Super Mario Bros. The Movie he has already managed to beat nearly every possible record linked to video game adaptations and animated feature films in general, confirming the incredible love of the public for the Nintendo plumber.
The cinematic debut of the official Super Mario film (you can pre-order the 4K Blu-ray on Amazon), however, was met with initial and understandable skepticism, especially in the light of many of the opinions received from the foreign press.
Many critics had indeed rejected without the possibility of appeal the collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination — opinion that though we hadn’t shared at allas we told you in our dedicated review — but which paradoxically seems to have contributed to the success of the film.
In a statement released to the Japanese press by Shigeru Miyamoto, translated by VGC (via GoNintendo), Shigeru Miyamoto admitted that the film went far beyond his expectations and credit may have been just some negative reviews:
“It takes a little bit of luck to achieve this level of success for a film. Although many overseas critics gave the film relatively low ratings, I believe that this also contributed to the film’s notoriety and noise.
I would be happy if viewers say that their opinion of what a film is has changed thanks to this feature film. That would show how lucky we really were.”
In short, for the father of Super Mario every commercial was good publicity, even the one that came from the negative reviews that could have further attracted the curiosity of the spectators, contributing to the inevitable word of mouth.
After all, considering that Super Mario Bros. The Movie is a film designed primarily for fans of the Kyoto house, Miyamoto’s reasoning makes absolutely sense: the discordant opinions between the foreign press and the public may undoubtedly have increased the curiosity of the most skeptical users, leading the feature film to become an incredible box office success.
And if another proof of what we are saying is needed, we can only remind you that the Nintendo film has already become the best videogame-themed feature film ever.
A success that will inevitably lead the Kyoto house to further push the accelerator on the cinema adaptations of other large IPs, as already anticipated by Miyamoto himself.
