It's the only large-scale turnaround of this kind I've ever heard of, and something that could only have happened after the Internet. Following public response to the first trailer, the lanky, tallish, human-hybrid appearance of Sonic The Hedgehog for his 2020 film was replaced with a "proper" representation of his well-known fictional likeness, delaying release. I don't watch many films, but I was resultingly tempted to watch that one, and, even without being a Sonic person, knew the correction was right.

Mario and Luigi don't look nearly so egregious for their upcoming lead roles, but as I mentioned recently, they look a little off by design: in particular, the scragglier moustaches and more bulbous and elliptical faces. The physical movement of their bodies as they're flopped and tossed around is also kind of lazy, as though they're largish bean bags of stretchy nylon. And of course, there's the choice of casting. Jack Black as Bowser is fortunately pretty close, but an unaffected Chris Pratt just makes Mario sound like a guy.

Doug Bowser and Bill Trinen both openly asked what people thought on Twitter. Some positive responses, but certainly some of the aforementioned. One Twitter neighbour asked rhetorically (on their own timeline) whether it was too late to repeat the circumstances that righted Sonic. I responded:

"My hypothesis is that Miyamoto actually perceived this mystique around the modern American triple-A animated family movie and actually liked the idea of grafting Mario onto it without quite fathoming how quickly it will age by comparison to his own ideas."

The term "graft" came from my memory of his communication with the developers of Hyrule Warriors. When they seemed up to produce a fuller prequel to Breath Of The Wild, Miyamoto stressed their goal should be to take Zelda's characters and settings, and "graft" them onto the established "Dynasty Warriors" gameplay. Is that kind of collaborative conceit what he sees as the way for this film as well?

The comparator I can't ignore, and the one that brought me to post again, is the immense project of Super Nintendo World, Japan's recent theme park-like attraction. Presumably all stakeholders would like it to be timeless, and they know that means giving fans something that effectively celebrates all the ideas that make it up. Sure enough, everything from Thwomps to question blocks are rendered as perfect physical reminders of their digital counterparts. Mario, Luigi, Toad and others, both "in person" and on screens here and there, look and sound exactly as they should. I don't have the numbers on the success of the project, but the North American version is still a go for next year.

Everything about the movie was a mystery until the first trailer. But after so much time, the one seeming certainty was that the aim would be a similarly timeless, celebration-like, "everything feels exactly right" kind of film. And I imagine that's what's thrown at least some of the commenters I've encountered.