Super Mario Bros. (film)

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Super Mario Bros.
Directed by Rocky Morton
Annabel Jankel
Roland Joffé (uncredited)
Produced by Jake Eberts
Roland Joffé
Written by Parker Bennett
Terry Runte
Ed Solomon
Narrated by Dan Castellaneta
Starring Bob Hoskins
John Leguizamo
Dennis Hopper
Samantha Mathis
Scott Burns
Fisher Stevens
Richard Edson
Fiona Shaw
Mojo Nixon
Gianni Russo
Lance Henriksen
Don Lake
Music by Alan Silvestri
Cinematography Dean Semler
Editing by Mark Goldblatt
Distributed by Hollywood Pictures
Cinergi Pictures
Entertainment Film Distributors (UK)
Alliance Films (Canada theatrical)
Release date(s) United States:
May 28, 1993
Australia:
June 10, 1993
United Kingdom:
July 9, 1993
Running time 104 minutes
Language English
Budget $42,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue $20,915,465 (USA)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Super Mario Bros. is a 1993 adventure-family comedy based loosely on the popular video game of the same name. The film follows the exploits of Mario Mario (Bob Hoskins) and his brother Luigi Mario (John Leguizamo) in a comical dystopia ruled by King Koopa (Dennis Hopper). It was the first major motion picture to be based on a video game. The film's plot features Mario and Luigi as the main protagonists, Mario leading the team with Luigi developing a romance with Princess Daisy.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The story concerns Mario and Luigi, two Italian American brothers living in Brooklyn, New York who are being driven out of business by the mafia-like Scapelli Construction Company. Luigi falls in love with an orphaned college student, Daisy, who is digging under the Brooklyn Bridge for dinosaur bones. After a date, she takes Luigi to the dig and witnesses Scapelli's men (who, along with Scapelli himself, had previously threatened her to end her research on that specific piece of land for their own interests) sabotage it by leaving the water-pipes open. Mario and Luigi stop the flooding but are knocked out by two strange characters, Iggy and Spike.

Mario and Luigi head deeper into the caves following Daisy's screaming and discover an interdimensional portal through which Mario and Luigi follow Daisy. They find themselves in a strange dystopian parallel world where a human-like race evolved from Dinosaurs rather than the mammalian ancestry of true humans. 65 million years ago a meteorite crashed into the Earth and in doing so ripped the universe into two parallel dimensions. All the living dinosaurs of the time crossed over into this new realm before being sealed there forever. Iggy and Spike turn out to be lackeys (and cousins) of the other world's evil and feared dictator, King Koopa, descended from the T-Rex. However, the two have failed to also bring Daisy's rock, a meteorite fragment which Koopa is trying to get in order to merge his world with the real world that separated from Koopa's world during the meteor strike. It turns out that Daisy is the princess of the other dimension but when Koopa overthrew Daisy's father (and turned him into fungus), Daisy's mother took her to New York using the interdimensional portal. The portal was then destroyed, but when Scapelli was blasting at the cave, the portal was reopened. When Koopa hears about the re-opening of the portal, he sends Spike and Iggy to find Daisy and the rock in order to merge the dimensions and make Koopa dictator of both worlds. Spike and Iggy, however, who had grown more intelligent after being subjected to one of Koopa's experiments, decide to turn on Koopa and join forces with Mario and Luigi. Koopa thinks only Daisy can merge the worlds. It turns out Mario and Luigi were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lucky for Daisy, the plumbers were persistent in finding her.

During the big finale, the worlds merge, during which Scapelli gets his comeuppance when Koopa devolves him into a primate, but Luigi takes back the rock and the worlds separate. Mario fights Koopa and eventually wins when he and Luigi devolve him, making him a Tyrannosaurus, and then primordial slime. The brothers save the two worlds from a cruel dictator and Daisy's father turns back to normal and reclaims control over the kingdom. As the brothers return home, Luigi and Daisy admit their love for one another but Daisy is not allowed to return to New York with them. Mario re-phrases Daisy's words to Luigi but he isn't buying it. Luigi passionately kisses her goodbye and the two Mario Bros. go back to New York, while Daisy, along with Toad, all watch them leave. About three weeks later, Daisy returns for Mario and Luigi's help in fighting more villains. Meanwhile, Mario and Luigi's story is televised, giving them the nickname "Super Mario Bros."

[edit] Criticism and impact

The film is widely considered to be a flop. It lost a large amount of money at the box office.[1] The film received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike and was denounced by critics as "cheesy" and lacking any sort of coherent plot. On the television show Siskel & Ebert, the film received two thumbs down.[2] This is Nintendo's second least successful video game film adaption, only behind Pokemon Heroes. Fans denounced the movie for having very little to do with the video game series and distorting many established facts about the fictional game world. For instance, in the movie President Koopa (Bowser) is a humanoid descendant of a Tyrannosaurus rex, whereas he is a monstrous turtle in the games. Toad is also depicted as a reptilian being in the film, instead of a mushroom as he is in the video games (Although in the film he is turned into a Goomba, which, in the video game series, is a traitor of the Mushroom Kingdom). However, Toad still seemed to remember his strong dislike of King Koopa, as he opposed the other Goombas later in the movie. Another complaint about the film was the slightly dark atmosphere, which deviated from the family-friendly works of the hugely successful video games. The lesser known princess from the video game series, Princess Daisy, was used for the film instead of Princess Peach; Daisy has in particular appeared in the 1989 Game Boy game Super Mario Land, whereas Peach has been present in nearly every game in the series. Despite the fact the film has not been overly successful, one aspect that has recurred (and later became official in the 2000's with an issue of Nintendo Power) is that Mario and Luigi's last name is Mario (hence, the Mario Bros.), making them Mario Mario and Luigi Mario. In the three Mario cartoon series, these full names are also used. Although Nintendo has publicly stated that Mario and Luigi do not have last names in the official canon, [3] the surname of Mario was used in Nintendo Power, the official American Nintendo magazine.[citation needed] Also, in a Nintendo Power article about New Super Mario Bros., a timeline of Mario's history could be seen at the bottom of the page. The Super Mario Bros. movie was mentioned, only with the words, "Yes, it happened. Let us speak no more of it."[4]Bob Hoskins was quite unhappy with the film and his experience working on it. In an August 2007 interview with The Guardian, he said, The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Brothers. Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario's creator stated, "[In] the end, it was a very fun project that they put a lot of effort into," but also said, "The one thing that I still have some regrets about is that the movie may have tried to get a little too close to what the Mario Bros. videogames were. And in that sense, it became a movie that was about a videogame, rather than being an entertaining movie in and of itself." [5]

[edit] Game references

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Though only indirectly connected to the video games, the movie includes numerous in-jokes relating to the Mario Bros. franchise. The parallel world is referred to by President Koopa as a Mushroom Kingdom, due to the de-evolved king growing himself all over the city.

Also references are made to various items and enemy-characters from the games. The Stomper boots were potentially inspired by the Kuribo's Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3. The Stomper boots could also be a reference to Mario and Luigi's jumping ability. The charges used for the boots resemble Bullet Bills. The sound that the boots make when they are activated is the exact sound from the games when Mario takes a hit and dies. The flame throwers used end in petal-like extrusions of metal, evoking the Fire Flower. When used by Koopa, they also represent the classic Bowser fire breath move. The police uniforms of the Mushroom Kingdom are somewhat reminiscent of the Hammer Bros. uniform and the Junkyard workers are referred to as Snifits. The gas masks they wear cause them to resemble Snifits as well. The vehicles in the film draw their power from overhead grids, possibly representing the karts from Super Mario Kart. Though Goombas appear in the film, they are shown to be de-evolved citizens of the city who are essentially dumb and muscle-bound with either small (in relation to their body-size) goofy egg-shaped or more reptilian heads. A Bob-omb is used prominently near the end of the film after being spotted twice before. (Mario tells Luigi to ignore the Bob-ombs, but Luigi takes the 2nd one from the fungus while they're escaping. The Bob-omb used by Mario against Koopa was the one Luigi took from the fungus, a.k.a. the king, meaning the king knew it would be useful to them.) It is curious, though, to notice that, underneath its feet, a Reebok logo can be seen for a few seconds (as an act of product placement).

Many characters also reference elements of the games. Big Bertha is a big woman at the Boom Boom Bar. Big Bertha was the name used for the giant red fish in Super Mario Bros. 3, and likewise, this woman dresses in red. Furthermore, Boom-Boom was the name of the enemy boss at the end of every fortress in Super Mario Bros. 3. The character Iggy is named after one of Bowser's eight children while Spike is the name of a spiked ball-throwing enemy from Super Mario Bros. 3.

Several neon signs displayed in a wide shot of the city read names of Mario characters/enemies. These include Thwomp, Bullet Bills, Hammer Bros. tattoos, and Ostro (ostrich character from Super Mario Bros. 2). Additionally, when Mario and Luigi are seen fleeing the police station early on in the film, a brief shot shows a neon signs with the word "Rexx." This is very likely a reference to the enemy named "Rex" in Super Mario World for the SNES. Also, when Daisy is first captured, she is forced into a taxi. The sign on top of the taxi says "Wiggler" (an enemy from Super Mario World).

A cry of "Enjoy your Spiny Burgers here!" is heard[6].

Yoshi appears in the film as an actual dinosaur, with the appearance of a diminutive Tyrannosaurus; there is one scene that shows his long tongue. Mojo Nixon also has a role in the film, playing a human folk singer named Toad in the dinosaur world. The "Devo Gun" which is used by Koopa (and subsequently, Mario) near the end of the film is actually a modified version of the Nintendo Super Scope peripheral. When President Koopa is talking to one of the policemen about the Devo Guns, the sound effect of getting an extra life at the end of a level in the game can be heard in the background.

After the end credits in the movie, two Japanese businessmen are seen proposing a deal to make videogames based on someone's adventures. Iggy and Spike are shown to be the people they're proposing the deal to. Iggy suggests the game should be called Iggy's World, while Spike suggests that the game should be called The Indomitable Spike. Both of them then agree that the game should be called The Super Koopa Cousins.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack, released on Capitol Records, featured two songs from Roxette: "Almost Unreal" which was released as a single, and "2 Cinnamon Street," a new edit of Roxette's "Cinnamon Street." The music video for "Almost Unreal" was inspired by the movie, featuring scenes from the movie and a de-evolution theme. "Almost Unreal" was originally written for the film Hocus Pocus but was never used and ended up attached to the Mario movie instead. The change angered Per Gessle (liner notes to Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!).

The film's score was composed by Alan Silvestri. It has not been officially released, though bootleg copies do exist.

George Clinton (who covered the Was (Not Was) song - "Walk The Dinosaur") released a single in 1993 that contained various other versions of the same song, including a Club Remix, a "Funky Goomba" Remix, "Goomba Dub Mix" including an Instrumental version.)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Super Mario Bros. (1993)
  2. ^ Siskel & Ebert
  3. ^ "Nintendo 1988 Inside Edition TV news report with Super Mario". Retrieved on 2006-11-10.
  4. ^ Nintendo Power Vol. 203, May 2006
  5. ^ MIYAMOTO: THE INTERVIEW : Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News - Home of Edge Online
  6. ^ Mariowiki.com
  7. ^ The Making of Super Mario Bros.

[edit] External links

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