From Teen Titans Go! to Super Mario

The filmmakers behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie explain their process for creating the Nintendo film and how it differs from Teen Titans Go!
Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the co-directors of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie, assured fans they’re not handling the Italian plumber the same way they handle Teen Titans Go!
In an interview with Animation Magazine, the filmmakers were asked if their experience working on Teen Titans Go! prepared them for working on the first animated Nintendo movie for Universal Pictures. “With Teen Titans we were tasked with making a show that was very irreverent and funny and really broad for a new audience,” Horvath said. “We were able to do that because there was already a reverent series delivered for a lot of people. But there had never been a really authentic Super Mario movie or TV show that was satisfying. So, in a way, it was the opposite of what we did on Teen Titans: Let’s deliver the Mario experience that we haven’t had yet.”
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Jelenic, who worked on a variety of animated projects like Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the 2011 ThunderCats series, shared his experience with working on licensed characters. “I’ve spent most of my career working on pre-existing characters and have gone from being faithful to completely irreverent,” Jelenic said. “When people probably first heard our names attached to the movie, they expected we’d do the Teen Titans Go! treatment to Mario. But every project we come to, we make new choices depending on who the audience is and what we’re going for.”
Teen Titans Go! is an ongoing animated comedy on Cartoon Network that began airing on April 23, 2013. Although the series is a ratings juggernaut with over 300 11-minute episodes, fans of the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon have slammed the comedic spinoff for its juvenile and mean-spirited humor. The show, popular for its use of meta-humor, often fires back at angry Teen Titans fans who demand a more serious take on the characters. The Season 2 episode “Let’s Get Serious!” is among the many examples of the show poking fun at the hate it gets for its childish humor.
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Although The Super Mario Bros. Movie is planning to be more faithful than Teen Titans Go!, there is one aspect that the filmmakers are changing from the games. Princess Peach, who is typically portrayed as the damsel-in-distress in the Super Mario video games is a more active character in the movie, while Mario’s scaredy-cat brother, Luigi, is the one who needs saving from Bowser.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie debuts in theaters April 5.
Source: Animation Magazine
Leogardo Reyna Jr. is a freelance writer and Whataburger enthusiast at Corpus Christi, TX. He’s written about his love of anime, manga, comic books, and video games for websites like CBR, Ranker, MAL, and Looper.