The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Proof that faithfulness and animation go hand in hand. Mario’s first Hollywood outing was a rocky one: the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. took a strangely gritty, cyberpunk turn, its final cut mangled by studio interference. Cinephiles have since reclaimed it as a curious artefact — but it bears little resemblance to the Nintendo games.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie course-corrects entirely, capturing the franchise’s adventurous spirit and vivid worldbuilding across decades of consoles — plus a healthy dose of silliness courtesy of Charlie Day’s jittery Luigi and Jack Black’s scene-stealing Bowser.

Now streaming on KrisWorld, 2026’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie goes deeper still, drawing directly from 2007’s beloved Wii title Super Mario Galaxy and other Super Mario games. Its parade of character cameos suggests Nintendo and Hollywood are only getting started.

A Minecraft Movie 
Hollywood’s video-game playbook used to be predictable: borrow loosely from the source, add some quips and exposition, cast familiar faces, done. That formula is finally shifting — the upcoming Resident Evil reboot ditches its iconic characters for a stripped-down survival story, while HBO’s The Last of Us proved some game worlds need room to breathe. Minecraft, a game built on limitless possibility, demanded its own new approach.

A Minecraft Movie takes a page from Jumanji (Jack Black stars in both) — ordinary suburbanites yanked into another dimension by unexplained magic. Garrett (Jason Momoa), a former video game champion, tumbles into the Overworld alongside an unlikely crew: a brother-sister pair (played by Sebastian Hansen and Wednesday’s Emma Myers) and a real estate agent (Danielle Brooks).

They’re rescued by Steve (Black), a former Overworld newcomer turned seasoned survivor, who warns them the way home won’t be easy. The answer, naturally: build, build, build. Beyond its charismatic cast, the film’s offbeat comic sensibility owes plenty to director Jared Hess, of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre fame.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Fans very nearly got a much stranger film. When the first Sonic the Hedgehog teaser dropped in 2019, its titular hero looked nothing like the character that generations had grown up with — leggier, lankier, with unsettling human-like teeth. The backlash was immediate and fierce.

To its credit, the studio listened: the release was pushed back three months for a full redesign, and it paid off. Sonic the Hedgehog became a box-office hit and, more importantly, delivered the fun, faithful romp fans had waited decades for.

Sonic (Ben Schwartz) flees to Earth after a threat targets his supersonic powers, hiding out in a small American town where he befriends the local sheriff (James Marsden) — until Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey, in gloriously unhinged form) catches his scent. With Robotnik hunting him as a lab rat, Sonic and the sheriff join forces to stay one step ahead. The franchise has since expanded across two sequels — introducing Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow — with a fourth instalment landing in 2027.

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu
Like A Minecraft Movie, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu sidesteps the usual adaptation formula altogether, spinning an original story wrapped in a cheeky homage to classic Hollywood noir.

Tim (Justice Smith) has given up on his childhood dream of becoming a Pokémon trainer — until he learns of the reported death of his estranged father Harry, a detective in Ryme City, where humans and Pokémon live side by side. Investigating Harry’s apartment, Tim meets his father’s former partner: an amnesiac Pikachu who, mysteriously, only Tim can understand.

Voiced by Ryan Reynolds, this Pikachu is convinced Harry is still alive, and the mismatched pair follow the trail into Ryme City’s underworld. It’s a sharp departure from the games and anime in tone, but the film doesn’t skimp on Pokémon battles — Charizard, Mewtwo, Jigglypuff, and Psyduck all get their moment.