Ah, concept art is always so interesting, isn’t it? Indeed, whether it’s the Breath of the Wild artwork in Creating a Champion, Super Mario Odyssey concepts in The Art of Super Mario Odyssey or the recent Walpeach design for Mario Power Tennis, it’s always been fascinating to see what unused ideas companies have had for their games and products.
Like these horrifying unused Guardian concepts for Breath of the Wild
And now some interesting concept art for the Super Mario Bros Movie has been released too. Posted by Paramount Animation art director Travis Ruiz and illustrator Megan, these pictures show all kinds of interesting details and unused ideas for the film. Here are some of our favourites so far:
Here's a thread of every Toad *outfit* concept I created while working on the Mario Movie! My task for many months was to explore the life of the Toads in Mushroom Kingdom. These were all done very quickly since it was just the concept stage! pic.twitter.com/UNStTUbn4Z
— Megan (they) @ECCC (@meganroseruiz) January 20, 2024
Like a whole thread of awesome Toad concepts! These include concepts for everything from construction workers to punk rockers, Princess Peach fans to CIA agents. They’re an awesome set of designs for sure, and somehow more unique than just about every Toad found in a modern Paper Mario game.
There are also some awesome location concepts too. These include Princess Peach’s Garden (which gets very little screentime in the movie as far as we can recall):
Here's a bunch of exploration I did for Peach's garden for the Mario movie! pic.twitter.com/hQ1N2nm3lT
— Megan (they) @ECCC (@meganroseruiz) January 17, 2024
The Punch-Out Pizzeria where the bros first encounter Foreman Spike:
“Punch-Out Pizzeria”
Had a ton of fun designing this one. One of the first character moments I painted for the Mario bros movie and loaded it with easter eggs for all the Nintendo heads out there. pic.twitter.com/5tAf5R2pwJ— Travis Ruiz (@theartoftravis) January 8, 2024
And even what looks like Moo Moo Farm from the Mario Kart series, complete with the cows from said games:
Little moment with the Toads! Created while working on the Mario movie. pic.twitter.com/cFXRYjIVUk
— Megan (they) @ECCC (@meganroseruiz) January 17, 2024
Heck, there’s even this adorable piece featuring Baby Peach in the Mushroom Kingdom, where she’s just entered this world for the first time:
Baby Peach enters Mushroom Kingdom! Concept painting for the Mario movie 🙂 pic.twitter.com/ZRFBkHwrlY
— Megan (they) @ECCC (@meganroseruiz) January 15, 2024
All these pieces of art are a joy to look at, and an absolute treat for Mario fans interested in finding obscure references and cameos. Definitely give Travis and Megan a follow on Twitter if you want to see more.
Or at least, do so while you can. Since unfortunately, Nintendo’s attitude towards artists posting concepts for their games and media outside ‘official’ channels is not exactly a positive one. Indeed, with Fumihide Aoki removing his Nintendo themed pieces once Walpeach went viral, it seems like Nintendo is very keen to wipe any trace of this sort of concept art off the face of the internet.
So, we wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see these pictures get deleted once Nintendo’s legal team come knocking. Or much of these accounts to get made private in their entirety.
Regardless, they’re great pictures that illustrate some awesome concepts for the movie, and we’d definitely recommend checking them out while that’s still possible. Still, what are your favourites here? Do you think any of these concepts should have made the final cut?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, on social media, or on our Discord server today!
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