THE UNPOPULAR OPINION is an ongoing column featuring different takes on films that either the writer HATED, but that the majority of film fans LOVED, or that the writer LOVED, but that most others LOATHED. We're hoping this column will promote constructive and geek fueled discussion. Enjoy!
****SOME SPOILERS ENSUE****
Like many of you, I grew up in the era of the original NES. During the reign of Nintendo versus Sega, I was squarely in the camp of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. I have owned each Nintendo console from Super to Switch and while my tastes have evolved to XBox and Playstation over the years, i always come back to Nintendo. In 1993, when the world finally got a movie based on SUPER MARIO BROS., I was right there at the front of the line to see one of my favorite video games translated to the big screen. Like most of you, I was taken aback at just how different the big screen version of Nintendo's trademark characters were from their 8-bit roots. SUPER MARIO BROS. is a terrible translation and bares almost no resemblance to the side-scrolling franchise it was based on, but it remains a weirdly wonderful adventure movie and one that failed brilliantly to be unlike anyone's expectations. For that reason, it should be considered a success.
The biggest failure of SUPER MARIO BROS. is purely based on expectations. Audiences had a firm grasp on what Mario and Luigi were capable of doing and that put a lot of responsibility on the filmmakers to deliver a product that would be true to the source as well as cater to all ages. If you look at the recent SONIC THE HEDGEHOG movie and how much success it found at the box office, think about how that came as a result of fans lobbying for the character design of Sonic to harken closer to the video game and not take liberties. SUPER MARIO BROS. did not have the luxury of the internet to tell the filmmakers what they did or did not want. There is a dedicated fan contingent online for SUPER MARIO BROS. and for good reason. While the script may be weak, it does have some truly innovative special effects, character and set designs.
Budgeted at $42 million, SUPER MARIO BROS. was one of the most anticipated movies of 1993. Directed by husband and wife team Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the film was written by a half dozen including Parker Bennett, Terry Runte, and BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE scribe Ed Solomon. Solomon's wacky aesthetic is felt throughout the movie including the subterranean Dinohattan sets and the lizard-like Goombas. Producer Roland Joffee convinced Nintendo to sell the rights to his company, Lightmotive, over a major Hollywood studio which may explain why this movie does not feel like the safe adaptation it could have been. The script went through many iterations ranging from a quest/road trip version inspired by RAIN MAN to a more traditional WIZARD OF OZ format. Eventually, the film went through numerous writers and directors before the finished product was unleashed on audiences.
SUPER MARIO BROS. works best if you try and pretend it is not based on the game at all. From the inexplicable fact that the characters are named Mario Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi Mario (John Leguizamo), to the legendary Dennis Hopper as President Koopa, this movie is a bizarre science fiction romp that cobbles elements from the original NES trilogy plus SNES game Super Mario World. Much like Ed Solomon's MOM AND DAD SAVE THE WORLD, SUPER MARIO BROS. looks like a time capsule of the early 1990s and is also reminiscent of the Michael Jackson film MOONWALKER crossed with MEN IN BLACK. This is a movie that, like the video game Super Mario Bros. 2, unsettled audiences by changing expectations, but that is what makes it so special.
While Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper both denounced the film as one of the worst projects of their careers, both actors imbue SUPER MARIO BROS. with heart and fun. Hopper especially chews the scenery as the dastardly villain while Hoskins is a fish out of water similar to Eddie Valiant in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?. Meanwhile, John Leguizamo and Samantha Mathis share the romantic connection as Luigi and Princess Daisy, a relationship that is in opposition to the video game dynamic between Mario and Daisy. What SUPER MARIO BROS. does is try to make sense of a game that makes no sense. Like the game, there are dinosaurs, mushroom people, and alternate dimensions. By bringing the game to the "real world" of New York City, it deviates completely away from the fantastical realms of the game. Like SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, grounding a video game movie in our world doesn't quite work as well as if the entirety of the story were to take place in a fictional realm. It is why the live action SMURFS movies are so weird while the animated reboot feels more like what we are used to.
But, I have to give kudos to the filmmakers in sticking with their weird and wonderful creation. Like TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, this movie is a time capsule of the 1990s that manages to have a catchy theme song, costumes and characters designed to sell toys and a whole lot of unexplainable references to the video games. At a time when video games were blamed for all the ills in the world, SUPER MARIO BROS. manages to make things fun and violent in a way that is never realistic. This movie is like a Looney Tunes short come to life. It also manages to pack in copious easter eggs and references to the video games that remind you just how much you want to see a faithful Mario movie someday. And, if Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment have their way, we may see one that is fully animated and video game accurate.
SUPER MARIO BROS. is nowhere close to being one of the worst movies ever made, but it certainly performed at the box office as if it was. In the three decades since it hit screens, SUPER MARIO BROS. has been easily forgotten if not for the dedicated fans keeping it's memory alive on the internet. From a webcomic sequel to convention appearances for the surviving cast, this is a movie that may have failed to adapt Nintendo's marquee character and kept them from making another movie until last year's POKEMON: DETECTIVE PIKACHU, but SUPER MARIO BROS. remains a prime example of how you can fail in a blaze of glory while still making something truly spectacular in the process. From the catch phrase "Trust the Fungus" to a great cameo from Lance Henriksen, SUPER MARIO BROS. is a movie that you can have a lot of fun with as long as you aren't holding it under a microscope for video game accuracy.
But hey, that's just my UnPopular Opinion. Tell us your take on ASSASSIN'S CREED in the comments below.