SMB Movie mentioned on Sequelcast

[Sequelcast]

Redstar recently contacted me suggesting I should talk about our mention of the Super Mario Bros. movie in a special episode of my podcast, the Sequelcast. We recently did a special episode focusing on movies that promise a sequel that was never made and the Super Mario Bros. movie was one of the first ones we talk about.

Here is a link to the episode if you want to give it a listen: http://traffic.libsyn.com/sequelcast/sequelcastspecial2.mp3. The Super Mario Bros. movie talk starts at the 7 minutes:33 seconds mark and ends at the 12:02 mark.

Thanks!

Note: I also want to stress to listeners or potential listeners that sometimes the language gets offensive, but it's often in a jocular manner.

[Redstar]

Thanks for taking the time to re-post this! It was definitely an enjoyable listen all the way through, even discounting the Super Mario Bros. segment. It just seems like unrealized sequel hooks are a fascinating subject in and of themselves, regardless of the film in which they are present.

The interesting thing about the sequel hook in Super Mario Bros. is that it was a last-minute rewrite. Most people believe that it was fully intended to reel people in for a sequel when in fact it was a last-minute decision on the part of the writers to change the tone of the ending.

Originally, Daisy remained in the parallel world (as she does in the film) but doesn't return. The movie simply ends with her and Luigi separated, which the writers felt wasn't a happy enough ending for a summer film. However, to bring her back into the film would make a sequel implicit, so they decided to just go ahead and make it explicit. They had no idea what the plot of the sequel might have been. While everyone of course wanted one, no one really believed it would happen and made no preparations for that event.

[Sequelcast]

Yeah, ending any movie with the promise of a sequel always seems kind of risky because it's not always a sure thing if one will get made.

I did not know that the Super Mario Bros. ending was part of a rewrite, but from reading a lot of your interviews on the site it is clear Super Mario Bros. was a troubled production.

I do hope a sequel is made one day, but there are a few examples of video game movies that have sequels several years after the original. Recall that the live-action Street Fighter movie came out in 1994 and in 2009 a reboot came out titled Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. The live-action Silent Hill movie came out in 2006 and they are making a sequel that will either come out in 2011 or 2012.

[Redstar]

I did not know that the Super Mario Bros. ending was part of a rewrite, but from reading a lot of your interviews on the site it is clear Super Mario Bros. was a troubled production.

There was definitely turmoil with the film's production, but you should also note that most of our interviewees have pointed out that they had a great time (just not during filming) and were incredibly passionate about making the movie as creative and good as it could be.

I do hope a sequel is made one day, but there are a few examples of video game movies that have sequels several years after the original. Recall that the live-action Street Fighter movie came out in 1994 and in 2009 a reboot came out titled Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. The live-action Silent Hill movie came out in 2006 and they are making a sequel that will either come out in 2011 or 2012.

A true (filmed) sequel seems very unlikely since Disney is currently sitting on the property and doing absolutely nothing with it, though it did take them 28 years to realize that TRON was a massively popular cult film worth a sequel itself. The other problem is that Nintendo has a hand in the rights and they've since buried the memory of it by completely reimagining Mario under the "Mickey Mouse" icon formula.

At this point in time our best options are a fan film (check out Mushroom Madness, a current project that's looking amazing) and comic book continuations, which is a medium particularly suitable for the franchise. If they could continue Gargoyles through comics then they can do it with Mario.

[Sequelcast]

That Mushroom Madness fan film looks interesting. I recently was watching Gnomeo and Juliet and while I found that CG cartoon mediocre, I thought the look of it was fantastic. If an animated Super Mario Bros. movie looked like that cartoon did, it would fit the whole fantasy vibe of the games very well.

[Mario500]

That was the first "Sequelcast" recording I had ever heard and it will most likely be the last. The use of a rude speech enhancer (expletive) was unnecessary and I wished one of the hosts had studied or reviewed the Super Mario Bros. movie or else he would have not called Daisy "Peach". I stopped the recording immediately after the speech enhancer.

[Redstar]

That was the first "Sequelcast" recording I had ever heard and it will most likely be the last. The use of a rude speech enhancer (expletive) was unnecessary and I wished one of the hosts had studied or reviewed the Super Mario Bros. movie or else he would have not called Daisy "Peach". I stopped the recording immediately after the speech enhancer.

Even after my strong testimony in both this thread and the general topic? I realize the profanity can be a turn off, but it's used very rarely throughout their videos and a warning is in the initial post.

There's also probably no bigger fan than Phlibbit and myself and I don't have much of a problem that Daisy was referred to as "Peach." For all intents and purposes, they're the same character. Far less accurate and pleasant reviews of the films have been made, which really isn't the issue since the Mario Bros.-focused segment was only very brief. I don't expect them to have taken the time to watch it or any of the other mentioned movies for such a video.

I really hope you'll reconsider their other videos sometime, though that's entirely up to you.

[Mario500]

A few days ago, I read the initial post until "Thanks!" and moved on to reading the responses before listening to the recording today. I cannot recall whether the warning was in the post originally or added later.

[Merwolf]

Ya'know when I was little I never even connected the ending of the movie with the possiblility of a sequel, I just thought that was there way of saying, "And thus the Super Mario Bros was born!" Kinda like when she said, "your never gonna believe this" I just thought we the audience were suppossed to start playing any Mario game and pretend thats what shes talking about.

[Redstar]

A few days ago, I read the initial post until "Thanks!" and moved on to reading the responses before listening to the recording today. I cannot recall whether the warning was in the post originally or added later.

I can't say either, but it was definitely included in the other topic cover the Sequelcast in general. I suppose we'll just have to leave it to Sequelcast himself to respond to your concerns.

Ya'know when I was little I never even connected the ending of the movie with the possiblility of a sequel, I just thought that was there way of saying, "And thus the Super Mario Bros was born!" Kinda like when she said, "your never gonna believe this" I just thought we the audience were suppossed to start playing any Mario game and pretend thats what shes talking about.

You know, that's a very interesting take on the ending. As mentioned above by myself, the sequel hook was a last-minute rewrite with no depth of thought really put into it. It was just added to resolve the emotional tension between Daisy and Luigi that would have been just dropped if the original ending was used.

The original ending itself seemed to follow the same track of thought that you yourself has: in it, Mario and Luigi are approached by Japanese businessmen to sell their story as a video game. (Essentially what happens to Iggy & Spike instead after the credits) Thematically, this is very similar to your thought of "And thus the Super Mario Bros was born!" So, maybe we really shouldn't think of it as a sequel hook after all. It's just a thematic end/start of the story.

[Sequelcast]

That was the first "Sequelcast" recording I had ever heard and it will most likely be the last. The use of a rude speech enhancer (expletive) was unnecessary and I wished one of the hosts had studied or reviewed the Super Mario Bros. movie or else he would have not called Daisy "Peach". I stopped the recording immediately after the speech enhancer.

Mario500, sorry the bad language was a turn off. As I recall, whenever a curse word is used on Sequelcast, it is meant to be taken in a sarcastic manner or simply as an impassioned response to a debate. As a podcast is an Internet medium, the lack of censorship is a big part of it. I should have made the "salty language" a bit more clear in the 3 posts I have about the show on this message board.

While, yes, one of the other hosts on the show referred to Daisy as Peach, this particular episode was one that covered a lot of different movies ("One-Shot Non-Sequels") and each host did not watch the dozen or so movies we touched on in that particular episode. The host that did the Daisy slip-up very well might not have seen the film since it was in theaters.

Ya'know when I was little I never even connected the ending of the movie with the possiblility of a sequel, I just thought that was there way of saying, "And thus the Super Mario Bros was born!" Kinda like when she said, "your never gonna believe this" I just thought we the audience were suppossed to start playing any Mario game and pretend thats what shes talking about.

That's a really interesting point... I always thought it meant a sequel would have been a sort of epic "Super Mario Bros." take on Starship Troopers with armies of fungi fighting armies of Koopas. As a kid, I had a wild imagination from just a brief scene with Daisy having a gun and a "Rambo" look.

[Redstar]

Ya'know when I was little I never even connected the ending of the movie with the possiblility of a sequel, I just thought that was there way of saying, "And thus the Super Mario Bros was born!" Kinda like when she said, "your never gonna believe this" I just thought we the audience were suppossed to start playing any Mario game and pretend thats what shes talking about.

That's a really interesting point... I always thought it meant a sequel would have been a sort of epic "Super Mario Bros." take on Starship Troopers with armies of fungi fighting armies of Koopas. As a kid, I had a wild imagination from just a brief scene with Daisy having a gun and a "Rambo" look.

That does sound like a fascinating take on continuing the story, though how do you imagine "armies of fungi" would come about? The king constituted the only fungus in their world and at the end of the movie he had reverted back to normal... I can definitely get on board with a civil war of sorts, though.