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Miyamoto reveals the moment he knew he could trust Universal to help make a Mario movie
Nintendo and Universal are teaming up for Super Nintendo World, but they also have another collaboration in the Super Mario animated movie. The project is being worked on by animation studio Illumination, which is owned by Universal. While we haven't seen anything of the film yet, it seems the pairing of the two companies is working really well.
In an interview with Famitsu, Shigeru Miyamoto discussed how the project came to be, and how he knew teaming with Illumination was the right way to go. Check out the translation courtesy of OniDino below.
When we started our partnership with Universal, I heard that the CEO of Illumination, Chris Meledandri, wanted to meet with me – he was also signed with Universal. So I met with him and talked. He brought things with him that I had mentioned in interviews in the past to say that our ways of thinking and doing things are one in the same.
I didn’t know what kind of angle he was getting at, but I’ll never forget when he talked to me about why he had failed before. That’s when I thought, “I think I can trust this guy.” That was right around the time I was considering movies, so we decided to have him do the animation for us when he said, “What do you say? Let’s make something together.” It took a really long time for things to come together, but we finally found our way.