| Super Mario Bros. | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster bySteven Chorney | |
| Directed by | |
| Written by |
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| Based on | Mario byNintendo |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Dean Semler |
| Edited by | Mark Goldblatt |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 104 minutes[4] |
| Countries | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $42–48 million[5][6] |
| Box office | $38.9 million[7] |
Super Mario Bros. (also known asSuper Mario Bros.: The Movie) is a 1993science fantasyadventure film[8] loosely based onNintendo'sMario franchise. The first Americanfeature-length live-action film based on a video game,[9] it was directed by the husband-and-wife team ofRocky Morton andAnnabel Jankel, with a screenplay by Parker Bennett, Terry Runté andEd Solomon and distributed byBuena Vista Pictures throughHollywood Pictures. It follows brothersMario (Bob Hoskins) andLuigi (John Leguizamo) in their quest to rescuePrincess Daisy (Samantha Mathis) from adystopian parallel universe ruled by the ruthlessPresident Koopa (Dennis Hopper).
Development began after producerRoland Joffé obtained the rights to theMario franchise from Nintendo. Given free creative license by Nintendo, which believed theMario brand was strong enough for experimentation, the screenwriters envisionedSuper Mario Bros. as a subversive comedy influenced byGhostbusters (1984) andThe Wizard of Oz (1939). Itsdinosaur-centric theme was inspired by the franchise's most recent game,Super Mario World (1990), with elements drawn fromfairy tales and contemporary American culture. The production introduced several filmmaking techniques considered innovative in the transition from practical to digital visual effects, including the use ofAutodesk Flame. Filming took place from May to July 1992.
Released on May 28, 1993,Super Mario Bros. was afinancial failure, grossing$38.9 million worldwide against a budget of$42–48 million. Although the film received generally unfavorable reviews from critics at release and is considered to be one of theworst films ever made, it has developed acult following over the years.[10][11][12] In 2013, a fan-madewebcomic sequel was produced in collaboration with Bennett.
AfterSuper Mario Bros., Nintendo would not license another film based on theSuper Mario game series untilThe Super Mario Bros. Movie, which released three decades later in 2023. In contrast to its predecessor, it received mixed reviews and was a commercial success, breaking multiple box-office records.[13]
Followingthe impact of ameteorite intoEarth 66 million years ago, the universe is split into a pair of parallel dimensions. Surviving dinosaurs escape into the new dimension, evolving into ahumanoid race and founding a city known as Dinohattan. In 1973, a mysterious woman leaves a large egg and a fragment of the meteorite at aCatholic orphanage inBrooklyn,New York City. The egg hatches into a baby girl.
Twenty years later, Italian-American brothersMario andLuigi working as plumbers in Brooklyn are close to being driven out of business bymafioso Anthony Scapelli's construction company. Luigi meetsDaisy, aNew York University archaeology student who shows him she has been excavating for dinosaur bones under theBrooklyn Bridge. There, they witness Scapelli's cronies sabotaging it by leaving the water pipes open. Mario and Luigi fix it, butIggy andSpike—henchmen and cousins ofPresident "King" Koopa, the illegitimate leader of the other dimension—kidnap Daisy after mistakenly kidnapping other girls, including Mario's girlfriend, Daniella. The duo pursues them through an interdimensional portal to Dinohattan, where they lose track of Daisy and her necklace, which is stolen by Big Bertha, thebouncer of a localnightclub.
Daisy learns she is descended from dinosaurs and the long-lost princess of the other dimension. Her father, the king, wasdevolved by Koopa, then a general in the king's army, into a fungus that has since spread across Dinohattan; her mother, the queen, took her to Brooklyn, only to be crushed to death when the portal was sealed. Iggy and Spike realize that they lost Daisy's necklace, which contains a fragment of the meteorite that will allow it to merge the dimensions. They believe only Daisy can do so because of her royal heritage. Mario and Luigi break out of the city's local prison and go to rescue Daisy, aided by the fungus as well asToad, a good-natured guitarist who wasdevolved into aGoomba, a semi-humanoid dinosaur, as punishment for his protests against Koopa. Daisy's escape attempt is aided byYoshi, a pet of the royal family, and Iggy and Spike, who decide to turn on Koopa following their cousin's use of the (d)evolution gun to enhance their intelligence. While Luigi rescues Daisy, Mario saves Daniella and the other girls who were mistaken for the princess.
Koopa's jealous girlfriend, Lena, tries unsuccessfully to kill Daisy, then obtains the fragment with plans to overthrow him, but is fossilized when she merges the dimensions. In Brooklyn, Koopa attempts his takeover, but Luigi and Daisy remove the fragment from the meteorite, and the dimensions separate. Toad gives Mario and Luigi handheld devolution devices, and they defeat Koopa by devolving him into aTyrannosaurus rex, thenprimeval slime. Daisy's father is evolved back to normal and regains his position. The citizens celebrate and immediately destroy anything involving Koopa. Daisy decides to stay in Dinohattan and kisses Luigi goodbye as she opens the portal for him and Mario to return home.
Three weeks later, the Mario brothers are heralded as heroes. Daisy arrives at Mario and Luigi's apartment in Brooklyn and asks them to help her on a new mission.
Following the release ofSuper Mario Bros. (1985), a video game developed and published byNintendo, numerous producers attempted to purchase the rights to make aSuper Mario Bros. film. In 1989, Nintendo gaveDIC Entertainment the right to make a film out ofThe Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, but it was never produced. In 1990,Dustin Hoffman attempted to purchase the rights to produce a film with himself as Mario,Danny DeVito as Luigi, andBarry Levinson directing. However, this was not made because of scheduling conflicts for DeVito. Jake Eberts then purchased the film rights and started developing an adaptation to be directed byPenny Marshall.[14]
ProducerRoland Joffé first came up with the idea of making a live-action adaptation of the video games himself during a script meeting at Eberts' production company Lightmotive. Joffé metNintendo of America then-president andHiroshi Yamauchi's son-in law,Minoru Arakawa. He presented Arakawa with an initial draft of the script. One month after their meeting, Joffé traveled to Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto to pitch the storyline to Yamauchi which led to Nintendo receiving interest in the project. Joffé left with a $2 million contract giving the temporary control of the Mario character to Joffé. Nintendo retained merchandising rights for the film through a "creative partnership" with Lightmotive.[15]
When Yamauchi asked Joffé why Nintendo should sell the rights to Lightmotive over a major company, Joffé assured them that Nintendo would have more control over the film. However, Nintendo had no interest in creative control and believed the Mario brand was strong enough to allow an experiment with an outside industry. Joffé said, "I think they looked at the movie as some sort of strange creature that was kind of rather intriguing to see if we could walk or not".[16]
The first screenplay was written by Oscar-winning screenwriterBarry Morrow. His story followed brothers Mario and Luigi on an existential road trip so similar to Morrow's priorRain Man (1988) that production titled the script "Drain Man".[15][17] Morrow described his screenplay as "a study in contrast, likeLaurel and Hardy orAbbott and Costello", that would have "an odyssey and a quest" like the game itself.[18] Co-producer Fred Caruso later said that Morrow's story was "more of a serious drama piece as opposed to a fun comedy".[15] One of the earliest scripts involved being closer to the video game andArnold Schwarzenegger as King Koopa.[19]
The writing team ofJim Jennewein and Tom S. Parker were brought on next to write a more traditional adaptation. Jennewein said, "So right away we knew that the best way to do this is to essentially have a journey into this world, not unlikeThe Wizard of Oz." His and Parker's take on the story was to subvert and satirize fairy tale clichés, and to focus on the relationship between Mario and Luigi. Jennewein said, "Essentially what we did was whatShrek did [...] And we knew the story had to be about the brothers and that the emotional through-line would be about the brothers."[20][page needed]Greg Beeman ofLicense to Drive (1988) was attached to direct and development had already moved into pre-production, but the failure of Beeman's recentMom and Dad Save the World (1992) led to his dismissal by nervous producers.[15] Joffé then offeredHarold Ramis the director position, but though he was a fan of the video game, Ramis declined the opportunity, which he later said he was "glad" about and which the Associated Press would observe was his "smartest career decision".[21]
Joffé said, "We tried some various avenues that didn't work, that came up too medieval or somehow wasn't the right thing. I felt the project was taking a wrong turn [...] And that's when I began thinking ofMax Headroom." Joffé traveled to Rome to meet with creatorsRocky Morton andAnnabel Jankel.[15] Morton said, "We come from theTim Burton school of filmmaking, because our background is in animation and comic books [...] So we started off basing everything in reality, and then tried to have fun and exaggerate it as much as possible."[22] Joffé, Morton, and Jankel agreed their approach to adapting the video games should follow the darker tone popularized byBatman (1989) andTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). Joffé said, "This wasn't Snow White and the Seven Dinosaurs [...] The dino world was dark. We didn't want to hold back."[20] Morton described the film as a prequel to the video games[23] that tells the "true story" behindNintendo's inspiration.[24] Joffé viewed the games as a "mixture of Japanese fairy tales and bits of modern America",[15] and wanted to create a "slightly mythic vision of New York".[25] Screenwriter Parker Bennett elaborated: "Our take on it was that Nintendo interpreted the events from our story and came up with the video game. We basically worked backwards."[22] The film also took inspiration fromDie Hard (1988),Mad Max (1979), andBlade Runner (1982).[26]
The concept of a parallel universe inhabited by dinosaurs was inspired by Dinosaur Land from the recently releasedSuper Mario World (1990).[22] Jankel envisioned the parallel dimension as "a whole world with a reptile point-of-view, dominated by aggressive, primordial behavior and basic instincts", while Morton considered the ecological and technological consequences of a dinosaur society that holds fossil fuels sacred.[23] Joffé noted, "It's a wonderful parody of New York and heavy industry [...] We call it the New Brutalism."[15] Parker Bennett and Terry Runté were tasked with re-writing the script to balance comedy with a darker tone: Bennett said, "Ghostbusters was the model [...] We were aiming towards funny, but kind of weird and dark."[20]
Though working well with the directors, the producers dismissed Bennett and Runté from the project for being too comedic and replaced them with the British writing team ofDick Clement andIan La Frenais to deliver a more adult and feminist tone.[24] Princess Daisy and Lena's roles were expanded and Bertha was introduced as a black woman. With this script, the main cast signed, and Bob Hoskins was finally convinced to take the role of Mario.[27] The film officially moved into pre-production. However, producers Joffé and Eberts feared the project had both skewed too far from the intended young adult and family audiences, and had become too effects-heavy to film within budget, so without informing directors Morton and Jankel or the signed cast they hired screenwritersEd Solomon and Ryan Rowe to provide a more family-friendly script with more restrained effects requirements.[28] The script doctoring was partially motivated by a studio purchasing the film's distribution rights.[24]
Directors Morton and Jankel considered leaving the project but decided to stay after discussing together and realizing that no other director could at that point understand the material enough to properly adapt it. Morton and Jankel also said they owed it to the cast and crew and believed they could reclaim their vision during production.[29] Rowe returned home to work on another project, but Solomon remained for several weeks to provide additional rewrites. Without invitation, Bennett and Runté traveled to Wilmington and immediately returned to the project. They would remain through production to provide final rewrites, dialogue forADR, and the dialogue for the expository animated dinosaur opening.[30] The intelligent fungus was inspired by both theMushroom Kingdom from the games and tabloid reports of a discovered gigantic fungus.[23] Production designerDavid Snyder recalled: "As each script developed the fungus was sort of a metaphor for the mushroom element in a Nintendo game."[15] Joffé reflected, "For me a screenplay is never finished [...] You work a screenplay all the time. When you bring actors in a screenplay goes through another evolution. So you can say that rather like the fungus in the movie the screenplay constantly evolves."[27]
After securing the rights to the film, Lightmotive began the casting for the characters. Hoffman continued to express interest in portraying Mario. However, Arakawa did not believe that he was right for the role.[31] DeVito was offered both the role of Mario and director.[15][32]Arnold Schwarzenegger andMichael Keaton were approached to play Koopa, but both turned down the role.[15] The studio consideredTom Hanks for the role of Luigi, but a string of recent box-office failures dropped him from consideration.[33][34] ActorsBob Hoskins andJohn Leguizamo were ultimately cast as Mario and Luigi.
Initially, Hoskins disliked the script and did not want to do another children's film: "I'd doneRoger Rabbit. I'd doneHook. I didn't want to become likeDick Van Dyke."[27] Hoskins wondered how he would prepare for the role, saying, "I'm the right shape. I've got a mustache. I worked as a plumber's apprentice for about three weeks and set the plumber's boots on fire with a blowtorch."[15] Producer Roland Joffé kept sending Hoskins new script revisions until finally, the actor agreed.[27] Co-director Jankel said, "Bob was a no brainer [...] Unabashed shameless physical type casting. Bob was brilliant at assuming the character, in a slightly amplified way that would be in keeping with his supposed subsequent game iteration."[20]
Leguizamo said, "What I liked about the script was the adventure and the action that was involved".[27] He joked that "You always see a lot of Italians playing Latin people, likeAl Pacino did inScarface. Now it's our turn!"[35] Jankel said, "John was a brilliant up and coming stand-up comic and actor [...] We went to see him at Second City, and we were 100% sold. He had a wonderful combination of empathy and irreverence but was entirely without guile. It was not specifically scripted to be cast with a Hispanic or Latino actor, but it made perfect sense that the Mario Bros. themselves should be this contemporary unconventional family, so the small unit of just two, couldn't be pegged as one thing or another."[20] Mojo Nixon said he was cast as Toad because the production wanted an actual musician for the character, but their first choiceTom Waits was unavailable. Nixon's agent pitched him to casting as a "third-rate Tom Waits—for half-price".[36]
Several weeks before filming began, theWalt Disney Studios acquired the film rights and was to produce it under its film divisionHollywood Pictures. After Disney requested rewrites of the script, Morton said the final result was a script that was not at all like the script that he, Jankel, and the cast had signed on to film, and that the tone of the new script was not at all compatible with the sets, which had already been built. Solomon recalled that he "felt like [his draft of the screenplay] was at least coherent," but upon visiting the set, [Morton] had cut it up with a bunch of other stuff he liked from other drafts and a bunch of new stuff. [...] There was no through line."[37] Leguizamo said, "It's eight-year-olds who play the game and that's where the movie needed to be aimed. [...] But [the directors] kept trying to insert new material. They shot scenes with strippers and with other sexually-explicit content, which all got edited out anyway."[38]Richard Edson said that he and co-starFisher Stevens were permitted to contribute their own dialogue at the writers' approval: "If we could improve the script, they were more than happy. So we did our own [dialogue] and they loved it [...] that made it a lot more fun for us."[33]
Principal photography of the film began on May 6, 1992, and wrapped on July 27, 1992.[15][39] It was filmed at Carolco Studios inWilmington, North Carolina.[14] Contrary to many reports, directors Morton and Jankel did complete the contracted shooting of the film, though director of photographyDean Semler and several second unit directors provided additional reshoots. Morton and Jankel would even provide such instructions as the camera aperture settings, to which Semler responded by questioning his employment on the production.[33] Morton said, "I was locked out of the editing room [...] I had to get theDGA to come and help me get back into the editing room. I tried to get the editor to cut it digitally, but they refused. They wanted to edit onMoviola andSteenbeck machines, so the process was laboriously slow, which didn't help us get the special effect cut in on time."[28]
Production DesignerDavid Snyder approached turning theMushroom Kingdom into the live-action setting of Dinohattan (which was first given the tentative names "DinoYawk" and "Koopaville") by "[taking] all the elements that are in the video game" and "[turning] them into a metaphor and [combining] them with 3-D and real characters".[40] Art Director Walter P. Martishius said, "Koopa gets a single glimpse of Manhattan at the beginning of the movie". This inspires Koopa to recreate Dinohattan, but "he didn't get it quite right. The place is twisted, off balance, different. And he doesn't even know it."[25]
Co-producer Fred Caruso located the deserted Ideal Cement Co. plant inWilmington, North Carolina. Snyder found the location a unique opportunity: "In this building, with all the existing concrete structure, we could hang the scenery from the structure, and not have to build scaffolding, and could integrate the concrete structure into the film's design."[15] Snyder said: "InBlade Runner (a film he was the Art Director on), the street was one level. Here I have a street level, a pedestrian walkway and above that Koopa's Room, plus six or seven stories in height. I have more flexibility in layering of levels. It's a major, major opportunity. You'd never be able to do this on a sound stage. There isn't a sound stage big enough."[15] "We've designed this film with the idea of looking at New York while on some mind-altering drugs."[40] The intelligent fungus, later revealed as the rightful King devolved, was created from a fishing lure base and hot glue by prop designer Simon Murton.[15]
Lead creatures designer and supervisorPatrick Tatopoulos was aware of the concurrentJurassic Park production, so he consciously designed the dinosaurs forSuper Mario Bros. to be more cute and cartoon-like with inspiration fromBeetlejuice.[22] Tatopoulos described Yoshi as "an abstract, fantasyT. rex",[27] and designed the baby dinosaur with large eyes to evoke a softer and less-menacing quality.[22] Lead SFX sculptor Mark Maitre compared Yoshi to a cross between "a Tyrannosaurus rex and an iguana".[27] Four versions of the Yoshipuppet were built: a stand-in, a wireless model, a half-puppet for the tongue, and a fully functional model. The fully functional puppet utilized 70 cables and nine operators, costing $500,000 (equivalent to $1.12 million in 2024).[22][27] Producers fromJurassic Park visited the set and were so impressed with the Yoshi puppet they briefly considered hiring its engineers for a secondJurassic Park creatures shop.[41] Originally, the Goombas were only background characters, but their final designs were so impressive that directors Morton and Jankel promoted them to main characters with major stunts.[22][27]
Super Mario Bros. introduced several techniques considered innovative in the transition from practical to digital visual effects. It is the first film to have used the compositing softwareFlame before it was acquired byAutodesk.[33][42] The film was also the first to be scanned with theKodak Cineon film scanner to create a digital intermediate, allowing for the compositing of more than 700 visual effects shots.[42][43] The team consisted of both traditionalrotoscope artists and digital artists, comprising approximately 30 people in total.[44]
Visual effects supervisor Chris Woods directed all of the live-action plate shots required for effects work. Woods explained that "it was much too expensive in those days to put a whole film through [the scanner]," so only those shots were scanned by Kodak, which animator andcompositor Sheena Duggal stated was the first time the company had ever done so.[44]Technicolor provided visual effectsdailies for the team, scanning the shots back onto film with the effects integrated. The disintegration effect for the inter-dimensional merge was inspired by thetransporter fromStar Trek.[23] The film was shortlisted at the66th Academy Awards forBest Visual Effects, but it was ultimately not nominated.[44]
In the United States and Canada,Super Mario Bros. only collected$8.5 million during its opening weekend, ranking in fourth place at the box office belowCliffhanger,Made in America andDave.[45][46] It grossed$20,915,465,[6] with approximately5.059 million tickets sold in the United States.[47] In Asia, the film earned¥300 million ($2.7 million) fromdistribution rentals in Japan,[48][49] and sold 106,083 tickets in the South Korean capital ofSeoul.[50] In Europe, the film grossed£2,823,116 ($4,232,558) in the United Kingdom,[51][52] sold 391,800 tickets in France, and sold 290,098 tickets in Germany.[53] In total, the film grossed $17.997 million internationally for a worldwide total of $38,912,465.[7]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 27% of 44 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Despite flashy sets and special effects,Super Mario Bros. is too light on story and substance to be anything more than a novelty."[54]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 35 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[55] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on scale of A+ to F.[56]
Michael Wilmington of theLos Angeles Times said "It's a movie split in two: wildly accomplished on one level, wildly deficient on another." He gave the film high marks for its effects and the "sheer density and bravura of the production design", but ultimately provided a low final score for poor writing.[57]Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times also commended the film's visual effects, and suggested Bob Hoskins could "handle any role with grace and good humor", but concluded "it doesn't have the jaunty hop-and-zap spirit of the Nintendo video game from which it takes—ahem—its inspiration".[58] Mark Caro of theChicago Tribune said "The movie's no stinker", lauded Hoskins and Leguizamo for their brotherly dynamic, and called the Goombas "wonderfully daffy supporting characters".[59]Hal Hinson ofThe Washington Post likewise praised the film for its performances and creature effects, and proclaimed "In short, it's a blast."[60]
Gene Siskel of theChicago Tribune andRoger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film two thumbs down on the television programSiskel & Ebert at the Movies, citing tonal inconsistency and lack of narrative,[61] and the film was on their list for one of the worst films of 1993.[62] Stephen Hunter ofThe Baltimore Sun thought Yoshi had "more personality than all the human actors put together".[63]
The film was first released onLaserDisc in the United States on December 8, 1993.[64] It was released for rental onVHS in the United States in January 1994.[65] It was released onDVD in the United States on June 3, 2003,[66] and again in 2010. The DVD release is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen with an EnglishDolby Digital 5.1 audio track.
It was released onBlu-ray by Second Sight Films in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2014,[67][68] and was re-released as a limited edition Blu-ray SteelBook byZavvi in the UK in February 2017.[69] It was released on Blu-ray in Japan on December 22, 2017, which has the same features and extras as the Second Sight Films release.[70]
An Australian Blu-ray release byUmbrella Entertainment was released in October 2021, with the same bonus features as Second Sight's release, plus the original workprint including deleted scenes.[71] This release of the film is region-free, and can be played on systems from any region. As of 2018[update], fan websiteSuper Mario Bros.: The Movie Archive was working with original VFX Supervisor Christopher F. Woods on a4K resolution transfer and restoration.[72] In 2024, Umbrella released the film on4K Blu-ray to commemorate its 30th anniversary.[73]
In a 2007 interview, Hoskins was asked what he considered the worst choice in his acting career. He responded: "Super Mario Bros. It was a fuckin' nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! Fuckin' nightmare. Fuckin' idiots."[74] He and Leguizamo got drunk before each day of filming and continued to drink between takes. In a 2011 interview withThe Guardian, Hoskins reiterated this response when asked, "What is the worst job you've done?", "What has been your biggest disappointment?", and "If you could edit your past, what would you change?" His answer to all three wasSuper Mario Bros.[75] His son, Jack Hoskins, is a fan of theMario series as well as the film and praised his performance.[76][77]
Though Leguizamo wrote in his autobiography that he hated the film and regretted acting in it, it was widely considered his breakout role in film acting. He prepared a video message for the film's 20th anniversary in 2013, saying "I'm glad people appreciate the movie [...] it was the first, nobody had ever done it before [...] I'm proud of the movie in retrospect."[78]
Hopper disparaged the production, recounting in 2008: "It was a nightmare, very honestly, that movie. It was a husband-and-wife directing team who were both control freaks and wouldn't talk before they made decisions. Anyway, I was supposed to go down there for five weeks, and I was there for 17. It was so over budget."[79] He added, "My six-year-old son at the time—he's now 18—he said, 'Dad I think you're probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa inSuper Mario Bros.?' And I said, 'Well Henry, I did that so you could have shoes,' and he said, 'Dad, I don't need shoes that badly.'"[80]
Co-director Morton reflected on the film in 2014 as a "harrowing" experience. Morton felt "very uneasy" being put in the position of having to defend the new script. In addition, working with Dennis Hopper was "really, really hard. Really hard. I don't think [Hopper] had a clue what was going on". He described the experience as humiliating,[24] but was proud of the film's originality.[29] For the film's 20th anniversary, Morton said: "I wanted parents to really get into it. At that time, there was a very hardcore movement against video games, and a lot of anti-video games sentiment. I wanted to make a film that would open it up and get parents interested in video games."[28]
Despite not being "one of [my] proudest moment as an actor", Mathis said of the film: "[I]t's maybe [the one] that I get asked the most about [...] There are a lot of people who are really excited to meet me because I was [Princess] Daisy. That's all you can ask for as an actor—that your work, and something you were part of, left an impression on people and makes them feel good."[81][82]
Co-director Jankel said, "I do feel in my heart, it was a hell of an achievement to have made it, under those circumstances, and it has in time, happily, achieved cult status [...] I am often hearing how many people loved it growing up, watch it repeatedly, and are genuine fans."[20]
Producer Joffé remains proud: "It's not that I defend the movie, it's just that, in its own extraordinary way, it was an interesting and rich artefact and has earned its place. It has strange cult status."[16] He never heard what Yamauchi or Nintendo thought of the finished product. He said, "They never phoned up to complain [...] They were very polite,"[16] though Nintendo of America presidentReggie Fils-Aimé said in 2017 that the film "left a really bad taste in the mouth of our developers" and that he had heard "horror stories" about its production from Nintendo employees.[83]
In 2018,Phil Harnage, writer ofThe Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, revealed that the film's box office failure was considered a relief to the crew of the animated series stating, "[We] were all very happy because everybody hated it! It was such a waste of time and talent". He further added that they were never contacted about the film.[84]
Mario creatorShigeru Miyamoto said: "[In] the end, it was a very fun project that they put a lot of effort into [...] 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 theMario Bros. video games were. And in that sense, it became a movie that was about a video game, rather than being an entertaining movie in and of itself."[85]Aaron Horvath, co-director of 2023'sThe Super Mario Bros. Movie, felt the film differentiated from what he had hoped for in an adaptation of the games growing up, although he conceded to retrospectively enjoying it.[86]Seth Rogen, who voicedDonkey Kong in the film, calledSuper Mario Bros. one of the worst films ever made and what "made me realize that movies, like, could be bad. That never occurred to me until that moment."[87]
Ryan Hoss, a longtime fan of the film, launched the fansiteSuper Mario Bros.: The Movie Archive, explaining toPlayboy for the film's 25th anniversary, "I had this collection, and the Internet was growing in terms of fansites during that era, the late '90s, and I always knew theMario Bros. movie was misunderstood and a sore spot in people's minds—at least, the way it was being portrayed on the Internet, the 'worst movie ever' kind of deal."[82] He characterized the site: "It's a way to celebrate the film itself and showcase the work of all the people who had a part in it—warts and all, good and bad."[72]
In 2010 Steven Applebaum joined the site as editor-in-chief to help collect production materials and organize interviews. He said, "Most of the [cast and crew] were very happy about it because, at the time, it was a very revolutionary movie [...] They were introducing a lot of great special effects that hadn't been done before, and they had these really talented actors, and it was a project they were proud to work on. [...] Giving them a chance to talk about everything they did, it really helped them to share what they contributed and what they felt was important to the industry."[88] The film returned to theaters through fan efforts in 2012,[89][90] and in 2013 for the 20th anniversary.[91] TheNintendo Power 20th anniversary retrospective issue states that the fact that the film was made—regardless of quality—shows how much the game series had impacted popular culture.[92]
Thomas Leitch has written thatSuper Mario Bros. is an example of post-literary adaptation and that it "drops facetious references" toThe Wizard of Oz,Star Wars, andDoctor Zhivago.[93]: 267 Stephen Hunter ofThe Baltimore Sun compared the Goombas to thewinged monkeys ofThe Wizard of Oz, suggesting they similarly evoke a "mix of pity and terror".[63] The phrase "Trust the Fungus" has been compared to "May the Force be with you" fromStar Wars.[59][93]: 267
In 2013, fansite editors Steven Applebaum and Ryan Hoss teamed with one of the film's original screenwriters, Parker Bennett, on afanfictionwebcomic sequel.[94][95] Development on the sequel began after a 2010 interview in which Bennett admitted the sequel hook was more an homage to the ending of the originalBack to the Future and was not a serious indication of a potential continuation.[96] However, Applebaum and Hoss later asked Bennett what he would have done if given the opportunity and Bennett provided broad points about the consequences of the first film and the themes that they would have explored.[88]
The adventure picks up withMario andLuigi returning to Dinohattan to aidDaisy in defeating mad scientistWart, the final boss fromSuper Mario Bros. 2. "We did heavily discuss the world of the film, from its backstory to the character's motivations", says Applebaum. Bennett provided general direction before "[passing] the torch" to Applebaum and Hoss.[96]
On June 1, 2021, editor and film restorationist Garrett Gilchrist and members ofThe Super Mario Bros. (Movie) Archive released a "semi-official" restoration of the extended cut ofSuper Mario Bros. The restorationists named itThe Morton-Jankel Cut because it was based on an earlier VHS workprint of the film which had been discovered. Gilchrist was hired to get the most out of the low-quality VHS. The film is extended by twenty minutes in this cut, with additional scenes including Koopa devolving a technician into slime for the crime of sneezing, Mario's rivalry with the mafia-affiliated Scapelli plumbing company, and an anti-Kooparap by Spike and Iggy at the Boom Boom Bar, backed up with scantily clad lizard dancers. Though theMorton-Jankel Cut was theoretically intended as an official Blu-ray extra, there are no plans for this to happen, and it was leaked toInternet Archive instead.[97] The Australian Blu-ray by Umbrella (released October 2021) used a raw edit of the VHS workprint rather than Gilchrist's restoration.[98][99]
The "Trust the Fungus – Super Mario Bros. 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition" was released on Blu-ray by Umbrella Entertainment in 2023. This featured deleted scenes and the "Lasagna Workprint" from the same VHS source used previously for theMorton-Jankel Cut, but restored differently for this edition.[100]
| Super Mario Bros. | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | May 10, 1993 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 55:16 |
| Label | Capitol Records |
| Producer | Various Artists |
| Singles from Super Mario Bros. | |
| |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [102] |
| Entertainment Weekly | D[103] |
| Music Week | [104] |
| Philadelphia Inquirer | [105] |
The soundtrack, released on May 10, 1993, byCapitol Records, features two songs fromRoxette: "Almost Unreal", which was released as a single, and "2 Cinnamon Street", which is an alternate version of the song "Cinnamon Street" from Roxette's albumTourism. The music video for "Almost Unreal" was inspired by the film, featuring scenes from the film and a de-evolution theme. "Almost Unreal" was originally written for the filmHocus Pocus, but was switched out to anEn Vogue song instead. Roxette subsequently gave the song to theMario film. Roxette co-founderPer Gessle said "the film turned out to be ridiculous (so thought Dennis Hopper by the way ... I met him at aFormula 1 race many years ago discussing this...) but the song isn't that bad".[106][107]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performed by | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Almost Unreal" | Per Gessle | Roxette | 3:59 |
| 2. | "Love Is the Drug" (Originally performed byRoxy Music) | Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay | Divinyls | 4:35 |
| 3. | "Walk the Dinosaur" (Originally performed byWas (Not Was)) | Randy Jacobs, David Was, Don Was | George Clinton & The Goombas | 4:06 |
| 4. | "I Would Stop the World" | Mick Leeson, Peter Vale | Charles & Eddie | 4:24 |
| 5. | "I Want You" | Donnie Wahlberg | Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch | 6:11 |
| 6. | "Where Are You Going?" | Extreme | 4:34 | |
| 7. | "Speed of Light" | Joe Satriani | Joe Satriani | 5:10 |
| 8. | "Breakpoint" | Dave Mustaine,David Ellefson,Nick Menza | Megadeth | 3:29 |
| 9. | "Tie Your Mother Down" | Brian May | Queen | 3:46 |
| 10. | "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" | Herbie Hancock, Rahsaan Kelly, Mel Simpson, Geoff Wilkinson | Us3 Featuring Rahsaan & Gerrard Prescencer | 4:29 |
| 11. | "Don't Slip Away [ * ]" | Tracie Spencer, Narada Michael Walden, Sylvester Jackson | Tracie Spencer | 5:19 |
| 12. | "2 Cinnamon Street [ * ]" | Per Gessle | Roxette | 5:06 |
| Total length: | 55:16 | |||
* These tracks were not included in the U.S. and Canada releases, only on the international versions of the album.[108]
Rumors of a more source-accurate theatrical animatedMario film began in late 2014, withleaked emails between film producer Avi Arad andSony Pictures headTom Rothman suggesting that Sony would be producing the film.[109] On November 14, 2017,Universal Pictures andIllumination announced a computer-animatedMario film.[110] On January 31, 2018, Nintendo of America announced its partnership with Illumination, stating that the film would be co-produced byShigeru Miyamoto andChris Meledandri.[111] On November 6, 2018, Meledandri stated that the film would be a "priority" for the studio, with a tentative 2022 release date, while reaffirming that Miyamoto would be involved "front and center" in the film's creation. Speaking of the challenge of adapting the series into an animated film, Meledandri stated the film would be "an ambitious task...taking things that are so thin in their original form and finding depth that doesn't compromise what generations of fans love about Mario, but also feels organic to the iconography and can support a three-act structure".[112][113][114]
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in the United States on April 5, 2023. It received mixed reviews from critics,[115] and was a major commercial success, grossing $1.363 billion worldwide and setting multiple box-office records including thebiggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and thehighest-grossing film based on a video game. It became thesecond-highest-grossing film of 2023, thethird-highest-grossing animated film of all time, and the highest-grossing film produced by Illumination.
Text in this article was copied fromSuper Mario Bros. (film) at the Super Mario wiki, which is released under aCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license.
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