Why Koopa was human instead of a lizard (my theory)

[jka12002]

The only possible reason i could think of is that the film makers didnt want another 80's TMNT movie looking Koopa (remember how goofy looking the costumes were?) Also CGI wasnt as advanced yet like it is today.

Here is what i mean by TMNT movie looking....


and some examples of The Thing costume from the unreleased Fantastic 4 movie:

[Redstar]

I think casting Koopa as "human" was a stroke of genius. Really, it's hard to take a non-human villain seriously. If Koopa was visually based on the game version, then it would definitely have costume goofiness in moving the mouth, which would only contribute to the audience not taking him so seriously. Hard to take a giant turtle monster seriously. Dennis Hopper was a brilliant choice, but I only wish that they'd made his de-evolution into a T-rex more fantastical and have the rex be Bowserish.

My only disagreement with you is on the TMNT turtles: the costumes rocked. Realistic then, and now.

[incognitus]

we now that the movie wanted to be more adult, so Koopa must to be human to be more realistic than a T-rex villiain

[billbot85]

I think casting Koopa as "human" was a stroke of genius. Really, it's hard to take a non-human villain seriously. If Koopa was visually based on the game version, then it would definitely have costume goofiness in moving the mouth, which would only contribute to the audience not taking him so seriously. Hard to take a giant turtle monster seriously. Dennis Hopper was a brilliant choice, but I only wish that they'd made his de-evolution into a T-rex more fantastical and have the rex be Bowserish.

My only disagreement with you is on the TMNT turtles: the costumes rocked. Realistic then, and now.

I agree, having Koopa as a human definitely fit in with the Blade Runner - like world and the evolution/alternate dimension theme.

As for TMNT, that picture provided is from the awful Ninja Turtles 3, which did not use the Jim Henson costumes that were made for the first two films.

[Sonicroc]

Um, is it too late for me to reply? (I've been gone for quite awhile...)

Anyway, I think it's quite simple. They needed Daisy to be a human in order for her to fit into the real world, but she had to also be the species of the people who live in Dinohatten. The only way around it would be to make there be several different species of intelligent life in the other world, which would be even less believable than it already is.

Besides, I don't really think of Koopa being human as being contradictory to the original games. After all, he turns into a T Rex during the final battle, which is the only time you see him in the originals...

(Fire Fox is suggesting I change "Dinohatten" to "Nonfattening"! )

[Redstar]

I probably really wouldn't want to see a live action Super Mario movie it was completely faithful to the games, unless it was sheer badassery. Even then I'd have trouble dealing with a Mario movie that treats itself seriously; majority of Mario games these days are very aware Mario is "outdated" and play with that. Keeps him relevant in a new way, which is just what Mario is good at: always finding a way to be relevant.

A humanoid Bowser is simply a good idea. If they ever attempt to reboot the franchise I'd want them to keep that aspect, though I would prefer more enemies involved. Having a mixture of races all based or loosely based on in-game races would be great.