Nintendo and Illumination almost gave Yoshi his own movie

According to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, a Yoshi movie was very much under consideration at one point.

You may recall that in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a few Yoshis do appear – but only extremely briefly. There was also a post credits scene hinting at Yoshi getting a more prominent role in the future.

Now speaking with Famitsu, Miyamoto revealed that before settling on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie a Yoshi film was considered at one point. The proposal was focused on the character “entangled in various escapades across New York City”.

“As for Yoshi, we absolutely wanted to feature him in the film, but there simply wasn’t room for him in the first movie. Although a few Yoshis did make brief appearances in the first movie – specifically when the characters passed through Yoshi’s Island on their journey to the Jungle Kingdom – we wanted to build upon that, which is why we included a Yoshi egg at the very end of the previous film. That, of course, raised the question: what became of the Yoshi that remained behind in New York? During production, there was even a proposal to create an entire standalone film centered solely on that Yoshi getting entangled in various escapades across New York City; ultimately, however, we decided to proceed with the form the story takes now.”

Although that Yoshi movie never happened, perhaps it’s an idea that could be revisited in the future. Also, we do know that the character played a prominent role in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Miyamoto also shared a few words about the critical reception The Super Mario Galaxy Movie received. Read more about that here.