A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

I am a big fan of the Super Mario Bros. Movie and the cartoon (At least the first series of it) but which version does a better portrayal of the characters. Remember the cartoon was intended for children while the movie I feel was meant for teenagers so I will just be focused on the characters and how they look and sound and some other things. So let the match begin. I will admit I don't know a whole lot about the various vocal tones of the Italian accent but just keep reading and you'll see why I voted the way I did.

Bob Hoskins vs Captain Lou Albano
As for how they look Lou has an unfair advantage because Mario was already an animated video game character and animation I feel can be easier to work on but I gotta say the wardrobe dept. did a good job at making both Mario and Luigi's costume. As for the voices however...I get that they are Italian but if you have heard the voices Nintendo used in the Mario games it just sounds WAY to cartoony so I like the New York Italian voice much better because they can sound more like a bad ass but which ones is better? I'm gonna have to say Bob's because you can hear some Italian in the accent he used in the movie. I NOW know Lou is Italian but theres something about that just feels off to me I just don't know what it is. As for how they were portrayed again i'm going to have to give this to the movie as well because they made Mario look like a bad ass while the cartoon character was cocky and was always looking for food. So point goes to Hoskins

John Leguizamo vs Danny Wells
This one i'm sorry to say is an open and shut case. Point goes to John on all fronts. Danny's voice had almost no Italian in it what so ever and it even sounds like an old man's voice. As for John a lot of Italian New Yorkers sound like that (And Bob's Mario as well) plus he has a lot of energy he brings to the voice alone. Plus one thing I HATE in shows is when you have a character that is tall and or big but they act like a total coward. Even the most sensitive big guys know they have an advantage in almost every confrontation because of their size. So point goes to John.

Dennis Hopper vs Harvey Atkins
Ok this one is a little tough because when I first saw Koopa as a human I started laughing and said that's not Koopa. And sure I know the producers just didn't have the budget and technology was just not their yet for what they needed so the character was easier to do in animation. So the cartoon wins on look as for how they were portrayed i'm gonna have to go with the movie because in the cartoon he was just so incompetent. Kids are a lot smarter then adult give them credit for and even they could tell when his plan wouldn't work. But with Hopper he looked more confident and appeared like he had this big plan that he can carry out and was way smarter. As for the voice, Hopper sounded like a regular human being. While what Atkins brought to the table sounded like it would have come from an actual creature and when you see and hear something like that there is immediate intimidation. But I really can't stand how incompetent Atkins's Koopa was I mean it really kills me and as much of a Dennis Hopper fan I am and would love to call this a draw. The cartoon has 2 out of 3 so point goes to Atkins.

Mojo Nixon vs John Stocker
As far as look goes. Again the cartoon show has an unfair advantage because of the animation while Mojo's Toad was placed in a different world but to be honest I was never really a fan of toad's look. He reminded me from something out of Alice In Wonderland but this was the image of Toad from the start so cartoon gets that. As for the voice MOJO WINS HANDS DOWN! Stocker's voice was annoying and I know Toad is a short guy and his voice will be naturally higher. It was like a less cocky version of Scrappy Doo so Mojo gets the win there. As for the better overall character....This one is tough because Toad doesn't really do much. Mojo's was turned into a Goomba so you really didn't get to know him (Although I like the producers idea of him being the keeper of knowledge) but in the cartoon he was just the Princes's servant and aside from helping the Mario's he didn't do much either.So this match is draw.

DynoHatten vs The Moshroom Kingdom
Although I loved the look of DynoHatten and I know that a real kingdom is surrounded by a city it was just not the same as the actual Mushroom Kingdom. There was not one castle in that entire movie (At least as far as I know). Now in the cartoon series it was taken over by Koopa and you don't see much of it but at least it's there so by default point goes to the cartoon.

Goomba vs Goomba
As for this one a lot of people were pissed that the goombas in the game looked nothing like the ones in the movie but it's important to remember the phrase "Some things just don't translate". In the Games Mario and Goombas are about the same size until Mario get's a mushroom and trying to do the signature stomp on them would just not translate well into a movie it's very anti climactic and it would be an easy kill. You would think Koopa would have done something to make them better. I mean in the games they will just walk right of a cliff which would be funny to put in the movie but after a while it would get old and I think the audience would realize that their just not fascinating. Hell their not even that intimidating but, the ones in the movie however look like they could kill you and would if ordered too and they look threatening. And yes they may look stupider but Goomba does mean stupid in Italian. So point goes to the movie.

So winner with 3 confirmed wins is THE MOVIE! If you wondering how come I didn't do an analysis of Daisy, Iggy, and Spike it's because they weren't featured in the cartoons (At lest to my knowledge) and as far as the story goes. In the games you had to rescue the princess and in the cartoons she was already rescued it was the kingdom that needed saving while as the movie they had to save both. I know people are bitching that the movie was nothing like the game but it's important to remember 2 factors. The phrase some things just don't translate and it was just too soon for the movie people wanted. I hope you all find my analysis fair and biased and if you feel there was something I missed feel free to tell me.

I can totally disagree, as Lou Albano is actually Italian, and his accent sounds a lot more Italian than Bob's. Though I can enjoy both, but Bob's to me sounds like exactly like a New Yorker, that's it, barrely any Italian. Sam with Leguizamo's Luigi, he just sounds like a Brooklynite, as Danny Wells has a very good Italian accent while sounding Brooklyn at the same time, for someone being Canadian.

I enjoy movie Koopa's voice, but find cartoon voice a little irritating, but fit's the character. I respect both of their voices the same, since it is different media. But, I would actually prefer Sunshine Bowser voice, it sounds mean, but dumb at the same time. I picture Bowser more like Chris Sabat's Vegeta, but dumbed down.

Toad, they're both annoying, game, movie, and cartoon. Not much to say there.

Well when it comes to voices i'm going with what my Italian friend Lisa said and which is a lot of Italian New Yorkers sound like that and that's how I pictured Mario and Luigi "Itailian New Yorkers" and in the movie they had this tone in their voices that made them sound like a bad ass. I will admit I don't know a lot about the Italian accent but at least with Bob and John's they sounded more confident and as I said before using a real Italian accent sounds just way to cartoony.

I really didn't care for the cartoons that much, as they weren't like the movie. I would have liked to seen a grittier cartoon, based on the movie in the style of say, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons, or better yet, Batman: The Animated Series.

Serum wrote:I really didn't care for the cartoons that much, as they weren't like the movie. I would have liked to seen a grittier cartoon, based on the movie in the style of say, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons, or better yet, Batman: The Animated Series.

I think that's the kind of Mario Bros cartoon I always wanted. One like Batman or TMNT. I mean, if I had the SMB action figures as a kid, they would've fit right in with my Batman and TMNT toys, so why not make the TV shows similar? I used to make my own Mario and Luigi toys out of old action figures and a little imagination, and I always envisioned them as a crossover between the cartoon and movie portrayals. Therefore, an SMB cartoon based off of the movie would've been awesome.

I wouldn't say that the film and animated series are exactly similar enough mediums to really make proper comparisons, but it's an interesting thought-process nonetheless. I think the film owes a lot to the animated series in that, as it came first, the cartoon just created an image of what "Super Mario" was all about.

Unless the film was a carbon copy of the cartoon (not the games, as many say) not very many people would be happy or satisfied.

Well this really wasn't about which media was better. It was more like which version of the character was better and sure Lou Albano actually is Italian but I just didn't like his Mario. Being cocky is not a substitute for confidence. As for Danny Wells's Luigi I HATE it when you have a big character who acts like coward even the most sensitive of tall and big guys know they have an advantage due to their size. Plus I always viewed both of them As NY Italians plus I feel like with Bob's Mario he had a huge sense of pride with being a plumber Lou's Mario seemed to be more focused on trying to convince everyone he's Italian by craving the foods of the native land. And sure in the live action segments of the show was them hanging out in their office with all sorts of pipes and such but you rarely see them working on those pipes. I always pictured Luigi in believing these in those weird stories but not because he's dumb or gullible but that's the kind of world he wants to be in.