Main characters: The Mario Brothers | Allies (The Princesses) | The Koopa Kingdom (Bowser — Bowser Jr. — The Koopalings — Other High-Ranking Subordinates — Bosses) | Assorted Nasties
RPG characters: Super Mario RPG | Paper Mario (64 — The Thousand-Year Door — Super — Sticker Star — Color Splash — The Origami King) | Mario & Luigi (Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser)
Spinoff series: Yoshi's Island | Luigi's Mansion | Mario Golf | Mario Tennis | Super Mario Maker | Donkey Kong series (Kongs) | Wario series (Wario and Waluigi)
Crossovers: Punch-Out!! | Super Smash Bros. | Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games | Skylanders | Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle | Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Other media: The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach! | Super Mario Bros. (DiC) | Super Mario Bros. (1993) | The Super Mario Bros. Movie
This is a page for the 1993 American live-action film of Super Mario Bros., a radically different continuity from the rest of the Super Mario Bros. franchise. For portrayals from the games, see their respective pages.
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Main Characters
The Mario Brothers
Mario Mario
- Acrofatic: His chubby build doesn't stop him from engaging in impressive feats of physicality. This also applies to real life as Bob Hoskins did almost all the stunt work himself.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Mario usually has a full head of hair under his cap. Here, he's balding like Bob Hoskins.
- Age Lift: Instead of just being Luigi's similarly aged brother like in most adaptations, this Mario is a bit of everything for Luigi and quite a bit older than him.
- Adaptational Jerkass: This Mario starts as a gruff but amiable pessimist who has no time for Luigi's idealism, a far cry from the hero who leaps into adventure with boundless excitement.
- Adaptational Personality Change: He's much more responsible and wiser, and is shown to think things through rather than just to dive into situations headfirst like his game counterpart. Ironically, he's closer to Luigi's level-headed personality rather than the film's own incarnation of Luigi.
- Big Brother Instinct: In one scene of the movie, Mario is seen assaulting Koopa when he almost gouges Luigi's eyes out in a fit of rage.
- Brooklyn Rage: Mario's got the broad accent and he doesn't take crap from anyone.
- Character Development: After his time in the Mushroom Kingdom and seeing many impossible things firsthand, Mario comes around to Luigi's way of thinking.
- Composite Character: His personality is a mix between his original game counterpart and Luigi's levelheadedness.
- Out of Focus: Subverted; While Mario has the most Character Development and ultimately defeats King Koopa, making him The Hero, Luigi gets more time in the spotlight. However, Mario is the central focus in the third act up through the climax.
- Parental Substitute: In Luigi's own words, Mario's had to be his "father, mother, brother, everything" after their parents died. For most of the adventure, he switches from brother to father when it comes to teaching Luigi the ropes about dating, plumbing, and maturity.
- Red Is Heroic: Only in the third act of the film does he wear red clothing like his game counterpart. Here, it originally belonged to Koopa's janitorial staff.
- Repetitive Name: This Mario is the first (and so far only) iteration to be known under this name in-universe, as all the others are usually left to Only One Name.
Luigi Mario
- Adaptational Personality Change: As opposed to his cowardly and meek persona from the games, Luigi is far braver and the most eager to save Daisy. Funnily enough, he's closer to Mario than the film's own incarnation of Mario.
- Agent Mulder: Luigi is introduced watching a TV show about strange occurences and buying every word of it. He also believed that he could fly at one point after snagging his belt on an overhanging hook.
- Composite Character: His personality is a mix between his original game counterpart and Mario's impulsiveness.
- Hot-Blooded: At times, Luigi will dive into situations or do things head first before giving it a second thought.
- Official Couple: With Daisy, but not for long, since she stays behind in Dinohattan to rule with her father.
Daisy
Daisy
- Played by: Samantha Mathis
Voiced in French by: Claire Guyot
- Composite Character: Has Peach's appearance and personality with Daisy's name, kingdom attributes, and romance with Luigi.
- Expy: Fills the role Peach would usually have in the franchise as the Damsel in Distress for Koopa and the princess of the fantastic kingdom.
- I Choose to Stay: She offers to stay behind in the Dino realm to help her father resume rule (and, in Mario's words, figure out where she belongs). That doesn't mean she's above going to Brooklyn to ask for help. Averted in the manga where she heads back to Earth with the Mario Bros.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Befitting her damsel in distress role. Daisy is completely unaware of her heritage as princess of a dino-human kingdom.
- Love Interest: Despite being the Peach of this universe, not for Mario, but for Luigi.
- MacGuffin: The necklace she was given as a child was actually the last shard to the meteor capable of fusing the Earth and Dino worlds together.
- Parental Abandonment: Her father vanished before Daisy ever got to properly meet him, while her mother gave her up to a church when she crossed over to Earth. At least her father is alive by the time the film ends and regains his humanoid form.
- Tomboy Princess: The long lost heir of the Dino kingdom, but an avid paleontologist and not above kicking butt to get the job done. Even when she begins acting as princess, she doesn't stop doing what she does best.
Brooklyn Residents
- Adapted Out: They don't appear in the manga adaptation, with three random humans being devolved instead of Scapelli.
Daniella
Daniella
- Played by: Dana Kaminski
- Damsel in Distress: Like Daisy, she's kidnapped by Iggy and Spike and has to be rescued.
- Nice Girl: She instantly warms up to Daisy, seen when the two are glad to find each other in the dino-dimension.
Anthony Scapelli
Anthony Scapelli
- Played by: Gianni Russo
Voiced in French by: Benoît Allemane
- Big Bad Wannabe: A low threat compared to Koopa and his forces.
- Crooked Contractor: His personal Establishing Character Moment is talking to Daisy that he is irritated that her archaeological work is getting in the way of his contracting projects and later that day he sends his goons to destroy the excavation site.
- Composite Character: Of Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew as a mean boss who stops the Marios from working, and of Donkey Kong when Koopa transforms him into a chimp.
- Forced Transformation: Courtesy of Koopa's Devo Gun, he gets turned into a monkey.
- Hated by All: Getting turned into a chimpanzee doesn't get him any sympathy from the onlookers, hinting that it's not just the Mario brothers and Daisy that he's pissed off.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His construction workers accidentally reopened the portal between dimensions, allowing Koopa to send Iggy and Spike to Earth to retrieve Daisy and the meteorite fragment.
Doug & Mike
Doug & Mike
- Played by: J. Michael Hunter (Mike) and David Dwyer (Doug)
- The Rival: Rival plumbers out to steal the Mario brothers' business.
Dinohattan
In General
- Adapted Out: President Koopa, Iggy and Spike are the only characters who appear in the manga adaptation, though Lena's design is used for Daisy's mother.
- Adaptational Species Change: In the regular Mario series, residents come in all sorts of species. Here, they're all reptilian by blood, but save for Yoshi and the Goombas, they physically look no different from a human aside from a few having scales and scars.
- Jerkass: Everyone bar Toad is violently hostile due to having to scrape by in a dying civilization. When Koopa is finally defeated, everyone's attitude lightens up.
- Lizard Folk: They're descended from reptiles. Downplayed in that they're more-or-less identical to ordinary humans despite their different origins.
President Koopa
President Koopa
- Adaptation Name Change: Much like with The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, it's zigzagged. In the games, he's known as Bowser to western audiences, but Koopa to Japanese audiences, so he's using his Japanese name in an American movie. It's played with even further in that the former monarch of Dinohattan is named Bowser in supplementary material, and is actually a king while Koopa is a president.
- Adaptational Villainy: The manga adaptation removes his Well-Intentioned Extremism and makes him worse in some respects, like having him turn Iggy and Spike into Goombas.
- Bad Boss: He enslaves prisoners by turning them into Goombas and bullies his regular staff. In the novelization, Koopa strangled a subordinate to death and complained that he had to touch the guy's neck (this is why he was cleaning his hands in his first scene).
- Big Bad: As with most incarnations of the big lizard, he is the primary antagonist of the movie.
- Card-Carrying Villain: When he pretends to be a lawyer to meet the Mario brothers he calls himself "one evil, egg-sucking son of a snake". When he reveals himself to be Koopa and orders the Marios to be de-evolved:Mario: You said you were…
Koopa: "One evil, egg-sucking son of a snake". Did I lie? - Clipped-Wing Angel: Mario and Luigi turn him into a tyrannosaurus rex with the devolution gun but keep shooting him until he turn into a puddle of slime.
- Dirty Old Man: He's got a creepy fixation on Daisy, despite being old enough to be her father.
- Evil Is Hammy: By far the biggest ham of the bunch. Koopa loves to make grandiose speeches and is prone to Milking the Giant Cow.
- Evil Wears Black: Koopa wears black at all times. Even when trying to lighten up his attire in order to appear non-threatening he'll keep black blazer on.
- Fantastic Racism: He has a low opinion of humans and mammals in general, though whether this is based around a sense of superiority for his T-Rex lineage or envy that humanity gets to live in a resource-rich Earth while he's stuck on a desert-world is up for debate.
- Hated by All: By the end of the film, his henchmen have all turned on him at the first opportunity, the civilians are cheering at his demise and the goombas are dancing in celebration despite their supposed loyalty to him.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Koopa's wardrobe includes jackets and ties made from reptile skins.
- Irony: He hates getting dirty, but loves mud bathing. He thinks it's cool how it's "clean and it's dirty at the same time."
- Jerkass: Koopa's got no endearing qualities to speak of. He's a bully, a tyrant, a narcissist and creepy around Daisy.
- Kick the Dog: He kicked Yoshi in the head, venting his anger for his bad first impression with Daisy, and calls him a "throwback".
- Klingon Promotion: Usurped the role as King of Dinohattan from Daisy's father by devolving him into semi-sentient fungus.
- Mage in Manhattan: He gets transported to Brooklyn briefly when the dimensions start to merge.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: When de-evolved into a t-rex, Koopa's teeth are like knives. You've got to wonder how he could even close his jaws.
- Neat Freak: He despises dirt, sterilizing his hands every chance he can get in his down time.
- Never My Fault: While it's said that Dinohattan was terrible, Toad suggests that life wasn't always so bad until Koopa made things worst upon his takeover. Pointing that out is one way to get arrested in town.Koopa: One thing I can't stand is naysayers.
- No Brows: Unlike Bowser, King Koopa's face is completely bald.
- Oblivious to Love: It's unclear if he's aware of Lena's crush for him, or if it matters to him at all when Lena betrayed him. Though he noticed Lena sounded dissatisfied when she tells him Daisy is cleaned up for him ("My, my, looks like you got up on the wrong side of the nest this morning!").
- Pet the Dog: Subtly shows signs of this with Lena. He's genuinely shocked when she betrays him and once he has the rock, he orders her release.
- President Evil: Styles himself like a president, campaign posters and all, but is functionally its dictator. Basically a President for Life.
- Terrified of Germs: To the point that sneezing in his presence gets a technician de-evolved into slime in a deleted scene.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: He's directly descended from Tyrannosaurus rex (a fact which he's immensely proud of), and fittingly he's a ruthless dictator and tyrant.
- Trumplica: Koopa is a tycoon with an idiosyncratic blonde hairstyle similar to that of Donald Trump and based in an alternate universe version of New York City. His fashion sense mimics Trump's, and he even has a "Koopa Tower" building situated in the middle of Dinohattan. The fact that he's an evolved Tyrannosaurus rex evokes Trump's image in the '80s as the archetypal Wall Street bully — the Tyrannosaurus rex is popularly thought of as the beastly king of the dinosaurs, while Trump and other Wall Street tycoons were notorious for ruthless business tactics.
- Villainous Crush: Koopa is obsessed with Daisy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Seems to believe that invading the human world would provide needed resources for the people of Dinohattan.
Lena
Lena
- Depraved Bisexual: According to
Word of God, she shows interest in both Koopa and Daisy. - Green-Eyed Monster: Once she sees just how important Daisy is to Koopa's plans, Lena makes her increasingly hostile displeasure with the girl very clear.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: She ends up literally fossilized by the very power she desires so much while trying to merge the dimensions.
- It's All About Me: Seen as she tries to kill Daisy.Daisy: Why are you doing this?
Lena: Because everyone deserves what they've earned. And I've earned this! - Oh, Crap!: Right after she placed the meteorite piece in, she starts screaming in agony by the power she craved so much.Daisy: That's what Koopa meant. Only I can withstand the force.
- Power Fist: She wears brass knuckles for her final outfit, which she uses to shove a man aside by grabbing his face.
- The Starscream: She eventually becomes this in the second half of the film, when, after a failed attempt to get Koopa to reconsider focusing on Daisy, she decides to betray him and achieve her goals on her own.Lena: What you care about is her!
Koopa: What I care about, is the future of our species!
Lena: [scoffs] Well, if not with you, then on my own. [looks at the meteorite piece after Koopa walks off]
Iggy & Spike
Iggy & Spike
Iggy on the left and Spike on the right.
- Played by: Fisher Stevens (Iggy) and Richard Edson (Spike)
Voiced in French by: Pascal Renwick (Iggy) and Michel Dodane (Spike)
- Blame Game: They blame each other when Koopa scolds them for their incompetence.
- Bumbling Henchmen Duo: Koopa's pathetically stupid and incompetent pair of minions.
- Comically Missing the Point: All the time, until they get smarter.
- Death by Adaptation: In the manga adaptation, not only are they turned into Goombas, but they are also killed when they (and not Lena) use the meteorite fragment to cause the dimensional merge.
- Heel–Face Turn: After getting an intelligence boost they eventually betray Koopa and assist the Mario Brothers.
- Informed Attribute: They were apparently turned into geniuses by the Devolution Device but aside from talking posh they don't act any smarter.
- I Should Write a Book About This: A Post-Credits Scene shows the duo negotiating with a video game company to make a game based on the events of the movie.
- Stupid Evil: By the time of their first scene in the film, they have already kidnapped a half dozen women they erroneously assumed were Daisy and Koopa makes clear he's giving them one last chance.
- You Have Failed Me: First from their incompetence due to their stupidity and then their betrayal after making them smart, Koopa orders them to be killed. Fortunately, they run into Daisy.
Big Bertha
Big Bertha
- Played by: Francesca Roberts
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In the original game, she's gigantic fish with puffy lips. Here, besides being turned into humanoid creature, she's an alluring Big Beautiful Woman.
- Adaptation Species Change: Was a big fish in the video games. Is a humanoid (presumably a Koopa) here.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Bertha is large, very strong, and very attractive. Mario dances with her in an attempt to get the meteorite necklace, and she later helps the Marios out when Lena and the soldiers invade the bar.
- Death Glare: Gives one to Mario and Luigi after she departs with the meteorite piece, as if daring the two to follow after her if they want it that badly.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: After daring Mario to take the meteorite back from her, and then he does while wooing her on the dance floor, she's so impressed she immediately becomes an ally and helps the brothers when they need it.
- Lady in Red: She wears a red bodysuit and later a red dress.
- Scary Black Woman: Has shades of this, until she helped the Mario brothers get away from the Goombas.
- Spanner in the Works: She's the one who completely derails Koopa's plan and gets the plot going when she swipes the meteorite necklace from the brothers, having no clue she was walking around with the very tool needed for Koopa to gain universal domination.
- Stout Strength: She's as strong as she is big, effortlessly throwing the old lady trying to rob Mario and Luigi like she's nothing.
Yoshi
Yoshi
- Adaptational Ugliness: Downplayed. He's definitely not the cute and adorable dinosaur you know from the games, resembling a baby velociraptor, but he's
still quite cuddly. - Team Pet: Serves as this for the heroes.
Toad
Toad
Click here to see Toad as a Goomba.
- Played by: Mojo Nixon
- Adaptation Species Change: Was a Toad (Mushroom Man) in the games. He's a Koopa and later Goomba here.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: As a Goomba, he gives Daisy and Luigi Devo Guns because Daisy saved him when two other Goombas accidentally set him on fire.
- Defiant to the End: As he's about to be de-evolved, he criticized Koopa's dictatorship and tells him off that the true king is still around."Our old king, you tried to get rid of him! But the king's everywhere! You can't get rid of him! EVER!!"
- Forced Transformation: Gets devolved into a Goomba halfway through, but gets accustomed to it by the finale.
- Man on Fire: Toad gets set on fire when his fellow Goombas blast him with their ill-aimed flamethrowers. Daisy comes to his rescue, which leads to his defection.
- Nice Guy: He's the first genuinely friendly person the brothers meet in Dinohattan.
- Token Good Teammate: To both the Dinohattan civilians and the Goombas. He shows no hostility to the Marios or Daisy, offering to play a tune, give them exposition or provide dinner and weapons.
Sergeant Simon
Sergeant Simon
- Played by: Don Lake
A Dinohatten cop.
- The Bad Guys Are Cops: All the Dinohatten cops, including Simon, are villains by default.
- Bald of Evil: He's balding and helps enforce the unjust laws of Koopa's regime.
- Cloud Cuckoo Landers Minder: Late in the film, he's the one tasked with training the Goombas in how to use the devo guns (and keep them from spontaneously dancing).
- Kavorka Man: Despite not being especially attractive, he's seen getting a neck massage from a woman (using her stiletto heel!), implying the ladies fancy him a bit.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: At first he seems like he's just the desk sergeant at police headquarters, but then he personally takes the Marios through booking (despite telling another cop to do it), informs them that their "lawyer" is coming, serves as Koopa's flamethrower-toting bodyguard, and is tasked with training the Goombas in how to use the devo guns, all things some other cop could do.
- Mook Lieutenant: His primary role in the story, given that he's the highest ranking officer that we see.
- Undying Loyalty: Unlike a lot of the other cops, who are just doing their jobs, Simon displays a lot of zeal when doing Koopa's bidding and even performs tasks outside his normal duties. He particularly seems to take great joy in presenting Koopa with the Rock.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The last we hear from him is when he calls Koopa to tell him "the Goombas are dancing again." Although at least one regular cop is seen celebrating Koopa's defeat, we never find out what happens to Simon.
The Mushroom King (SPOILERS UNMARKED)
The Mushroom King
- Played by: Lance Henriksen
Voiced in French by: Benoît Allemane
- Cursed with Awesome: Being a fungus essentially allows him to be everywhere in the city, and provide assistance to the Mario Brothers.
- Forced Transformation: Even worse than the other victims of de-evolution, since he wasn't even left with a humanoid form.
- Mushroom Man: His default form is human-like just like the rest of Dinohattan's inhabitants, though while they all evolved from dinosaurs, he evolved from a form of fungus. Koopa rose to power by de-evolving him into a semi-sapient Alien Kudzu that overtook the city, the mycelium a ball of fungus over his original throne.
- No Ontological Inertia: After Koopa's death by de-evolution, the King spontaneously re-evolves back to normal.
