The first-ever video game inspired movie, and (no joke) one of the most ambitious big studio releases of the 1990s. SUPER MARIO BROS (1993) was a pivotal entry in the then-nascent digital era (with special effects as groundbreaking in their way as those of the same year’s JURASSIC PARK), yet managed a worldwide gross of just $38,912,465 against a reported $45 million budget. Nearly everyone involved now dubs the experience a waste of time, with the film’s late star Bob Hoskins having called it the “worst thing I ever did,” and when asked about her biggest mistake co-star Samantha Morton answered, “Three words: SUPER MARIO BROS.”
Initially released in Japan by Nintendo in 1985, and in America and England a year later, the Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka created SUPER MARIO BROS. video game, a follow-up to DONKEY KONG, was one of the best-selling games of all time, with a reported 58 million copies sold worldwide. This film version came about due to the efforts of the British prestige filmmaker Roland Joffe (of THE KILLING FIELDS and THE MISSION), who successfully wrestled the screen rights away from Nintendo and, it’s been claimed, self-directed a great deal of the notoriously chaotic shoot.
The prospective directors included Greg Beeman and Harold Ramis, with Joffe ultimately settling on a bizarre choice: Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the creators of MAX HEADROOM, in what was to be their only major directorial credit. The script, in true Hollyweird fashion, went through several iterations (most of them contained here), starting with a RAINMAN-esque draft by Barry Morrow that grew increasingly comedic and lightweight in revisions by Jim Jennewein, Tom S. Parker, Parker Bennett, Terry Runté, Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Ed Solomon and Ryan Rowe—with Bennett, Runté and Solomon ending up with the final credit.
As per the game, the eponymous siblings are the orphaned “Italian” plumbers Mario Mario (played by the British Hoskins) and Luigi Mario (the Columbian John Leguizamo), based in “BROOKLYN…NOW.” We know they’re plumbers because they have mounted plungers on their apartment wall, and drive a delivery truck. They’re opposed by the sleazy mob-connected construction magnate Anthony Scapelli (Gianni Russo), who’s trying to put them out of business.
Enter Daisy (Samantha Mathis), an archeology student who like the Marios is an orphan, and who with Scapelli’s unwitting aid leads the Marios into “Dinohattan” (replacing the game’s “Mushroom Kingdom” setting), an alternate universe packed with fungus (in place of the game’s mushrooms) where dinosaurs never died out, evolving into lizard-headed critters called goombas (replacing the turtles of the game) and humanoids, notably the evil King Koopa (a supremely hammy, spiked cornrow sporting Dennis Hopper). He has a machine capable of de-evolving his subjects, with a “DE-EVOLVE” switch that turns them into goombas, and is himself slowly de-evolving, which explains his surly attitude.
Daisy is the product of a dinosaur-human union; her father’s current state is a mass of sentient fungus, while her late mother was a princess who bequeathed Daisy a meteorite necklace sought by the king, who wants to use it to merge the two dimensions. Daisy (unattractively styled with uncombed hair) is made to take her mom’s place while Mario and Luigi, changed into their signature colored overalls (Mario in red and Luigi in green), race to rescue Daisy and retrieve the rock, aided by Toad (Mojo Nixon), a human-turned goomba, and blah, blah, blah…
Dinohattan, a multilevel indoor set (constructed in a deserted Wilmington, NC cement plant) in which hordes of extras mill around and machines make a lot of sparks, looks a lot like the Los Angeles of BLADE RUNNER, and no wonder: the production designer was David L. Snyder, the art director on BLADE RUNNER. Unlike that film, the scenery here looks cheap and stage-bound, which extends to the scenes set in the “real” world, which according to Joffe was intended as a “slightly mythic vision of New York,” yet never feels very mythic or New York-ish.
The film’s biggest problem, the uncertain tone (it wavers clumsily between kid movie fluff and GHOSTBUSTERS-esque middle grade comedy) and substandard Alan Silvestri score (which only bothers to incorporate the video game’s iconic music in the beginning and end scenes) aside, is that it’s taken up largely with action sequences, which Morton/Jenkel aren’t too adept at staging. There is an undeniable train-wreck fascination to the film, with highlights that include a depiction of the World Trade Center’s twin towers being slowly whisked out of existence, which has a chilling resonance that back in ‘93 the filmmakers couldn’t possibly have foreseen.
BTW, in recent years a 125 minute extended cut of SUPER MARIO BROS. has been leaked onto the internet, incorporating footage from the workprint. Featured are scenes that didn’t make it into the release version, such as Koopa de-evolving one of his subjects and a cringeable rap number performed by two supporting characters, that were better off on the cutting room floor. What the extended cut proves is that the film has garnered a substantial cult following. Why? I have no idea.
Vital Statistics
SUPER MARIO BROS.
Hollywood Pictures
Directors: Rocky Morton, Annabel Jankel
Producers: Jake Eberts, Roland Joffe
Screenplay: Parker Bennett, Tarry Runté, Ed Solomon
Cinematography: Dean Semler
Editing: Mark Goldblatt
Cast: Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Samantha Mathis, Fisher Stevens, Fiona Shaw, Richard Edson, Dana Kaminski, Mojo Nixon, Gianni Russo, Francesca P. Roberts, Lance Henriksen, Sylvia Herman, Desiree Marie Valez, Andrea Powell, Heather Pendergast, Melanie Salvatore, John Fifer