Super Mario Bros. (film)

Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.
	File:Supermariobros.jpg
Directed by	Annabel Jankel ; Rocky Morton
Produced by	Jake Eberts; Roland Joffé
Starring	Bob Hoskins; John Leguizamo; Dennis Hopper; Samantha Mathis; Fisher Stevons; Richard Edson; Fiona Shaw; Mojo Nixon
Distributed by	Hollywood Pictures
Release dates	May 28, 1993
Running time	104 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$42,000,000 (estimated)

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). This was one of the Disney Channel premiere films in 1993.

It was the first major motion picture to be based on a video game.

Taglines:

This Ain't No Game, It's a Live-Action Thrill Ride!
This ain't no game!
Can two plumbers save the world from going down the drain?

Plot

Template:Spoiler 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 first dimension is the human world, inhabited by humans who evolved from apes, who in turn evolved from small mammals. The other dimension is inhabited by humanoid creatures who evolved from dinosaurs.

Twenty years ago in Brooklyn, a woman brought a capsule with a transluscent rock attached to it to be left at a church. As she 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 woman ran into Koopa. She threw a support beam at him but then the tunnels collapsed on her.

In present-day Brooklyn, New York, a young archaeologist named Daisy uncovers a massive find of mysterious new dinosaur bones. She is befriended by two plumbers named Mario Mario and Luigi Mario after their car breaks down. Luigi asks her out for dinner. While exploring the tunnels where dinosaur fossils lay, saboteurs hired by a business man named Anthony Scapelli break some pipes. They call Mario to fix the pipes. Spike and Iggy kidnap Daisy while the Marios are fixing the pipes. They follow the two to a solid rock where Daisy's face comes out. Luigi accidentally grabs her necklace. 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 old lady, the rock is taken by a plump African woman named Bertha who then jumps away with jet shoes. They are then caught by the police, arresting them for being plumbers. 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, a singer who is about to be punished. His head is inserted into an odd machine. Koopa explains to the Marios about De-evolution which causes things to revert in the evolutionary chain. Now Toad is a loyal member of the Royal Family: A Goomba; a big, tall, small lizard headed 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.

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.

In Koopa's tower, Daisy meets a kind dinosaur named Yoshi. 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. They come face-to-face with Bertha, who punches the attendant. Locking the door, they steal Bertha's rocket shoes. Bertha gives Mario a kiss good-bye and the two 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. 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. 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 a lace 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 vanishes out of existence. 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.

Toad gives Daisy and Luigi two extra Devolution guns and Bertha tosses a pair of rocket boots. Mario and Luigi use Koopa's own weapons against him. As he starts to devolve, the Bob-omb Mario released earlier, explodes under Koopa and he is launched into the same coal vat he fell into earlier. Koopa emerges as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Another blast makes him devolve through each dinosaur age until he is nothing more than a pile of goo. Mario steps on Luigi's feet as they are appauded by everyone. In Koopa's tower, the king turns back to his humanoid self and cries: "I'm back! I love those plumbers!"

Later, Mario, Luigi and Daisy return to the meteorite. Daisy uses the rock to open the gap between dimensions. Luigi asks her to come but she hesitates. Mario explains that she has to stay with her own kind until she knows where she truly belongs. If Luigi loves her, he has to let her go. The Marios enter the gap as they are bid good-bye from Daisy and Yoshi. As they return to their dimension, Toad comes in.

Three weeks later, the news reports on Mario and Luigi's efforts to return the missing Brooklyn girls and save a parallel world from a ruthless dictator. The reporter calls them the "Super Mario Brothers". Suddenly, Daisy comes in saying there's trouble.

After the credits, representative 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

The movie is widely considered to be an enormous 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 no such thing in the games. Another example is the argument that Samantha Mathis' role, instead of Princess Daisy, should have been Princess Peach (Princess Daisy was the name of a different character in the Game Boy game Super Mario Land).

The movie's PG rating probably hurt the film's potential, as the movie's dark atmosphere, realistic-looking monsters, and numerous action sequences scared off many parents from bringing their young Mario fans to the theater, effectively eliminating a key demographic.

Game References

File:MovieDaisy.jpg

Samantha Mathis as Princess Daisy

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 stomper boots were potentially inspired by the Kuribo's Shoe from Super Mario Bros. 3, especially because the Goombas in the movie wear them. 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." Another sign says "Thwomp."
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 seven children from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.
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.
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 and several ghost Boo sprites from the same game bouncing around the screen can be briefly glimpsed.
The weapons used by Koopa's forces, and by the Mario Brothers themselves, shoot small balls of flames, a reference that many enemies spit fireballs. Also the Mario Brothers themselves can wield fireballs, with the help of a fire flower.
A Bob-omb appears prominently in the film.
The taxi cab company in the dinosaur world is Wiggler, named for a large green or 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.
In the coat check scene, there is a sign with that says "These premises protected by FRY GUY flamethrowers". FryGuy was a boss from the USA release of Super Mario Bros. 2.
The final battle between King Koopa and Mario is set on a bridge, similar to the encounters in Super Mario Bros. where they fight on a suspended bridge above lava.
The name Ostro, seen on a sign in the movie, is the name of an enemy in Super Mario Bros. 2 and was mixed up in the credits of the game to make it seem that the Mario character "Birdo" was Ostro and Ostro was "Birdo".
Many characters use cattle prod guns, a reference to the character Sparky.
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 beetle from the games series.
When escaping the Police Station, Mario shouts "Let's hit the bricks!" before taking off in a stolen police car. The line may be reference to the game series as Mario hits brick blocks in order to obtain items and coins.
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.
Goombas in the game had small bodies and big heads. In the film the opposite is true.
Though there was wide expectations of a sequel there has still been no planned sequels or spin-offs.

Cast

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.

External links