The minutes and hours are rapidly counting down to the moment that The Super Mario Bros Movie is unleashed upon the world, and reviews were released today. Frankly, they’re pretty mixed. Outlets like The Guardian and the BBC came down pretty hard on it, whereas outlets with more intimate knowledge of video games (and also Variety, incidentally) seemed much more receptive. Regardless, we’re learning some interesting non-spoiler details about the movie right now. In particular, on a special episode of the Kit and Krysta Podcast, the titular hosts reviewed The Super Mario Bros Movie and revealed that former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata is listed in the ending credits of the movie.
“In the credits, very prominently, they show Mr. (Shuntaro) Furukawa, but they also have Mr. Iwata in there,” said Krysta Yang. Kit Ellis elaborated that theĀ Mario movie credits read something to the effect of “President of Nintendo: Shuntaro Furukawa” and “Former President of Nintendo: Satoru Iwata.”
It’s a touching gesture, as Iwata passed away suddenly and tragically at age 55 of cancer in 2015, but he was a monumental force in Nintendo for decades in ways both incredibly large and incredibly small. He was also just a man of stupendous character, volunteering to slash his own pay by half during the struggling Wii U years so that Nintendo could avoid layoffs. The inclusion of Satoru Iwata in the end credits of The Super Mario Bros Movie is going to make a lot of people happy.
The relevant moment in the Kit and Krysta Podcast is cued up below, but the whole thing is a nice watch if you want an in-depth minimal-spoilers review.
For more about The Super Mario Bros Movie, check out Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto’s thoughts on deciding not to let Princess Peach be a “damsel in distress” for the movie. Then hear his jokey explanation of when we can expect the next Super Mario video game.
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