One of the biggest highlights of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, in our opinion, was its exceptional score. Not only does the sequel pull back on the licensed pop tracks that plagued the original, but it’s also chock-full of delightful Mario (and Star Fox) music from composer Brian Tyler.

But what the production studios weren’t aware of, however, was that Tyler was actually writing a bunch of the score from a hospital bed after suffering a double brain hemorrhage during his stint working on Nuremburg.

During and interview with Men’s Journal (thanks, Go Nintendo), Tyler confirmed that did didn’t tell anyone on production about his time at hospital as he didn’t want to let them down:

“I was writing this music when I was actually in the hospital because I didn’t want to let anyone down. They didn’t know. I didn’t tell them. I wrote a lot of the main themes from there.”

Quite remarkable dedication, right? Tyler also talks at length about his collaboration with famed Nintendo composer Koji Kondo, and how trust was built following the production of the first movie. Tyler states that Kondo would largely let Tyler do his own thing, occasionally pointing out key references that might be suitable:

“I know Koji Kondo from working on the last film, and then there are other people I’ve worked with, like the composer for the Super Mario Galaxy games. I got to know them and the whole gang at Nintendo, including the head of Nintendo. I spent time with them up at Skywalker.

“In fact, Koji Kondo got inducted into The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame at the 27th Dice Awards in Las Vegas. When they asked him, “Who do you want to tell the story of your life and career up on stage?” He was like, “Brian Tyler.” So, I went out there and introduced his award.

“There’s a lot of trust there. After the last one, Koji was like, “You know all these things, see what you come up with,” for this one. I’ll send this massive list to them of what I want to do, and pretty much they just say, “Wow. That’s, that’s wild. Just do your thing.” But if they see something, they’ll say, “Hey, did you know there’s a character there? Why don’t we make a reference there, or not?””

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is out now in theatres. We gave it a score of 6/10 and said that while we came out of the cinema feeling satisfied, the movie was certainly lacking in substance. It’s a gorgeous-looking film though; one that’s packed to the rafters with neat little references to the games.