Super Mario Bros. (film)

Super Mario Bros. is a 1993 film very loosely based on the popular video game of the same name and Super Mario World in particular. 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. It was not a huge critical or financial success. Despite boasting such high-caliber actors as Hoskins and Hopper, the film was deemed inappropriate for children, effectively eliminating the main demographic. Despite this, the film did help John Leguizamo achieve some mainstream publicity.

Plot

The movie begins by establishing that a meteor struck Earth 65 million years ago in what is now Brooklyn, splitting the world into two parallel dimensions. The meteor was supposed to kill the dinosaurs, but it just separated their world. The first dimension is the human world which has evolved from primates and the other dimension is the reptile world which has evolved from dinosaurs.

Twenty years ago, in Brooklyn, a woman, (The queen consort of Dinohattan) brought a capsule with a translucent rock attached to it to be left at a church. As the queen consort went into the sewers, the nun who found the capsule opened it and found an egg which hatched into a baby girl. In the sewers, the queen consort ran into Koopa, who un-crowned the king of Dinohattan, her husband, by putting him in his De-Evolution machine for too long, turning him into fungus. She threw a support beam at him, but then the tunnels collapsed on her and she was killed.

In present-day Brooklyn, New York, a young paleontologist named Daisy uncovers a massive find of mysterious new dinosaur bones. She is befriended by two plumbers named Mario and Luigi after their car breaks down. Luigi asks her out for dinner. While exploring the tunnels where dinosaur fossils lay, saboteurs hired by a businessman named Anthony Scapelli break some pipes. They call Mario to fix the pipes. In the dino-world, King Koopa's land is running out of water and going through problems so he sends Spike and Iggy to kidnap Daisy while the Marios are fixing the pipes, because Daisy has the last piece of the meteor. They follow the two to a solid rock where Daisy's face comes out. Luigi accidentally grabs her necklace, which happens to be the rock piece Koopa is looking for. They plunge into the rock face and tumble down a wide canyon.

They end up on the other side and find a place that's not Brooklyn. After being attacked by a crazed older woman wielding a taser, the rock is taken by a plump woman named Bertha who then jumps away with jet shoes. An anti-Koopa singer named Toad sings them an anti-Koopa song, and the police arrest him for it. The police notice the plumbers' tools and also arrest them, since Spike and Iggy told Koopa that plumbers had the rock. At the police station, where they undergo a lot of procedures, they are confronted by Koopa, leader of Dinohattan.

At the De-evolution chamber, they see Toad about to be punished. His head is inserted into an odd machine. Koopa explains to the Marios about De-evolution which causes things to go backwards in the evolutionary chain. Now Toad is a loyal member of the Royal Family: a Goomba; a big, tall, small-headed lizard creature. Loyal, lethal and stupid. Koopa evolved from the T-rex. Surprisingly, Mario and Luigi overpower his guards and shove him into his own device. They run away and as Koopa emerges from the device, his eyes turn from green to blue and vowed to "kill those plumbers". The Marios manage to steal a police car and escape the cops but go through a tunnel that had no power. Falling out on the other end, their fall is stopped by strangely-placed fungus.

At the Goomba barracks, Lena, Koopa's right hand woman, come in and asks for Daisy, who's with five other women kidnapped from Brooklyn, including Mario's girlfriend, Daniella. She remarks that Daisy looks a lot like her (Daisy's) mother. Daisy then learns about her mother, the queen consort of Dinohattan, and her death after smuggling Daisy safely into Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, Koopa makes Iggy and Spike smarter in the Advanced age. He threatens them that if they don't return with the rock that the plumbers have, he will personally kill them.

In the desert, Iggy and Spike foul up and get captured. After a little argument, the Koopa cousins reveal the secret of the rock. Once it is put back into the meteorite, both their worlds will merge together and Koopa will rule both. Mario reveals that Bertha has the rock. Mario and Luigi agree to help Spike and Iggy find the rock, and in return, they will help the brothers find Daisy.

In Koopa's tower (the Dinohattan equivalent of the Twin Towers), Daisy meets a kind dinosaur named Yoshi, one of Koopa's pets. Koopa comes in and reveals that she is a descendant of the dinosaurs. He requires her to merge their worlds. Daisy backs away as Koopa's tongue turns slightly reptilian.

At a dance club, Mario and Luigi, with Iggy and Spike, find Bertha. Unfortunately, an attendant snitches on them. Bertha forces Mario to dance with her. Mario takes advantage of the dancing to get the rock. Once he does, Lena and the Goombas come in. While throwing it back and forth, Mario loses the rock and has no choice but to escape. Spike and Iggy, who are being dragged away by Koopa's henchmen for badmouthing him, tell the Mario brothers that they will find Daisy in Koopa's tower. They come face-to-face with Bertha, who punches the attendant. Locking the door, Bertha gives them her rocket shoes. Bertha then gives Mario a kiss good-bye and the two brothers smash through the glass in the ceiling. When they land, Luigi observes the fungus. He grabs it before the Goombas come. On a bridge, they are cornered by the cops and the Goombas and spotted Koopa's tower. Jumping into a garbage truck, they heroically head to Koopa. When they get to the tower, they find a plumber's worst nightmare: pipes clogged by fungus. In order to distract Koopa, they have to make it cold. Unfortunately, it sets off the alarm. They find some uniforms similar to the ones worn in the video game series that inspired this movie, and hop into the elevator. But Goombas come in and crowd the elevator. When the elevator music activates, Luigi makes the Goombas dance in order to sneak out.

Meanwhile, Toad (now a Goomba with a harmonica) brings Daisy meat (a weird sandwich). She requests vegetables. After Toad leaves, Lena comes in to kill her. Luckily, Yoshi's long tongue saves her. As she escapes, she meets Toad, who has brought her vegetables. She meets up with Iggy and Spike, who were ordered to be executed. The Goombas holding them fire their weapons, and Toad is engulfed in flames. Thankfully, Daisy manages to put them out. Running with the Koopa cousins, they show Daisy her late father: a fungus ball who was king until Koopa used his machine to De-evolve him. The two retreat as Daisy observes her father. Yoshi stumbles in with a knife wedged in his body, which Daisy pulls out. Accessing the security cameras, she directs the Marios to her. In a frozen vent, Luigi finds a mushroom communicating to him. He grabs it and follows Mario. They then meet her father. Luigi realizes that it was her father who was giving them the stuff in the fungus. Elsewhere, Koopa learns that his troops are ready on his orders. He then realizes that Lena has the rock.

Mario runs off to find Daniella but Luigi and Daisy run into Koopa. Mario manages to rescue Daniella and the other missing Brooklyn girls. Bringing a mattress, they slide down a frozen vent. Out the other end, they crash into Koopa. Koopa claims that soon he will devolve the human race into monkeys. Behind their backs, Mario and Luigi throw a few rocket boots at him and his Goombas. Koopa falls into a coal vat. Mario frees Luigi and Daisy. Luigi tells Mario to trust the fungus. Mario pulls off a strand of fungus and swings right into Koopa, knocking the rock out of his hands. Lena catches it but falls into electrical wires. Successfully, she escapes. Luigi and the girls follow. Mario pulls out one of his shoelaces to fool Koopa into thinking that he has the rock. At the meteorite, Lena is in the process of inserting the rock. Luigi sends the girls back to Brooklyn to warn everyone about the invasion. Lena puts the rock in place, but the force is so powerful, she is thrown back, fossilized to the wall. Daisy then realizes what Koopa meant: only she can put in the rock without getting killed.

Back in Dinohattan, Koopa is about to fry Mario, but his flamethrower wouldn't work. Suddenly, their atoms begin to pull apart and vanish. He realizes that Mario doesn't have the rock. Koopa laughs until they disappear.

In Brooklyn, Daniella is trying to push through the crowd when the World Trade Center (through the effects of the worlds beginning to merge) partially disintegrates, transforming into Koopa's tower headquarters. Then Koopa, the Goombas and Mario arrive. Koopa gloats that he will take over his world. Grabbing a Devolution gun, he fires at Mario. Mario dodges out of the way and the blast hits Scapelli, who is instantly turned into a chimpanzee. Koopa is about to fire a second time when Mario brings out the mushroom, which grows, and flings it at Koopa. At the meteorite, Luigi and Daisy screw out the rock and Koopa, the Goombas, and Mario return to Dinohattan.

In Dinohattan, the Mario Bros. face a final showdown against Koopa whom they defeat (with help from a Bob-omb) by shoving him into the machine de-evolving Koopa from a reptilian humanoid, into a T-Rex, into a mass of one celled slime. Daisy's father regains human form, the people of Dinohattan celebrate, but as Mario and Luigi head back to the human world Daisy says she has to stay, with Toad and Yoshi saying goodbye to the brothers as they entered the portal. Three weeks later, Mario and Daniella are happy together but Luigi is miserable even with how he and Mario are hailed on tabloid television as saviors of two worlds. The tabloid reporter says that, instead of being called the Mario Bros., that the two should be called "the Super Mario Bros."

Then all of a sudden Daisy (armed with a variety of combat weapons) kicks open the door to Mario and Luigi's apartment, telling them that she needs their help.

After the credits, Japanese representatives of a video game company (possibly Nintendo) pitch an idea to Iggy and Spike about a video game based on their adventures. When asked about a possible title for the game, Iggy and Spike answer: "The Super Koopa Cousins".

Criticism and Impact

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The film is widely considered to be a flop. Although it boasted several big stars, the film was denounced by critics as "cheesy" and lacking any sort of coherent plot. The film was reasonably popular with pre-teens, though many fans of the Super Mario Bros. series were upset at the movie's more "serious" tone, and found its live action cast to be too drastic a departure from the colorful, cartoony world of the games.

Fans denounced the movie for having very little to do with the video game series and distorting many known facts about the fictional game world. For instance, in the movie King Koopa is a humanoid descendant of a dinosaur, whereas he is an actual reptilian being in the games.

There is also the argument that the character of Princess Daisy should have been correctly named Toadstool (which, similar to Bowser, was Princess Peach's name in the United States at the time); the indiscretion initially led some people to believe that Peach's first name was actually Daisy. However, Princess Daisy was the name of a completely different character who first appeared in the Game Boy game Super Mario Land. Nintendo presently describes Princess Daisy as "Luigi's answer to Princess Peach"^[1]--a description that would seem to redeem the naming error (assuming the relationship described by Nintendo was not inspired by the film in the first place; it is unknown whether or not such was the case).

Despite the fact the film has not been overly successful, one aspect that has generally been accepted (though never became official) is that their full names are Mario Mario and Luigi Mario.

Game References

While commonly not considered to be too closely connected to the games the movie does include numerous in-jokes relating to the Mario Bros. franchise (and even to Nintendo in general).

• The parallel world is referred to as a "Mushroom Kingdom" derogatorily by King Koopa due to the de-evolved fungus king growing himself all over the city. The notion of the world being inhabited by dinosaurs is also a reference to Super Mario World, which takes place in "Dinosaur Land," even Yoshi, who first debut in that game is included in this movie.
• The Stomper boots (named after Mario's trademark stomp attack) were potentially inspired by the Kuribo's Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3. The boots are manufactured by Thwomp Inc, an enemy from the games.
• The charges used for the boots resemble Bullet Bills. Additionally a neon sign seen during the car-chase says "Bullet Bill's." Other signs say "Thwomp" and "Rexx".
• Big Bertha is a big woman at the Boom Boom Bar, which, itself is named for an enemy. 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.
• Iggy is the name of one of Bowser's eight children.
• Spike is the name of a spiked ball-throwing enemy from Super Mario Bros. 3, or the foreman from Wrecking Crew.
• The police uniforms of the Mushroom Kingdom are somewhat reminiscent of the Hammer Bros. uniform.
• The sound of a 1-up is heard in the background while Koopa is talking to a police officer about the new handheld devo-guns.
• The Junkyard workers are referred to as Snifits, and the gas masks they wear cause them to resemble Snifits, as well.
• In the scene in which Mario and Luigi are having their mug shots taken by the police, the cameras used bear a minor resemblance to Autobombs (an enemy in Super Mario Bros. 2), rolling cannons which look like cameras. Mario and Luigi believe the cameras are guns at first due to the laser sights the cameras use.
• The devo-guns are remodelled versions of the SNES Super Scope, which also looked like a small bazooka.
• In the Boom Boom Bar, a big TV screen showing the Valley of Bowser entrance rising from the sea in Super Mario World, as well as a coin sprite and several ghost Boo sprites from the same game bouncing around the screen can be briefly glimpsed.
• In the coat check scene, there is a sign that says "These premises protected by FRY GUY flamethrowers". Fryguy was a boss from Super Mario Bros. 2 (known as Super Mario USA in Japan, not the original Lost Levels). These weapons, used by Koopa's forces and by the Mario Brothers themselves, shoot small balls of flames, a reference that many enemies spit fireballs. In the games the Mario Brothers themselves can wield fireballs, with the help of a fire flower.
• A Bob-omb appears prominently in the film. It is curious, though, to notice that, underneath its feet, a Reebok logo can be seen.
• The taxi cab company in the dinosaur world is Wiggler, named for a large yellow caterpillar in the games.
• Mario also has a girlfriend called Daniella in Manhattan, who is believed to be based off Pauline, the first girlfriend Mario had in the first Donkey Kong game for arcades, because both of them are regular women instead of princesses. Daniella is eventually captured by Iggy and Spike, who believed she could be the real princess.
• The name Ostro, seen on a sign in the movie, is the name of an enemy in Super Mario Bros. 2.
• One of the vendors in Dinnohatten is selling fried Tweeter, a reference to an enemy in Super Mario Bros. 2. Also in this scene in the background you can hear someone yelling "Enjoy your Spiny Burgers here". A Spiny is a spiked turtle from the game series.
• When Big Bertha hits Mario, in the window in the back, you can see a tattoo shop named Hammer X Bros., referring to the hammer-throwing Koopas.
• When exiting the city and heading for the desert, the Mario brothers enter the "Koopahari Desert Tunnel." The Koopahari Desert acted as the second "world" in Super Mario Bros. 3.
• As the Mario Brothers fly around the city on Luigi's stompers, Luigi makes a "v for victory" sign with his fingers. Both Mario and Luigi commonly made similar gestures in Super Mario World.
• The idea of two parallel, near-identical worlds connected by a portal was previously used in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo. In this vein, the movie version of King Koopa is more like Ganon, in that he is total ruler of one realm but desires to rule another. And perhaps coincidentally, the idea of a meteor impact splitting one world into two separate but similar planets was later used in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for the Gamecube.
• Mario and Luigi finding helpful items in the fungus is a reference to various mushrooms being powerups in the games.
• To carry the idea further, Mario uses a mushroom taken from the fungus to block a blast from Koopa, similar to how mushrooms in the games allow for an extra hit or life. He then throws it as a weapon to knock the gun away from Koopa, much like the block-like mushrooms found in Super Mario Bros. 2, which could also conveniently shield blasts.
• The intercom guns used by Koopa and Daisy would resemble the NES zapper sold with the Nintendo Entertainment System, though ironically, they function more closely to the recently-released Nintendo Wii Wiimotes.
• The large bucket-like contraption from which Koopa fights Mario later in the film is said to be a reference to when Bowser fights Mario from his large, bucket-shaped Clown Car in the final battle of Super Mario World.
• Goombas are said to be traitors to the Mushroom Kingdom who fight for Bowser in the games. The same can be said here, though their traitorous nature seems to be more forced as citizens are devolved into Goombas to serve Koopa loyally.
• The plot point of the Marios winding up with the Princess's necklace while searching for her could arguably have been derived from the early Mario anime, where a similar series of events occurred. Of course, it may simply be coincidence, due to the obscurity of this piece.
• The original king's (Daisy's father) transformation into a fungus creature is a reference to Super Mario Bros. 3, in which kings of each land had been transformed into various creatures. You encounter them at the end of each land in their throne rooms siting on their throne in transformed state, similar to the room with the chair in which Daisey's father was held.
• The character Lena may be a human counterpart to Birdo.

Cast

• Mario: Bob Hoskins
• Luigi: John Leguizamo
• King Koopa: Dennis Hopper
• Princess Daisy: Samantha Mathis
• Iggy: Fisher Stevens
• Spike: Richard Edson
• Lena: Fiona Shaw
• Daniella: Dana Kaminski
• Toad: Mojo Nixon
• Scapelli: Gianni Russo
• Bertha: Francesca Roberts
• King of Dinohattan: Lance Henriksen
• Old Woman: Sylvia Harman
• Narrator: Dan Castellaneta
• Angelica: Desiree Marie Velez
• TV Announcer: Robert D. Raiford

Soundtrack

• Almost Unreal - Roxette
• Love Is the Drug - The Divinyls
• Walk the Dinosaur - Was (Not Was)
• I Would Stop the World - Charles & Eddie
• I Want You - Marky Mark
• Where Are You Going? - Extreme
• Speed of Light - Joe Satriani
• Breakpoint - Megadeth
• Tie Your Mother Down - Queen
• Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) - Us3
• speed with dark (stage 7-3) Malik Jamal Khan

From Capital Records

The soundtrack 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 Roxette's Greatest Hits).

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

Trivia

• Bob Hoskins didn't know that the film he was making was based on a game, until his son asked him what he was working on. When Hoskins mentioned the film's title, his son immediately recognized it and showed Hoskins the game on his own Nintendo.^{[citation needed]}
• Tom Hanks was originally cast as Mario for a salary of $5 million, but the part ultimately went to Bob Hoskins because he was more affordable.
• The studio wanted Danny DeVito as Mario.^{[citation needed]}
• Dustin Hoffman begged to be given the part of Mario due to the fact that his kids were fanatics of the video game
• An article in "Spy" magazine claimed that the script was being rewritten so many times during production that the actors stopped paying attention to these daily rewrites.^{[citation needed]}
• The song to which the Goombas dance in the elevator (and later, when Toad plays it on his harmonica) is Somewhere My Love by Frankie Yankovic
• A sequel was planned, but canceled due to lack of popularity

Notes

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