For some reason, Nintendo decided to hold a “direct” presentation on a Sunday, specifically about the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy Movie. In it, we get a new trailer showcasing a few new Mario characters joining the cast in the sequel, though we didn’t get any confirmation on if big celebrity actors are voicing them like the rest of the crew. Yoshi and Birdo will both make their cinematic debut in the movie when it premieres on April 1.
The trailer opens with Mario and Luigi investigating a pipe that apparently has some kind of monster trapped inside. The two activate their Fire Flowers and get ready for a fight, only to find that there’s no monster here. There’s just a scared little dino guy, and thus begins a beautiful friendship between Brooklyn plumbers and a dinosaur that eats baddies and poops them out as eggs. Though this is the first official reveal of the character, we saw what he would look like back in November after a cookie dough box revealed his movie look early.
Also in an action montage, we see Birdo and Peach fighting, but it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss it shot, so there’s not much to glean from this. Nevertheless, the cast of characters is growing pretty substantially in the sequel, with Bowser Jr. and Rosalina also joining, as seen in the first trailer. We even see a glimpse of Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, but it’s unclear if those are distinct characters or maybe some kind of transformation state that the brothers go through.
At the end of the direct, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri said that all animation on the film is complete, and it has officially entered post production, focusing on sound design and finishing up the score. Does that mean it’s too late for them to fix whatever the hell is going on with those gross, bulging eyes on Bowser Jr.?