Alternate '93 Casting

[Redstar]

We're all aware of some of the original casting choices for the film and no doubt feel that the chosen actors helped make it the classic it is, but does anyone have suggestions for other '80s/'90s-era actors they might have liked to see?

If anyone has seen 1997's Mouse Hunt then you might agree that the dynamic between Ernie Smuntz (Nathan Lane) and Lars Smuntz (Lee Evans) is very close to the sort of brotherly dynamic one might expect in a Mario film. They certainly also look the parts!

[Guest]

Mario - Danny Devito
Luigi - Mario Lopez
King Koopa - Raul Julia
Daisy - Samantha Mathis
Iggy - Keith Gordon
Spike - Matt Frewer
Big Birtha - Queen Latifah

[Phlibbit]

Wow, I would've never thought of Nathan Lane and Lee Evans...while I love Hoskins and Leguizamo, those other two guys would've been absolutely perfect for the original fantasy version.

[Star Ma'am]

Mario - Danny Devito
Luigi - Mario Lopez
King Koopa - Raul Julia
Daisy - Samantha Mathis
Iggy - Keith Gordon
Spike - Matt Frewer
Big Birtha - Queen Latifah

Yes people I did notice the alternate casting for King Koopa! No wonder I'm such a Bowser fan!

...I can only hope he's taking real good care of Dennis up there in Heaven, yes I saw this because of... the awkward situation of Dennis's death...

(Well I bet you were expecting me to comment on this, no?)


Although I do think the choices for Mario and Luigi ought to be swapped around

[Prime Evil]

(Well I bet you were expecting me to comment on this, no?)

Of COURSE!!!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

[Guest]

(Well I bet you were expecting me to comment on this, no?)

Of COURSE!!!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

"It was Tuesday..."

[Star Ma'am]

(Well I bet you were expecting me to comment on this, no?)

Of COURSE!!!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

"It was Tuesday..."

LOL!!!

Actually, Street Fighter was aired here in England last month - and yes I watched it. I should be so lucky

[Guest]

Lot of people are saying that the Van Damme SF movie is alot better than Legend of Chun Li, i agree with them. At least the Van Damme film the characters looked the way they did in the games. With a few changes that is.....

[Star Ma'am]

Lot of people are saying that the Van Damme SF movie is alot better than Legend of Chun Li, i agree with them. At least the Van Damme film the characters looked the way they did in the games. With a few changes that is.....

I'd say Legend of Chun Li is still good, but yes Kristin Kreuk's Chun Li is as much a villain as Byron 'Evil Ryu' Mann's Ryu. And since obviously we can't have Raul Julia any more, I personally feel Alan Rickman should be the new M Bison - I love how Raul brought Bison out to be (you ladies can't deny it...) charming and sexy just like Dennis Hopper's King Koopa, and I know only Rickman could come close!

But Van Damme's Street Fighter movie is dear to me due to reasons of sentimental value (long story), so yes I feel sad when people make sick jokes like blaming it for Raul Julia's death - most of all because I had a nasty blow of my own on the same day as Raul's funeral! Oh dear

But of course we all know the fact Dennis Hopper died on a day when Street Fighter aired is a bit of a complication! Just as I feared, one cruel enemy of mine named Mad Cat (Kooshmeister would know the guy, but Koosh is on my Foe/Ignore lists because he and I are also enemies) made a sick joke about this upsetting truth - take this Mad Cat fellow to the Devo Chamber (LOL I couldn't resist)!

[Serum]

We're getting off-topic, people. This isn't a fan-forum for "Street Fighter" starring Raul Julia, it's for a better movie...

[Star Ma'am]

We're getting off-topic, people. This isn't a fan-forum for "Street Fighter" starring Raul Julia, it's for a better movie...

LOL I know laddo - I didn't intend for it to do so when I pointed out a certain alternative casting for King Koopa, but oh well it happened! And yes Street Fighter is my favourite and SMB is second - and people should appreciate all videogame movies and the immense amount of thought and respect which went into making them. Thanks RedStar and co. for helping me to find the right words to say about getting people to appreciate game movies better - though yes Serum, you're welcome to beat me in starting a new thread about Street Fighter in another section

And yes... such sad revelations as what I said about Dennis Hopper's death are indeed true

[Guest]

We're getting off-topic, people. This isn't a fan-forum for "Street Fighter" starring Raul Julia, it's for a better movie...

Hell at least we are not trying to make a world record of the most posts and replies in one day like you are.

[Serum]

We're getting off-topic, people. This isn't a fan-forum for "Street Fighter" starring Raul Julia, it's for a better movie...

Hell at least we are not trying to make a world record of the most posts and replies in one day like you are.

I'm trying to keep this forum alive and running so that we can all see our dream of an extended edition of the movie finally come true! You have no idea what depths I will go to to see the 130 minute cut of my favorite movie of all time. No idea. I am a fanatic, and a force to be reckoned with, I'm a man of my word and I always get what I want. And I want an extended cut of the "Super Mario Bros." movie, NOW!

Now then, who else wants to suggest alternate casting ideas?

[superwesleybros]

Mario - Dom DeLuise (Funny and could fit the bill.)
Luigi - Ray Romano (A fun idea...maybe.)
Koopa - Jack Nicholson (Make a sinister Koopa.)
Toad: Robert Downey Jr. (Could be interesting.)
Lena - Nichelle Nichols (Who wouldn't want to her being bad for a change?)

(I liked everyone else as who they were.)

[Redstar]

Mario - Dom DeLuise (Funny and could fit the bill.)
Luigi - Ray Romano (A fun idea...maybe.)
Koopa - Jack Nicholson (Make a sinister Koopa.)
Toad: Robert Downey Jr. (Could be interesting.)
Lena - Nichelle Nichols (Who wouldn't want to her being bad for a change?)

(I liked everyone else as who they were.)

I love Dom DeLuise! I'm not sure if he'd make a good Mario, but I would have enjoyed seeing him try.

Also, I just want to remind anyone posting alternate casting choices that they should restrict themselves to likely actors from the '80s and '90s. If they weren't well-known before 1990 than they probably aren't valid picks.

[1upmushroom]

Mario - Dom DeLuise (Funny and could fit the bill.)
Luigi - Ray Romano (A fun idea...maybe.)
Koopa - Jack Nicholson (Make a sinister Koopa.)
Toad: Robert Downey Jr. (Could be interesting.)
Lena - Nichelle Nichols (Who wouldn't want to her being bad for a change?)

Koopa played by Jack Nicholson....THANK GOD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS THIS CASTING ROLE IS GENIUS!

[Prime Evil]

We need to work Christopher Lee into it somewhere. Maybe as the former king.

[devongladden]

DAISY: Julia Roberts
LUIGI: Jim Varney

Good grief Danny DeVito and Jack Nicholson are very good choices...

MARIO: Burt Reynolds...no, no I can't I'm already pushing it with Jim Varney Even if I did this I'd have a big age gap for Julia XD I don't want to make the movie into "Grumpy Old Mario Bros." I can't replace Julia with say...Sophia Loren because then it really would be Grumpy Old Mario Bros., I might as well cast Lemmon and Matthau. Wait a minute....Matthau/Mario....Lemmon/Luigi....now I really am off my rocker

I really am stumped!

[Guest]

Arnold Swarzenegger as King Koopa.

"AAAGGGHH I KEEL DA PLUMBA!!!"

[Serum]

Maybe a twenty year old Jim Varney as Luigi, but Jim Varney circa 1993? No, there's not a snowball's chance in Hell of that working in any reality.

However, had he lived, John Belushi would have made an excellent Mario. He was a short, hairy, chubby guy with an attitude-- Mario!

Now, Tom Hanks offered to play the role of Mario for five million dollars, though I would have cast him as Luigi-- as in 1993, Tom Hanks was still fairly young-looking.

So, in a perfect world, let's say this is the "alternate 1993" or "1993-A" (As Doc Brown would write it on a chalkboard.) casting...

Mario Mario ... John Belushi

Luigi Mario ... Tom Hanks

Princess Daisy ... Jennifer Connelly

King Koopa ... Raul Julia

Toad ... Dan Aykroyd (Because he has to be in it if John Belushi's in it!)

Iggy ... Jeff Daniels

Spike ... Pauly Shore


...I'd say that's a top-billed 1990s cast, right there. Unfortunately, Raul Julia and John Belushi had both passed away by this point. (Maybe Raul Julia hadn't, but he was heavily involved with other things.)

Also, they all look right for the parts of each character. Those pictures were all taken when they were fairly young, of course, John Belushi would be a little older in reality, but he'd be perfect.

[Guest]

Rodney Dangerfield would have made a great Mario as well.

"Im gettin arrested for being a plumber...no respect i tell ya!"

[Serum]

Rodney Dangerfield was way too old, even in 1993. Also, I think John Belushi would have fit in with the cynical type they portrayed Mario to be in the Bennett/Runte 2/19/92 draft.

[Redstar]

Mario Mario ... John Belushi

Luigi Mario ... Tom Hanks

Princess Daisy ... Jennifer Connelly

King Koopa ... Raul Julia

Toad ... Dan Aykroyd (Because he has to be in it if John Belushi's in it!)

Iggy ... Jeff Daniels

Spike ... Pauly Shore

I love your choices, Serum. They're all just so fun and clever; Shore in particular would have made the film hilarious in his own way, just like Edson and Stevens did themselves.

[Serum]

I love your choices, Serum. They're all just so fun and clever; Shore in particular would have made the film hilarious in his own way, just like Edson and Stevens did themselves.

Yeah, that and I'm a little school-girl for Pauly Shore. I don't know what it is about "Bio-Dome" that makes the child in me laugh. Though, looking back at the choices, maybe Jeff Daniels isn't so much a wise choice for Iggy. Who would balance out Shore's off-the-wall energy? "Bio-Dome" co-star Adam Baldwin, maybe? I was originally going to say someone like Keanu Reeves, but then it would just be "Bill and Ted in the Matrix," but then again, that's basically what the "Super Mario Bros." movie is already.

Then again, in 1992-1993 Keanu Reeves was still a fairly unknown actor, but then again, around that time Will Smith was still a comedian, so maybe Will Smith playing a sassy Iggy would have worked? The Fresh Prince of the Mushroom Kingdom? A young Denis Leary I could also see playing Iggy-- he fits the bill of a "cynical funky killer."

[superwesleybros]

Okay, Alternate Cast #2

Mario: Jeff Fahey
Luigi: Chris O' Donnell
Koopa: Tommy Lee Jones
Toad: Brent Spiner

[YoshiWrangler]

I wonder why so many think Danny Devito would have been a good Mario? Must be based on looks alone, because while he's a good actor he seems to only play unpleasant characters. I really can't see him in the role, though I admitt he would have done better than Tom Hanks...

[Redstar]

I wonder why so many think Danny Devito would have been a good Mario? Must be based on looks alone, because while he's a good actor he seems to only play unpleasant characters. I really can't see him in the role, though I admitt he would have done better than Tom Hanks...

People look at the squat depiction of Mario in promotional materials and assume that the "real" version of him would likewise be very short. I don't think this is the case. All of the characters in the games are simply caricatures that are more easily represented within simplistic graphics.

Everyone seems to forget that much of the promotional materials for the original Donkey Kong showed Mario as a tall, muscular man and DK himself as a realistic gorilla. Because of this I don't think it's fair to interpret the character in just one way. Hoskins' Mario is just as valid an interpretation as Albano's or even Martinet's.

[Serum]

Everyone seems to forget that much of the promotional materials for the original Donkey Kong showed Mario as a tall, muscular man and DK himself as a realistic gorilla. Because of this I don't think it's fair to interpret the character in just one way. Hoskins' Mario is just as valid an interpretation as Albano's or even Martinet's.

While I respect what you're saying and I also love scoping out the shadows for multiple interpretations of the same thing, you're delving into pretty esoteric materials, not everyone who saw the movie was hanging out in an Arcade downtown in '81 when that game [Donkey Kong] came out. For instance, My father, an avid gamer of the Golden Age of the Arcade always says that he knew there was a machine at the arcades called Donkey Kong, but that in his particular area, it was one of the most unpopular cabinets in the arcades, with cabinets like Centipede, Missile Command, Breakout and Tempest being heavily favored over it.

What I'm getting at is, yes, while there are dozens of ways to interpret the characters of Mario and his friends, enemies and frenemies, there is also a sort of aesthetic that people are generally used to when it comes to those characters. While it's good to keep a je ne sais quoi available to those (Mario as a doctor, Mario as a time traveller or most controversially of all, Mario as a villain, in Son of Donkey Kong) you also don't want to run the risk of alienating your audience too much. This is the problem of people like George Lucas, who've become drunk off of their own power and feel entitled to rewrite history.

When they made Super Mario Bros. (the movie), I feel they achieved an absolute harmony bridging the characters and places of the game world with the grittiness of a sort of parodied late 1980s apocalyptic world. They kept the same basic ideas already accepted for the characters: Mario is the older brother, shorter, heavy set, resourceful but being older he's stubborn. Luigi is the younger brother, taller, energetic, cheerful and full of life ergo he's extroverted and headstrong. King Koopa is a villain who way overthinks his plans to the point that they ultimately backfire on him, either killing him or severely incapacitating him.

So yes, while there are more than one ways to interpret a character, it's often best to stick to basics when dealing with a character like Mario as even by 1993 he was so tightly wound into pop culture that most people were only ready to accept a live action Mario played by Bob Hoskins or Danny DeVito or Bruno Kirby or some other similar, shorter, scruffy, gruff stout fellow. Tom Hanks is also too young to play Mario in my opinion, though in 1993 (that's around the time Joe Versus the Volcano came out, right?) I definitely could have seen him as Luigi, if they'd given the character a different personality than in the film.