Why Won’t Mario Appear In Wreck-It Ralph?

It’s not a-me, Mario!

Though Disney was able to snag the rights to include classic characters like Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros.’ Bowser in Wreck-It Ralph, don’t expect to see everyone’s favorite gleeful Italian plumber in this fall’s animated adventure.

In an interview with Total Film, producer Clark Spencer shed some light on why Mario would not join in on the collection of video game characters.

“The hard thing was, we were trying to work out the right way to use a character like Mario. It had to be organic to the film, we didn’t want to just paste him in there. For Bowser, it made perfect sense for him to be a member of the Bad Anon group. For Mario himself we couldn’t think of the right way to incorporate him into the film, and so we didn’t do it.”

If that’s the case then I have to give props to Disney for not opting to shoehorn in a popular character that didn’t fit, just for the sake of exposure (no matter how awesome it would have been to see him opposite John C. Reilly’s titular Wreck-It Ralph).

Though creative decisions may have been at play, director Rich Moore in a chat with Vulture had another reason for not adding in Mario and his brother Luigi into the film: money.

“Rich Moore said at Comic-Con today that Nintendo wouldn’t let him use Mario himself. And his brother (Luigi) wanted more money.”

So there you have it, it seems like it was never in the cards to have Mario get swept up in the game-trotting journey of Wreck-It Ralph, but with plenty of other character to encounter and a great voice cast which includes Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman, Dennis Haysbert and Ed O’Neil, this original Disney property still looks to be one of the year’s best.

Wreck-It Ralph smashes into theaters November 2nd.