The Worst Video Game Movie? A Super Mario Bros. Documentary
Summary
TLDRThis documentary explores the cultural impact and tumultuous production of the 'Super Mario Brothers' movie, one of the first films based on a video game. Despite its ambition, the movie was plagued by constant script rewrites, directorial disputes, and a mismatched tone that confused audiences. Featuring insights from the cast, including Bob Hoskins who expressed regret over his involvement, the film is infamous for its poor critical reception, yet it has garnered a cult following over the years. The documentary delves into the movie's legacy, contrasting its failure with the success of the Mario franchise, and touches on the broader challenge of adapting video games into movies.
Takeaways
- 🔥 Mario is recognized worldwide primarily through iconic symbols like the red hat, as mentioned in the beginning of the documentary.
- 🎮 The 'Super Mario Bros.' movie is notorious for being one of the worst video game movies, according to critics and ratings on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
- 💻 The script for the 'Super Mario Bros.' movie went through numerous rewrites, contributing to its chaotic production and final reception.
- 👨💻 Bob Hoskins, who played Mario, described the experience as a nightmare and the worst job he had ever done.
- 🎬 Hollywood attempted to capture the essence of the Mario games in a film but strayed far with concepts like a dystopian city and a human King Koopa.
- 🖥 The production faced challenges such as changing directors and scripts, leading to a disorganized set and a disjointed final product.
- 🎉 Despite its critical failure, the movie has developed a cult following and remains a topic of interest and discussion among fans.
- 🎬 Attempts to cast major stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito failed, impacting the film's potential star power.
- 🎞 The movie's setting and aesthetics were heavily influenced by cyberpunk themes, contrasting sharply with the colorful and whimsical world of the video games.
- 🎥 Despite the film’s failure, it holds a special place in cinema history as one of the first major attempts to adapt a video game into a movie.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the documentary?
-The documentary primarily discusses the history and impact of the Super Mario Brothers movie, including its production challenges, reception, and legacy.
Who played Mario in the Super Mario Brothers movie and what was his opinion of the film?
-Bob Hoskins played Mario in the Super Mario Brothers movie. He regarded the film as the worst job he had ever done and described the entire experience as a nightmare.
What were some of the major issues faced during the production of the Super Mario Brothers movie?
-The production faced multiple issues including constant script rewrites, disagreements and micromanagement by the directors, on-set tension among cast and crew, and an overall lack of a coherent vision for the film.
What was the initial public and critical reaction to the Super Mario Brothers movie?
-The Super Mario Brothers movie received mostly negative reviews, with a rating of 3.8 on IMDb and 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics and audiences were generally disappointed by the film.
How did the directors envision the Super Mario Brothers movie, and how was it received by the studio?
-The directors, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, envisioned the movie as a dark, cyberpunk narrative that differed significantly from the Nintendo games. The studio, however, was expecting a light-hearted children's film and was not pleased with the darker tone.
What impact did the Super Mario Brothers movie have on Nintendo's decisions regarding film adaptations of their games?
-The negative reception and financial failure of the Super Mario Brothers movie made Nintendo hesitant to license their game franchises for Hollywood adaptations for many years.
Describe the setting and design aesthetics of the Super Mario Brothers movie.
-The movie featured a cyberpunk aesthetic, heavily influenced by films like Blade Runner. It was set in a dystopian version of New York called 'DinoHatten', where evolved dinosaurs and humans coexist.
How did the cast of the Super Mario Brothers movie cope with the challenging production?
-The cast coped with the challenging production environment in various ways, including John Leguizamo (Luigi) and Bob Hoskins (Mario) reportedly drinking on set, and other actors improvising their lines or creating new scenes.
What was unique about the animatronic Yoshi used in the Super Mario Brothers movie?
-The animatronic Yoshi in the movie was highly praised for its realism and was even admired by the team behind Jurassic Park for its lifelike appearance.
Despite its initial failure, how is the Super Mario Brothers movie viewed today?
-Despite its initial critical and commercial failure, the Super Mario Brothers movie has gained a small cult following. Some fans appreciate its unique take and production values, and there is ongoing interest in its behind-the-scenes history.
Outlines
🎮 Mario's Cultural Impact and a Notorious Film Adaptation
This paragraph introduces the iconic status of Mario, detailing his ubiquity in games, merchandise, and media since his debut in 'Donkey Kong' and the launch of 'Super Mario Brothers'. It discusses the anticipation and release of 'Super Mario 3D Land' for Nintendo 3DS, emphasizing the character's broad appeal and extensive fanbase. The focus then shifts to the infamous 'Super Mario Brothers' movie, widely regarded as a poor adaptation of the video game. Despite its negative reviews and ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, the paragraph explores various perspectives on the film, including Bob Hoskins’ regretful experience. The film’s production issues are briefly mentioned, leading into a more detailed exploration of its history in the subsequent paragraph.
🎬 Turbulent Production of the Super Mario Movie
This paragraph delves into the chaotic production of the 'Super Mario Brothers' movie. Initially, notable writers and actors were approached to shape a film that could resonate with the success of Mario video games. Multiple script revisions and a lack of a consistent vision led to a disjointed development process. The directorial duo, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, who had a vision starkly different from the game's playful theme, took the project in a darker, more adult direction, which ultimately contributed to the production chaos. Featuring a cyberpunk aesthetic and a complex backstory involving alternate realities, the project struggled with its identity, shifting scripts, and dissatisfaction among cast and crew.
🎥 From Script Chaos to Box Office Flop
In this paragraph, the turmoil behind the scenes of the 'Super Mario Brothers' movie is highlighted, describing how constant script changes led to a loss of interest from the cast, who became increasingly indifferent and disenchanted with the project. The directors faced significant backlash for their handling of the film, including an incident where hot coffee was dumped on an extra. As production challenges mounted, the film went over budget and fell behind schedule, culminating in a last-minute change in directorship. Despite extensive marketing and the allure of groundbreaking special effects like the animatronic Yoshi, the movie was a financial disaster, overshadowed by 'Jurassic Park' and largely rejected by audiences and critics alike.
🌟 Cult Following and Potential Redemption
This paragraph reviews the legacy of the 'Super Mario Brothers' movie, noting its small but dedicated cult following and the existence of a comprehensive fan site dedicated to preserving its memory. The narrative reflects on the reasons for the film’s initial failure, citing its deviation from the source material and the ambiguous target audience. Despite its flaws, the narrator appreciates the film's unique charm and its distinct departure from typical Hollywood adaptations. The paragraph concludes by expressing hope for future Nintendo adaptations in Hollywood, noting the ongoing interest in the film and its re-release on DVD and potential Blu-ray release.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Super Mario Brothers
💡Bob Hoskins
💡video game adaptations
💡critical reception
💡production challenges
💡Danny DeVito
💡cyberpunk
💡Yoshi
💡Nintendo
💡cult following
Highlights
Mario is one of the most well-known characters globally, recognized by the red emblem on his hat.
Super Mario 3D Land, a new game, was released for Nintendo 3DS.
The Super Mario Brothers movie is known as the worst video game movie with very low ratings on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.
Bob Hoskins, who played Mario, described the movie as the worst job he ever had and a nightmare experience.
Initial casting included high-profile names like Danny DeVito, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Keaton, and Tom Hanks.
The movie's script underwent numerous rewrites, deviating greatly from the original video game's theme.
The directors' initial vision was dramatically darker and different, set in an alternate reality New York.
Production faced multiple challenges, including an over-budget and behind-schedule shoot.
Conflicts on set led to the original directors being replaced after their agent intervened.
Despite the challenges, an animatronic Yoshi was a standout achievement, impressing even the Jurassic Park team.
The movie failed commercially, grossing only $21 million against a $48 million budget.
Its release coincided with Jurassic Park, which overshadowed it with more advanced dinosaur effects.
Despite its failure, the movie has developed a small cult following and a dedicated archive website.
The film's legacy has made Nintendo hesitant to license its other game franchises for Hollywood adaptations.
Fans of the movie argue it has its merits, citing its unique visual style and Hoskins' performance as Mario.
Transcripts
without even seeing his face you all
know who this character was just by
looking at the red animal of his hat
also the title of this documentary sort
of gives it away but that's not the
point the point is Mario has become one
of the most well known characters in the
world ever since his debut the 1981 game
Donkey Kong in his own video game Super
Mario Brothers he's gone on to make
countless games toys t-shirts plushies
cartoon shows and so much more
Becki his new video game Super Mario 3d
Land just came out for the Nintendo 3ds
which I might add is available at your
local gamestop not a promotion for Game
Stop or Super Mario 3d Land I mean just
look at all the games I have Super Mario
Brothers one two and three world 64
sunshine both galaxies we and so many
others and this is my collection of
other Mario related stuff yeah I know
I'm a nerd but so are thousands of other
people like all things that become
popular Hollywood want to make a movie
based on Super Mario Brothers and to
everyone's surprise they did this movie
has a reputation for being the worst
video game movie ever but I wouldn't
agree with that I've seen a lot worse
but it's rating on IMDB is a 3.8 on
Rotten Tomatoes it has 13% and countless
of reviewers haven't said many good
things about it this movie wasn't
imagined not correctly at the outset
they didn't start out with a vision of
what it was going recce even before they
did everything else right so you look at
the movie you see many $2 on the screen
of special effects and all of those
customized cars and that other world
that got created and everything else and
it doesn't add up to anything it's just
a lot of people running around all
talking at once and applies that nobody
cares anything about and just every once
in a while a little moment that kind of
sparkles Dennis Hopper is kind of good
in a couple of his speeches but it's a
complete waste of time and money it is
and I think even the cast didn't have
anything nice to say
in 2007 Bob Hoskins plays Mario was
interviewed they asked him this what is
the worst job you've had what has been
your biggest disappointment if you could
edit your life what would you change to
all three questions he said Super Mario
Brothers even went on to say this the
worst thing I ever did
Super Mario Brothers it was a nightmare
the whole experience was a nightmare it
had a husband and wife team directing
whose arrogance had been mistaken for
Talent after so many weeks their own
agent told them to get off the set Wow
is it really that bad well let's find
out by going back in time to learn the
movies history here the cheesy
transition
the year is 1990 and the newest Mario
game is Super Mario which quickly goes
on to become a huge success that makes
the character even more popular
Hollywood was beginning to notice how
successful videogames word
and started to think about which ones
would work well as a film because at
this point in time there hadn't been any
movies based on a game there were movies
of both games like Tron and wargames but
nothing actually based on a game
sometime in 1991 a producer named Roland
Joffe decided he wanted to do a Mario
Brothers movie so a studio light mode of
production went to Nintendo about their
ideas which they actually liked probably
because they would get the merchandising
rights from the film once the studio had
the rights to the film they quickly went
on the trying site high level talent
they went to Danny DeVito to direct and
play as Mario then they went to Arnold
Schwarzenegger
and Michael Keaton the plays King Koopa
they obviously passed on it even Tom
Hanks with briefly signed on the play as
Mario which is odd because he seems more
like a Luigi than a Mario but whatever
the executives thought he was asking for
too much money however and they fired
him and they got Bob Hoskins instead
which I actually think is a good thing
because he looks in acts like Mario
Huskins was becoming more well-known
thanks to movies like foo Framed Roger
Rabbit in hook so the executives thought
he would be more bankable while light
motive was still looking for actors in a
director the first of many scripts is
written and I mean many seems like the
first script was written by very mu
Barry Muru Muru however you say that one
of the Academy award-winning writers of
the movie Rain Man but his script was
deemed too dramatic so they gave the
project to the writing team Jim genuine
and Thomas Parker who worked on The
Flintstones and Richie Rich because
those were good movies right their
version was more of what
expect from Mario Brothers movie it had
Mario and Luigi traveled to a magical
land similar to The Wizard of Oz and
Alice in Wonderland in this world the
evil King Koopa who would have been an
actual big green lizard instead of a
human kidnaps a princess named Hildy the
hell what kind of name is that anyway
kupo makes her his bride so he can get
the crown of invincibility the Mario
Brothers and their friend toad would go
off on a quest to stop King Koopa and
save Princess Peach I mean Daisy I mean
Hildy what's not good is that once the
film got its director or directors rocky
mooring and Annabel jankle script would
be rewritten again oh yeah another group
of writers and this script would be
nothing like the last it's basically
like they took the good script and
drop-kicked it
not one script was like a sci-fi fantasy
film another was inspired by diehard
thin by ghostbusters so lastly was like
Mad Max
how the hell did I end up on the roof
anyway this Mad Max inspired script was
more sophisticated and adult oriented it
was kind of similar to what the film is
like today but this script had death
races in the desert sarcastic British
political satire and some adult behavior
if you know what I mean it was this
script that brought actors Bob Hoskins
Dennis Hopper and Fiona Shaw onto the
project but to their surprise and
annoyance they were given a completely
new script by yet another team of
writers once they arrived on the set to
begin filming this script took out the
political satire and social depth in
favour is something lighter and more
practical I'm guessing the directors
drop-kicked that last script as well now
where the hell am i anyway
why don't we talk about those directors
that Bob Hoskins loves so much the two
directors rocky Morton and Annabelle
Jenko were a husband and wife team who
didn't have many movie credits to the
name they had only directed one of the
film before this one called DOA which
was a commercial and critical bomb so
for a while they just stuck to directing
commercials for coca-cola at Hardee's
restaurants so they found small success
from creating the show Max Headroom
which I haven't really seen a whole lot
of but from what I saw it's really weird
look look look look look like one flops
great if you see me give me away if I
love to see style many also enjoyed it
laughs the studio loved Max Headroom
zany vibe and thought Morten and jengkol
had the right imagination for a Super
Mario Brothers movie I'd make some kind
of drug joke about that but I couldn't
come up with anything when they were
hired their vision for the film was much
darker and different from the Nintendo
games it took place in an alternate
reality of New York where the dinosaurs
were banished after a meteor hit earth
65 million years
ago in his time went on the dinosaurs
would evolve into humans and grow the
hate the mammals who lived in the other
reality because their world was much
nicer and a portal connects our world
with theirs and whoa okay stop I think
we're getting a little carried away with
the story here I mean this is supposed
to be about the Mario Brothers and
somehow they came up with this I guess
they were taking drugs with the darker
vision the directors wanted the concept
art for the city had a cyberpunk look to
it similar to Blade Runner because of
this the studio hired the production
designer of that movie David L Snyder
most of the movie was filmed in the
ideal cement factory where other movies
like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and
the crow were filmed Snyder and his crew
spent a lot of time and money to turn
this abandoned Factory into the
cyberpunk city known as Dino hatten
I have to admit even though this looks
nothing like the games it's really cool
all right no more changing location it's
starting to get annoying anyway at this
point in production the film had its
actors and directors sets and a script
or least a hattis room the studio was
expecting a light-hearted kids film and
thought the director's vision was too
dark even most of the cast and crew had
signed on with similar expectations like
modo brought in the writer of Bill &
Ted's Excellent Adventure to write
another version of the script which
complicated things for the directors
seeing is how the sets and prosthetics
were already made see I told you there
is many versions of the script but even
as filming went on rewrites of the
script would keep coming in so much so
that the cast just didn't care anymore
they would get the new script not even
bothered to read it
oh it's this Wow
really yep another rewrite of the script
why you bother reading it it'll probably
stick rewritten again during filming the
casting crew began to dislike more than
jankle there were micromanaging
everything there was even a moment when
Morten dumped hot coffee on an extra
because he thought he wasn't dirty
enough everyone was getting burnt out
from this film especially the guy coffee
dibs on him clearly everyone had their
own way of dealing with this movie for
example John Leguizamo who played the
Ouija described in his book how he
started doing shots of scotch with
Hoskins
right between the scenes during a scene
when he was driving a van he was
reportedly drunk and braked too hard
causing the sliding door the smashed
shut on Hoskins hand ah other actors
like Fisher Stevens in Richard Edson who
played a spike in eggie would write
their own dialogue they even created a
rap scene starring them however this
scene was taken out from the movie the
film was now going over budget it was
behind schedule it had two directors
that everyone seemed to hate and the
cast and crew were either drunk working
off script or completely uninterested
eventually the directors own agent told
them to get off the set that's when Dean
Semler the cinematographer took over as
director and things ran much smoother
but the film was such a mess already
that there was no way of fixing it
this didn't finished shooting they made
the special effects needed they made the
music then they put it all together
ready for the theatres there was a lot
of hype for this movie because it was
the first one based off a video game
plus it was about the Super Mario
Brothers there were lots of trailers TV
spots advertisement for the toys it was
on the news and they kept talking about
how great the effects were for the film
the best thing they had
was an animatronic Yoshi who looked
amazingly real even the people who
worked on Jurassic Park repressed by it
but no one was sure if this movie would
fail because of all the problems it went
through or if they'd get lucky and it'd
be a hit the movie finally came out the
theatres and people were excited to see
it but like mode of production soon
found out that this wasn't going to be a
hit during its time in the theatres it
only grows twenty-one million and it
costs 48 million just to make it they
didn't even make half their money back
the film probably didn't stand a chance
because its competition with Jurassic
Park it's dinosaurs just blew away
Mario's
it was a sad day for the Super Mario
Brothers but it was even worse for the
people who made the movie so why did
this movie bomb was it because it was
nothing like the games was it because it
was too dark was it because Koopa was a
human and not a huge lizard or wasn't
because Luigi didn't have a mustache I
bet it's that Luigi not having a
moustache just totally ruined the film
but seriously I think there's a number
of reasons why it didn't have that great
of a story it didn't look or feel like
the videogames it wasn't clear to the
audience whether it was aimed towards
adults or kids and I had to go up
against Jurassic Park that's a big
enough reason right there now if all
that's been said I'm sure you're
wondering what I think of the movie to
be honest with you actually liked it
instead of a bunch of other people cuz
it's actually a small cult falling for
this phone and apparently I got the
wrong show playing in the background
whoops there's a whole website dedicated
to anything having to do with the movie
it has things you can't find anywhere
else like concepts I deleted scenes the
scripts and so much more
and it always gets updated every now and
then it's actually where I went to get
all the information I needed for this
documentary so thank you Super Mario
Brothers archive and just last year the
movie was re-released on DVD it didn't
have anything new added to it they just
move text around so it's pretty much the
same then there's people who are
actually trying to get the movie
released on blu-ray which I would
totally buy so there are people who do
like this movie not sure you're asking
why would anyone like this movie well I
think it's because the city looks
awesome Bob Hoskins was great as Mario
there's just something cool about it in
its own way I mean that's why people
watch The Wizard right because of how
big a bomb this movie was Nintendo
hasn't allowed Hollywood to make any of
their other game series from the movies
which is a shame because I would really
like to see Legend of Zelda Metroid but
we may never see those movies until
Hollywood can prove to us that they can
make video games in the movies and
judging from their track record let's
just say they're not quite there yet
well I guess this is the only movie
we'll get from Nintendo which isn't a
bad day because I like it but if you
haven't seen it you should get it I mean
it's only five dollars at Target
and you never know Super Mario Brothers
the movie might not actually be the
worst video game movie ever in fact it's
probably one of the very few good ones
you
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