The following article contains spoilers for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.The Super Mario Bros. Movie is off to a record-setting start, and if Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo composer Koji Kondo have their way, the film won’t slow down anytime soon as Mario’s creator believes this is the type of movie that requires more than a couple of watches to spot all those sweet gaming easter eggs.
Despite tons of excitement among Nintendo fans, the Mario movie’s $377.6m box office haul from the past five days shattered all expectations, even beating Disney’s Frozen 2 for the top opening in animation. Miyamoto’s involvement surely had something to do with that as his team-up with Illumination nearly guaranteed the approval from video game circles, especially for a movie that shows tons of love for Mario in every scene.
That’s why Miyamoto told Rolling Stone he thinks “you’ll need to watch it more than five times” to find all the clever easter eggs the team put in Super Mario Bros., and “Five times is probably not gonna be enough for all of it.” In that context, Miyamoto really went the extra mile, explaining that the decision to introduce Mario and Luigi’s family came from some “old, old illustrations that we had,” although he was very pleased with Illumination’s impressive level of Mario culture.
When it comes to easter eggs, the Mario movie packs plenty of sound bites as well, however, Kondo explained he was actually very unintrusive when it came to composer Brian Tyler’s work on the film, instead saying he only gave Tyler suggestions for which songs he should use. Kondo wondered “how many people catch that when Luigi receives a phone call, the ringtone…” just to name one of the more obscure references only people familiar with the Nintendo GameCube could pick up right away.
Ultimately, Miyamoto claims Illumination was the perfect partner for Nintendo because “our philosophies and the way we think about creating something new is very similar,” and it’s clear audiences love that as the second coming of Mario has been such a hit. On the other hand, most critics have not been impressed, albeit the Super Mario movie being exactly what gamers expected out of the world's most famous plumbers.
If the Mario movie is as rewatchable as Miyamoto suggests, then Illumination and Nintendo’s efforts will become even more profitable, so that hinted sequel is all but guaranteed, especially with Super Mario Bros. Leaving so many questions unanswered.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie currently available in theaters.
Source: Rolling Stone