Max Headroom: The Super Mario Bros. Connection

[Serum]

I'd heard before that Rocky and Annabel created Max Headroom, and aside from the infamous Max Headroom Incident I really never took a look at the character until today. But tell me, who does he look like to you?

I think it's pretty obvious that they based Koopa's unique hairstyle after Matt Frewer's artificial "CGI" makeup. Now, the clips above are way out of context for me and being a child of 1987 I really can't say I remember too much of Max other than his brief cameo in Back to the Future 2, but it is evident the character was popular enough to not only have a profound enough affect to appear in that movie but to also have the main villain of a namely franchise adaptation be almost completely designed after him as well.

Look at him, he even has the shaved eyebrows and the ice cold gaze!

[KoopaBro64]

This is something that I hadn't noticed until looking into Rocky and Annabel's directorial history as well. Since Max Headroom aired just before my time I always thought King Koopa's hairdo was based off his spiky hair in the games. It seemed to make sense to me at the time, but I was astonished when I first saw images of Max Headroom.
It's completely evident he's directly based off Max, and honestly it makes his character feel more foreign and ominous than being visually based off of Koopa from the games.
This is coming from someone who has never seen Max Headroom, so I can't proficiently analyse their similarities, but I definitely think borrowing concepts from the character benefited in the film's interpretation of Koopa.

[Phlibbit]

You should get Shout! Factory's Max Headroom TV series boxset. While Rocky and Annabel only created the character and directed the original TV movie (they had nothing to do with the US TV series), the set does have some pretty good documentaries about the creation of the character that they both participate in. Watching those, you'll find that there are a LOT of parallels between the development of Max Headroom and the Super Mario Bros. film.

Stuff like an original concept that was partially filmed in abandoned location made up as a film set, with some dangerous working conditions. Creative control issues. Getting the original project taken away from them when it came time to take the character from a TV movie and make a series about it. The futuristic, dystopian setting. Yeah--lots of similarities.

[Serum]

You should get Shout! Factory's Max Headroom TV series boxset.

Wow, I just watched some clips of the show, it looks pretty awesome. I'll have to pick that box set up-- thanks for bringing that to my attention! I'm a big fan of Doctor Who (classic episodes and the new ones), and since the TV show (Max Headroom) itself is a British produced 'American' show in a similar cyberpunk vein it looks like the, as my father might say: "kind of crap that's right up my alley."

Of course I'm pretty sure he said that the character of Max Headroom gave him nightmares... but, whatever.

Also, I didn't realize it was Matt Frewer who played Max, I've been a big fan of his since I saw the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead in which he plays a similar character to the Roger character from the original 1978 movie and of course he played Moloch the Mystic in the 2009 adaptation of Watchmen. So, yeah. I'll definitely be picking this box set up!

[Phlibbit]

I'm glad you're gonna pick this up! You shouldn't be disappointed; your comment about it being a British produced 'American' show is right on target.

I still have a few episodes to go before I finish the series, but I think it's a really solid show. Very cult, very underrated. Just like that other thing we talk about on this forum