One thing about Mario is that he doesn't really have an actual fanbase. Sure, people enjoy Mario games, myself included, but they're not passionate about Mario (except rare mentally ill autists like MovieBob). No one talks about him outside of his games, and if you replaced him in Oddysey with any other character, I wouldn't feel much different about that game. Mario exists, his games are good, and that's all you could say about him.

If Nintendo intends to go the multimedia route, this needs to change. The Mario movie "worked" because it was Nintendo's first major animated movie, but the sequel will have to try harder. And the live-action Zelda movie will have to be really good to get people used to the idea of a talking Link (you can tell that Nintendo wants to do away with Link being a silent protagonist, as the games themselves have moved further and further away from the "self-insert" angle since OoT)

>says his own fucking name out loud
>DURRRRR MERRY-O

You pasta niggers drive a hard bargain. Fine, as a sign of goodwill, I will grant the most Italian, super Mario, the designation of white. From this moment on, I hereby declare that Super Mario is a white Aryan man. I will grant you this, but not Luigi, as that will be really pushing it. I will await the Italian delegation to deliver my Meloni melons

>>213571114
My-a Cock