Headscratchers / The Super Mario Bros. Movie

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Headscratchers for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

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Those reviews look kinda sketchy

• Why would the Mario Bros. post negative reviews on their website and for the review from their mother not edit her name?
  • Perhaps the Bros keep those early reviews up to show customers how far they've come in their work and expertise.
  • The Mario Bros. are not savvy businessmen.
  • I assumed they added a Yelp-like embed where they don't have much control over the reviews that get submitted. As a disclaimer, I don't actually know if that's even possible.
  • Is this question talking about the movie? When in the movie do they ever talk about this stuff?
    • They're referring to the promotional website.

Assumed dead too soon?

• When Toad falls off Rainbow Road, Peach doesn't hesitate to get off her path and save him. When Mario and Donkey Kong do, she's devastated, but thinks they must go home and drives off without saving them, and writes him off as dead and assumes so until the wedding. Why didn't she even attempt to save Mario?
  • When she saved Toad, he was in a spot where she could catch him and keep going; saving Mario meant turning around. And with Bowser and his forces right at them, turning around to save Mario would have risked capture.
  • Peach also seems very protective of the Toads in general. One of them being in direct danger was enough for her to surrender to Bowser, her attachment to them seems to surpass her own self-preservation instinct.
    • Remember that the Toads raised her from infancy, and they are in the very first memory she has. The Toads are not just subjects to her — they're her parents.
  • Peach used a glider to save Toad because there was another bit of Rainbow Road for her to land on. Mario and Donkey Kong had fallen down far below the road. She would've had no way to get back even if she could've saved them.
  • Also, Peach was riding a motorcycle and was already carrying Toad as a passenger. Even if she had the opportunity to save Mario and DK, there would be no way to fit both of them on her vehicle.

Why stay in the Mushroom Kingdom?

• Why do the Bros. decide to live in the Mushroom Kingdom as opposed to Brooklyn? Do they possibly go to both?
  • They have a house in the Mushroom Kingdom to help the Toads with rebuilding their town, but they have a Warp Pipe set up outside of their house which presumably leads to Brooklyn so they can maintain their plumbing business and keep in touch with their family.
    • Think about it realistically, owning property under Peach's land might be cheaper than renting in Brooklyn!
  • When I watched that scene, I assumed that, they were in a room their actual Brooklyn home… and thanks to their plumbing skills or some enchantment, a door that served as a portal to the Mushroom Kingdom was placed in there! Could be wrong though.

Shouldn't Peach not know what a "human" is?

• If Mario is the only other human Peach has ever met, how does she know the word human?
  • From the Toads, like every other word she knows. The bigger question is, how do the Toads know it?
    • Since the pipe exists in Brooklyn, you can assume they have had humans travel to the Mushroom Kingdom before. Toad didn't seem surprised by Mario's appearance or existence when they first met.
  • Peach's reply when Mario suggests that she might be from his world seems to imply that Earth as Mario knows isn't the only human-populated world in this setting, which does track somewhat with the games. While it's easy to make the assumption that Peach has never met another human before, we never actually get proof of that; we just get a clear impression that they are a very rare and unusual sight in the Mushroom Kingdom.
  • It is entirely possible that humans from Mario's world/Earth have accidentally stumbled into the Mushroom Kingdom via a Warp Pipe prior to even Peach when she first entered the Mushroom Kingdom when she was an infant, meaning that the Toads likely have an understanding of what humans are from their many previous encounters with them and, in-turn, probably told Peach about them and how she looks very similar to one and could be a human herself in the past.

The Penguins and the Super Star

• If the Penguin army is so incompetent, how did they even get the Super Star in the first place? It's pretty unlikely they could have obtained it themselves, and surely no one who knew them for longer than a few minutes would think they'd be good guardians of it.
  • They probably built their kingdom around the Super Star.
  • It's also possible that they've been guarding the Super Star for a VERY long time, and their kingdom's military strength eventually degraded over time.
  • Another thing to consider is that their attacker, Bowser, can breathe fire, and his massive ship full of deadly lava was in close proximity to their castle. And since fire emits heat and melts ice, the ship's mere presence most likely would have weakened their offensive capabilities (that, or the Koopas are naturally aligned towards fire) without the penguins ever really realizing it. Perhaps the snowballs would have been more effective without Bowser's ship around, and might've been more appropriate to fight smaller guys such as Toads (if the necessity presented itself).
  • It may be that, in comparison to any other kingdom besides the Bowser Empire and the Jungle Kingdom, the Snow Kingdom's army actually is strong and that Bowser and Cranky are the only two leaders with competent armies. Of the two of them, Bowser had never invaded the Snow Kingdom prior, and Cranky keeps to himself, with his army presumably used only for defense. Consider that the Mushroom Kingdom has no army at all, for instance, and that the penguin king's behavior suggests he has never seen an army with destructive power before.

The support of the Kong Army

• When Peach goes to the Jungle Kingdom for support, what is her game plan? She tries to sway Cranky Kong with a plea of "If you don't help us, Bowser will attack the Jungle Kingdom next", but if the Jungle Kingdom's army can take Bowser down, they don't need to do it in service of the Mushroom Kingdom. The Mushroom Kingdom has no army and isn't contributing any military force. It's all risk, no reward for the Jungle Kingdom.
  • Peach originally tells both the Toads and Cranky the two Kingdoms will work together. The Toads might be weak, but they have weapons and can provide other support. Also, power-ups are everywhere in the Mushroom Kingdom, but don't appear in the Jungle Kingdom outside the arena, where Cranky said he placed them specifically for Mario.
    • Same vein, defeating Bowser's army before they can conquer the Mushroom Kingdom is the smart play strategically because otherwise they'd have to fight not just Bower's Army, but Bowser's army equipped with Power-Ups, which are so potent that just one (albeit it had to be one that was actually useful) was enough to allow Mario to utterly curb-stomp Donkey Kong when without he was completely overwhelmed.
  • Also, fighting Bowser in the Mushroom Kingdom is better for the Kongs. Even if they could beat Bowsers army alone, there would definitely be damage to the Jungle Kingdom. Fighting Bowser somewhere else protects their homes and infrastructure.
  • Peach is a capable fighter. She's worth something.
  • Peach doesn't exactly have a "game plan". She's appealing to the Kongs out of desperation because she has no other option if she wants to fight back against Bowser.
    • Knowing what we already seen out of Bowser and the Koopa Kingdom, one could argue that Peach is aware that Bowser is a threat to both the Mushroom and Kong kingdoms and, thus, it's better to face them while working togther vs trying to face him alone and Bowser already got to the other kingdoms.

Why didn't she go back through the pipe?

• If Peach remembers arriving in the Mushroom Kingdom through a pipe, why doesn't she just return to the pipe to find any clues she can about where she's from?
  • It's implied that the feud between the Koopa Kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom has been going on for a long time. It's possible that the pipe ended up getting destroyed or blocked off during a battle. Another possibility is that it was covered with greenery (plants, mushrooms, etc.), and is virtually impossible to find now. It could even have been blocked off or destroyed on the other side of the pipe, making it unusable on both ends.
  • As Luigi's example shows, the warp pipes have the potential of transporting you to the wrong destination. The Toads probably didn't want to send a young Peach back through the pipe because they didn't know where it would lead to, and by the time Peach was old enough, she had no intention to abandon the Mushroom Kingdom. Also, there's no guarantee that Peach is even from Earth.
  • In the games, the player sometimes needs to voluntarily steer themselves through pipes when they branch, making them function more like a network of roads than a straight path from Point A to Point B. This seems to also be the case in the movie, as there are pipes throughout the Mushroom Kingdom that Toad uses with ease but Mario struggles with, as he is not familiar with however this navigation works. Peach was a baby and couldn't communicate whatever turns and detours she happened to travel down to get to the Kingdom, and now as an adult, she can't remember any part of her journey or her world of origin, making navigating back to it impossible.

That's not how to woo a gal, Bowser!

• Bowser's reasoning for stealing the Power Star is to use it as a means to guarantee Peach marries him, by threatening to power himself up with it and destroy the Mushroom Kingdom if she doesn't agree. However, in the climax he instead orders a Bomber Bill to be fired that would destroy the kingdom instead after she refuses on the altar. If he always had this and planned for this, why did he need the Power Star, especially considering he doesn't even seem to try and go for it until Mario destroys the warp pipe and everybody is sucked back into Brooklyn?
  • It's likely that Bowser didn't plan on destroying the kingdom in that fashion, or at the very least, the idea would have been to use that as a threat as backup in case the Super Star wasn't enough to get Peach to comply. But seeing his perceived romantic rival being buddy buddy with Peach, combined with being made to look the fool by means of being tricked and frozen, likely sent his already fragile mental state over the edge.
  • Pure speculation, but perhaps energy from the Power Star is what enabled Bowser to have a Bomber Bill be that powerful to begin with?
  • It's fairly likely the Bomber Bill was a backup plan in case something went wrong with the Super Star - after all, its power being temporary is the reason it has such a bad case of Too Awesome to Use. Considering the situation Bowser was in when he ordered its launch, using the Star wasn't really an option.
  • Was that Bowser’s plan? I was under the impression the plan was basically “Get the Super Star, and Peach will be so impressed she’ll be practically begging to marry me.” Sure, he intended to use it as a threat as well, which the Bomber Bill could have been used just as well for, but the Super Star looks much more noble and spectacular and thus more appropriate use for charming a Princess.

The Subject of Chroma Key

• In the SMB Plumbing ad, how are Luigi's clothes not affected by the Chroma Key?
  • Maybe they used a blue screen?
    • But the artifacts left on the brothers are green, and if it were blue it would probably affect their overalls.
  • Because that would ruin the ad. Fortunately, animation doesn’t have the same limits as live action videography and editing!
  • Maybe editing around his clothes is where most of the money went.

Shouldn't there have been a previous ruler?

• Who was in charge of the Mushroom Kingdom before Peach? Her backstory reveals that after she was old enough she was crowned as princess, and if that's the case then who ruled before her?
  • The Toads themselves, obviously. No doubt acting as an anarcho-syndicalist commune where an executive officer is elected on a weekly basis, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major decisions. Then they chucked that all out and put some strange girl they found in the woods in charge.
  • More seriously, though, the advisor Toad in the movie mentions a council when describing the current situation with Bowser. Given all the Toads in the room, it seems they have some kind of elected or volunteer village assembly that acts as Peach's government. Presumably, they ran things the same way before they awarded Peach the throne.
    • I figured "Princess" meant something different to the Toads than it does to us humans, as, technically, she'd be a "queen" (or, for that matter, "chief") in our terms. She's the "Princess" because of what she can do that the Toads can't (she's adept at combat, as y'all can see and can protect her Toads) and so is the highest member of the Toad council. Before she came a long, they didn't really have a high member of their council before, assuming they've always had a council. On a meta note, some of this might be a holdover from the previous Mario games ^note Games pre-2003 (Toadette's debut) lore, where there was mentions of king and queen.

Shouldn't everyone be using Power-Ups?

• Why isn't everyone using Power-Ups? They seem such a powerful gamechanger that everyone should be using them, and they seem pretty ubiquitous if there are entire fields of Fire Flowers just sitting out in the open. Hell, the Penguin Kingdom could have smacked down Bowser in the opening 5 minutes if the pathetic attack was just a distraction so one of the Penguins could grab the Power Star.
  • Three words: Rule of Funny.
  • It's suggested that Power-Ups are only prevalent in the Mushroom Kingdom — the only other place we see them is in the Jungle Kingdom, and there they only appear in the Arena. That said, we also don't see any indication that Toads can use Power-Ups, which reinforces the idea that the Mushroom Kingdom's only defense is Princess Peach.
  • Also, the plant-based power-ups wouldn't grow in the Penguin Kingdom anyway, and transporting them to it could be difficult/expensive. Plus the penguins themselves didn't seem to be aware they needed any extra power, as they saw themselves as quite capable in a fight.
    • Well, there are Power-Ups (or specific ones) in Kong Country, so they're likely not exclusive to the Mushroom Kingdom. A likely reason why they aren't used is because, up until the movie's proper, there wasn't a really need to use them and the penguins really didn't need to use them (nor would they probably have known how, anyways).
  • Fridge Brilliance: This is somewhat speculative, but there seems to be an implication that Question Blocks are at least somewhat rare as a resource. The only characters that we see having ready access to them - Peach, Cranky, and the Penguin King - are all royalty, they're seen being given as gifts at the wedding alongside other apparently valuable items, and when Bowser's army is taking over the Mushroom Kingdom, we see them hoarding them in a big opulent pile in a manner that's visually similar to an invading army hoarding war spoils. Notably, while Mario is going through the Mushroom Kingdom for the first time, just about all of the classic Mario Bros. world-building elements are plentiful except for the Question Blocks.

Where's Toadsworth?

• Is Toadsworth not in the movie universe? There appears to be a Toad working in the castle as an advisor and planner, which would normally be Toadsworth's job, but Toadsworth himself is entirely absent.
  • Seeing as his only recent appearances are in remakes, it's safe to assume Nintendo forgot about him.
  • Maybe that advisor is a redesigned Toadsworth?
  • Peach has had Toad ministers in two of the older RPGs that predate Toadsworth as a character. It’s not without precedent.
  • That Toad could have been "Toadsworth", he's just not called as such by name.
  • Leaked concept art for the movie shows that Toadsworth originally was going to be in the movie and was even gonna be apart of the council of Toads, most likely as the general/leader instead. Illumination ultimately scrapped the idea, not Nintendo.
  • Going off one of the points above, since this film clearly shows the very first meeting between Bowser and Mario, it could take place at some point in time where Toadsworth is not visibly old yet.
  • What’s more, Toadsworth is not often portrayed as a serious authority figure, unlike the competent-seeming Toad minister used in the movie. If they wanted someone who could be taken seriously in the role, it wouldn’t be wise to go for the Toad who’s primarily known to be an ineffectual, lackadaisical worrywart.

"Drama~!"

• So is mass human/sapient sacrifice just a thing at Koopa weddings? Or at least at the expensive ones?
  • Bowser clearly does not have the best understanding of how to be romantic. His love for Peach is entirely possessive, he's paranoid about Peach falling in love with some random guy she travels with, and he really only convinces her to marry him out of threats. Wide-scale sacrifice being his idea of how to impress her is pretty on-brand.
  • True. I guess what I'm wondering is if this is something specific to Bowser or if it's actual standard Koopa culture. All of his minions seem to be on board with the whole thing, after all.
    • Well, we don't see enough of Koopa society to know if it's just Bowser being too terribly inept at romance, if it's just Koopa culture, or both, so it could be both.
  • My guess is it's something Bowser just made up, and the other Koopas find it a little weird, but are loyal enough to not care. Besides, it serves to get rid of the prisoners anyways, so why not humour the boss?

Lumalee the Death Seeker

• During the infamous prison montage, we see how Lumalee constantly rambles on and on about embracing death (and him feeling bummed about being rescued later on). If he really wanted to die, then why didn't he just jump in the lava himself after being rescued?
  • Maybe he can only enjoy it when it's being forced on him. Death isn't so awesome when you have to work for it.
  • My guess is he's become such a fatalist that actively trying to die is distasteful to him. Perhaps he sees it as a betrayal of his philosophy, whatever that may be.

Bowser's Piano

• Why did they give Bowser a tiny piano for his cage?
  • Mushroom Kingdom prisoner rights laws?
  • Rule of Funny.
    • He's essentially a pet by that point and ya' gotta keep ya' pets entertained (or, as it tends to be called, "enriched").
  • It'd be very in-character for him to endlessly whinge and complain to the point where making his imprisonment slightly less punishing would be worth it if it would finally shut him up. Keep in mind, it's been made demonstrably clear that Peach's guards are only tough by Toad standards.
    • Also, the entire Mushroom Kingdom is _nice_. They aren't punishing Bowser, they're detaining him for their own safety. Given that a piano seems to be Bowser's only non-destructive joy, why _not_ give him one? It also may be a form of royalty-to-royalty respect.

It's a real face

• How did Mario know the Bomber Bill was sentient? At first it just looks like a bomb with a face painted on it.
  • He didn't. He saw that it had a face and assumed that it could be attacked that way and fortunately was proven right.

She was really gonna go to the Jungle Kingdom, wasn't she?

• Was Peach really planning on traveling to the Jungle Kingdom alone before Mario showed up? Even for as skilled of a fighter as she is, if anything were to happen to her, no one would know or be able to message the Mushroom Kingdom.
  • She didn't seem to have any other options, given she didn't think any of the toads were willing to fight and she wouldn't put them in danger if they weren't. Perhaps this is why she was so quick to accept Mario accompanying her.
  • In addition, the route itself doesn't seem particularly dangerous, as we don't see any danger aside from the fairly harmless fish, which the trailer shows Peach removing with ease.
  • We don’t know if she had always planned on going alone, too. She met Mario just as she had finished announcing the trip. It’s possible she planned on inviting some Toads along with her who could act as protection or messengers in the event that something happened.

How do they keep jobs?

• What do Mario and Luigi do for a living after moving to the Mushroom Kingdom at the end of the movie? They didn’t really come across anything to occupy themselves with during the time they were there; are they only living there and commuting back to their own world to keep up their plumbing business?
  • Commuting is what it looked like to me, don't we see them take a warp pipe right back to New York after leaving their new home in the Mushroom Kingdom?
  • That’s what confused me. They jump into a pipe, but the movie ends before we see where they end up. And the pipe isn’t in the same place as the one that led to the Mushroom Kingdom from their world. Maybe they had an extension added onto it?
    • Some of the games feature networked pipes that basically work like roads, taking you to a variety of voluntarily-chosen locations. Presumably by this point, they've gotten used to them as a means of transportation and that pipe is either an extension to or one additional leg on their trip back to the Brooklyn pipe.

Wait, how is that cage holding Lumalee?

• The bars on that cage have spaces wide enough for Lumalee to squeeze through if he were to turn himself a certain angle, like, why he didn't squeeze through? Or did he just not care anymore? And it ain't like he gonna fall in the lava, considering that he can fly.
  • Lumalee likes being there.

Agile Luigi?

• In the climax, how is Luigi equally as agile and capable of fighting as Mario? Mario only got that way through vigorous training, none of which Luigi went through. Luigi has also been locked up in a cramped cage for a few days without having slept or eaten, so he should definitely not have been in an ideal state.
  • Presumably a byproduct of the Super Star, assuming you mean the feats performed after they got the star's power. If you mean before then I don't recall him being shown to be "as capable" as Mario. And besides, Mario's training only lasted for a day and night, it was more about learning to handle the strange environment of the Mushroom Kingdom and the effects of the power-ups than it was about becoming more agile (as Mario demonstrated he was already perfectly capable of platforming in the city).
    • From what's implied, it's his hesitance that holds him back. He could be just as agile and capable as Mario but he's so hesitant that he's effectively nerfed. Part of this is why him and Mario work so well together.

Field of Fire Flowers

• Why don't Mario and Toad use any of the Fire Flowers like Peach does in the field full of them?
  • They probably don't use any of them because the Fire Flowers in those fields are like real life flowers where they are connected and apart of the ground and soil and they don't want to straight up rip those Fire Flowers in order to not be horrible to nature and preserve it. Like can you imagine if you ripped out a bunch of roses out of the ground in a rose field and how horrible that would be to nature? That's basically what Mario, Peach, and Toad using those Fire Flowers in that field would be like.

Where are Bowser's prisoners, including the penguins, now?

• Donkey Kong manages to save seemingly all prisoners at the last second, saving Cranky Kong and unknowingly Luigi. However, the rest of the Kongs are not seen again for the rest of film. What happened to them? Also, since the penguins' kingdom was annihilated by Bowser, where do they reside now?
  • Lumalee, the penguins, Cranky Kong, and the rest of the Kong prisoners most likely just fled to shelter or someplace else that is safe in order to not be killed by Bowser and his remaining army. As for where the penguins reside now, they most likely now live and reside in another icy and snowy land similar to their previous one. Either that or they're just straight up homeless now.
  • While we're at the topic of Cranky Kong and the others, most of the Mushroom Kingdom was sucked by the pipe to Brooklyn. Why weren't the Kongs and the penguins sucked in as well? Was it only specific areas that were sucked in?
    • From the looks of it, Bowser's floating castle took the worst of the pipe's vortex due to it not being grounded, with the debris from the Mushroom Kingdom being limited to the floating platforms, blocks, and giant mushrooms from the forest. Toad Town and Peach's Castle were most likely spared since Bowser's fortress was in the pipe's trajectory of suction in front of them. Presumably the Kongs and the penguins fled to safety like the Toads before them, escaping from being sent to Brooklyn.

Spike's pizza

• Spike seems to eat only one slice of a full pizza, then after mocking the Mario brothers he puts down money and walks away, while his food is still there. Why?
  • He was likely already full by then and didn't want to gain weight by unnecessarily eating more pizza (given how he's relatively fit looking and therefore would seem like the kind of guy to keep an eye on his figure). Even ignoring that, there are plenty of people in Real Life who leave restaurants with their meals still unfinished but leave money on the table.
  • Rule of Funny: He realized his mistake as soon as he left the restaurant, but didn't want to ruin what he thought was a sick burn and cool exit.

Mario and Peach's power-ups

• During the trio's trip to the Jungle Kingdom, Mario, Peach, and Toad rest at a field surrounded by Fire Flowers. During that scene, Peach touches the flower and power-ups to light up a campfire. Later, when the trio arrive at the Jungle Kingdom's entrance, Peach no longer has the power-up. This also applies to Mario and his cat form. After he defeats Donkey Kong, Mario no longer has his power-up when he applies an ice pack to himself. So how did Peach and Mario lose their respective power-ups? These power-ups seemingly lasted until they get hurt. So, did they hurt themselves or what?
  • They probably turned off their power-up forms at will similar to that of Super Saiyan transformations or Super Sonic.
  • Speculative, but given that the power-ups seem to exist naturally in the setting, it seems reasonable that someone at some point in history would invent a device or substance allowing people to manually de-power themselves without pain. This would explain why the heroes are able to do it no problem, but Bowser isn't able to after being made Peach's prisoner.

Bowser's line to Mario

• After the Blue Shell Koopa destroys the Rainbow Road and Mario and DK fall to the river, Bowser laughs and says "Goodbye, Mario". It makes sense that he would laugh, but why he would say that?. Mario never met him, he doesn't know anything about him other than what Toad and Peach told him about the Koopa King. That quote would've worked if they're were already rivals, but they don't interact until the climax in Brookyln. So why Bowser would say "Goodbye, Mario"? to Mario if they never met? Is he really that delusional?
  • Simply put, yes, Bowser is that delusional. Just being told there was a human male who met with Peach made Bowser paranoid that Mario could be winning her over, and he was more concerned about that then with Mario and Peach going to the Kong Army for help. Bowser was certain that with Mario gone, nothing would stand between him marrying Peach, only to be blindsided when Peach fights back and declaring she would never marry him. And seeing Mario alive and reuniting with Peach set him off to the point of sending the Bomber Bill to blow up the entire kingdom, and when that fails, Bowser attacks Mario and declares him the cause of the wedding's failure despite Peach being the one to do it. Bowser is not only paranoid about his desire for Peach, but flat-out delusional in thinking she would ever love him and rationalize that Mario is the only reason he can't win her over.

Mario and Peach introducing each other

• The movie somewhat focuses on Mario and Peach's chemistry towards each other. As they were hanging out with each other, why didn't they introduce themselves their names? Mario only mentioned Luigi's name. The only reason Peach knew the former's name is because Toad greeted Mario his name out loud when getting ready for their adventure.
  • Who's to say that they didn't just introduce their names to each other off-screen?

Peach's pipe

• As most know, Mario was sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom at a rapid speed rate. The only exception is Baby Peach as she only wandered from the pipe to the Mushroom Kingdom, why is this the case?
  • It is entirely possible that the warp pipes can also be traversed through like tunnels that you can walk through as long as you don't get forcefully sucked in unwillingly. Mario and Luigi were forcefully sucked through the pipe which is why they were flung through the warp pipe tunnel at an extremely fast speed while Baby Peach most likely walked through the warp pipe willingly at a normal walking speed.
  • Pure speculation, but considering they're more "wild" than the Toad-made ones used for transportation in the Mushroom Kingdom, perhaps the Warp Pipes that take people to and from different worlds have "active" and "inactive" periods like geysers, only forcibly pulling air in some of the time.

Mushroom Kingdom and that world's invulnerability

• Mario was seemingly immune to fall damage in Brooklyn. This also applies to the residents from the other world, including the Mushroom Kingdom. Donkey Kong and Mario fell from the rocket barrel that the Koopas shot at and were perfectly okay. This also applies to the Brooklyn final battle, as Peach, Donkey Kong (mentioned earlier), Toad, and Luigi fall and were perfectly okay as well, which would kill or severely injure an average human being. Are they naturally invulnerable to fall damage? If so, how invulnerable are they? And if that's the case, why was Toad afraid to fall?
  • Given they still often groan or moan from the impacts, it may be more a resistance to fall damage than an immunity. Thus Toad would be afraid because even if he won't be seriously injured, it still may hurt a lot.

The Super Star wears off after a few seconds/minutes! Duh!

• I'm pretty sure Bowser would have been disappointed to know that the effects of the Super Star are only temporary. Unless he knew a way to equip his entire army with it at once (both Mario AND Luigi took on it's powers simultaneously, but two close human brothers is still a much easier scenario than an entire elite army.) it really wouldn't have benefited him as much as he thought. Also, was the Super Star actually the only one of its kind? Isn't it gone forever now that it has been used?! (Frankly I'm hoping the sequel will go into this context more.)
  • Maybe he thought the star would allow him to conquer an extremely powerful kingdom easily, thereby gaining access to more enduring resources with which he could take over the rest of the world.
  • The film heavily gives the impression that Peach is more or less a One-Woman Army, serving as the primary defensive force keeping Bowser and his forces at bay (while that sounds extreme, keep in mind, this is basically what the player character does in almost every platformer of the main series). A weapon like the Super Star would be very useful in that situation, and it fully tracks with the meeting she attends in her introductory scene - while Peach is very powerful, she's still just one person; this makes Bowser's acquisition of the Super Star very concerning as he could easily defeat her with it with the right timing, so the logical next step is to request help from an actual fully-Konged army who couldn't feasibly be defeated with a single Star.
  • There’s also the possibility that Bowser really didn’t know the star had a time limit, as the original post suggested. In which case, he likely would have been very disappointed whenever it failed to go as planned, but that happens a lot with Bowser’s schemes.

Bowser getting Mini-mushroom'd

• Given how any injury reverses the effects like the other power-ups, Bowser could have easily escaped by just punching himself in the face. It seems like an absurdly temporary way to defeat him.
  • Never in the film is it stated that you can also lose your power-up form by inflicting self-harm upon yourself. It's only ever been stated that you lose it if you're hit by someone or something else.
  • Mario accidentally punches himself in the nose when he first turns into Super Mario, and it doesn’t undo the transformation. Stands to reason that self-harm doesn’t cut it.

Donkey Kong's Daddy Issues

• Why does Donkey Kong think his dad sees him as a pathetic joke? His father apparently has enough trust in his son to have him be the one Mario faces off against to earn the Kong army's services. It couldn't just be because he lost the fight because the face Cranky makes at Peach after Mario wins implies he's not too hung up about providing his services.
  • Considering we see Cranky berating DK during his show-boating and clearly showing embarrassment over his son's behavior in the Kong arena scene, it is most likely possible that Cranky has shown disappointment in his son many times in the past and that DK is aware of it and so it's probably why DK is clearly trying so hard to impress his dad.
  • In the Donkey Kong country games, Cranky does often criticize DK for not taking his job (or reputation) as a video game character seriously enough. Even in here, as Cranky is a king, DK is a prince, and thus his cocky attitude might be unbecoming for a future king. Although this is rather hypocritical, given how egotistical Cranky is himself, but at least he hasn't let his kingdom go to pot (yet).

The Toads care about Mario?

• When Mario and Peach set out on their adventure, one of the Toads asks who Mario is, to which Peach responds he's not important. Yet when Peach returns to the Mushroom Kingdom and says that Mario is gone, all of the Toads (who shouldn't even know his name) gasp in disbelief?
  • Maybe since the Toads look up to and admire Peach so much, anytime she were to mention a potential loss of someone that clearly she cared for or is saddened by losing them, they know it's bad news even without knowing who said person is. Also, while they were never told Mario's name, they all should clearly be able to see his hat when they all first laid eyes on him which has a giant red M on it so when they heard Peach say the name, "Mario", they probably put two and two together.
  • Also, the Toads who react in disbelief are the ones inside the castle, who probably work there and thus could’ve met Mario when he and Peach were preparing to leave. The ones who have to ask who Mario is were outside the castle, waiting to see the two of them off on their journey.

Why does Mario send the Bomber Bill through the warp pipe?

• He got tremendously lucky that the Bill didn’t explode on contact with the pipe, or pass completely through the pipe and end up nuking Brooklyn instead. Why not try leading the Bill somewhere else and then letting it detonate? Like Bowser’s kingdom or the middle of the ocean or something?
  • It was a situation where there was really no time to think things through. You have to understand that Mario doesn't know where Bowser's kingdom (the Dark Lands) is located as he hasn't been there in this continuity and also leading it into the ocean would've killed a bunch of innocent sea creatures (as the Cheep-Cheeps and Bloopers aren't really hostile in this movie like they are in the games) and unless you wanna see Mario purposefully kill all underwater life then I don't see how that's a heroic thing for Mario to do. You also have to take into account that the Bomber Bill was fast approaching onto Mario's tail meaning that if he didn't make a decision quick, the Bomber Bill would've caught up to him and killed him as well as everyone else within the vicinity of the Bomber Bill's explosion. Mario already knows by this point that warp pipes are magical and can suck in anything that comes into contact with them regardless of how big said thing is for them and as for him knowing it wouldn't nuke Brooklyn and instead explode in the middle of the warp pipe stream, Mario has single-handedly experienced going through the warp pipe stream where you fly through a small tunnel, one that the Bomber Bill would not be able to properly flow through due to its massive size so he knew that it would instead fly adrift in the middle of the stream and explode there where absolutely no one would get killed instead.

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