As a Nightmare Fuel page, all spoilers are unmarked as per wiki policy. You Have Been Warned!
Careful, Luigi, or you'll become the spicy meat-a-ball!
You'd think that an animated movie starring Mario and the gang would be a breeze right? Sadly, you'd be sorely mistaken. The franchise is already no stranger to super scary stuff, but Illumination Entertainment really pulled no punches with this one.- Bowser's arrival in the Ice Land is heralded by his massive floating castle, and he alone simply wastes any resistance the penguins thought they could put up against him, demolishing their citadel in just seconds before taking the Super Star they held (Super Star as in the invincibility item and not the Power Star). Later, it is shown during Peach's counsel that Bowser left almost all of Ice Land a smoldering ruin, prompting Peach to beseech the aid of the Kongs and their army.
- Bowser's opening statement to the penguins when he first arrives and his first words spoken in the entire movie?"OPEN THE GATES! ...Or die."
- Bowser's opening statement to the penguins when he first arrives and his first words spoken in the entire movie?
- The Dry Bones got a unique upgrade, to say the least. While their design adheres to the game, it's their eyes that are the more terrifying upgrade. While in their passive state, they glow yellow. But when they're angry or attacking? They're searing red. And that’s not even getting to the horrible, pig-like screeching they make when on the attack.
- There's also the part where the Dry Bones that Luigi accidentally made fall apart comes back together in a surprisingly terrifying way. Unlike in the games where the Dry Bones bring their body parts back together after being disassembled in a more simple and cartoonish way, the movie portrays it in a much more zombie-like fashion where their body parts come back together in an unnatural and disturbing-like fashion all the while making sickening crunch sounds as they do so.
- And Luigi's run-in with Bowser's minions doesn't stop with them. Towards the end of the scene, he narrowly manages to barricade himself from the Dry Bones and breathes a sigh of relief within the sanctum of the shadowy castle ruins. Cue a Lightning Reveal letting the audience know Luigi is in reality alone with a group of Shy Guys and a Snifit. The screen then cuts to black as a terrified scream from Luigi sounds.
- The Darklands in general. They're this disturbingly bleak, hellish, and nightmarish-looking place riddled to the brim with hostile and nightmarish creatures that only people as evil, psychotic, and twisted as Bowser and his army would reside in. Compare this to the Koopa Kingdom in the games where it's portrayed more as a generic lava hellhole and it's pretty clear just how much Darker and Edgier this movie is to at least the mainline platformers.
- The Snifit that leads the Shy Guys doesn't talk for the most part, but once he returns to Bowser with Luigi, he speaks to the Koopa King and is revealed to have a very creepy high-pitched sounding voice. It makes you really not want to know what's behind that gas mask...
- The Koopa General. While calm and composed in the beginning, it's the Rainbow Road battle where he really relishes the insanity of Bowser's ideals. With Mario in his sights, his Mask of Sanity is gone, and he relishes in the possibility of finishing off Mario himself, even if it means destroying some of his own comrades' karts. Thankfully, Mario evades his attacks, and with Donkey Kong's partnership, they scrap his kart to nothing. But then...
- Too enraged to listen to reason after his kart is scrapped, he then becomes the dreaded Blue Shell, and uses a Suicide Attack to try to take out Mario and Donkey Kong, with his attack even taking out a piece of the track.
- The buildup to the whole attack is terrifying in and of itself - sure, we've seen the General among the Koopa Troop's ranks and probably appreciated the reference in his design... but just when it looks like the gang might make it off Rainbow Road alright, the blue-shelled Koopa steps Out of the Inferno, clearly down to his final trump card, and anyone with even a passing knowledge of Mario Kart suddenly knows what's coming:Koopa General: You can't escape me...!
[Mario and friends look back to see the General taking off his helmet with a psychotic grin on his face. He spreads out his Paratroopa wings, and...]
Koopa General: BLUE SHELL!
[The General tucks into his shell, which screams down the Rainbow Road, locked dead-on to Donkey Kong's kart.] - Even the more casual Karters among us have probably either dropped an expletive or two or straight-up screamed in fear seeing the Shell barreling down on you, but this scene alone brings a whole new realistic dimension of horror to the item. It's not just a particularly devilish trick in an Amusing Injuries-laden race anymore - it's a weapon, plain and simple, and it leaves everyone exactly as helpless as its Kart counterpart does. There's no time to out-race it, no chance to try and swat it away, and certainly no Super Horn around - all Peach and Toad can do is drive out of the blast radius as the Shell swirls around Mario and DK's panicking heads, hangs in the air, glows with the fury of a shooting star, and then...
- After the Rainbow Road battle, Mario and Donkey Kong fall into the ocean and are swallowed up by a Maw-Ray, with a realistic design reminiscent of its Super Mario Odyssey model.
- Being stuck in the Maw-Ray also reminds us that DK, despite being good-natured, is still a gorilla, and is pretty aggressive with Mario during their spat and more or less flies into a destructive tantrum when the plumber calls him a "smash monkey".
- The part where the thing announces itself. DK is about to drown, which is already horrifying enough of a prospect (which is thankfully averted when Mario saves him). The scene lingers on DK's kart slowly sinking into the abyss below... and then there is a glimpse of some scary-looking teeth before a gigantic mouth closes and swallows up the kart. That's when you know that Mario and DK are in big, big trouble.
- Once Mario and DK use the leftover rocket barrel from DK's kart to escape the Maw-Ray, we are wonderfully greeted by an Extreme Closeup of one of the Maw-Ray's disturbing Icy Blue Eyes.
- When Peach refuses to marry Bowser when the latter arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom, the Koopa King orders Kamek to use his magic and torture Toad until she complies. Based on Toad's reaction, who looked like he was getting constricted by Kamek's spell, the experience was not at all pleasant for him and he likely would have been killed had the Magikoopa continued. This also showed a much darker aspect of Bowser, as while his crush on Peach was played for laughs previously, it shows just how low he is willing to go to get her to marry him.
- Bowser's wedding sacrifice, where he intends to drop all of his prisoners (Luigi included) into the lava as part of a ritual for his declaration of love. While Peach does use the Ice Flower to temporarily halt the cages being lowered, it ultimately breaks and continues to drop the prisoners. Luigi's own cage was already half-submerged by the time he was rescued by Mario.
- Once Bowser sees Peach being happy with Mario, he burns out of the ice with his fire breath and orders his men to launch the Bomber Bill to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom. Said Bomber Bill is treated as a nuclear missile and would have fulfilled its duty had Mario, in the Tanooki Suit, not stopped it. However, after Mario whacked it in the eye, the Bill is revealed to actually be sentient, becoming furious and giving Mario a nasty-looking Death Glare before focusing all its attention on the plumber.
- After using the Warp Pipe from the beginning to draw the Bomber Bill away from the Mushroom Kingdom, this causes a massive explosion which starts sucking the entire surrounding area in. The place where Mario ends up at? Brooklyn. Cue the front of Bowser's island fortress erupting from the ground, raising the stakes even higher as hundreds of innocent lives are at stake from being hurt by Bowser's forces, including Mario's family who lives practically above the source of chaos.
- Bowser's final battle with Mario in Brooklyn starts off terrifying as we get to see how dangerous Bowser can be when in an Unstoppable Rage. Bowser is outright furious and makes things personal with Mario after the latter ruined his wedding, giving the plumber a rather brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, to the point where Mario is clearly bruised and beaten, complete with a black eye. While Donkey Kong and Peach do stop him from beating Mario, Bowser just turns his attention on them and gives DK the same treatment he gave Mario. Had Mario and Luigi not gotten the Super Star, Bowser would have killed all of them.Bowser: (snarling in absolutely murderous rage) MARIOOOOOO! You want this?! YOU RUINED MY WEDDING! I WAS FINALLY GONNA BE HAPPY! NOW YOU WILL SUFFER... LIKE ME!
- It's also worth noting that during Bowser's vicious beatdown of Mario in Brooklyn, if you look closely you will notice that Bowser's usual red eyes are now glowing with rage. This includes the moment where Bowser first grabs Mario by his arm and the viewer is forced to look at Bowser through Mario's perspective, making it look like Bowser's glaring directly at the viewer.
