Something to note, is that most, if not all, of these tunnel sections would have projections or LCD screen technology to make it look like the backgrounds are zooming passed you, which in turn makes it look like you're going faster. And given the colorful nature of Super Mario I think having projected or video screen walls behind physical props would make for a more immersive experience that is truer to the source material.
The patent states the tunnel could use projectors or self-illuminating displays like LCD screens to display "the sky, clouds, trees, buildings, bodies of water, wild life, aircraft, trains, other vehicles and the like" while also incorporating special effects like wind and lighting changes to signify speed.
While Universal is getting really good at projection mapping onto curved areas, not so sure LCD screens are yet up to the task.
This LCD cube was created for filming the movie Gravity. It displayed the backgrounds for the space scenes in real time, just so the lighting on the actors' faces would match up to the final composite shots in CG:
LCD is getting there, but still has much more visible pixels than say 4k projections, but I like the ideas expressed in the patent for sure.
