Somewhere, exists a three-hour cut of "Super Mario Bros."

[Serum]

Now, I don't know this for certain, but what I do know is, roughly 40-50% of the movie was cut out for various reasons:

1. It was too long.
2. Constant script-changes.
3. Transitioning from a "PG-13" to a hard "PG."
4. Studio demands; poor editing.
5. Fluid Continuity.

But part of me, deep down inside, knows that somewhere on a shelf in Hollywood, lies a 3-hour cut of this movie, just begging to be digitally remastered and released in an "Ultimate Edition" DVD/Blu-Ray.
We should start a petition or something that would bringer a ticker-tape parade to Hollywood and demand that they give us half our movie back! Unfortunately, I think half of Hollywood would just say: "There's a Mario Bros movie?"
Another thing I know is, most movies, when first edited, are well over three hours long, this is due in part to some of the reasons above, as well as other factors like lazy editing and angry Hollywood producers.
Somewhere, the real version of Super Mario Bros is waiting to be unleashed...I think it's time we start looking for it. I think it's time to start demanding we get the full Super Mario Bros experience.
Besides, it would mean more money for a movie that still hasn't made its budget back. I can't see how any Hollywood Producer would argue with that.

Who's with me?

[Redstar]

You're right, lots of movies are about that long before release. The reason is they need a lot of footage to work with before they figure out what sort of cut they want to send out, so only filming 90 minutes isn't going to give them room to make a decent movie.

In fact, somewhere, sitting in a vault in Hollywood is a 5-hour Dune movie with many of the missing scenes taken directly from the book. This version will never be released because the studio screwed Lynch over so bad he doesn't even do big movies anymore. Now we're stuck with a 3-hour movie stitched together by fans working off what little deleted/extended scenes they could find.

Something like what you're proposing was done before, for Waterworld. The original cut was about 5 hours, which was then trimmed down to 3, and finally cut and released at 136 minutes. After a huge letter-writing campaign from the fans for a new, extended DVD release, they got it... Except it was a poor transfer from the heavily censored and edited ABC showings, with all the extended/deleted scenes added still workprint-version, meaning completely unrestored. So they got a recording off the TV, basically.

I want this movie too. The SMB movie has so much in it that I just know wasn't shown. There was a whole world in there that we only got bits and pieces of before Mario and Luigi were locked up, then escaped to the desert. It'd even give me more material to work with on my project.

If you can get me the right addresses, I'll write to all the people I can. If we form a letter-writing campaign ourselves I'm sure we can get some response, even if it's just "Thank you for writing". Hey, it'd be a letter for the site... to have right on the same page we list all the addresses so more and more people can also write in.

[ultimateemail5000]

The best way I think to do this would be a hand written letter to the studios who have it. I would be down to take part in this, and I know that petitions never work. But if they released Street Fighter on Bluray, they can release SMB.

[Zack]

I'd love to help in any way that I can. Sadly yeah, most petitions don't seem to do much. I don't know as far as putting money towards releases like that or if they could see it as something that would be worth it. I'm kinda always surprised it even made it to DVD though a barebones release. I'm not sure in the original budget for the film if part of the money is put towards putting the movie out on VHS once out of theaters. I guess I was just confused how it made it to DVD at all or if much money was involved at all to get it on DVD.

Someone said the VHS screener has some additional making of stuff at the beginning? I'd definitely love to do what it takes to get this movie some kind of nice treatment. 2013. It will be 20 years old.

[Phlibbit]

Yes, the VHS screener has a "Behind the Scenes" featurette that I plan on converting. And with all the evidence I've managed to gather, there is a LOT of stuff that was cut. Mind-boggling, actually. And I'm sure there's a lot more that we don't know about yet.

[Zack]

very cool. I do hope someday the movie will have some light shed on it. It did bomb but I think it sort of exists in infamy and notoriety and has a cult following.

A good chunk of comments I read online are people who liked it, I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes it, people who are nostalgic for it, people who say it wasn't that bad. Time seems to have healed some wounds. Or people who don't look on it as harshly as they did back then.

Then there are still "those people"

[Redstar]

Putting a film on out VHS or DVD isn't all that expensive unless they pull out all the stops, even if they pull out all the stops. I used to work in a restaurant (I'm sure we all have at least once) and we'd get the soda syrup and the tanks, and we'd mix and carbonate it ourselves. The whole batch was literally in the cents category. They only up the prices for a $1 or 2 a cup to make a huge profit. The same is true for the film industry. With technology and factory-efficiency at its current state it takes next to no money at all to print out some VHS or DVDs. Yes, it'll cost them, but very little that will easily be more than made up for in the years-to-come of purchases.

If we want to get this to work we just need to convince them that the ends justify the means. That money is out there for it. Sadly, a few choice letters and petitions won't get that done. We need to be able to do those in complement with a few sites with a section devoted to having this problem solved mirroring each other, as well as make contacts to various film-printing companies, consumer-industry relation organizations, and whatever actors and crew we can get on board. A presence needs to be felt. They need a little pressure on their toes before they'll look down.

[incognitus]

like the "Bigss' scene" in A New Hope and the "sandstorm scene" in Return Of The Jedi, a rare and unknow SMBTM material will apear... soon or late...

[1upmushroom]

I hope this three-hour cut makes to DVD, I'd really like to see how Koopa and Lena french kissed, or the scapeli scen, when Mario's toolbelt gets touched.

[Redstar]

The chances of that are very unlikely. If we do get a release close to it, it'll most surely be workprint with all the extended and deleted scenes unmastered and with poor audio. It'd take a lot of time and a driven fan to get them anywhere close to the standard of the rest of the movie.

[ultimateemail5000]

I would love to hear actor commentary, even if all they did was bash the movie the whole time, I wouldn't care. I just want to hear what happened. I say few members of this forum (including me) should go to Disney, storm in, and demand they release it on bluray. I'm pretty sure they hold the distribution rights.

[Redstar]

We need to do a letter-writing campaign as I said above. It'll be some work, hand-writing our thoughts and goals, but it's the only way to get a response telling us what they plan to do. Once we get that, we do it again, and again, and again and each time they'll send another response until eventually it gets into their heads that it might be a good idea to release a new DVD.

Like I said, it's all about stepping on the right toes. It worked for the Waterworld fans (to a degree).