Miyamoto seemed upbeat when introducing it, and that's important.

Overall, the trailer made the movie seem very… "mainstream Hollywood."

The cast is mainly popular American actors of the moment, and the Japanese Direct featured them and their performances with English subtitles. The dialogue's writing and delivery, and the pacing and beats of the animation knitted to them, seem just like the sort that sells your average Dreamworks or Pixar film: colloquial street speech of the day (never mind the world in which it's actually set), with trivial, slapstick-like interactions that turn on a dime for a momentary laugh.

The music: low, sustained whole notes from the horn for foreboding. Clashing percussion which hits three quarter-note triplets into a critical downbeat. The recognizable theme appears in the form of an echoey solo melody played in the right third of a piano. All of these are stock staples of trailers in recent years. (What, no "in a world"?)

I'd already felt like the definition of an animated feature had narrowed last decade. But Nintendo has thrived by charting its own course leading from the voice of its own soul rather than following trends. Japan is the home of Miyazaki, or Kurosawa, and, yes, of Miyamoto. And it's disappointing, if not ironic, to notice that the 1994 live-action Super Mario Bros. movie, which Nintendo never mentions officially and seems regarded by fans as more of a "so bad it's good" feature, appears to be the more original one.

Mario, Luigi and Bowser all have their own movie-specific "look," which is close to the now well-refined look into which Mario grew and has unwaveringly retained, but purposely "not quite right." Players of all ages know exactly know what Mario looks like – he's at least as iconic as Mickey Mouse. After 25 years of being voiced by the one and only Martinet, they know what Mario sounds like too. Why isn't the One True Movie, with Nintendo fully behind it, about that Mario, pure-hearted, unabashed and inimitable? Why lean into peer pressure and an "edginess" long since dulled?

Before the trailer was revealed, one still vista was released: Mario viewed from behind, staring upward at Peach's castle upon a mountainous dome of a hill, the cascading shops and sites of a bustling Mushroom Kingdom stretching before him like an unfamiliar Disneyland. A nearby "Antiques" store featured pixellated music boxes from Super Mario Bros. 3. If I'd only seen that and hadn't seen the trailer, I'd have remained bright-eyed and expectant. That image conveyed love, and a Mushroom Kingdom that felt like it could be what a long-time player might have expected to see if they could "really go there."

I hope there's plenty of that kind love in the film which the trailer is actively masking. I hope Nintendo's soul is at its heart, and not Pixar's or Dreamworks'. I at least hope I can watch a Japanese cast with English subtitles.

And if none of that is true, I hope Miyamoto blinks, takes a step back, and checks for any follow-up from his inner voice. I'd say he's always been pretty good at that.