You actually think it’s a top-tier movie? It’s mediocre at best.
The Lego Movie, Spider-Verse, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Incredibles, etc. those are great animated films.
I think we as consumers should demand more. The MCU is a perfect example, people are sick of mediocre film after mediocre film. If they want our hard earned cash, they should be shooting for the stars, not just a film made in a boardroom.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie should and could’ve been better. Every Illumination film has 11/10 marketing and 5/10 quality. Passable, nothing more. Though, this movie at least had an exceptional score and animation, but the script? Man, they have to hire better writers.
The land at Universal Studios Hollywood on the other hand? Breathtaking. If it was bigger, it’d arguably be the best theme park land outside of Tokyo DisneySea (and perhaps Cars Land/Diagon Alley).
Like others have said, Nintendo is arguably on par with Star Wars and Marvel in terms of popularity overall, it just has been untapped in terms of a film and theme park presence unlike the others.
For Millennials and Gen-Z especially, there’s probably an even more personal connection for even more people. That’s why it’s a hit; for some reason literally no one saw the potential until Universal hit the floor running a few years ago on the production of this film and the lands, and even then, I don’t think they fully expected the present reaction to them both.
They should immediately green light their plans for a Zelda land at Islands of Adventure and Pokémon at Universal Studios Florida. More films (with high quality) from all their franchises should be made. It’s a no brainer.
I don’t disagree that Pixar and Walt Disney Animation have had some political backlash, but I’d argue their single-largest problem overall is their lack of quality like @Sirwalterraleigh has talked about over the last two years. Outside of Encanto, Lightyear, Strange World, and Raya were all stuck in that not terrible but not good either valley of mediocrity.
I guarantee had Pixar/WDAS made the same exact Super Mario Bros. Movie it would have made equally as much with the same marketing. That’s a shame honestly because we should demand more out of movies.
If the garbage that was Rise of Skywalker made as much money as The Force Awakens, even though TFA was significantly better, it wouldn’t force them to actually try and make a good movie if it made just as much. Because it didn’t, they feel they left close to a billion dollars on the table, which they did because they thought people would mindlessly buy anything out in front of them.
Fortunately, as Disney is learning the hard way, it is not the case, however, Illumination hasn’t had to lay that lesson yet, to the pain of the consumer.