Scripts
2018-04-29 The script is finally looking a lot like the final product! The story beats are laid out in the right order, the characters are set somewhat in stone, and all the major plot threads and special effects sequences are established. Compared to previous drafts this attempts to tighten things up: dialogue is shortened to the bare essentials and elaborate SFX sequences are simplified.
There aren't major changes to the characters, merely finetuning them into what would become their on-screen appearances. Mario is the slightly crusty plumber with a heart of gold and a big reverence for family tradition, whereas Luigi initially feels constrained by that ideal, but later comes to embrace his lineage and line of work. This draft in particular begins to emphasise his reliance on having a "good feeling" about something, a trait the final draft would expound upon with "instincts" as the big keyword.
Baby Daisy is left on a church doorstep by her mother, and is pursued by Koopa; she voluntarily caves in the tunnel. In present day, the Mario brothers field a call for a broken dishwasher but are beaten to the punch by rival plumbers Mike and Doug, Scapelli's men. The Scapelli plumbers are chosen for the job, but the brothers are given a free meal that evening to make up for it.
Daisy recovers from her weakened damsel status in the "Disney" script to become slightly more capable, getting to blast Koopa in the finale - and more importantly, the July 3rd 1992 revision introduces the iconic sequel hook, with a flamethrower-toting Daisy! Koopa's eccentricities are played up, with quirky tics added in the May 30th revisions as well as a rather woeful running gag about forgetting about mammals evolved from. He remains a nasty piece of work, though, a villain on more even footing with the forever-scheming Lena.
Iggy and Spike's screen presence grows with every draft! They're no longer reduced to simpletons in the third act and emigrate to the other world with new lives ahead of them; the draft covered below has them joining the Mario brothers' plumbing business, though the July 14th revision would feature them watching the aftermath of the final fight from Koopa's suite, as well as introduce the post-credits scene used in the final film. Additional proposed titles for their video game included "Iggy and Spike's Imcomperable [sic] Adventures", "Super Spike and Iggy World", and "The Assiduously Indefatigable Iggy and Spike and their Audacious Exploits - as chronicled by Spike and Iggy".
The role of Toad remains the same as the previous draft, as a street-singing source of exposition, though the "ally Goomba" angle appears to be working its way in, albeit not fully formed: the May 30th variant of the de-evolution scene even has him MELTING after his transformation! The July 13th revision allowed him to live and aid our heroes in this state, distracting the Goombas with his harmonica - though the script refers to the elevator music, a sequence that isn't even in this draft! His sub-plot got straightened out for the final film, along with his name: he's alternately referred to as Lemmy (a holdover from the "Disney" draft), Toad, and Hark, another Goomba holdover that seemed hard to shift.
The only other name change is the no-good Canelli, now renamed (for the last time!) to Scapelli.
Pages are pulled from a variety of drafts, edits or off-the-cuff inclusions, hence the so-called "rainbow" moniker for this script (there's five page colours and a half-dozen typefaces!), and it reads like a bit of a hodge-podge because of it. The cut-down dialogue lacks the punch of older drafts, and the desperate attempt to trim the fat can make it hard to follow at times. Dialogue get repeated between pages, hand-written notes omit entire strings of scenes, and the various revisions sometimes result in inconsistencies, orphaned sub-plots, or pages that are mis-labelled or even missing entirely!
While it appears ropey on the page, it finally sets good foundations for what was going to be filmed, after numerous drafts that didn't know the meaning of the word "excess" - there's not a monster truck limousine to be found! The prologue on Earth in particular has its extraneous subplots and characters cut to the bone, and despite some colourful changes to the climax, it's otherwise nailed down where, when, and how things take place. The finished film tidies up some of the story beats, and although some of the iconic dialogue in this draft may not have appeared on screen, some of it survived in the novelisation, notably Iggy and Spike's reflection on the Statue of Repression.
At the east river excavation site, Scapelli arrives to threaten the crew into finishing up so his construction can begin. Daisy, the ringleader, leaves to find a phone and call for security; Iggy and Spike tail her.
The Mario brothers leave the restaurant but their van breaks down near a payphone where Daisy makes her call. Luigi is entranced by her, when she's confronted by Iggy and Spike - the brothers chase them off. Daisy thanks them, though Luigi is still gobsmacked. Mario speaks on his brother's behalf to offer Daisy a lift back to the site, and then out to dinner that evening.
At their apartment Luigi can't bear the thought of admitting to Daisy he's a plumber, which Mario sees as an insult to their father and the family business. He grills Mario for doing the talking for him earlier, claiming he calls the shots in his little brother's life but never his own; why hasn't he got the guts to propose to Daniella yet? Mario refuses to address the last statement, but encourages Luigi to simply be honest with what he is: "Kid, you're ashamed of what you are? The first thing you're gonna do... is tell her what you are."
Daisy, Daniella and the brothers dine out that evening and Daisy reveals she was an orphan, the pendant on her neck the only memento she has. While Luigi and Daisy go for a stroll, Mario drops Daniella home; after he leaves, Iggy and Spike break in and kidnap her.
Luigi and Daisy chat and visit the excavation site, where they warm up to each other and Daisy reveals more about herself. "While most kids were going to cartoons, I was reading about dinosaurs. I used to make the nuns take me to the museum of natural history, and I wouldn't want to leave. I think I really wore them out." "Yeah, nothing like cranky nuns. More dangerous than the roving gangs."
The site's sump pumps are sabotaged by Scapelli's plumbers and Luigi fetches Mario to fix it, but the brothers are knocked out by Iggy and Spike. Daisy is carried away, and the brothers search the tunnels for her; until they find a rippling rock wall with her face reaching out of it! They can only grab her pendant before she's snatched away. The two tumble through the wall and through a vortex, where they follow Daisy's voice until they reach a walkway above "Koopa Square", a dark and chaotic cityscape, filled with campaign posters for "Koopa the Environmentalist" and other monikers. They see Daisy being bundled into a taxi, but fail to reach her in time.
In Koopa's suite, he muses to himself about various crises plaguing their world: lack of water, fuel, clean air, and a serious fungus problem. Lena is bitter he's only interested in this "princess" he claims will answer their problems and tries to canoodle; Koopa would rather suck eggs, literally. Iggy and Spike arrive with news of their captive, but forgot the meteorite shard - her pendant. Koopa calls for an APB on the plumbers and tells the two to sanitize themselves in boiling paraffin, having touched a human. Daisy is imprisoned with the missing Brooklyn girls, Daniella among them.
The brothers lament over losing Daisy when they're mugged by a wheelchair-bound old lady, swiping the pendant; she's then mugged by Bertha who leaps away on her Thwomp Stompers. A street musician, Toad, cheers them up with an anti-Koopa song, but is instantly hauled away by the police along with the plumbers. The police car hurtles to the station at obscene speeds that Mario comments upon: "Hey-- ain't you got a speed limit in this place?" "Sure. It's 100 miles an hour, indoors."
The three are processed, defungused and imprisoned; Toad tells them about the parallel dimension and the fungus, believing it to be the old King Bowser de-evolved and seeking revenge. Mario gets tetchy at Luigi for landing them in this mess all because of a girl he fancied. "If Daniella were here you'd wanna find her," Luigi retorts. "Daniella wouldn't be so stupid as to let herself get brought here!" Mario bemoans that his dad gave him responsibility of the family business and his little brother, and he's failing at both.
The brothers are taken before Koopa - pretending to be their lawyer - who asks where the meteorite shard is. Once that ruse is exposed, he takes them to the de-evolution chamber to get some answers out of them. Toad is up first, calling out Koopa for deposing the old king before being turned into a Goomba. A technician begins coughing, triggering Koopa's germophobia, and subjects him to an even further de-evolution; what comes out is "a STEAMING, BLACKENED, MASS OF SLUDGE". Mario tries to brain Koopa with a wrench; Koopa stops him, but slips on the sludge and into the chamber, allowing the brothers to escape. Unbeknownst to Simon as he frees his boss, a tentacle of fungus steals his de-evolution gun. Koopa is seemingly unfazed, though his eyes change to a reptile's when he's angry.
Mario and Luigi pass some fungus on the way out with a Bob-Omb in it, but can't stop to grab it. They escape to the parking garage and steal a car, evading the police before heading into the Koopahari Desert Tunnel.
Koopa washes off his Goomba sludge in the bath as Lena joins him ("Nothing moves me more than a man in mud." "What did you call me?" "A man. Relax. It's an euphamism. [sic]"); he's looking forward to reclaiming the meteorite, though Lena is insulted that Daisy is necessary for the plan, only she has the right bloodline. Iggy and Spike tell Koopa of the plumbers' whereabouts; the tunnel ends in a 200ft drop and Koopa considers the plumbers as good as dead, and orders the two to "mop up the desert". The goons misinterpret this, so Koopa smartens them up in the devo chamber.
The brothers exit the tunnel and fall off a cliff, but the car is ensnared in fungus and lands safely. Lena brings Daisy to Koopa's suite and expresses her loathing for her in private before Koopa arrives; he tries to seduce her into ruling side by side with him, but the royal pet Yoshi interrupts and growls at Koopa.
Mario and Luigi bemoan their fate in the desert, Mario wishing he was with Daniella and Luigi apologising for landing them in this mess: "Every time we follow me somewhere we end up in some kind of trouble..." "You know something kid... you're right." They playfully punch each other and bond over their misery, when Iggy and Spike crash nearby in a 6-wheeler. The plumbers recognise them as Daisy's captors and tie them up with a drain snake. Iggy and Spike explain where Daisy is, why Koopa needs the meteorite shard, and where they'll find Bertha: the Boom-Boom Bar. Having totalled both their vehicles, they wait 'til nightfall to hijack a garbage truck to get back to the city. On the way back they see a massive statue; "the Statue of Repression", according to Iggy, who explains how elections run in Dyno-Hatten, as Spike gets nostalgic for old times.
The gang arrive at the bar, the plumbers in Iggy and Spike's old suits, and Mario makes his moves on Bertha, stealing the pendant unnoticed during a slow dance. Iggy and Spike get plastered and begin singing an anti-Koopa rap song*; Lena is alerted by the hatcheck girl and arrives with a gang of Goombas, who drags the two away as Lena searches for the plumbers.
Mario and Luigi throw the pendant between each other to keep Lena at bay, but she eventually takes it from them. They try to flee, and Bertha helps them out and equips them with Thwomp Stompers, holding off the Goombas as they escape out the window.
They land in a garbage truck and hijack it to reach the loading dock of Koopa's tower, then sabotage the boiler, setting off the alarm. They take the elevator up, hiding from Goombas all the way before wriggling up the ceiling hatch.
Koopa is on high alert for the intruders and fobs off Lena without realising she has the meteorite shard. Insulted, she visits Daisy and tries to kill her, but Yoshi stops her long enough for Daisy to escape to the hall.
Goombas move in from both sides, one carrying Iggy and Spike, and another is Toad (referred to as "TOAD/HARK" in the script directions) with a plate of vegetables for her. He unintentionally blocks the other Goombas' path so the three can escape; Iggy and Spike confess they've been on her side since the start and are willing to make amends. They take her to a dark corner of the devo chamber where a "dripping cone" of fungus is found; her father, King Bowser. Yoshi appears and beckons Daisy to the security room, where the monitors show Mario and Luigi in the vents; she uses the loudspeaker to tell them her location, but Koopa overhears.
The vent leads to a gaping chasm, which the brothers cross after Luigi confesses pride in being a Mario and a near-death encounter with trampoline-like fungus. They break into the chamber and find Daisy, Iggy and Spike, along with her fungusized father; Mario learns that Daniella is also held captive and the three set off. Iggy and Spike agreee to meet up with them at the entrance to the gateway.
Koopa is informed that the Goombas have been trained with de-evolution guns and are ready to storm the human world - on Lena's command. A guard catches up and stuns her in the portal chamber, reclaiming the meteorite and carting her back.
Koopa intercepts the plumbers and grabs Daisy and Luigi, but they beckon Mario to go on his own. He finds the kidnapped women and knocks out the guard, and they all ride a mattress like a bobsled down the frozen air duct, pursued by Goombas.
Koopa is in Koopa Square with his captives when Lena and the meteorite are returned to him; he dismisses Lena and prepares Daisy to merge the dimensions. Mario and the girls plunge out of the tunnel at that moment and knock Koopa down; Daniella frees Luigi and Daisy from their handcuffs with a hairclip.
Mario launches Thwomp Stompers from a nearby storefront at the Goombas and Koopa, launching him into an industrial bucket, before taking Luigi's belt and fighting Koopa up close. The shard falls from Koopa's hands back down to Lena, who takes it to the portal chamber but is disintegrated by its power; "only those of us incubated with the meteorite piece can withstand the force," Daisy explains.
Mario pretends to have the shard to distract Koopa and wards him off with a Bob-Omb... until it falls through a grate. Daisy plugs the shard into the meteorite after the Brooklyn girls are escorted through the portal, where the crew of Our Miraculous World interview them. Scapelli scoffs upon hearing Mario's name. "Mario Brothers? Those guys are dinosaurs."
The merge begins to take effect. Mario, Koopa and a group of Goombas appear at the east river excavation site; Mario appears in mid-air and slides down a flagpole. Koopa tries to blast Mario but hits Scapelli (turning him into a chimp) and then a mushroom from Luigi's toolbelt, which Mario uses as a frisbee. Luigi uses a drill and a wheel puller to lever the shard out of the meteorite, causing Mario, Koopa and company to fizzle away, but Mario makes a sales pitch to the cameras before he disappears: "Whether it's your common household clog or your 6-pack of Brooklyn Girls lost in an alternate dimension... there's no problem a good plumber can't solve." Daniella beams: "Did I say 'Mario Brothers?' I meant..... 'SUPER Mario Brothers.'"
Back in Koopa Square, several Goombas have phased back in unfortunate locations, including inside a wall and halfway through the ground. The Goombas are ordered to fire on Mario, but are distracted by a harmonica; Koopa grabs the flamethrower and accidentally sets them alight, his anger causing his face to turn into that of a t-rex and bite a Goomba's head off.
The Bob-Omb finally detonates, launching Koopa into the air where he grabs onto the industrial bucket. Mario, Luigi and Daisy reunite armed with de-evolution guns and blast him, causing him to de-evolve from reptile to invertebrate to ultimately slime, and he splatters across the street.
Everyone celebrates and the three gather at the Koopa Square fountain; the fungus recedes across the city, allowing it to gush water for the first time, spraying them. Luigi asks Daisy what's next for her. "I'll stay here for a while, 'till I can get my father back, and let them choose their own leader." Mario tries to speak on Luigi's behalf, but shuts himself up as the two kiss.
Roll credits.
A post-credits sequence has Mario, Luigi and Daniella watching the events covered on Our Miraculous World, when there's a knock at the door. Iggy and Spike, now their employees with "Mario Bros." branded overalls, answer the door: two Japanese business men want the rights to their story for a video game. Luigi is shocked. "A video game ---based on us? Mario, that's crazy. Who'd buy that?" Mario smiles. "Luigi, as a good man once told me.... Anything can happen."
The end.