Acting technique for Mario...

[Doc_V]

Something that might be of interest to all those who were wondering if Bob Hoskins boned up on Mario and his moves for the film. My best friend worked at Nintendo in Redmond in the early 90's (and yes, he has a little Game Counsellor statuette with Mario on the top). As he was good at doing playthroughs, Nintendo one day asked him to do a decent runthrough of all Mario's jumps, abilities and movements. (As far as he recalls, it was SM3). This was taped, and then sent off - initially, he was told, to Danny DeVito, but then to Bob Hoskins. So if anyone has to apologise or be thanked for Mario's moves... Blame Seattle!

(And yes, I was such a fanboi that when he told me this, I swore undying love for him. What a guy!)

[Phlibbit]

That's such a cool story! Thanks for letting us know--that's something we would probably have never known otherwise.

Now, we have heard that Nintendo did provide lists/images of all the Mario characters and enemies to the production team. Do you or your friend know anything about that?

[billbot85]

dude that is AWESOME! Being an actor myself I love finding out how people get their inspiration or what research they do to prepare for a role. That's so cool that your friend demonstrated all of Mario's moves for Bob Hoskins. I wonder of that tape is still in existence........

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Wicked...

...are there any pictures of that statuette, by chance?

[Serum]

That is interesting, I didn't know Nintendo when and gave that level of involvement to the film.
Also, for the longest time I thought one of the Japanese businessmen in the post-credits scene was Shigeru Miyamoto, but I don't think it is.