Luigi's Mansion would be cheap, plus I don't know if people would be interested in seeing 90+ minutes of Luigi beeing scared, meanwhile  a "Yoshi Documentary" if they can put together a good plot

Maybe it was Pokemon vs Mario. I can't remember. There was a poll on here a few months back though and yeah, alot of people were saying it was Pokemon.

If they can make a successful movie out of LEGO and Angry Birds I tend to think you can make a good CG animated Mario movie. You just need to get a good writing staff though. That Great Detective Pikachu movie seems to have a great writing team, the Gravity Falls guy and one of the writers of Guardians of the Galaxy. 

Lemme try a 10 minute take on it: Mario & Luigi are two plumbers working in New York City self-employed, but times are tough. Mario is a kind hearted, hard working, good guy. Though he and Luigi badly need money to keep their business afloat, we see Mario works free of charge to help out a family with a bunch of kids who's home is flooded even though they can't afford to pay him. He covers for another family that's behind on their rent. That's the type of guy Mario is.

Mario's dream is to travel the world but he's never even left New York. He's dreamed of travelling the world since he was a kid, but for now they're just dreams on the walls of his small Brooklyn apartment, snipets from a National Geographic magazine. Mario looks up at the star filled moonlit night and wonders if this is all there is to his life, before sighing and heading off to bed. That night he's awakened by crackling thunder and a ringing phone! Mario receives a mysterious call for an urgent job to fix pipes under a long closed old section of underground New York City (these old abandoned subway stations actually do exist in NYC!):

Here Mario will find a magical warp pipe. It's calling out to him. He and Luigi of course are drawn in. After going through the warp zone, Mario and Luigi awaken in the magical Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi gradually realize that here in the Mushroom Kingdom they have amazing powers like incredible Jackie Chan-style agility, leaping ability ... Mario/Luigi are like Dorothy entering into the land of Oz, everyone treats them like they are the second coming sent to stop the darkness that's engulfed the kingdom (Bowser naturally). The local Toads start calling him "Super Mario", they claim he is the hero the Mushroom Kingdom has been waiting for, but Mario thinks they're wrong, he's just a regular guy after all how can he possibly defeat this Bowser's entire army? 

So there your adventure starts, and in this adventure we'll see Mario go to a desert land, an icy snow mountain with talking penguins, an underwater kingdom, sky world etc. and even a spooky ghost house. It's clear as the adventure goes on that Mario, pure of heart, is indeed the hero the Mushroom Kingdom needs but he is against overwhelming odds. 

At one point Mario will appear to "die" in trying to defeat Bowser, all hope is lost, but everyone starts chanting "Mario! Mario! Mario!" which brings Mario back to life (a 1-UP!) and against all odds hardworking Mario defeats Bowser, who it turns out isn't such a bad guy but was under the control of a darker power. Peace is restored to the Mushroom Kingdom and Mario is given the key to the castle, one of the brainy Toad's at the end of the movie has made an electronic video game starring Mario, which is kind of a wink, wink joke to the audience. 

After credits scene: Mario & Luigi while wanting to go home to Brooklyn accidentally go into the wrong warp zone. The warp zone take them into a mythical forest, they see an object in stone illuminated by a shard of sunlight in front of them. Luigi's asks what it is, we the see it as the audience and it's clear to us that it's the MASTER SWORD of HYRULE. CUT TO BLACK. This is setting up the broader Nintendo cinematic universe and a Smash Brothers movie where all the Nintendo heroes will have to unite and fight against the dark, mysterious force that was controlling Bowser in this movie. 

That's just my very basic, simple first take on it, but it's probably already better than that 1993 movie, lol. 

Indeed, this is true.

It's interesting that Nintendo isn't officially associated with 2020 and they're not sponsoring the games. The decision to use Mario came from the Tokyo organising committee, apparently, so - a lucky bit of publicity for Nintendo, it seems. http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/22/technology/nintendo-mario-olympics-rio-closing-ceremony/

An italian charter symbol of Japan?...

They should be saying how gaming is more than just Mario. Tired of all these families acting like Mario is the only good video game out there and never letting their kids play anything else

I hope symbol of Japan is mount Fuji (*_*)

They arent promoting gaming, they are promoting Japan. Mario is probably the most famous person/character to come out of Japan. It's not really that hard to see you know.

gaming deserves to be represented by more than just mario.  If we keep this mentality we'll only have Star Wars, Mario, and Mickey Mouse.  Gotta go with more than just the MOST popular thing all the time

It's the OLYMPICS. "Joe Average" watching in Brazil, Germany, Australia, South Africa, isn't going to know some random game character ... it had to be Mario. 

Mario was not representing gaming either, he was representing Japan, which is a far bigger deal.