Super Mario Bros. (film)

From the Super Mario Wiki

“Yes, it happened. Let us speak no more of it.”
—Nintendo Power Vol. 203, May 2006

Super Mario Bros. is a movie loosely based on the Super Mario Bros. series of video games. While the film draws inspiration from the series, it follows a completely different continuity based in an entirely different world from its inspiration. Similarly, the characters are based on their archetypal roles from the games rather than their specific natures and actions.

The film cost an estimated $42 million to create due to its high profile cast and special effects, yet its gross revenue was only $20,915,465.

Contents 1 Plot Synopsis 2 Overall Plot 3 Cast 4 Quotes 5 Critical Reception 6 References

[edit] Plot Synopsis

The film begins at the future site of Brooklyn, sixty-five million years ago (from 1993). In an animated segment, viewers see that dinosaurs, such as a brachiosaurus and triceratops, dominated Earth due to their large size. Long before humans existed, small mammals, such as one resembling a skunk, coexisted with the dinosaurs and life was good. However, when a giant meteorite crashed into Earth, many dinosaurs were destroyed and the remaining banished to the parallel dimension created by the meteor's impact. There, the evolution of the dinosaurs continued and they became, according to the narration, "intelligent, vicious, aggressive beings" just like humans. The narration begs the question, "What if they found a way back?"

Twenty years before present day (1973 using 1993 as the present), a young woman hurriedly runs down an unidentified Brooklyn street to the steps of St. Theresa's, a cathedral, carrying a bundle covered in a red blanket. There, she places her bundle down, revealing an egg-shaped protective case. Taking a blue rock shard into an opening on the case, she lovingly strokes the case, pounds on the door repeatedly, and flees. A nun opened the door, saw the case, and took it into the cathedral with her. The young lady continues to run down the Brooklyn streets, narrowly dodging honking drivers. She then climbed down into an open manhole. Back at the church, the nuns observe the case as it opens, revealing a large egg.

The young lady continues to run down a long sewer tunnel, frequently looking back. As she backs into another tunnel, she runs into a tall, sinister man, who asks her where the rock is. She jumps away from him and exclaims, "Koopa!" As the tunnel begins to collapse around the young woman, Koopa blocks the exit, leaving her to be crushed as she screams. Back at the Cathedral, the egg hatched to reveal an evidently human baby girl.

In present day (1993), Mario Mario and Luigi Mario were at their home and business, Mario Brothers Plumbing Services. Luigi lay on the couch, eating snacks and watching a television program, Miraculous World, in which the host introduced the concept of other dimensions, alternate worlds separated by time and space which somehow remained continuous with Earth's dimension. As the show continued, Mario picked up the phone and began speaking with the River Front Café regarding a broken dishwasher. As the brothers prepared to leave for the job, he and Luigi discussed the television show. Luigi was enthusiastic while Mario gruffly proclaimed that the only miracle he knew of was that they were still eating while they were going broke. Mario then complained that Luigi was spending money on the New York Post, a newspaper Mario believed to be full of fiction. Luigi protested that it had the article on the missing Brooklyn girls, but Mario cited an article about a scientist who turned his brain into cheese. Luigi confidently responded that, "Anything is possible, Mario, you just gotta believe!" Belittlingly, Mario retorted that he did believe: he believed their rent was three months overdue.

Having pulled away from their business in their van, Mario instructed Luigi to turn left. Luigi began turning right into an ally to his brother's protests, claiming his instincts told him that route would be faster as he plowed through garbage bags on the curb. Continuing the argument, he claimed that sea turtles travel thousands of miles on instinct, but Mario protested that they did not navigate New York traffic as they pulled into the café parking lot. Luigi stopped his gloating at the sight of a Scapelli Construction plumbing van: the brothers had lost another job to their rivals.

Meanwhile, a newscaster discussed the closing of one of New York's largest construction projects, located near the Brooklyn Bridge, as New York University students continued to excavate dinosaur bones in the area. Head construction contractor Anthony Scapelli arrived in a black limousine, waving to the construction workers protesting the dig as he emerged. Noticing their arrival, a blonde, female student named Daisy approached them and declared that continue as long as their quarterly lasted. Unshaken, Scapelli threatened Daisy, reminding her of the young women who had gone missing all over town. With a face of disbelief, Daisy left, declaring her intention to contact the university.

Elsewhere, an oddly dressed man, Spike looks disbelievingly at a pair of hot dogs in his hand and gets into his car, where another oddly dressed man, Iggy is sitting in the passenger seat. Spike handed one of the hot dogs to Iggy, telling him it was dog meat as they throw the hot dog buns out the window. Noticing Daisy, they declare that she matches the description given to them by Koopa, and they prepared to kidnap her. Mario and Luigi drove down the street, their van stalling. The older brother scolded Luigi for not checking the radiator, but Luigi insisted that everything was fine: the van had been making those noises all week. Pulling over and opening the hood, steam flowed into the brothers' faces. Mario instructed Luigi to check their messages for work while he fixed the engine. Daisy continued to walk down the street, oblivious to the approaching Spike and Iggy. Just as Spike was about to move in, several men carrying a pane of glass walked between him and Daisy and he hit his face against the glass. Defeated, the pair returned to their car.

As Luigi dialed the nearby pay phone, Mario passed, telling him that he was going into their nearby deli for some water. Daisy approached the pay phone, pacing anxiously and oblivious that Luigi was staring at her. Alf Brodsky from Alf Brodsky’s Department Stores called panicking: he had a huge plumbing problem, but Luigi was not paying attention. Instead, he wordlessly handed off the phone to Daisy, who thanked him. Mario emerged from the deli with a bottle of Evian water in hand, yelling back inside that everyone had tap water. Passing Luigi, he asked him if they had any work, but Luigi said no, still watching Daisy as she fumbled in her pockets for change. Noticing, Luigi gave her a quarter, and she thanked him again, smiling. Daisy made her call to the university, but the organization refused to add more security to the site. At Mario's side, Luigi commented that Daisy was beautiful. Mario encouraged Luigi to go talk to her, but he protested. As she looked up, she noticed the Spike, who hastily pulled a copy of the Daily News over his face, pretending to read. The front page read, "Missing Misses Still a Mystery." Daisy walked over to the van and thanked Luigi for his kindness. As latter began an awkward conversation including an offer to give her a ride, Mario stepped in, ending the conversation and repeating Luigi's offer for a ride. With a glance at Spike, Daisy agreed. When they arrived at the site, Mario politely offered his hand to help Daisy out of the van. Daisy, obviously amused, took his hand and stepped down as Luigi scrambled over to them. As Daisy prepared to leave, Luigi, at the mumbled advice of Mario, awkwardly asked her out for dinner that night. Smiling, Daisy accepted. As the brothers left, Mario asked Luigi what he would do without him, and Luigi grumbled about not having the chance to find out and questioning why Mario had told Daisy about Luigi's thumb-sucking habit.

That night, Mario, Luigi, Daisy, and Mario's girlfriend, Daniella, Mario's went to an Italian restaurant together. Daisy and Daniella discussed the dig: Scapelli's digging team had found iridium, meaning that a meteorite had struck at that location. Findings suggested that the meteorite could have been the same one that destroyed the dinosaurs. The conversation shifted to the meteorite shard Daisy wore around her neck. She revealed that she never took it off for sentimental reasons: having been abandoned as a child and left at St. Thereas's on Fulton Street, the rock was her only remembrance from when she was found. Excitedly, Luigi revealed that he did not know who his parents were either; Mario had brought him up. Daisy and Luigi looked into each other's eyes before Daisy awkwardly looked back down at her food. After Daniella suggested that she and Mario take the van back after dinner to the other couple could continue their date, Luigi asked Daisy if he could walk her home, to which she agreed. Proudly, Mario smiled at his brother.

As Mario and Daniella left the restaurant and climbed into Mario and Luigi's van, Iggy and Spike noticed the latter, believing her to be the girl they were looking for in disguise. They pulled out of their parking space, rear-ending the car in front of them, and followed after the van. Meanwhile, Luigi and Daisy conversed as they walked home. Luigi apologized in advance for anything weird that he might say, but Daisy protested that her life, working in a "bone pit" and spending her nights reading about long extinct species was weird. She would understand if Luigi wanted to call their relationship off. However, Luigi responded that he was about to say the same, but that Daisy should feel free to call him to talk about anything. Daisy was stunned that Luigi took interest in her work, and suggested that she show him around the dig site.

At Daniella's apartment building, Mario bid her goodnight and left. As he drove away, Iggy and Spike attacked, kidnapping her as she screamed out for her boyfriend. Luigi and Daisy playfully raced to the dig site. As they climbed down, she commented that they had no security at night should Scapelli try anything; it had been his construction site until his team discovered the fossils. Luigi and Daisy arrived at the main dig site, where Daisy claimed to feel comfortable and at home. The site resembled the cave that collapsed at the beginning of the film. Various dinosaur fossils lined the floor, one of which, as Daisy pointed out, had opposable thumbs and looked to her as a monster trying to be human, a beautiful image. Luigi responded that she was beautiful, and the two moved in to kiss. However, they were interrupted by two of Scapelli's men fleeing the scene; they had broken a nearby set of pipes in an effort to flood the site. Luigi and Daisy ran back to Mario's apartment, got Mario, and returned to the site to fix the pipes. As they did so, Iggy and Spike entered the site, discussing how they had kidnapped the wrong girl for the fifth time. If they kidnapped one more wrong girl, "he" do something worse than killing them. Then, Iggy began sniffing and claimed that he sensed the girl they were looking for. The pair knocked out Mario and Luigi with their flashlights and kidnapped Daisy.

When the brothers came to, they followed the sound of Daisy's voice, with Mario's knowledge of pipe echoes guiding them through the cave. They finally came to ledge over a very steep drop, across which Daisy's voice seemed to come though the solid rock wall. The water had created an underground waterfall and river. As they stood there, Daisy's face appeared through the rock, and Luigi tried to jump for her, but Mario held him back. Daisy leaned herself though the rock and Luigi made a grab for her, accidentally breaking her necklace as Iggy and Spike pulled her back. With her necklace in his hand, Luigi looked back at the rock, Mario commenting that it was impossible. Claiming to have a feeling about it, Luigi kissed Mario's forehead and jumped across the waterfall though the solid rock. Trying to touch the rock wall, Mario slipped and fell through, transported to a psychedelic landscape where he continued to fall until he disintegrated, traveled through a solid rock wall in another cave and reassembled.

Running around a giant meteorite whose edges glowed blue, Luigi and Mario chased after Daisy and her kidnappers, who claimed to be taking her back to where she belonged. As the brothers left the cage through a metallic door, they entered a crowded, noisy, fungus covered street in Dinohattan. Pushing through the crowds, they stop dead in their tracks and look around, realizing their strange surroundings. Suddenly, on they see Iggy, Spike, and Daisy on the street below. The kidnappers pull a man out of a taxi and get into it as Daisy screamed out to Luigi and Mario. None of the city's inhabitants give the kidnapping a second thought. A police officer came over to the brothers, demanding that they stop loitering. Mario demanded that he do something about the kidnapping, but the officer refused, pushing the brothers back into the crowd. They moved down the street and leaned on a guardrail, Luigi frantically calling out to Daisy. Under the stress, the guardrail gave way and the brothers fell into a pile of fungus on the street below. As they pulled fungus off of themselves, they observed two tiny, raptor-like lizards feeding on the fungus nearby. In horror, they jump up and look around themselves, observing the oddly dressed people around them. A woman pushing her egg along in a stroller fought off a man who obsessed over it, calling the egg her baby. Huddled behind a building support, Mario and Luigi determine that they are not in Brooklyn anymore. No one takes action when man riding a bicycle crashes into a guardrail and flips onto the street below and a hidden, monstrous Goomba growls at the brothers from the shadows.

The camera zooms upwards though a glass window in Koopa's tower as Koopa and his lover, Lena, discuss how pathetic and disgusting their world is. Koopa notes the situation is worsening by the day, while in the other world the mammals have plenty of resources ready of the taking: food, clean air, and water. Koopa dips his hands in a hot, gray mud-like substance and pulls them out, now coated, complaining about the germs and fungus that fill their world, which they were "exiled" to when the meteorite hit sixty-five millions years ago. Boasting, he claims that the mammals may roam free in the other dimension now, but not for much longer. Lena agrees, saying that their freedom will end when he get's "[his] rock." Koopa adds that he also needs the princess. Obviously distressed by the mention of a princess, Lena rattles her head as if it was the tail of a rattlesnake. With ecstatic pleasures, Koopa claims that with the rock and Princess Daisy, he will finally be able to merge their world with that of the mammals and destroy them. As Koopa sat down at his desk, Iggy and Spike entered, greeting him as their cousin and reporting that the princess had been captured and was being defungused. Excited, Koopa handed them each a tissue and inquired about the rock, without which the meteor was dormant and the dimensions could not be merged. Iggy and Spike admit that the plumbers took it, referring to Mario and Luigi. Instantly, Koopa put a two thousand gold Koopa coin reward out for the capture of any plumbers.

Back outside, Mario and Luigi walk past a food vendor selling blackened lizards in a hot dog bun. Mario comments that if they eat in this place, they will need to be very hungry. Luigi inquires their location with a passing woman, who pushes them out of her path and calling them "egg suckers." A woman, billed in the credits as old lady, kindly asks if they are new in town, saying that the neighborhood is very dangerous to be in without a weapon. When Luigi admitted that they were unarmed, the old lady pulled out an spark shooting weapon and demanded Koopa coins. Noticing Daisy's meteorite shard necklace around Luigi's neck, she pulled it off as tall, heavyset woman, Bertha, approached behind her. Seeing the necklace, Bertha grabbed the old lady by her feet and threw her down to the street below. The lady landed in the back of an open roofed car and shocked the driver with her weapon, causing a major traffic accident. Now in possession of the necklace, Bertha refused to give back the meteorite shard and used her rocket powered boots to traverse to the other side of the street, looking back at the brothers. Distraught, they leaned against a wall. Toad noticed their dismay and told them to cheer up, because it could be worse, and proceeded to play an anti-Koopa song on his guitar. Hearing the song, two police officers drove up and arrested him. When Mario protested the arrest, one of the officers noticed his plumbing belt and arrested him and Luigi for being plumbers under Koopa's orders. Though Luigi protested that he was just apprenticing and not yet a plumber, the officers roughly forced them into the backseat of their vehicle along with Toad.

Meanwhile, two Goombas dragged Daisy to a prison room in Koopa's tower, shoving her through the door with a growl. Daniella and four other young women are also inside. She and Daisy share a joyful reunion, the latter explaining that Koopa was looking for a princess, but she guessed none of them "fit the bill." Back in the police car, Toad ascertained that the brothers were not from Dinohattan. They explained they were from Brooklyn as the officers pulled into the police station, making a hard left turn that nearly flipped the vehicle open and driving full speed towards a wall, dodging other police employees who did not find it unusual. A cord caught onto the back wheels of the vehicle, stopping it just in time to a jerking halt. The brothers were dragged into the office by the police, thrust in front of a teller window, shortly pulled back, and then thrust in front of the head of the police force. With a female police officer flirtatiously holding the heel of her shoe on his shoulder, he asked for the brothers' names. He was initially confused by the repetitive nature of their full names, asking how many "Marios" there were between them, to which Luigi answered three (one for Mario's first name and two for their last name). The police head then called for an officer, Mike, to take them to be defungused. Mike left them in the care of two men in rubber suits with gas masks, part of the Fungus Unit, to Mario's protests. In response, Mike pointed his weapon at Mario's behind and shocked him with a jolt of electricity. The men in the suits then pulled the brothers' pants forward and sprayed a cold gas down their pants and sent them to another part of the room, where they dumped a blue liquid on them. Mike moved them past a desk where Toad was being questioned into another room, where the officers hung up the brothers by their handcuffs. Suddenly, the officers pointed what appeared to be guns at the brothers, complete with aiming sight lasers. Panicked, the brothers tried to escape as the officers used the devices to take their pictures.

The prison resembled a chicken coop, with prisoners stacked on and around one another in different cages. Toad was placed above Mario and Luigi, who shared a cell. Playing on his harmonica, Toad sung about the brothers being from another dimension. Curious about what he meant, Luigi inquired if Toad meant that their worlds had crossed over. The musician corroborated Luigi's inquiry and added that, according to history, the impact of a meteorite had divided one universe into two, parallel dimensions. Additionally, Toad believed, the fungus infesting the city was their old king, de-evolved, and out for revenge. The head of the police called for the Mario Bros. to be brought before their lawyer, and the brothers were given back their plumbing equipment. The lawyer strongly resembled Koopa, but was much different in nature. Although he initially denied Mario's handshake, after sitting down he shook hands with both brothers and then wiped his hand with a tissue. He claimed to be Larry Lazard of Lazard Lazard Conda Dactyl, and that he came because he could not stand to see people in pain. Mario insisted that they needed to talk to Koopa, but Lazard protested that the man was an "evil, egg sucking son of a snake," and proceeded to ask where the meteorite piece was. The brothers looked at one another and then asked Lazard was talking about. The lawyer stood up, slowly walked over to Luigi, and proceeded to press on Luigi's eyes violently, yelling that they did know what he was talking about. Mario jumped at Lazard, but was stopped by the police officer. Lazard released Luigi as the officer sprayed the defungusing gas on Lazard's hands, asserting that no one attacked "President Koopa." The brothers were shocked to learn Lazard's true identity, but Koopa simply asked whether he had lied about being an evil, egg sucking son of a snake, and had them sent to the devo chamber.

In the chamber, Toad was strapped into a chair on a track. He insulted the chamber and Koopa's ruling ability. Unfazed, Koopa ordered that Sgt. Simon, the machine's operator, to de-evolve him. Simon turned a dial on the machine to cretaceous and activated the machine, sending Toad backward toward a device hanging from the ceiling. The chair rose towards the ceiling so that his head went inside the device. Toad's head transformed into that of a Goomba as Koopa explained evolution versus de-evolution: while evolution was an upward process in which organisms changed from primeval slime to single celled organisms to intelligent life, de-evolution was the opposite, causing someone even as rebellious as Toad into a loyal child of the royal family due to the shrinking of his brain. Toad was now a Goomba. Angered, Luigi attempted to attack Koopa, but Mario held him back, saying "not yet!" and asking Koopa what he had evolved from. Koopa responded that his ancestor was the tyrannosaurus rex, and then threatened to de-evolve the brothers should they not tell him where the meteorite piece was. Turning to Toad, Koopa introduced him to the other Goombas, one of whom placed Toad's harmonica around the happy inductee's neck. Then, with a glance at one another, the brothers attacked, shoving Koopa into the de-evolution chair, which locked him into place, and taking out Koopa's men. Luigi set the machine to the Jurassic period and the pair pushed the chair towards the de-evolution device and ran as the machine began. However, it stopped after a second, and for a moment Koopa's eye turned into that of a tyrannosaurus rex as he declared that he would kill Mario.

Pursued by the Goombas, Mario and Luigi fled. As they hid behind a support, Luigi noticed that the fungus appeared to be offering them a Bob-omb, but Luigi did not know what device was. Mario pulled Luigi away as the Goombas approached, and the brothers jumped onto pair of moving pulleys attached to the ceiling. Though the Goombas shot fireballs at them from their weapons, the brothers managed to escape into the garage where the police cars were kept. With Mario driving and Luigi successfully operating the computer as a result of his video game playing, the pair drove away with two other police cars in pursuit. With the help of the computer's map, Luigi claimed that Mario was going the wrong way, but the latter refused to listen. Mario's driving caused a two car pileup and he eventually crashed into another car in a head-on collision. However, their car simply popped up, landing on top of the other car. As the driver of the car continued to go in the opposite direction, the other police cars whizzed passed. Eventually, Mario and Luigi's vehicle slipped off of the other car and the two proceed to drive in their original direction. Two police cars drove up along either side of the brothers and the officers began to shoot fireballs at them. Mario slammed the breaks, causing the officers to fire at each other, causing a massive collision and explosion. Laughing victoriously, the brothers proceeded into a tunnel leading to the Koopahari Desert. Luigi's computer warned him that the tunnel was unfinished. As the car left the city's power grid, it powered down and the brothers hurtled towards the end of the tunnel, collecting sticky fungus on the car as they went. Eventually, they emerged in a subterranean cave and headed downward, but the collected fungus acted as a rope, saving them from their fall. As they exited the car and jumped down to the cavern floor, Mario and Luigi argued over whether it was the fungus or Mario's driving which had saved them.

[edit] Overall Plot

The story concerns Mario and Luigi Mario, two Italian American brothers living in Brooklyn, New York who are being driven out of business by the Scapelli Construction Company. Luigi falls in love with an orphaned college student, Daisy, who is digging for dinosaur bones under the Brooklyn Bridge. After a date, Daisy brings Luigi to the dig site, where she sees some of Scapelli’s men sabotage it by opening the water-pipes. Mario and Luigi manage to stop the flooding but are knocked out by two strange characters, Iggy and Spike. Mario and Luigi go deeper into the cavern, following Daisy’s screaming and eventually discover an interdimensional portal, in which Mario and Luigi follow Daisy. They then find themselves in a dystopian world where a human-like race evolved from Tyrannosauridae. It is said that they are descended from a T. Rex population that escaped through the interdimensional gate. Iggy and Spike turn out to be lackeys (and, surprisingly, cousins) of the world’s evil dictator, King Koopa (who does not look anything like the one in the game). However, Mario and Luigi failed to bring Daisy’s “rock,” a meteorite fragment that King Koopa needs in order to merge his world with the real world that was separated from King Koopa’s during the Big Bang. It turns out, though, that Daisy is the princess of the other dimension, but when King Koopa overthrew it and turned her father into fungus, Daisy’s mother took her to New York via the interdimensional portal. The portal was then destroyed, but when Scapelli was blasting at the cave, it was reopened. When King Koopa hears about the re-opening of the portal, he sends Spike and Iggy to find Daisy and the rock in order to merge the dimensions and make King Koopa dictator of both. King Koopa thinks only Daisy can merge the worlds, although as for Mario and Luigi, the plumbers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luckily for Daisy, the plumbers were persistent in finding her. During the finale, the worlds merge, but Luigi takes back the rock and the worlds separate. Mario fight King Koopa, and eventually wins, and he and Luigi de-evole King Koopa, making him a Tyrannosaurus, and then finally primeval slime. The brothers save the two worlds from the cruel dictator, and Daisy’s father reclaims control over the kingdom.

[edit] Cast

• Bob Hoskins — Mario
• John Leguizamo — Luigi
• Dennis Hopper — King Koopa
• Samantha Mathis — Princess Daisy
• Fisher Stevens — Iggy
• Richard Edson — Spike
• Fiona Shaw — Lena
• Dana Kaminksi — Daniella
• Mojo Nixon — Toad
• Francesca Roberts — Big Bertha
• Gianni Russo — Anthony Scapelli
• Lance Henriksen — King Toadstool

The special effects were coordinated by Paul J. Lombardi, who Shigeru Miyamoto later named Falco Lombardi after in thanks. (watch movie via: this link)

[edit] Quotes

For a full list of quotes, see here.

[edit] Critical Reception

The movie is generally considered poor. In a Nintendo Power article about New Super Mario Bros., a timeline of Mario's history could be seen at the bottom of the page. The Super Mario Bros. movie was mentioned, only with the words, "Yes, it happened. Let us speak no more of it."^[1] Other critics have complained that the movie doesn't accurately represent the Mario series and throws the whole continuity off, leaving a "horrible mess."^[2] The actor of Mario, Bob Hoskins, called the film the worst thing he ever did,^[3] while Luigi's portrayer, John Leguizamo, states that he practically could not bear working on the film.^[4]

Shigeru Miyamoto actually liked the movie, mentioning that his only real dislike of it was that he found it to be too true to the games, in stark contrast to most other comments.^[5]

[edit] References

1. ^ Nintendo Power Issue 203.
2. ^ Wikipedia (Accessed on 7-20-08)
3. ^ Guardian.co.uk (Accessed on 7-20-08)
4. ^ As Leguizamo mentions in his autobiography.
5. ^ Edge (Accessed on 7-20-08)