Development After the critical and commercial failure of the 1993
Super Mario Bros. film adaptation, the Japanese video game company
Nintendo became wary of licensing its properties for film adaptations. Miyamoto knew that the process of making a film was far different from that of making a video game, and wanted a film expert to lead the effort. Following the
November 2014 hack of
Sony Pictures, emails between producer
Avi Arad, studio chief
Amy Pascal,
TriStar Pictures head
Tom Rothman, and
Sony Pictures Animation president of production Michelle Raimo Kouyate were released, revealing that Sony had been attempting to secure the film rights to the
Mario franchise for several years. Arad visited Nintendo in Tokyo in February and July 2014 in an attempt to secure a deal. In October, Arad emailed Pascal and said he had closed the deal with Nintendo. Pascal suggested recruiting
Genndy Tartakovsky, director of Sony Pictures Animation's
Hotel Transylvania (2012), to help develop the project, while Kouyate said she could "think of 3–4 movies right out of the gate" and hoped to build a "
Mario empire". However, after the emails leaked, Arad denied that a deal had been made, stating that negotiations had only begun.
BuzzFeed News noted that the emails did not take into account potential conflicts with Sony Pictures' corporate sibling
Sony Interactive Entertainment, one of Nintendo's chief competitors. Through Nintendo's work with
Universal Parks & Resorts to create
Mario-based attractions, later resulting in
Super Nintendo World, Miyamoto met
Chris Meledandri, founder of
Universal Pictures'
Illumination animation division. Miyamoto found Meledandri's creative process similar to his own and felt he would be the proper lead for a
Mario film. They had started more earnest discussions by 2016, knowing that if they felt it would not work that they could easily walk away. Then-Nintendo president
Tatsumi Kimishima clarified that a deal had not been finalized, but that an announcement would come soon. Kimishima hoped that if the deal were successful, a 2020 release date would be possible. In January 2018, Nintendo announced that the film would progress with Miyamoto and Meledandri co-producing. Meledandri said the film was a "priority" for Illumination and that it would most likely come out in 2022. He added that Miyamoto would be "front and center" during production. In January 2020, Nintendo president
Shuntaro Furukawa stated that the film was "moving along smoothly" with an expected 2022 release date. Furukawa also said Nintendo would own the rights to the film, and both Nintendo and Universal would fund the production. (left) and
Michael Jelenic (right) In August 2021, it emerged that
Teen Titans Go! creators
Aaron Horvath and
Michael Jelenic were directing the film after the discovery of an Illumination animator's
LinkedIn profile that included the film in their list. Following the full casting announcement, Horvath and Jelenic were confirmed to be directing, with Matthew Fogel attached as the screenwriter after previously writing Illumination's
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022). According to
Khary Payton, who has collaborated with Horvath and Jelenic on various projects at
Warner Bros. Animation, the duo flew to
Illumination Studios Paris a month after the release of their first feature film,
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, in September 2018. In September 2022, it was announced by
New York Comic Con that the film's
teaser trailer would be released on October 6, 2022; the teaser formally revealed the film's title,
The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Writing Jelenic and Horvath wanted their work on the film to be the opposite of the "irreverent"
Teen Titans Go!, aiming to develop a faithful adaptation of the games, which they both felt had not been done before, as well as something "more cinematic" and "more emotional" than
Teen Titans Go!. "When people probably first heard our names attached to the movie, they expected we'd do the
Teen Titans Go! treatment to Mario", said Jelenic. "But every project we come to, we make new choices depending on who the audience is and what we're going for". Horvath asserted that Nintendo involved themselves with every aspect of the production, "from story to visual development to the animation". The duo wanted the film to serve as an "origin story" for
Mario and
Luigi, opting to portray them as "blue-collar guys" by focusing on their previous backgrounds as Italian-American plumbers from New York City in early games (specifically Brooklyn, as in older American media). The duo drew inspiration from
Super Mario 3D World (2013) and its portrayal of Peach as a playable character, stating they wanted to focus on her role as the Mushroom Kingdom's monarch and "how strong that person would need to be to protect [the Toads]". For Bowser, they "decided to make that character scary, but the other side of Bowser is somebody who's vulnerable and funny". In August 2021,
Sebastian Maniscalco revealed he was voicing Spike, Mario and Luigi's boss from the game
Wrecking Crew (1985). During a September 2021
Nintendo Direct presentation, Shigeru Miyamoto announced that
Chris Pratt,
Anya Taylor-Joy,
Charlie Day,
Jack Black,
Keegan-Michael Key,
Seth Rogen,
Kevin Michael Richardson,
Fred Armisen, and Maniscalco would headline the voice cast and that Martinet would be featured in "surprise cameos". The announcement was met with a mixed reaction from fans; while some welcomed the idea of
celebrity actors voicing the characters, others questioned and criticized the choices, in particular Pratt as Mario instead of Martinet (who had voiced the character since 1991) or an Italian actor. Martinet voices the brothers' father as well as a citizen of Brooklyn named Giuseppe, the former using Martinet's initial tough Italian-American voice for Mario and the latter using Mario's game voice. Additionally, voice acting veterans
Rino Romano,
John DiMaggio, and
Jessica DiCicco voiced Mario and Luigi's uncles Tony and Arthur, and mother, respectively, as the intention was to cast actors of Italian ancestry for the brothers' family. Meledandri said Pratt would not be voicing Mario in a thick Italian accent as Martinet had traditionally done. Voice actor
Khary Payton described Pratt's original voice during production as a "New York, Italian guy" and a "cousin to
the Sopranos", but the accent was scrapped for sounding too similar to the character
Tony Soprano. Voice actress
Tara Strong criticized Pratt's casting and expressed a preference for Martinet to voice Mario instead, lamenting what she described to be Hollywood's disregard for professional voice actors. In response to criticism of Pratt's casting, Horvath stated, "For us, it made total sense. He's really good at playing a blue-collar hero with a ton of heart. For the way that Mario is characterized in our film, he's perfect for it." Charlie Day originally wanted to voice Luigi with a
New York accent similar to the film
Goodfellas (1990). The accent was scrapped when the directors told him it sounded too similar to the gangster film, to which Day responded to the change with, "Alright! I think you're wrong, but fine!" Upon the trailer's release, both Payton and
Eric Bauza confirmed their parts in the film; Payton voices the Penguin King and Bauza voices the Toad General. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Payton recorded his lines in a closet at his home, though he was unsure if he would appear in the final cut.
Animation and design The film was animated by
Illumination Studios Paris in Paris, France. Production was underway by September 2020, with animation ending in October 2022. Jelenic and Horvath wanted the animation to juggle stylized animation with realism, with Horvath claiming that "there are moments of cartoony fun, but [...] we wanted it to feel like a big adventure film and that there are stakes and maybe you believe that these characters can die, so they're not
super-squashy and super-stretchy, and we used consistent volume on the characters to make them feel a little more grounded". In an interview with
GameSpot, Horvath said that he and Jelenic took a "blockbuster approach" when directing the film's action sequences, "consider[ing] Mario [to be] more of an action game. [...] So we wanted to reflect that action sensibility." The pair brought in artists they had previously worked with from their television background, and credited head of story
Ed Skudder with storyboarding the Rainbow Road sequence, which they also described as the film's most technically challenging. The road itself was a
visual effect, and every shot of it had to go through the visual effects department, which was time-consuming and expensive. Donkey Kong's design was changed for the first time since the video game
Donkey Kong Country (1994); the new design was influenced by the character's redesign in
Donkey Kong Bananza (2025), which was in development during the film's production. For Mario's family, Horvath and Jelenic were given early designs of Mario by Nintendo as references; they ended up using slightly altered versions of those designs in the film. Jason Hanel, senior colorist at
Company 3, fine-tuned
The Super Mario Bros. Movies visuals using
DaVinci Resolve. While Illumination's animation already controlled lighting and color, Hanel made final scene-by-scene adjustments to enhance realism and maintain consistency. He adjusted skin tones, clothing, and environments to counter unintended shifts from digital lighting. The transition from Brooklyn's realism to the Mushroom Kingdom's fantasy was refined through
color grading, with effects like digital
lens flares and atmospheric lighting reinforcing a cinematic feel. The Dark Lands' shadows and black levels were finalized in post-production to achieve the intended eerie tone. ==Music==