Yoshi's Island (film)

***Yoshi's Island*** is a 2020 computer-animated adventure fantasy-comedy film directed by Takashi Tezuka and Toshihiko Nakago, produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Tom Hanks based on a story by Takayuki Ikkaku and Miyamoto. It stars the voices of Andrew Sabiston, Charles Martinet, Jen Taylor and more.

*Yoshi's Island* premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on February 2, 2020 and was theatrically released on February 14, 2020 alongside *Sonic the Hedgehog* by Paramount Pictures. It received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising its animation, voice cast (particularly Sabiston and Martinet), musical score by Tom Holkenborg and visual effects, though some criticized the plot and runtime. It was commercially successful, grossing $494.9 million on a $75 million production budget.

## Cast

* Andrew Sabiston as Yoshi
* Charles Martinet as Baby Mario, Mario (older), Baby Luigi, Luigi (older), Baby Wario, Wario (older)
* Dolores Rogers as Baby Bowser, Bowser Jr.
* Kenneth Wendell James as Bowser (older)
* Grant Kirkhope as Baby Donkey Kong

## Production

Development on *Yoshi's Island* dates far back at 2007. Nintendo and 20th Century Fox had plans on a Yoshi's Island feature film adaptation, but came to a close in 2008 due to script problems. Blue Sky Studios was originally set to animate the film with 20th Century Fox Animation. In 2014, Universal Pictures approached Nintendo with plans of a Yoshi's Island film adaptation, but was quickly turned down after Illumination Entertainment, the film's original animation provider, cut ties with the project to work on *Minions* (2015).

At some point, Paramount Pictures reached out to them. Paramount and Nintendo worked on a bunch of projects in the past, and Yoshi's Island needed to be made. Production began in April 2017 and wrapped in August 2019.

During casting sessions, Andrew Sabiston signed to play Yoshi as he did in *The Super Mario Movie* (2004). Charles Martinet provided the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario and their baby versions, as Dolores Rogers provided the voices of Baby Bowser and Bowser Jr. and Kenneth Wendell James as Bowser.

### Visual effects and animation

Visual effects and animation were handled by Reel FX Creative Studios and Animal Logic. Reel FX produced animation in Dallas, Texas, while Animal Logic produced animation and visual effects in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

## Release

Originally scheduled for an August 2019 release, the film was pushed back to February 2020. *Yoshi's Island* premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on February 2, 2020 and was theatrically released in the United States on February 14, 2020 by Paramount Pictures, alongside their own *Sonic the Hedgehog* film with Sega. It was subsequently released later in Japan on April 29, 2020.

### Home media

*Yoshi's Island* was released on Digital on March 31, 2020 and was released onto DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra-HD Blu-ray on May 19, 2020 with *Sonic the Hedgehog*'s DVD and Blu-ray release. The DVD and Blu-ray includes a behind-the-scenes feature, an animated music video with guest rapper Wiz Khalifa, and a commentary with director Takashi Iizuka and actor Andrew Sabiston.

## Reception

### Box office

*Yoshi's Island* was theatrically released on February 14, 2020 by Paramount Pictures. It grossed $193.5 million in the United States and Canada and $301.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $494.9 million. It was the second-highest-grossing film of 2020 and the highest-grossing video game film adaptation of all time.

In the United States and Canada, *Yoshi's Island* was released alongside Paramount Pictures' own *Sonic the Hedgehog* film with Sega, along with *Fantasy Island*, *The Photograph*, and *Downhill*. It initially was to project $30-40 million in 3,490 theatres in is four-day President's Day weekend. After grossing $53.6 million (including $5 million from Thursday night previews), estimates were raised to $55 million. It went on to top the box office charts, ahead of *Sonic the Hedgehog*, with a $79 million debut over the three-day weekend, and $94 million over the four, breaking *Detective Pikachu*'s record for the biggest opening weekend by a video game-based film. Opening day audiences were 54% male and 46% female, with 81% under 25 years and just 19% over 25 years. In its second weekend, *Yoshi's Island* made $18.5 million and retained its top spot at the box office, bringing its ten-day domestic gross to $166.1 million. *Yoshi's Island* made $25.1 million in its third weekend, and became the highest-grossing film based on a video game in US box office history, surpassing *Detective Pikachu*, until box office projections were stopped on March 14, 2020, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

*Yoshi's Island* was released in 40 countries during its three-day opening weekend, topping the international box office with $68 million. Its strongest international regions were Latin America and Europe, with its largest openings being $8.6 million in Spain, $7.5 million in the United Kingdom, $5.1 million in Brazil, $4.8 million in France, $4.4 million in Germany, and $3.6 million in Russia. Worldwide, it made $189 million over the three-day weekend and $204.7 million over the four days. In its second weekend, the film again topped the international box office with $49.5 million for a ten-day worldwide gross of $279.6 million. Its largest international markets in its first ten days were the United Kingdom ($48.8 million), Spain ($42.4 million) and Germany ($39.1 million), retaining the top spot in these markets. The film opened in 18 new markets, led by a number-one debut in Russian ($51.3 million). The film was released in Japan on April 29, 2020, after being postponed from a previous March release due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and debuted at No. 4 that weekend. In China, the release was also postponed due to the pandemic, eventually receiving a May 30 date and underperforming at the Chinese box office due to new pandemic-related theatre policies there.

In terms of box office admissions, the film sold over 17,482,096 tickets in the United States and Canada (annual rank #2), 8,293,902 tickets in China (annual #1), 1,003,948 tickets in Argentina (annual #2), 824,049 tickets in the Dominican Republic, (annual #1), 21,390,829 tickets in Europe (annual #1), 428,904 tickets in South Korea, and 4,502,993 tickets in Brazil (annual #2), for a combined total of 53,926,721 tickets sold in these territories.

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, *Yoshi's Island* has an approval rating of 78% based on 188 reviews, with an average rating of 6.95/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Fulfilled with joy and beautifully animated, *Yoshi's Island* is a video game-influenced journey that anyone can enjoy -- and a perfect way for Andrew Sabiston to shine as the egg-throwing Yoshi." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, and PostTrak reported it an average of 4 out of 5 stars, with 81% of viewers they surveyed saying they would definitely recommend it.