Super Mario Bros. (film)

Super Mario Bros.
File:Supermariobros.jpg
Directed by	Rocky Morton Annabel Jankel Roland Joffé (uncredited)
Written by	Parker Bennett Terry Runte Ed Solomon
Produced by	Jake Eberts Roland Joffé
Starring	Bob Hoskins John Leguizamo Dennis Hopper Samantha Mathis Fisher Stevens Richard Edson Fiona Shaw Mojo Nixon Gianni Russo Lance Henriksen Don Lake
Narrated by	Dan Castellaneta
Cinematography	Dean Semler
Edited by	Mark Goldblatt
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Distributed by	Hollywood Pictures Cinergi Pictures Entertainment Film Distributors (UK) Alliance Films (Canada theatrical, from Dimension Films (sales), Umbrella Entertainment (Current, Australia under license from Nintendo Australia Pty Ltd)
Release dates	United States: May 28, 1993 Australia: June 10, 1993 United Kingdom: July 9, 1993 Japan: July 10, 1993
Running time	104 minutes
Countries	United States United Kingdom Canada Japan
Language	English
Budget	$42,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$20,915,465 (USA)

Super Mario Bros. is a 1993 adventure comedy-drama loosely based on the video game of the same name and its entire franchise. 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 live-action 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.

Plot

The story concerns Mario and Luigi, two Italian American plumber brothers living in Brooklyn, New York who are being driven out of business by the mafia-like Scapelli Construction Company. Mario is the elder of the two, being close to the late 40s, and Luigi is about in his early-mid 20s. 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. Luigi tries to stop it but he is only a apprentice to Mario and doesn't know what to do. They rush back to his apartment where they inform Mario about the incident. The three go back to the flooding and the Mario Bros. manage to fix it but are knocked out by two strange characters, Iggy and Spike. The two crooks kidnap Daisy.

Mario and Luigi awake a few minutes later and 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 germophobic and obsessive dictator, King Bowser 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 by mistake while aiming for Mario, but Luigi and Daisy take back the rock and the worlds separate. Mario gains his heroic courage and fights Koopa and eventually wins when he and Luigi devolve him, making him a Tyrannosaurus. Koopa than leaps out for one last attack but Mario and Luigi devolve him into slime, killing him. The brothers save the two worlds from a cruel dictator and Daisy's father (Lance Henriksen) turns back to normal and reclaims control over the kingdom stating he "loves those plumbers". The citizens destroy anything involving Koopa. 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 until further notice. Mario re-phrases Daisy's words to Luigi but he doesn't care. a saddened Luigi passionately kisses her goodbye and the two Mario Bros. go back to New York, while Daisy, along with Yoshi and 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 their name "Super Mario Bros."

After the end credits, two Nintendo executives talk about a video game based on their adventures but they are asking Iggy and Spike instead of the Super Mario Bros. and they decide on a title called "The Super Koopa Cousins".

Characters

• Bob Hoskins as Mario Mario - The elder of the two Mario Brothers, Mario has a no-nonsense attitude to life which is why the eccentricity of his younger brother tends to get him annoyed and angry. In the movie it's explained that Mario brought up Luigi as they are apparently orphans. It describes him as Luigi's father (and Luigi also states that he has been like a mother to him as well). Hoskins depicted Mario speaking with a Brooklyn accent. Early on in their journey, he seems to be more cowardly and paranoid than his usual heroic self. But after his big battle fighting Koopa, he gains his strength and courage to become the heroic "Super Mario" he is.
• John Leguizamo as Luigi Mario - Mario's younger, eccentric and excitable brother. He falls in love with Daisy at first sight and becomes fascinated by her work and later tries to rescue her. He seems to have a fascination with the supernatural and other odd things. Leguizamo didn't don a moustache for the role, though he appears to have a little bit of hair on his upper lip near the end.
• Samantha Mathis as Princess Daisy - The princess of the parallel dimension who was raised in an orphanage. She later became fascinated with dinosaurs and headed the University-funded excavation for dinosaur bones under the Brooklyn bridge. She is captured by Iggy and Spike who take her to Koopa, but neglect to collect the meteorite piece which she's had since she was a baby. Later in the film Daisy dons a dress vaguely similar to that of Princess Toadstool's. The character is based on a princess who appears in Super Mario Land.
• Dennis Hopper as King Bowser Koopa - The dictator of Dinohattan who wants to merge the dimensions in order to exploit Earth's resources. He claims to have evolved from the Tyrannosaurus Rex(even though the character Bowser is infact an oversized turtle with spikes on his shell) and in this manner walks with his hands held up. He is also germophobic, constantly wiping his hands.
• Fiona Shaw as Lena - Koopa's secretary, personal assistant and girlfriend who becomes jealous over Koopa's obsession with Daisy. She attempts to obtain Daisy's meteorite piece and merge the two universes for her own purposes, but is overwhelmed and killed by its power, her skeleton embedded in the wall and fossilized.
• Fisher Stevens and Richard Edson as Iggy and Spike - Koopa's bungling lackeys and cousins who try to capture Daisy and the rock until Koopa uses the de-evolution machine to enhance their brain-capacity and make them smarter. Iggy is named after one of Bowser's seven children (the Koopalings), whereas Spike or Spikesaurus is named after an enemy character from Super Mario Bros. 3.
• Gianni Russo as Anthony Scapelli - The boss of the mafia-like Scapelli Construction Company and Mario's sworn business rival. He threatens Daisy to end her research on a piece of land which he wishes to claim, and sends his men to sabotage the pipes underneath after Daisy refuses. He eventually gets his comeuppance when Koopa merges the two worlds together and uses Scapelli as his first test subject for his de-evolution gun in the "primate world", turning the greedy plumber into a mindless ape.
• Francesca Roberts as Big Bertha - Named after a large Cheep-Cheep from Super Mario Bros. 3, she is the bouncer of the Boom-Boom bar and steals the rock from the Mario Brothers early in the film, but later she falls in love with Mario (even though he doesn't feel the same) and she decides to help them and gives them stomper boots to help them fly away. Before they leave she kisses Mario.
• Mojo Nixon as Toad - A street performer arrested for playing Anti-Koopa songs. He is de-evolved in to a Goomba and receives a harmonica which he later uses to play the water theme from Super Mario Bros. to distract the other Goombas.
• Lance Henriksen as the King - Appearing as a gigantic fungus for much of the film, Daisy's father returns to his human form as seen briefly near the end of the film.

Criticism and impact

The film is widely considered to be a flop. It failed at the box office and lost a huge amount of money. The film received mixed to negative 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. This is Nintendo's second least successful video game film adaption, only behind Pokémon 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. Additionally, the lesser known princess from the video game series, Princess Daisy, was portrayed in the film instead of Princess Peach; In particular, Daisy has appeared in the 1989 Game Boy game Super Mario Land and later in some other minor roles, 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 2000s 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. These names had previously been used in the three Mario cartoon series. Although Nintendo has publicly stated that Mario and Luigi do not have last names in the official canon, the surname of Mario was used in Nintendo Power, the official American Nintendo magazine. 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."

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."

The Nostalgia Critic gave a negative review of the film, citing Hopper's horrendous acting, how both Mario and Luigi's last names are "Mario", and that the movie is nothing like the game.

Game references

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, and look like the video game incarnations of Snifits. 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 small (in relation to their body-size) goofy 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). During the final battle between Koopa and Mario, the two end up on a bridge with Mario at one end and Koopa at the other while Koopa blasts fire at Mario, possibly a reference to the final boss battle between the two in "Super Mario Bros. 1". The last time Koopa is seen he appears in a metal bucket in his de-evolved dinosaur state. This could be a reference to "Super Mario World", (the first mario game for the SNES.) where, at the last stage in the game, the player battles Koopa, as Koopa hovers above them in what appears to be a flying bucket with spikes on the bottom.

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).

The King's transformation back into human form at the end of the film is a reference to the end of each world in Super Mario Bros. 3 where the king of that world changes back into his normal form after the defeat of a Koopaling. Also, the basket that Mario fights Koopa on is very similar to the final fight of Super Mario World.

Yoshi appears in the film as an actual dinosaur, with the appearance of a diminutive Tyrannosaurus; there is one scene that shows his 6 foot 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.

Soundtrack

Untitled

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. 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.)

Track listing

1. "Almost Unreal" - Roxette
2. "Love Is the Drug" - Divinyls (cover of a song by Roxy Music)
3. "Walk the Dinosaur" - The Goombas (cover of a song by Was (Not Was))
4. "I Would Stop the World" - Charles and Eddie
5. "I Want You" - Marky Mark
6. "Where Are You Going?" - Extreme
7. "Speed of Light" - Joe Satriani
8. "Breakpoint" - Megadeth
9. "Tie Your Mother Down" - Queen
10. "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" - Us3
11. "Don't Slip Away" - Tracie Spencer
12. "2 Cinnamon Street" - Roxette

External links

• Super Mario Bros. at IMDb
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Super Mario Bros. at AllMovie
• Super Mario Bros. at Rotten Tomatoes