Nintendo Is Planning To Make Theatrical Animated Features

Nintendo is looking to bring its iconic video game characters to theatrical feature animation, the company’s president Tatsumi Kimishima confirmed to Japan’s Asahi News (via Kotaku).

Kimishima said in an interview that the video game manufacturer was “talking to various partners” and hoped to cut a deal “in the not too distant future.” Unlike the 1993 live-action film Super Mario Bros. (the last time Nintendo made a non-Pokémon feature), Kimishima indicated that Nintendo plans to “do as much as we can ourselves” and then distribute the film “with a partner who is able to take things globally,” which can be taken to mean one of the six major U.S. movie conglomerates.

Most intriguing, Kimishima all but confirmed that the film would be animated by telling the interviewer that whatever movie they make would “probably not [be] a live-action one.” He was more vague on which character the film would be about. “I want to use an IP that is popular with everyone,” he said. “But, I’m not saying it’s going to be Super Mario, I’m only saying we’ll put out something that everyone knows very well.”

The company hasn’t committed to announcing a project this year, but Kimishima said that the first film would be likely within the next five years: “If funds flow in this year, I’m saying I’d like to put that money to use, and I’m not saying I’d like to use it five years in the future.”