Super Mario Brothers (1993)

One of the commenters under the video suggested that the Scapelli brothers should be revealed to be Wario and Waluigi.

Man, I did not realize the electro-carts were a roundabout Mario Kart reference. Which makes sense, now that I think about it.

Huh. Funny that everyone's talking about this movie all of a sudden. One of the guys organizing a 24-hour LAN party at my college this weekend decided to stream it for everyone eighteen hours in. I was running on almost no sleep at the time and trying to play Destiny 2, so by the point it ended I was starting to feel like I'd been drugged out of my mind.

...wait, Mario Golf and Mario Kart were already out there?

Regarding Mario Kart yuuuuup!

As for Mario Golf, that's where things get murky. There were indeed golf games featuring Mario before the movie came out but I doubt the filmmakers knew much about those.

As for the recently released deleted scene...wow was that a surreal experience. Aside from the fact that it's always gonna be weird seeing footage pre-edited and pre-ADR'd, I'm surprised by the fact that I'm even watching this. To this day, I still remember just how obsessed people were with this scene back at the fan forums (may it rest in peace). One guy was committed enough to have made an animated recreation of the deleted scene which was years before this was found. Even stranger though was how identical the recreation ended up being.

Edited by 1upmushroom on Nov 26th 2019 at 1:35:37 AM

Didn't realize Mario Kart was thaaat old.

The third batch of deleted stuff has been posted, including the Spike and Iggy rap plus some political commentary.

The SMB Movie Archive posted an exploration of the rough cut and deleted scenes, with commentary.

EDIT: Roleplay Retcon is doing an RPG based on the movie with their own unique twists. I'm 4 minutes into episode 1 and it's already epic!

Edited by lalalei2001 on May 15th 2020 at 3:38:13 AM

I made a trope page for the fantasy draft of the movie, Super Mario Bros. (1991)! :)

Kinda interesting how even in that early draft, Luigi has the love interest, not Mario.

And Mario and Luigi are cynical and optimistic, respectively. Mario did have an established girlfriend in the finished film, Daniella, while in the '91 script his ex Brenda dumped him beforehand, but he gets a Maybe Ever After at the end.

Also Hildy is a florist in the script, which might be a Daisy reference. XD There's even an early Scapelli analogue in the gangster Big Eddie.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Feb 7th 2021 at 6:01:33 AM

I think like 90% of this movie makes sense when you realize it was originally someone else's dinosaur cyberpunk (and man is that A Rare Sentence) script that got turned into a Mario movie because no one assumed anyone would pay attention to it.

This was, of course, before people realized that video game fans are fanatics.

Several have also said that the film works better if you view it as a weird prequel of sorts, showing how Mario and Luigi first became heroes.

I'm sure if there was a sequel (based on that cliffhanger), they probably would have actually shown the brothers travel to some sort of "mushroom kingdom".

According to director Rocky Morton, the film was meant to show the "real" story that the games were based off of which became distorted over time like classical myths, which is supported by the post-credits scene where Iggy and Spike are commissioned to make their own video game.

...I wonder what kinda game The Super Koopa Cousins was. XD

In the original Super Mario Bros game it was stated in the manual that Mario was a New Yorker who got trapped in another world, Alice in Wonderland-style.

Incidentally, I'd argue this creates quite a bit of Fridge Brilliance (well, for a certain measure of 'fridge'). The surrealist nature of the setting makes a lot more sense when you realize that Super Mario Bros is actually the same genre as, say, The Wizard of OZ or Alice in Wonderland.

The Mario movie actually deceptively gets quite a bit right in the subtext. The big misstep it makes is, well, pretty obvious: its depiction of The Mushroom Kingdom as some kind of cyberpunk setting.

Now, to be fair, I don't that the mistake was technically making it a sci-fi setting, just making it an urban cyberpunk sorta setting. The plot of Super Mario Bros actually would work pretty well if you made it a Planetary Romance like John Carter. In fact, this portrayal actually makes a lot of sense: Mario could be some guy who finds himself an on alien world with less gravity, and therefore, can jump really high, so he saves the kingdom and tries to woo their princess.

This is one of those movies that people hated and now love. Batman & Robin, Godzilla (1998), and now this. What’s next? Cool As Ice?

I was not aware people now love Batman & Robin.

Is it because Joel Schumacher recently passed?

I remember being terrified of Batman and Robin as a kid because I took it seriously XD

It was going on around the time Batman v Superman came out, if I can recall. I guess people wanted a return to the lighter side of the Bat after that grimfest. For me, the tone was not the problem. I really liked Forever and think it was better than Returns. Batman & Robin was just a failure in every aspect. And may Schumacher Rest In Peace. He’s made plenty of good movies.

Going back to Super Mario Bros, it always strikes me odd how much of a cult it got. People are dedicated to preserve the cut footage. They’re like a low key #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.

Edited by HBarnill on Feb 12th 2021 at 4:29:23 AM

An extended cut got leaked.

That's not accurate a statement

It's a fan edit made using footage that never made it to the final cut of the film (About 20 min), salvaged from a vhs tape. This is billed as a "Directors' cut" though the directors didn't edit it, as the film's 2 directors were infamously locked out of the theatrical cut's editing.

What's been released is the first draft workprint of this fan edit. And it's not leaked so much as the guy doing it just released it.

Edited by Ghilz on Jun 2nd 2021 at 10:23:02 AM

Somebody at Disney needs to a lobby for a US 4K Blu-ray release, stat.

At the very least, they can license the rights to Criterion, Shout or Kino to do that.

Release the Bowser cut

Trouble is they don't want to :( The SMB Archive has been trying for years and nothing.

Edited by lalalei2001 on Jun 2nd 2021 at 8:39:05 AM

So watching the new fan cut. Honestly, not much of an upgrade. Most of it is extra footage of people coming or going, or just stuff that was cut to made the movie more tight.

It does now straight up say the king / daisy's dad is the fungus in town as opposed to saving that for a reveal.

Overall, not much of an upgrade imho.