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Guillermo del Toro is an Oscar-winning filmmaker who’s released some of the more inventive and unique movies the industry has seen in the last couple of decades. He also knows a thing or two about videogames, having appeared in games and fessing up to playing a number of titles over the years. It’s clear he has a lot of respect for what game developers do, and now he’s thrown some praise at one of gaming’s biggest icons.

In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, del Toro talked about his plans to wrap up his live-action efforts in order to create a slew of animated features. del Toro has released a few animated films already, and he’s spoken at length about how much he appreciates animation in every sense. He even went so far to share frustrations about animation being seen as a genre, instead of a medium.

While there’s still a long way for Hollywood to go in recognizing animation for all it has to offer, del Toro says that some major big-name animated releases are helping to steer things in the right direction. del Toro mentions 3 films specifically, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie is one of them.

“The three hits of Spider-Verse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mario are moving things, allowing a little more latitude, but there are still big fights to be had. Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good shit into the animation world.”

[Guillermo del Toro]

It’s great to see del Toro tip his cap to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as it’s clear he’s a firm believer in what animated projects can accomplish, and he knows the worldwide acceptance of Mario on the big screen can help pave the way for future animated projects. Let’s hope plenty of others in Hollywood have taken the hint as well!

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Comments (4)

kuribo

10M ago

If they ever decided to do a weirder darker Zelda movie in the vein of Majora’s Mask, Guillermo del Toro would be the man to do it.


conangiga

10M ago

I seriously hope he didn't mean the new TMNT: Mutant Mayham movie but an old one. ANY old one would be fine.


hawk

10M ago

I hate to argue with the guy who made The Orphanage, but I don't see that the Super Mario Movie has done anything radical or new... other than maybe being a video game movie that mostly trusts its source material. But the Angry Birds movie kind of did that several years ago.

Not to detract from the Mario Movie or anything. I did enjoy it.

I do agree with how he feels about Animation's potential, and how it's been kidnapped by crap factories like current-day Disney and Pixar.


If he's talking about Mutant Mayhem, it's probably because its visual style is technically groundbreaking. That's one thing I can hand them even though the movie looks pretty bad.