History Trivia / SuperMariobros

** Charles Martinet's retirement as a voice actor for the series in 2023 necessitated the permanent recasting of [[ActingForTwo his multiple voice roles]] for the first time in nearly 30 years. In the first post-Martinet Mario game, ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosWonder'', Kevin Afghani provides the voices of both Mario and Luigi in his place.

* DawsonCasting: Mario and Luigi are estimated to be 24, and Wario and Waluigi are around the same age. Charles Martinet, who voiced all four for the better part of three decades, is in his 60s, and started voicing Mario in his 40s. Similarly, the Yoshi most often seen in the games may be older than the Mario Brothers (assuming he's one of the Yoshis that rescued Mario and reunited the brothers in VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland rather than [[spoiler:one of the Star Children revealed at the end of VideoGame/YoshisIslandDS]]), and Kazumi Totaka started voicing him when he was 30 years old.

* DawsonCasting: Mario and Luigi are estimated to be 24, and Wario and Waluigi are around the same age. Charles Martinet, who voiced all four for the better part of three decades, is in his 60s, and started voicing Mario in his 40s. Similarly, Yoshi is older than the Mario Brothers, and Kazumi Totaka started voicing him when he was 30 years old.

** Yes, most characters are {{Heroic Mime}}s, but nonetheless, Creator/CharlesMartinet voices both Mario brothers, their baby versions, both "Wario brothers", and a significant portion of the smaller or one-off roles in the series.

* DawsonCasting: Mario and Luigi are estimated to be 24, and Wario and Waluigi are around the same age. Charles Martinet, who voices all four, is in his 60s, and started voicing Mario in his 40s. Yoshi is older than the Mario Brothers. Kazumi Totaka started voicing him when he was 30 years old.

** Right in Yoshi's character design this whole time. According to Takashi Tezuka in "[[AllThereInTheManual Super Mario History 1985-2010]]" (which was bundled with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioAllStars [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Limited Edition]]''), the reason Yoshis have saddles in the first place is because it's a visual leftover from the time in development they were meant to be a type of Koopa, originally making it their shells. As a result, their saddles have been stated to be shells on occasion.
* ExiledFromContinuity: Spin-off games made before the Microsoft buyout of Creator/{{Rare}} very seldom referenced characters and elements created specifically for the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' series. ''VideoGame/MarioTennis'' for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 used Donkey Kong Jr. because the developers were unsure if they could legally use Diddy Kong. This changed after the buyout, and Nintendo assumed full ownership of the DKC characters, starting with ''VideoGame/MarioKartDoubleDash''.
* FandomLifeCycle: Stage 5, because the Mario series is basically the most well known, popular video game series in history. Especially true of the 'Mario Mania' years, wherein American children knew Mario better than WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse.

** Nintendo never {{retcon}}ned anything about Mario being a plumber in 2017, in fact, they never made any meaningful statement about his current job at all. The Japanese Twitter linked to a profile that happened to refer to him being a plumber in the past tense, but this was specifically referencing the original ''VideoGame/MarioBros'' game, which was one of the few times he's actually done a plumbing job. Several articles reporting on this warped it into "Mario is no longer a plumber!" In response to the misunderstanding, the profile was updated again in 2018. Clearly stating that, yes, Mario ''is'' a plumber, but he's not limited to just that.

** Nintendo gave Luigi [[Advertising/TheYearOfLuigi a whole celebration]] of the 30th anniversary of his debut in ''VideoGame/MarioBros'' A year-long one.
** The 30th anniversary year of ''Super Mario Bros.'' saw the release of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'', a level-creating and -sharing game for the Wii U allowing players to make levels in the style of ''SMB'', ''SMB 3'', ''Super Mario World'', or ''New Super Mario Bros. U''. A downgraded port was also release to Nintendo 3DS the following year.

** Peach had a much lower voice in the International versions of ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', provided by Nintendo Localization Director Leslie Swan. This voice was brought back in ''[[VideoGameRemake Super Mario 64 DS]]'', complete with newly recorded lines for the ending to take the added playable characters into account... and then she's back to her high voice for the subsequent games, with the odd exception of ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', where Swan voices the character for the final time. For the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', ''[[VideoGame/MarioParty Mario Party 1 and 2]]'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit'', Peach was voiced by Asako Kozuki, Nintendo's head of Public Reltions at the time. Jen Taylor became Peach's voice actress for almost a decade, starting with ''Mario Golf'' and voiced her for the final time in ''Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games''. Samantha Kelly began voicing Peach in ''Mario Strikers Charged'' and is her current voice actress. Between Jen Taylor giving up her role and Samantha Kelly replacing her, Nicole Mills filled in as a temporary voice actress for Peach for a couple of games.

** Toad's first major voice actress was a Nintendo employee named Tomoko Maruno, who voiced him in the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', ''Mario Party 1'', ''2'' and ''3'', and ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit''. For the international versions of ''Mario Kart 64'', Toad is instead voiced by Isaac Marshall. Starting with ''Mario Golf'' for the Nintendo 64, Toad is voiced by Jen Taylor, and continued to be voiced by her for almost a decade until she was replaced with Samantha Kelly. Additionally Jen Taylor also voiced Toadette before Samantha Kelly took over her voice role as well.

** In the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' remake, ''Super Mario Advance'', Birdo and all of her color variants are voiced by Jen Taylor. In ''Mario Tennis'' for the Nintendo 64, she is instead voiced by Jessica Chisum. Starting with ''Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour'' however, Birdo is voiced by [[CrossDressingVoices Kazumi Totaka]].

* TheWikiRule:
** Super Mario Wiki ([[http://www.mariowiki.com/ link]]). It also has extensive information on the {{Spinoff}} games such as ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' and ''VideoGame/WarioLand'', and related series' such as ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''.
** The Wikia [[https://mario.fandom.com/wiki/MarioWiki MarioWiki]].
** [[https://marioversewiki.com/wiki/Main_Page Marioverse Wiki]] a {{Fanon}}-based wiki, dedicated to theorizing and summarizing a consistent, all encompassing version of the lore of the Mario universe.
** [[https://ukikipedia.net/wiki/Main_Page Ukikipedia]], a wiki dedicated for ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' speedrunning.

!!!The series is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for:
** OneUp
*** InfiniteOneUps
** BigBoosHaunt (''VideoGame/SuperMario64'')
** ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch (''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', inspired by a certain sentence found in the game[[note]]"I love going on message boards and complaining about games I've never played!"[[/note]])
** {{Faceship}} (''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'')
** GoKartingWithBowser (''VideoGame/MarioKart'')
** TheGoomba
*** GoombaSpringboard
*** GoombaStomp
** GroundPound (''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'')
** HeKnowsAboutTimedHits (''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'')
** InvisibleBlock (''VideoGame/PaperMario''[[note]]First game to officially utilize the "Invisible Block" term. Before, those were called "Hidden Blocks".[[/note]])
** ItemGet (''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'')
** LethalLavaLand (''VideoGame/SuperMario64'')
** MacroZone (''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'')
** MinusWorld
** JustForFun/OneMarioLimit
** PinballZone (''VideoGame/WarioLand4'')
** PipeMaze (''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'')
** PoisonMushroom (''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'')
** ShiftingSandLand (''VideoGame/SuperMario64'')
** SpaceZone (''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'')
** SphereFactor (''VideoGame/MarioParty 7'')
** TheSpiny
** TimeKeepsOnTicking (''VideoGame/YoshisIslandDS'')
** ToyTime (''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'')
** WarpWhistle (''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'')
** WarpZone
** WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing (''VideoGame/MarioParty'', stems from a popular series of videos featuring Luigi)
** YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle

* WordOfGod:
** Mario creator Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto infamously stated in a 2012 interview that the Koopalings aren't Bowser's children, as described above.
** The nicknames the developers respectively gave the Blue and Yellow Toads are, ''allegedly'', Bucken-Berry and [[WebVideo/BackstrokeOfTheWest Ala-Gold]].

!![[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros The Cartoon Series]]:
* ActingForTwo: Hip and Hop, since Creator/TaraStrong voiced both of them.
* ChannelHop: ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' aired in syndication. The latter two cartoons aired on Creator/{{NBC}}.
* CrossDressingVoices: Hip and Hop Koopa.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[https://mobile.twitter.com/Animated_Antic/status/1638588953178832900?cxt=HHwWiIDU8ZT-t70tAAAA According to an article in a 1989 issue of the Los Angeles Times]], an animated movie was apparently slated for a 1990 release date that never got off the ground.

!!!{{Trope Namer}} for:
* ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld''
** IFellForHours

* ExecutiveMeddling: Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto is famous for his belief that video games are at their best when they focus on gameplay and [[ExcusePlot have as little story as possible]]. This ideology often sets him at odds with fans and other ''Mario'' developers who wish to put more story and lore into the series. The reason ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' had less plot than their predecessors was because he decided it was unnecessary, as opposed to the development teams who wanted the games to continue to have a larger focus on story.

** No, Peach and Daisy are not canonically cousins and Nintendo has never said that they were. This particular piece of misinformation came from an issue of Prima Guides, which are fairly infamous for getting many things wrong both about lore and about gameplay, sometimes even outright making things up out of the blue like the aforementioned cousins thing. Presumably the writer of that particular issue was operating under the assumption that the princesses had a connection akin to that of Mario and Luigi (and for what it's worth, Wario and Waluigi have suffered similar uncertainties over the years about the nature of their own connection). Instead, Nintendo has only ever said that Peach and Daisy are close friends.

* KidsMealToy: The franchise has gotten toys at UsefulNotes/McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy's usually to promote a new game or console.

!![[Film/SuperMarioBros The 1993 film]]:
* ActingForTwo: Daisy and her mother are both played by Samantha Mathis.
* ActorInspiredElement: When The King turns back into a human, it was Creator/LanceHenriksen's idea for him to cough up fungus. Henriksen used Rice Krispies in his hand to achieve the effect.
* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget, $42 million (not counting marketing costs), $48 million (counting them). Box office, $20,915,465.
* BreakawayPopHit:
** Featuring the hit single "Almost Unreal" by Music/{{Roxette}}. It [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was going to be used]] for the soundtrack for ''Film/HocusPocus'' initially, but was moved to ''SMB'' instead.
** Music/GeorgeClinton's cover of Was (Not Was)' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=733O0xJDx8o "Walk the Dinosaur"]], later CoveredUp by Music/QueenLatifah for ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs'', which coincidentally also featured Creator/JohnLeguizamo.
* CastTheExpert: Mojo Nixon, who played Toad, has stated in interviews that "...I'm not really an actor. I was a drunk musician playing a drunk musician."
* CreatorBacklash: Creator/BobHoskins, Creator/DennisHopper and Creator/JohnLeguizamo disliked the film, though the latter seems to have eventually warmed up to the film, per [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5S0v_lrGlg this video]]. [[TroubledProduction The experience getting through the film]] was extremely difficult due to on-set accidents and the directors constantly changing things as filming went on. Leguizamo stated he and Hoskins [[INeedAFreakingDrink required a lot of alcohol]] to go through production, and that marijuana was also very common among the cast as well.
** Being the film that ruined his career, as well as the onset turmoil and conflicts with the producers over the script and editing, Rocky Morton once stated in an interview that his most prominent memory of the film is "humiliation."
** This was Creator/JohnLeguizamo's first leading film role, and he joined his costars in railing on the experience, though he's far less negative about the movie nowadays. Though he admits the movie isn't very good, he nonetheless has fond memories of working on it, says they all had a blast and was thrilled to get to work with Hoskins and Hopper. He also points out that even though the film wasn't great, the fact that people remember it 20 years later means it certainly left its mark for better or worse.
** Conversely, many of the non-leads have stated it was one of their favorite movies to work on. Some even say it ''is'' their favorite movie. This also rings true with the effects crew, with Makeup Effects Lab founder Al Apone in particular [[http://www.smbmovie.com/SMBArchive/specials/interviews/12_AllanPaulMEL_2-5-11.html enjoying his time on the film]].
** The film was this for Creator/BobHoskins, who stated he only took the role of Mario [[SoMyKidsCanWatch for the sake of one of his sons who was a huge Mario fan]]. Unfortunately, the film ended up being [[https://www.engadget.com/2007/08/04/bob-hoskins-super-mario-bros-was-a-nightmare/ an unpleasant experience]] for Hoskins, as he clashed with Morton and Jankel and grew exasperated by the script's frequent rewrites, which prevented him from getting a handle on his character. His only positive memories involved some of his costars, with whom he would share alcohol (and occasionally marijuana) during days off from shooting. Hoskins remained bitter about the experience for the rest of his life, as shown by [[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/18/bob-hoskins-interview-neverland an interview]] with ''The Guardian'''s Rosanna Greenstreet in 2011:
--->'''Rosanna Greenstreet:''' What is the worst job you've done?\\
'''Bob Hoskins:''' Super Mario Brothers.\\
'''Rosanna Greenstreet:''' What has been your biggest disappointment?\\
'''Bob Hoskins:''' Super Mario Brothers.\\
'''Rosanna Greenstreet:''' If you could edit your past, what would you change?\\
'''Bob Hoskins:''' I wouldn't do Super Mario Brothers.
** Creator/DennisHopper often admitted his regret in working on the film before dying of prostate cancer in May 2010, and claimed he only did it for the money. He famously claimed that his son Henry, after seeing the film, asked why he'd done it. When Dennis jokingly replied that he used the money to buy Henry shoes, Henry quipped "Dad, I didn't need shoes ''that'' badly."
* CreatorsApathy:
** Despite being given creative control by Lightmotive, Nintendo had no interest in overseeing the film's production. To them, the ''Super Mario'' brand was too big to fail and this was more or less an experiment to test the strength of the franchise. Nintendo would quickly learn from this after the film's release, with them becoming far more involved and strict in adaptations since.
** After the script they had initially seen (and loved enough to sign on) had been revised again and again, often in the middle of filming, the cast eventually gave up on trying to make a good film. The script was getting several revisions a week (often more than one a day) so the actors gave up on reading the new versions, except just before having to act out the scene, and focused more on just getting through the day.
* CreatorKiller:
** Roland Joffé (''Film/TheKillingFields''), the producer, never really recovered from the film's failure, though the similarly InNameOnly adaptation of ''[[Film/TheScarletLetter1995 The Scarlet Letter]]'' he directed that was released two years later certainly didn't help.
** Rocky Morton has yet to direct another feature-length film since Super Mario Bros., with or without his ex-wife. He has even admitted in interviews that most of his projects stop dead in their tracks once his potential producers learn he directed this film.
** Annabel Jankel (now going by AJ Jankel) did not direct another theatrically released feature film until 2018's ''Tell It to the Bees'', 25 years later.
* CreatorPreferredAdaptation: Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto admitted that he liked how the movie took creative liberties, preferring it to the anime ''Anime/TheGreatMissionToSavePrincessPeach'' which he felt was too close to the games.
* DeletedScene: Nearly a half-hour of footage was cut to give the movie a proper running time. Deleted scenes include:
** An extended sequence of Koopa chasing Daisy's mother in New York, which featured him gazing admiringly at the buildings which would later inspire his warped construction projects in Dinohattan.
** Mario and Luigi actually confronting the "Scapelli brothers", Mike and Doug, in the River Front Café. They threaten the café's owner, Pascal, by invoking their boss' name. Pascal takes Mario aside and offers him and Luigi a free lunch to make it up to them, which leads to:
** An alternate scene of Mario and Luigi eating. Daisy enters the café and uses the payphone inside, slipping on a wet floor as she leaves. Luigi catches her and the movie continues that way.
** Mario and Luigi getting ready for their dinner date, during which Luigi expresses embarrassment at being a plumber. Mario chastises him and tells him he has no "family pride."
** An extended sequence in the de-evolution chamber, during which one of the devo technicians is de-evolved into slime. A puddle can still be seen on the floor in the final film.
** Iggy and Spike getting drunk at the Boom Boom Bar and rapping an anti-Koopa song, which Lena cites later to Koopa as them "preaching your overthrow."
** Various assorted scenes, including additional sequences from the cut "family pride" subplot.
* DevelopmentHell: Went through a rapid version of this, with over a half-dozen different writers, three sets of directors, and both Creator/TomHanks and Creator/DustinHoffman expressed interest in playing Mario before executives rejected them. In the end, the script was almost entirely rewritten on set with mutual silence between the cast, director, producers, and Nintendo brass, leading to postponed release dates and shooting schedules way over the promised time.
* DirectedByCastMember: The Latin American Spanish dub was directed by Rubén Moya, who voiced Anthony Scapelli.
* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: Following 9/11, many edits of the film remove the shots of the World Trade Center transforming into its counterpart from Koopa's dimension. However, because these shots are intercut with Scapelli's arriving at the building site, this has the side-effect of Scapelli suddenly appearing out of nowhere when Koopa accidentally turns him into a chimp.
* DoingItForTheArt: Roland Joffé believes that reason Nintendo gave Lightmotive the rights to the movie over the big name studios and gave them so much free reign over the project was because they believed that ''Super Mario'' was too big to fail and they just wanted to see what kind of effect a big budget movie would have on the franchise.
* EnforcedMethodActing:
** Mojo Nixon, who played Toad, was legitimately terrified of Creator/DennisHopper's performance as Koopa, particularly the scene where he was de-evolving and strapped to the chair.
** In the nightclub scene, Lena drinks a shot from a glass containing a live worm. Fiona Shaw was under the impression that the worm was fake until she felt it wiggling from her lips. She managed to keep a professional composure about it only for the directors to request that she redo it at least three more times.
* ExecutiveMeddling:
** Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel hated the fantasy based elements of the script and only agreed to direct the film if they could rewrite it to be more gritty and sci-fi. In the end, the producers feared it wasn't kid-friendly enough, so they forced heavy rewrites and barred directors from contributing to them. Further changes to the script in terms of special effects and character development limited their vision even further.
** In the end, over twenty minutes of footage was cut to get Mario and Luigi into the parallel world sooner while the atrociously animated intro was inserted to make up for it.
* FakeNationality: The British Creator/BobHoskins and Colombian Creator/JohnLeguizamo play the Italian (or Italian-American) Mario and Luigi Mario, respectively.
* FocusGroupEnding: More like a focus group ''beginning'', as test audiences weren't getting the concept of the parallel dimensions, so a pixelated intro was made in postproduction to spell it out.
* FollowTheLeader: The directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel went in hoping to make this movie their ''Film/Batman1989'', which is what put the fellow eccentric filmmaker Creator/TimBurton on the map. With that in mind, the tone being darker and the setting being that of stylized sprawling cityscape make a bit more sense.
* HostilityOnTheSet: The cast and crew disliked Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel for their allegedly obnoxious and controlling behaviors, their regular rewrites of the script, and for making major changes to the film without telling each other or members of the production. When the ''LA Times'' arrived to write a [[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-16-ca-6865-story.html behind the scenes article]] about the movie two months after filming had begun, none of the cast and crew they interviewed bothered to hide their contempt for the directors and the film as a whole.
* LoopingLines: According to the post-production supervisor, this had the most ADR-looping of any film she had ever encountered.
* TheMerch: Like most blockbuster movies of the time, there was a sizable marketing push involved in promoting the film, with everything from pogs to action figures to tie-in books being made. There was also a short manga adaptation in the spring 1993 issue of ''Magazine/CoroCoro''.
* MoneyDearBoy:
** While Lightmotive gave Nintendo the merchandising rights in exchange for lower price for the license, which is effectively giving up a massive portion of profits a studio would usually get, that's only because they saw the film as a stepping off point. They believing the film was a sure to be hit due to the name alone and that the box office would give them a large financial boost and that the movie's fame would turn them into the next big name studio that would get tons of lucrative licenses and film deals in the future. As is obvious, the complete opposite happened.
** This is the reason why the film has one of the highest Embarrassed Actor Quotients since 1990. Apparently, many very good actors were having critical shortages of money around the same time...both Creator/DennisHopper and Creator/BobHoskins admitted they did it for the paycheck (in Hopper's case, it may have been a joke).
--->'''Dennis Hopper''': I made a picture called ''Super Mario Bros.'', and my six-year-old son at the time — he’s now eighteen — he said, "Dad, I think you’re probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in ''Super Mario Bros.''?" and I said, "Well, Henry, I did that so you could have shoes," and he said, "Dad, I don’t need shoes that badly."
* NoExportForYou: Second Sight's 2014 Blu-ray and digital release of the movie boasts far superior picture quality and features than Disney's [[VanillaEdition barebones]] [[DigitalDestruction and Laserdisc-quality]] DVD release. Too bad that Disney mandated to Second Sight that the Blu-ray could only be available in Region B and not playable elsewhere...
* OnSetInjury:
** During the chase through the pipe, someone thought that the mattress was going too slow, so they loosened one of the wires that was pulling them. When the crew came back from lunch, nobody checked the rig. They then shot the scene where Mario and the Brookyln Babes flew out of the tunnel, only to find they were going ''way'' too fast and out of control. One of the Babes almost fell off the mattress twenty five feet onto solid concrete. They all stayed on, but when it hit the ground, it flipped over and they all smashed their heads. Aside from a few bruises, they were okay.
** Creator/JohnLeguizamo accidentally broke Creator/BobHoskins' finger while doing a stunt with the Mario Bros. van.
** Hoskins claimed that during the course of the production, he got stabbed four times, got electrocuted and very nearly drowned. "And that's just what happened to me."
* OrphanedReference:
** There's a puddle of slime on the floor of the de-evolution chamber. This is left over from a deleted scene where a technician is de-evolved into slime.
** There was a talking Mario action figure that said, among other things, "Nobody touches my tools", which is a line from a deleted scene where he confronts the Scapelli Bros.
** The RunningGag involving the pizza delivery that never gets to Koopa was ''supposed'' to end with the delivery guy finally arriving at the very end and throwing the pizza onto Koopa, who's been turned into primordial ooze.
* RealLifeRelative: Production designer David L. Snyder's daughter, Amy, was a makeup artist during filming.
* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/LanceHenriksen met his second wife Jane Pollack on the set. Likewise with John Leguizamo and Samantha Mathis as they started dating during production. Leguizamo even wrote once it was the only good thing that came out of the film's production.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel were hired to make the film dark and gritty like ''Series/MaxHeadroom''. However, right after the sets were finished and the plot was storyboarded, the producers got cold feet on making a mature ''Super Mario'' film and made family friendly rewrites to the script without input from the directors, who did everything they could to keep the film as close to their original vision as possible. The fights between the directors and the producers for control of the film is one of the major reasons for the chaos during the movie's production.
* SequelInAnotherMedium: The webcomic began publishing two decades after the original film's release.
* SequelHook: Daisy dressed as [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Ripley]]. According to co-writer Parker Bennett, this was literally lifted from ''Film/BackToTheFuture''.
* SparedByTheCut: Originally Toad was going to die by being turned into slime in the Devo chamber, while the friendly Goomba that Daisy helps was a separate character named Hark. Thanks to Mojo Nixon's screen presence the decision was made to combine the characters, with the sliming victim being changed to a technician.
* StarMakingRole:
** Despite the film's critical and box-office failure, this possibly was what catapulted Creator/JohnLeguizamo into stardom.
** Also for Creator/SamanthaMathis, at least for a while.
* StillbornFranchise: The movie's troubled production, box-office failure, and resulting mandate from Nintendo ended the production of a sequel, and dashed studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg's dreams of bringing Nintendo products into Disney's business model. More drastically, it put Nintendo off licensing their products for live-action films, with the next one being ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'' in 2019, and ''Mario'' adaptations as well, as only in 2018 Nintendo allowed another film version of the franchise to begin production, this time as a cartoon from Creator/IlluminationEntertainment.
* ThrowItIn: Fisher Stevens and Richard Edson improvised most of their lines as Spike and Iggy.
* TroubledProduction: The film suffered from a nightmare mix of this and ExecutiveMeddling ([[TroubledProduction/FilmOToZ more details in the dedicated page]]), and started a trend of [[VideoGameMoviesSuck poorly received video game film adaptations]] that continues to this day (though somewhat alleviated by ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'' and the ''Film/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|2020}}'' [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022 film franchise]] since). As mentioned above, the script was changed right before filming begun and kept being rewritten on-set, the directors were {{Control Freak}}s who did not endear themselves to the cast and crew - Creator/JohnLeguizamo declared that he and Creator/BobHoskins only made it through production [[INeedAFreakingDrink through copious amounts of alcohol]], while Creator/DennisHopper snapped and went a long, profane rant on-set about how Morton and Jenkel were the most unprofessional directors he'd ever worked with right before a scene. The resulting failure made Nintendo take a more hands-on approach regarding adaptations, [[NoAdaptationsAllowed which were mostly denied]], specially those made by Western studios (until the aforementioned ''Detective Pikachu'' in 2019, there was only the ''Westernanimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' cartoon in the late 90s), and aside from letting Bowser be in ''Westernanimation/WreckItRalph'', the company would be soured enough by Disney to grant their theme park license to rival Ride/UniversalStudios instead (which also led to them relenting on Universal making another Mario movie, but this time [[WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie a cartoon with Nintendo having much more creative input]]).
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Multiple figures were once involved in the project, from the directors wanting Creator/KevinCostner for Koopa, Creator/DustinHoffman lobbying for the chance to play Mario as a treat for his kids and Creator/HaroldRamis, the producers' original choice for director (contrary to popular rumor, Creator/DannyDeVito was never a choice for the role of Mario).
** Creator/TomHanks was initially attached to the project as Mario. However, his then-recent movie output had been underwhelming and he was asking for too big of a paycheck, so he was fired and replaced with Hoskins, whom the executives thought was more profitable. Creator/BrunoKirby was also considered.
** In addition to Costner, Creator/MichaelKeaton and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger were considered for Koopa.
** According to Mojo Nixon, he was cast in the role of Toad because the production wanted an actual musician for the character, but their first choice Music/TomWaits was unavailable. Nixon's agent pitched him to casting as a [[PoorMansSubstitute "third-rate Tom Waits—for half-price."]]
** The first draft of the script, Script/SuperMarioBros1991, was a pure fantasy movie. Bowser only disguises himself as a human in his first two scenes, the Princess character is named Hildy, and Bowser wants to marry her in order to obtain the Crown of Invincibility with which to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Actual game enemies such as Piranha Plants and Thwomps make appearances, Toad accompanies the Marios throughout their journey as a main character, a baby dinosaur named Junior thinks Mario is his mother, Luigi gets Raccoon Power at one point, one of Bowser's lackeys (a possible prototype for Kamek) tells Mario "YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle", Mario and Luigi sing a VillainSong about Bowser, and Bowser [[DisneyVillainDeath ends up falling into a pit of lava]]. In other words, this draft is much more faithful to the games.
** Five early scripts, including the aforementioned Fantasy script, can be read on [[http://www.smbmovie.com/SMBArchive/preproduction/script.htm The Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive's Scripts page]].
** According to [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/bored/tvguidesimpsons5.html this]] issue of ''Magazine/TVGuide'', the movie was originally planned to be released in 1991 and would have been animated.
** Music/JerryGoldsmith was attached to score the film but pulled out due to scheduling conflicts (Music/AlanSilvestri filled in).
** Mario's character was written differently before Bob Hoskins was attached to the role. Screenwriter Parker Bennett described him as "Creator/BillMurray-esque", closer in age to Luigi,[[note]]Hoskins and Leguizamo were twenty-two years apart.[[/note]] and that they had Creator/BrunoKirby in mind for the role.
--->[...]what we decided is, "Okay, Mario has a big chip on his shoulder about being a plumber. He’s inherited his dad’s business [and] it's not what he wants to do"; it’s sort of a ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' thing with Creator/JimmyStewart at the bank when he wants to be traveling the world.\\
[…] And in the end he learns through the adventure that he’s the greatest plumber in the world and he needs his brother and they’re a team together and that was sort of what we were trying to do for that.
** The biggest one was the reason Jeffrey Katzenberg bought the rights to this film for Creator/{{Disney}}. Had the film been successful, the Walt Disney Company would have then started efforts to market Nintendo and their franchises, led of course by the Super Mario franchise, in the Ride/DisneyThemeParks. Katzenberg and [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animation]] were also working with Creator/{{Sega}} to a limited degree for the same reasons with the ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' [[VideoGame/AladdinVirginGames video game]], and both attempts virtually faded when Katzenberg departed the company the [[Creator/DreamWorksAnimation next year]]. Their attempt specifically to bring the Nintendo franchises into the Disney parks ended up biting them in the ass later on when major rival Ride/UniversalStudios struck a [[Ride/SuperNintendoWorld licensing deal with Nintendo]] in May 2015 (and it ended up stinging Disney even more when Creator/{{Universal}} later announced that it would be producing an animated ''Mario'' movie through Creator/IlluminationEntertainment in 2018).
** According to creature effects artist [[http://www.smbmovie.com/SMBArchive/specials/interviews/8_DaveNelson_11-14-10.html Dave Nelson]], he and his team were up against the Creator/JimHensonsCreatureShop to create Yoshi, in stark contrast to the Goombas and King Koopa transformation, which were always planned to be the work of their respective teams (Al Apone's MEL Inc. and Rob Burman).

!![[Film/SuperMarioBros The film]]:

* CreatorBacklash:

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/BobHoskins, Creator/DennisHopper and Creator/JohnLeguizamo disliked the film, though the latter seems to have eventually warmed up to the film, per [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5S0v_lrGlg this video]]. [[TroubledProduction The experience getting through the film]] was extremely difficult due to on-set accidents and the directors constantly changing things as filming went on. Leguizamo stated he and Hoskins [[INeedAFreakingDrink required a lot of alcohol]] to go through production, and that marijuana was also very common among the cast as well.

* TalkingToHimself:
** Yes, most characters are {{Heroic Mime}}s, but nonetheless, Creator/CharlesMartinet voices both Mario brothers, their baby versions, both "Wario brothers", and a significant portion of the smaller or one-off roles in the series.
** From the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube Era onwards, Peach, Toad and Toadette have all shared the same voice actress, the first one being Jen Taylor and the current one being Samantha Kelly. Jen Taylor also voiced Daisy alongside Peach and Toad in ''Mario Party 3'', ''4'', and ''5''.
** Yoshi, Birdo and Professor E. Gadd are all voiced by Kazumi Totaka.

* TalkingToHimself: Hip and Hop, literally, since Tara Strong talked for both of them.

* ExecutiveMeddling:
** Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto is famous for his belief that video games are at their best when they focus on gameplay and [[ExcusePlot have as little story as possible]]. This ideology often sets him at odds with fans and other ''Mario'' developers who wish to put more story and lore into the series. The reason ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' had less plot than their predecessors was because he decided it was unnecessary, as opposed to the development teams who wanted the games to continue to have a larger focus on story.
** According to various Nintendo insiders and developers, after the various experimental ''Mario'' titles released in the 2000s, Nintendo, growing concerned about the increasingly liberal use of the IP and the DarkerAndEdgier stories that were becoming told, would go on to establish an strict and rigorous IP control team roughly around the time ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' came out in order to reign in the craziness and to maintain a consistent image across the franchise, as well as give rules and mandates on what is or what isn't allowed. If you're wondering why spin-off characters like Waluigi have not appeared in recent mainline titles, why the ''Mario'' series has suddenly become more homogenized since UsefulNotes/TheNewTens or why the recent ''Mario'' [=RPG=]s don't have modified versions of pre-existing Mario characters like it used to back in the 2000s, this team is reportedly the primary culprit as to why that is.

* OldShame:
** Being the film that ruined his career, as well as the onset turmoil and conflicts with the producers over the script and editing, Rocky Morton once stated in an interview that his most prominent memory of the film is "humiliation."
** This was Creator/JohnLeguizamo's first leading film role, and he joined his costars in railing on the experience, though he's far less negative about the movie nowadays. Though he admits the movie isn't very good, he nonetheless has fond memories of working on it, says they all had a blast and was thrilled to get to work with Hoskins and Hopper. He also points out that even though the film wasn't great, the fact that people remember it 20 years later means it certainly left its mark for better or worse.
** Conversely, many of the non-leads have stated it was one of their favorite movies to work on. Some even say it ''is'' their favorite movie. This also rings true with the effects crew, with Makeup Effects Lab founder Al Apone in particular [[http://www.smbmovie.com/SMBArchive/specials/interviews/12_AllanPaulMEL_2-5-11.html enjoying his time on the film]].
** The film was this for Creator/BobHoskins, who stated he only took the role of Mario [[SoMyKidsCanWatch for the sake of one of his sons who was a huge Mario fan]]. Unfortunately, the film ended up being [[https://www.engadget.com/2007/08/04/bob-hoskins-super-mario-bros-was-a-nightmare/ an unpleasant experience]] for Hoskins, as he clashed with Morton and Jankel and grew exasperated by the script's frequent rewrites, which prevented him from getting a handle on his character. His only positive memories involved some of his costars, with whom he would share alcohol (and occasionally marijuana) during days off from shooting. Hoskins remained bitter about the experience for the rest of his life, as shown by [[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/18/bob-hoskins-interview-neverland an interview]] with ''The Guardian'''s Rosanna Greenstreet in 2011:
--->'''Rosanna Greenstreet:''' What is the worst job you've done?\\
'''Bob Hoskins:''' Super Mario Brothers.\\
'''Rosanna Greenstreet:''' What has been your biggest disappointment?\\
'''Bob Hoskins:''' Super Mario Brothers.\\
'''Rosanna Greenstreet:''' If you could edit your past, what would you change?\\
'''Bob Hoskins:''' I wouldn't do Super Mario Brothers.
** Creator/DennisHopper often admitted his regret in working on the film before dying of prostate cancer in May 2010, and claimed he only did it for the money. He famously claimed that his son Henry, after seeing the film, asked why he'd done it. When Dennis jokingly replied that he used the money to buy Henry shoes, Henry quipped "Dad, I didn't need shoes ''that'' badly."

** According to various Nintendo insiders and developers, after the various ''Mario'' titles in the late 2000s, Nintendo, growing concerned about the increasingly liberal use of the IP and the DarkerAndEdgier stories that were becoming told, would go on to establish an strict and rigorous IP control team in order to reign in the craziness and maintain a consistent image across the franchise, as well as give rules on what is or what isn't allowed. If you're wondering why spin-off characters like Waluigi have not appeared in recent mainline titles, why the ''Mario'' series has become more homogenized since UsefulNotes/TheNewTens or why the recent ''Mario'' [=RPG=]s don't have modified versions of pre-existing Mario characters like it used to back in the 2000s, this team is reportedly the main reason why.

** According to various insiders and developers, after the various ''Mario'' titles in the late 2000s, Nintendo, growing concerned about the increasingly liberal use of the IP and the DarkerAndEdgier stories that were becoming told, would go on to establish an strict and rigorous IP control team in order to maintain a consistent image across the franchise and to reign in developers. If you're wondering why characters like Daisy or Waluigi have not appeared in recent mainline titles, why the ''Mario'' series has become more homogenized since UsefulNotes/TheNewTens or why the recent ''Mario'' [=RPG=]s don't have modified versions of pre-existing Mario characters like it did back in the 2000s, the IP team is reportedly the reason why.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto is famous for his belief that video games are at their best when they focus on gameplay and [[ExcusePlot have as little story as possible]]. This ideology often sets him at odds with fans and other ''Mario'' developers who wish to put more story and lore into the series. The reason ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' had less plot than their predecessors was because he decided it was unnecessary, as opposed to the development teams who wanted the games to continue to have a larger focus on story.

* FranchiseZombie: Some of the subseries are considered this, churning out regular sequels of generally diminishing quality and originality with no involvement from the creative teams that worked on their earliest installments. The ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' and ''VideoGame/MarioTennis'' spinoffs are two of the more notable examples.

* WordOfSaintPaul: Charles Martinet (talking in-character as Mario) confirmed the Mario last name [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAjhjLuWbC8 at Comic Con 2012]], prior to the FlipFlopOfGod finally settling on same. Mind you, he also stated that Mario's parents are named "Mama Mia Mario" and "Papa Pia Mario", so how seriously you take his statements in that role is up to you.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/LanceHenriksen met his second wife Jane Pollack on the set. Likewise with John Leguizamo and Samantha Mathis as they started dating during production. Lequizamo even wrote once it was the only good thing that came out of the film's production.

* TroubledProduction: The film suffered from a nightmare mix of this and ExecutiveMeddling ([[TroubledProduction/FilmOToZ more details in the dedicated page]]), and started a trend of [[VideoGameMoviesSuck poorly received video game film adaptations]] that continues to this day (though somewhat alleviated by ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'' and the ''Film/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|2020}}'' [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022 film franchise]] since). As mentioned above, the script was changed right before filming begun and kept being rewritten on-set, the directors were {{Control Freak}}s who did not endear themselves to the cast and crew - Creator/JohnLeguizamo declared that he and Creator/BobHoskins only made it through production [[INeedAFreakingDrink through copious amounts of alcohol]], while Creator/DennisHopper snapped and went a long, profane rant on-set about how Morton and Jenkel were the most unprofessional directors he'd ever worked with right before a scene. The resulting failure made Nintendo take a more hands-on approach regarding adaptations, [[NoAdaptationsAllowed which were mostly denied]], specially those made by Western studios (until the aforementioned ''Detective Pikachu'' in 2019, there was only the ''Westernanimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' cartoon in the late 90s), and aside from letting Bowser be in ''Westernanimation/WreckItRalph'', the company would be soured enough by Disney to grant their theme park license to rival Ride/UniversalStudios instead (which also led to them relenting on Universal making another Mario movie, but this time a cartoon with Nintendo having much more creative input).

!!The 2023 animated film:
* ActingInTheDark: According to Creator/CharlieDay, who voices Luigi, many plot details were kept from the film's actors, with him only being given just enough of the script to do his voice role.
* ContentLeak: Mario's movie design was leaked on a Discord server by a McDonald's employee a day before it was meant to be revealed.
* PromotedFanboy: Creator/ChrisPratt himself is very enthusiastic about voicing Mario, [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CUL3-fFJ0KK/ considering it a childhood wish come true]].
* ReleaseDateChange: Originally scheduled for December 21, 2022, it was [[https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1518756878251089921 announced]] on April 25th of 2022 that the film would instead be released on April 7th, 2023.

* ActingInTheDark: According to Charlie Day, many plot details were kept from the film's actors, with him only being given just enough of the script to perform his role as Luigi.