario – and while fans initially questioned the choice, he’s won them over.

“What interested me most was the opportunity to help flesh the character out beyond what we see in the games,” Pratt said. “In a way, the main character in The Super Mario Bros. games is whoever is behind the controller. Mario is just a brick-smashing avatar. We don’t know much about him other than he’s a little Italian plumber with a mustache who says ‘Woohoo!’ and ‘Let’s-a go!’ So, in order to craft a compelling and relatable narrative—one with heart, humor, adventure, and everything else one comes to expect from an Illumination film—we had to dig in and discover the character beyond what the games have shown us. His insecurity, his ambition, his persistence.”

 Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach

As the leader of the Mushroom Kingdom (and a master of the magical Power-Ups), Princess Peach plays an integral part in the movie’s central quest, an evolution from the character in the games.

“I was thrilled to have the opportunity to play a character that’s loved by so many people, but I was also excited to have the chance to flesh her out and let her be the hero of her own story,” Taylor-Joy says. “Princess Peach redefines what it means to be a princess because she’s the master of her own fate. She’s an incredibly driven leader, she’s fearless, determined, capable and has so much heart.”

Charlie Day as Luigi

Mario is calm and confident, so his anxious little brother Luigi needed to provide contrast, especially when he is forced to step out of his older brother’s shadow. The directors tapped Day to voice Luigi because “his comedy and his persona made him the perfect fit for Luigi.”

“Super Mario Bros. […] was the first Nintendo game I’d seen,” Day said. “I remember my older sister was better at it than me […] but I also remember that, because she was older, I often had to play second. Therefore, I was usually playing Luigi.”

Jack Black as Bowser

Bowser is the giant, ferocious turtle who rules the Dark Lands (and who Jelenic describes as evil personified but with a vulnerable, silly side). So who else to cast as the larger-than-life character than the larger-than-life Jack Black, who was thrilled to voice Mario’s arch-nemesis.

“Bowser is one of the most iconic villains in the entire history of video games!” Black said. “He’s terrifying, powerful, and filled with insecurities – a great character to explore.”

In the film, Bowser has a musical background (which wasn’t in the script’s first draft).

“As we were trying to get the point across of Bowser’s feelings for Peach, it seemed more fun, funny and sweet if we had him sing a song about it,” Horvath said. “Jack Black is an incredible singer and musician, so we spent a night writing the song and sent the demo to Jack. A couple days later, Jack sent us back a finished track. He had added his own twist on it and his pianist played an original music track for it. We were blown away.”

Keegan-Michael Key as Toad

Although Toad is desperate to go on his first real adventure, he also has a biting wit and isn’t afraid to go to battle, so the directors cast veteran voice actor Keegan-Michael Key to take on the character.

“There is something about voiceover work that lets you reach for the stars,” Key said. “You can really go for it when you’re vocally trying to match the exaggerated features and movements of the animation. Getting to explore all the things you can do with your voice to help create this character is one of the most fun things about this type of work.”

According to Jelenic, Key’s improv skills also came into play.

“You give him a scenario and he’s able to give you fifteen funny lines that move the plot forward, which is very hard to do,” Jelenic said.

Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is described as “an extremely powerful warrior – but also a bit of a man-child,” which could also describe Rogan, who is a fan of the game and wanted to make sure a specific element of his character was included in the film.

“I definitely wanted to incorporate the Donkey Kong rap,” Rogen says. “The character was not that defined in the games from a personality standpoint, so I got to really work with the team to create a character that suited Donkey Kong and the story.”

“Super Mario Bros. Movie” Music

The musical score of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was composed by Brian Tyler. Although Tyler has scored more than 100 major feature films, including “F9,” “Transformers: Prime,” “Iron Man 3,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (with Danny Elfman), “Now You See Me,” and “Crazy Rich Asians,” it was his love for Nintendo games and his background in video game scoring that made him the perfect choice for the project.

By using a full orchestra, Tyler was able to “go big” for the action sequences and “go small” for intimate scenes. He also incorporated the 8-bit sounds and Koji Kondo’s theme from the original Mario games, allowing him to connect the past to the present by creating new Mario music while including the iconic original music in the film.

“I know the Mario music so well and have always been very nostalgic about all the music that Koji Kondo has written for the games,” Tyler says. “It was an absolute delight to be able to not just write new themes and music to represent Mario in this film, but to merge it with the music that Koji Kondo wrote for the games.”

Taylor-Joy sums up the incredible collaborative process that resulted in the making of “The Super Nintendo Bros. Movie.”

“Illumination really understands what it means to appeal to all ages and to a mass audience and Nintendo creates entirely loveable characters,” she said. “Together, they’ve created a visually rich world that appeals to all ages.”

Check out our spoiler-free review of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” here: