This is a review I did of the movie when it was first released on DVD. Let me know what you think.
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
Super Mario Bros. has been widely regarded as a huge mistake. It’s been considered the best example of why video games shouldn’t be made into movies. The cast is way off, the story isn’t even close to the original game, and the gritty sci-fi look is not what anyone expected (or wanted). This movie disappointed audiences in practically every way possible.
You know what? I really like it.
That is, of course, going to require some serious explanation on my part. The key to enjoying Super Mario Bros., or any movie for that matter, is to approach it on its own terms. So many Nintendo fans simply weren’t ready to do that. We wanted a movie that captured the spirit of the gently-colored cartoon world of the Mushroom Kingdom. We wanted to see Mario sprout a raccoon tail and fly to the stratosphere. We were already very familiar with what Mario’s world looked like, and we wanted the movie to capture that.
However, most failed to consider the fact that a TV show called "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show" had done exactly that, just a few years earlier. The Mushroom Kingdom had been brought to vivid, colorful life on the airwaves, so Nintendo purists had already been indulged. Super Mario Bros., on the other hand, had to appeal to a broader audience, so it was decided that a live-action sci-fi movie was the best route to take. Considering the later success of the Pokémon movie franchise, I might question that logic, but hindsight is always 20/20. The decision was made, and a movie with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo portraying Mario and Luigi was born.
The original Super Mario Bros. game had a fairly simple story: King Koopa had abducted Princess Toadstool and taken control of the Mushroom Kingdom and its people. Mario and Luigi rush to the rescue, by running and jumping through a cartoon fantasy world. Now, honestly, is that enough story to sustain an entire movie? As much as the final script was criticized, I don’t think the original story would have fared much better in movie form.
If, for a moment, we forget the movie is supposed to be about the Mario brothers, the script is actually a pretty neat idea. Today’s scientists tell us that, millions of years ago, a meteor struck the Earth, resulting in the extinction of the dinosaurs. Well, apparently, that’s not quite true. Actually, the force of the meteor’s impact segregated life on Earth into two different dimensions: mammals into one, and dinosaurs into the other. For several million years both Earths grow and evolve, until the present day when our Earth is run by intelligent primates, and theirs is run by intelligent dinosaurs (Kind of like Planet of the Apes, with a lizard motif).
There’s only one problem-- when the Earth doubled, the mammals got the lion’s share of resources. Now the dinosaurs, led by their dictator, King Koopa, have found a way back, and they plan on collecting their share, with 65 million years’ worth of interest.
So, rather than portray The Mushroom Kingdom as a blue-skied, cheerful little world, it’s shown to be a grimy version of New York City, surrounded by an entire planet of desert. This affords the set designers some amazing opportunities. We may consider the movie to be quite silly now, but those who created the look and feel of it took their jobs quite seriously. Every effort was made to try and understand what kind of world would be created by lizards. Dinohattan is shown to be damp and warm. Its citizens dress in an odd combination of vinyl, silk, and other sleek fabrics mimicking reptile skin. Street vendors sell salamanders on a bun. A local establishment, Drippy’s Donuts, advertises "If it don’t bleed, it ain’t lunch!"
Having a world run by dinosaurs is interesting in general, but for real fun, look at the individual citizens of Dinohattan. Iggy and Spike, Koopa’s underlings, are the classic good eggs that have been scrambled a bit. Nobody in the entire movie seems capable of driving, much less stopping. And the Goombas! Oh, they’re worth the price of admission alone. Originally supposed to be a very small part of the movie, Koopa’s personal army of gigantic morons proved to be so much fun, the filmmakers added them to almost every scene. Any enemy that can be defeated by elevator music is OK in my book.
One thing you won’t notice in the dinosaur universe is the color green. Except for Luigi’s outfit and a few neon lights, the color was essentially forbidden on the set in order to subtly emphasize the severe ecological crisis caused by Koopa wasting the planet’s scarce resources. Notice the propaganda hung in the streets, promoting Koopa’s policies? "Koopa: The Environmentalist, ‘Don’t Worry! We’ll Get More!’"
Getting past the thoroughly bizarre story and setting, the casting didn’t seem to please anyone. Bob Hoskins certainly wasn’t anyone’s idea of Mario, but he’s a stocky guy with a mustache, and a good actor. Certainly, studios have made far, far worse casting decisions. He did a good job with what he was given, and I’m guessing Captain Lou Albano didn’t want to revisit the role. John Leguizamo was even harder to sell to audiences. We never expected the age difference between the two to be so great, and John didn’t even grow Luigi’s trademark mustache for the role! As shocking as it might be to see a Mario brother without facial hair, let’s remind ourselves, this isn’t the fantasy world of the game, this is the story with a sci-fi spin.
Particularly enjoyable is Dennis Hopper’s performance as King Koopa. He jumped into the role with both feet. Notice his hand movements and walk, which seem extremely reptilian. Even better is his delivery of his lines, putting real motivation into phrases such as "[I am] one evil, egg-sucking son-of-a-snake." But again, to appreciate that, you have to accept the movie on its own terms.
The new DVD is very disappointing. It’s widescreen, so at least it can be seen in the correct aspect ratio, but it’s not anamorphically enhanced. This is 2003, and most new TVs being sold are either widescreen, or offer vertical compression. What’s the point of releasing a DVD if it isn’t going to be anamorphic? There aren’t any extras, either, unless you consider English subtitles and captions to be an extra (I don’t). To balance it out, Super Mario Bros. has a budget MSRP of $9.99, and thus should be sold in most stores for little more than the cost of a rental.
Working past all the negative publicity, Super Mario Bros. isn’t that bad of a movie. Sure, it gets a bit silly at times, but it’s good dinosaur-movie fun, the kind you won’t find in Jurassic Park. It just made one big mistake: it alienated the one group of people that wanted to see it. It trounced upon the expectations of Nintendo fans and Mario maniacs. Move past that, forget what you wanted to see, and see what’s actually there. You might, just maybe, have a really good time.
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