Mario Bros. Animated Movie Coming from Illumination

[light-gaia]

I like the new design. It's faithful to the source material and different at the same time. We don't usually see different interpretations of the Mario IP, so this is refreshing. I like the realistic textures.

However, I don't like the generic Toads and I think this is a red flag. In the Paper Mario series, there are "Toads" with more interesting designs. But in recent Paper Mario games, all NPCs are just generic Toads with different colors. I don't like that., it's uninspired.

I have no idea what to expect from this movie. The Mario franchise is more difficult to adapt to movie, but who knows...

[StaticMania]

13 minutes ago, light-gaia said:

I don't like that., it's uninspired.

It's accurate...hehe

There is nothing preventing the Toads from wearing different clothes.

[light-gaia]

21 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

It's accurate...hehe

There is nothing preventing the Toads from wearing different clothes.

Miyamoto is involved in this movie, and he is the reason modern Paper Mario games have this problem

[StaticMania]

3 minutes ago, light-gaia said:

Miyamoto is involved in this movie, and he is the reason modern Paper Mario games have this problem

He is not the reason modern Paper Mario games has this problem.

Very surprising information.

[light-gaia]

9 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

He is not the reason modern Paper Mario games has this problem.

Very surprising information.

Source: Nintendo Life

[StaticMania]

Surely you would blame ALL of that on Miyamoto alone and not Nintendo as whole's strict decision to unify and sterilize the Mario brand...

Miyamoto said one thing about characters and it spun off from there in people's mind.

[Supah Berrio]

You need to read between the lines on what really went down with Paper Mario:

Miyamoto had little involvement in their creative direction; Tanabe took Miyamoto's mere suggestion, not order, and exaggerated what he was coming from. He has to answer to the IP team about the character design, who may also had influence on how Toads are portrayed in this film

Edited October 5, 2022 by Supah Berry
Never mind I found it

[DaBigJ]

16 minutes ago, Supah Berry said:

N/A

What was the context

[light-gaia]

21 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

Surely you would blame ALL of that on Miyamoto alone and not Nintendo as whole's strict decision to unify and sterilize the Mario brand...

Miyamoto said one thing about characters and it spun off from there in people's mind.

Maybe he is not the person to blame (or at least nor the only one), but I can't help to notice the similarities between this poster and the recent Paper Mario entries. Tones of recolor Toads everywhere

[DaBigJ]

It's almost as if Toads populate the Mushroom Kingdom and always had.

 

But nah, it's just that mean ol' Miyamoto's fault that Toads exist.

[light-gaia]

7 minutes ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

It's almost as if Toads populate the Mushroom Kingdom and always had.

But nah, it's just that mean ol' Miyamoto's fault that Toads exist.

It's possible to make interesting character designs based on Mario's style. For example:



Furthermore, some things work when it comes to games, but don't work in other kinds of media that require more focus on storytelling, world building, etc. I don't think this is a good approach for a movie, even though it's like that in tones of games.

Games and movies are totally different kinds of media.

Also, I don't even know if the movie will have this kind of problem, I'm just saying it's a red flag, in my opinion.

[Salamander]

Regardless of Nintendo's current, perhaps too stifling brand cohesion rules, I always expected a Mario movie to use the most standard Mario series designs.  This is effectively their movie debut, after all; I would expect everything to be at its most recognisable.  If anything I'm surprised they aren't just using higher-resolution versions of the game models, given the high-quality results sometimes achieved with those - in the cutscenes for Luigi's Mansion 3, for example.

(I'd also note that the Mario & Luigi remakes demonstrate that legacy designs for named characters can survive the current mandates.  As such, the movies could probably import some of the weirder Toad designs that already exist, if they really wanted to.)

[DaBigJ]

Closer look at the Mario face leak

Spoiler

 

 

[StaticMania]

Ew, he has a collar.

 

[DaBigJ]

Oh god I didn't even notice

[Dr. Mechano]

4 hours ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

It's almost as if Toads populate the Mushroom Kingdom and always had.

But nah, it's just that mean ol' Miyamoto's fault that Toads exist.

I think the objection was the homogenization of the Toads, not their mere presence.

You used to have female Toads (other than Toadette), old man mustache Toads, fat Toads, skinny Toads, etc.

At some point it was decided that this was no longer true, with all Toads being color-swaps of the same basic model. Whether you like with this change or not, I think it is important to understand that this is what people are complaining about, not the simple fact that most NPCs are Toads.

[DaBigJ]

I guess that's fine then, reasonable even. The ol' "Smurf" effect. Who knows, maybe this movie can change this?

[StaticMania]

30 minutes ago, Dr. Mechano said:

At some point it was decided that this was no longer true...

As early as Toadette was introduced.

The thing is, it was always not true...for everything but Mario & Luigi and the Paper Mario series.

For Mario & Luigi it was as early as the 2nd game. There are only 4 unique Toads in Bowser's Inside Story and then a generic male & female sprite.

Paper Mario dropped Toads entirely in the 3rd game and they paid the price for 2 whole games.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

The leaked design looks decent. I'm cautiously optimistic about this movie.

[Salamander]

There are other Mario series characters which were brought a little closer to their "standard" design between the Mario & Luigi originals and their remakes; but as certain characters remained weird, there's a contention that this was more a case of convenient asset reuse rather than brand uniformity.  (Of course, it can be both.)

[StaticMania]

My contention is just that the Bowser, Goomba, & Toad sprites in the original game were just ugly.

Which was fixed in the sequel.

Partners in Time is full of Toads, of which only 2 are actually unique, then there are a race of extreme Toads with black caps and vests.

It's definitely asset reuse and just easier to have done that, especially in sprite form. Compared to Paper Mario, M&L is sparse on original characters in general.

[DaBigJ]

More stuff leaked. Someone posted this in a server I was in.

Spoiler

 

[Salamander]

1 hour ago, StaticMania said:

Compared to Paper Mario, M&L is sparse on original characters in general.

Hmm.  Original spins on traditional Mario series designs, anyway, though as for original characters more broadly then that varied per game.  Superstar Saga probably did have far and away the most.

1 hour ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

More stuff leaked. Someone posted this in a server I was in.

  Reveal hidden contents

I think I accidentally got invested in discussing this.  I might have to actually watch the Direct now.

Spoiler

Admittedly a tiny picture, but Peach looks a little more on-model - or at least, less uncanny.  Her hair looks as though it might be somewhat different, but overall she looks okay.

[DaBigJ]

Spoiler

I feel like I'd like the designs more if they had less realism, because currently it clashes with the Mario aspect of....everything else.

 

[ShinyGems]

Here it is, guys.