Looks like the Super Mario movie may need a few more mushrooms to get going. Nintendo announced tonight, via a tweet from Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, that the release date of the Super Mario movie has been delayed four months, from December 22, 2022 to April 7, 2023. It will arrive April 28 in Japan.
This is Miyamoto. After consulting with Chris-san, my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros. film, we decided to move the global release to Spring 2023–April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America. My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 26, 2022
To begin, it is highly unlikely that Miyamoto came into Nintendo’s PR office and took over Twitter to send this tweet. More likely, Nintendo knows that no one can ever be angry with the cherubic genius and thus wrote a tweet in which it could say the Super Mario movie release date delay was all in the name of Miyamoto wanting to perfect his artistic vision for the film. Hey, if it works for video games… (Of course, this could also just be typical Nintendo, sending an executive out to announce a delay.)
For the film, Nintendo is partnering with Illumination Entertainment, (“Chris-san” is Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri.) the animation studios behind Minions, and they’ve pulled in an all-star cast that for some roles is perfect and for other roles is Chris Pratt as Mario. The film will be directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, but Miyamoto has had a watchful eye over it with a producer credit.
