Redstar

In 1993 Lightmotive Pictures released Super Mario Bros. The Movie, a live-action adaptation of the popular video game series. The film ended with a sequel hook which went unexplored — until now. Following discussions with original writer Parker Bennett, Steven Applebaum and Ryan Hoss have scripted a new adventure that continues right where the film left off. Join Mario, Luigi and Princess Daisy as they explore new locations and creatures inspired by the games, yet adapted in the film’s unique cyberpunk style. Will the Super Mario Bros. be able to survive once again? Read on to find out! This is a project that I have been working on for the last three years, which was finally launched last May for the film's 20th anniversary. As mentioned above, we're working on discussions and notes from original writer Parker Bennett, making the comic as close to canon as can be hoped. Many of you may not like the film, but we hope that you can still appreciate what we're doing and enjoy the comic on its own. So, please, check it out and let me know what you think!

They just announced via their Facebook page that the magazine will be both physical and digital.

I actually saw the movie the day I said I was, but am only just now getting around to posting my own thoughts. I'm glad that so many other people went to see it and enjoyed it! I had a good time, but unfortunately probably didn't like it as much as everyone else. We rushed to make the the 4:10 showing, only for it to be sold-out. We decide to come back at 7:00, but as we didn't pre-order tickets (my girlfriend suggested it, but I dismissed it as unnecessary) we were faced with another sell-out. We ended up paying for the 3D showing, which was already well into the Paper Man short. Bearing that in mind, it took me a little time to ease into the movie and enjoy it for what it was. I really came out of it expecting more, but satisfied. It felt like a very focused story we were looking at, much like how the original Toy Story feels in comparison to its sequels. It just seemed as if so much more was going on in the arcade world that we just were not seeing. I imagine the potential sequel will be much more large-scale. I will say that I was disappointed that the entire opening to the movie turned out to be the trailer we had already seen. I really liked that trailer, but it felt lazy in that they were showing the best part. Most of the film's funniest jokes were also in the available trailers. John C. Reilly did his role well. It took some time for me to adjust to Sarah Silverman, as I really do not like her, but in the end I warmed-up to the character. I really liked the ending, although I felt that the reveal of was a little left-field. There just wasn't enough foreshadowing for you to really expect it, or perhaps I'm just dense. I had also hoped that the film would end with the announcement of "Wreck-It Ralph Country" or some such to hint at a sequel film, but that didn't happen. Who knows what direction the actual sequel will take.

What a shame. I E-mailed Nintendo Power back in January to discuss doing a 20th anniversary feature on the Super Mario Bros. movie, but never received a response. It may have been a disinclination towards the film or perhaps they knew the magazine wouldn't last until May of next year; either way we won't get the opportunity.

We just pushed the score up to a full 4.0 about a week ago with 139 5-star reviews compared to 133 from my last post.

I agree. The score is sitting at 3.9 as opposed to the 3.7 we started at, which may not seem like much of a difference but is actually quite an accomplishment. Before we started this push there were only 209 reviews while there are now 265. We went from 87 5-star reviews to 133 and 46 4-star reviews to 55. I think we're making a difference, even if it takes awhile for the system to average out a discernable higher score.

Very good, surprisingly! We filled roughly 160 seats out of 300 total with another 10 or so special guests from the production, including David L. Snyder, Dana Kaminski and Parker Bennett. The line stretched down the block. We were able to talk to a lot of people in line as well.

I am proud to announce that I will be hosting a midnight showing of the Super Mario Bros. movie in Los Angeles on May 25th, a week and a half from now. We were able to book a print of the film from Disney, so the picture quality should be as good as its ever been. This will be the first time the movie has been seen in theaters since it's original 1993 premiere, so we're planning these events to be well-remembered. Former cast/crew are scheduled to attend to both watch the film and speak on their contributions while production memorabilia held in storage for nearly 20 years will be displayed. Production designer David L. Snyder and SFX supervisor Chris Woods will be guest speaking while the Thwomp Stomper boots and Koopa masks will be on display in the lobby. If you are in southern California we would love to see you attend. It's already looking like we'll have a healthy turn-out, but more people would always be great. Feel free to RSVP for the event and invite your friends through our Facebook event page HERE. We look forward to seeing as much of you in attendance as possible!

I'm honestly surprised to see just how many responses to this topic were made since I last visited. It's even more surprising how many of those responses are from people defending the film, or at least its ability to be enjoyed. I appreciate that. Whether you enjoy the film or not, everything should be preserved. The DVD release just does not cut it. It's not even widescreen. They could easily put out an updated release that fixes all the problems of the DVD.

It's funny that you think the story is bad considering it's essentially exactly what happened in the original games: * Two plumber brothers rescue a princess from a dinosaur-dragon tyrant in a strange, new world. (Super Mario Bros. 1, 3, World) * Koopa transforms dissidents into objects (Super Mario Bros. 1) and the King into a creature (Super Mario Bros. 3) * The gateway to the new world is activated through use of a metallic egg (Super Mario Bros. 2) * Yoshi is kept prisoner by Koopa until saved by Mario (Super Mario World) As for the Goombas: weren't they already 'super retarded' in the original games? It should also be pointed out that they were twice as tall as regular Mario and equal in height to Super Mario. The movie is a lot more faithful than people give it credit for.

It's really not that bad at all. When it first came out generally everything but the pacing was praised for being revolutionary, creative or just plain fun. The special effects team literally had to invent new technology to create the digital effects seen in the film, much like Jurassic Park's team did. Yes, the film has flaws. It's not a very faithful adaptation, the tone is all over the place and it doesn't seem to know who its audience is... But, despite all that, it's just a fun movie. In our interviews we've found that over 30 minutes of footage was deleted. This footage featured character arcs for Mario and Luigi, more dinosaurs, more special effects and a political subplot for Koopa. Nearly all of the cast/crew we've interviewed has expressed the sentiment that a re-cut would bring the film closer to its original vision while also making it a much more enjoyable watch. They've also volunteered to return to the project to make this cut happen. This is what we're working for.

Would you like to help us in our goal to get the film re-released on DVD or even Blu-Ray? The best way to do this is by helping to raise awareness of the film while also showing that there's popular support and demand for it. If Disney, Nintendo and/or other distribution companies see that the film has interest they'll have to re-think the way they've been treating it. Right now the film holds an average score of 3.7 stars out of 5 on Amazon and 3.8 out of 10 on IMDb. These scores were much lower in the past, but due to changing perceptions have slowly gone up over the last few years. It could certainly be much higher if we network and get as many people as possible to submit high scores. This is where you -- the fans -- come in. We need your help to make this possible. We need you all to submit high scores to these sites and any others you come across. If you have an Amazon account, we implore you to submit a 5 or 4-star review to the site. All you have to say is why you enjoy the film and why you feel a re-release would be beneficial. That's all. With IMDb, all you need is an account. From there you just click the full 10 stars. While the film may not deserve such a high rating it is necessary to counteract the many 1-star ratings it certainly doesn't deserve as well. We all know that the film is much better than most people give it credit for. Demonstrating that it has fans through changing the way sites score it is only the first step in getting a re-release. We can do this with your help. I realize many of you may not especially enjoy the film, but at the very least I would hope that you can appreciate the work that was put into it as well as our desire as fans to see it finally respect for its role in the film industry. Please consider this topic and feel free to post your thoughts or reviews here.

It is fascinating to see Nintendo Power outlive such other giants of the industry. I don't feel that the magazine has been a truly enjoyable read for years, and that includes nearly all five of the years when I was actually subscribed to it. NP seems to be more a legacy magazine that only diehards subscribe to or those who enjoy the retrospectives.

That would probably be terrible. Parker Bennett and Terry Runté were given the daunting task of wrangling Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel's revitalized concept for Super Mario Bros. into a cohesive story. Their creativity and drive to make an intriguing screenplay led to an intense collaborative effort with the directors, resulting in a story that laid the foundation for the rest of the project. While Terry is unfortunately no longer with us, a piece of him lives on through Parker's detailed look back on the film's creative process. Read on and learn how they helped make the film into what it is; whether an instant failure or an eventual success, they tried. No one can deny that. Read it HERE!

A bit off topic, but I felt I should return to let you know that we've received an astounding increase in traffic due to our latest updates. We now garner as much as 100k hits a single weekend for our more high-profile updates. Our latest was four early scripts for the movie, including the original Fantasy/Comedy script, the initial Sci-Fi/Fantasy pitch, the Ghostbusters-inspired Sci-Fi/Comedy draft, the Die Hard-inspired Sci-Fi/Action draft and finally the Mad Max-inspired Sci-Fi/Action Draft. These scripts providing a fascinating look into the various early visions for the project and how they were, for lack of a better word, "dumbed-down" due to budgetary, time and rating constraints. (We blame Disney) Check them out HERE!

Our site was featured on Ain't it Cool News in their "Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day" column and Kotaku in an article entitled "Behind the Scenes of the Most Disappointing Game Movie Ever Made." We've pulled in nearly 100k views via the Kotaku article alone, so there's definitely interest in the movie. We just need to keep up with these updates and put the movie on center-stage so Disney will take notice. There are some larger resolution photographs on that page than the ones here on the site, so be sure to head over to AICN to check them out. Thanks to Quint and Luke for posting those!

Without a doubt, Iggy and Spike are two of the most popular characters in the entire movie. We were absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to interview one half of that duo in Richard Edson, who played Spike. Richard discusses not only his experience on the film and his thoughts on it now, but also some really great additional stories: ghosts, dancers, and Dennis Hopper all make appearances here. Enjoy. It can be read here.

Thank you, Areala! The movie may not be very popular but they probably put more thought into making it than any video game movie that has come since. It's a fascinating project to look at. That'll become more and more apparent with each new interview we put up.

You think Luigi being buff is a little strange? A lot of the Luigi figures are actually straight black. xD eBay is your best bet, obviously, but the Crash Action Police Car and Devo Chamber are incredibly rare. The non-Mario, Luigi, and Koopa figures are also technically rarer, but since they're not the main figures they usually sell for less. The ERTL catalog is currently selling Iggy and Spike. See here. It's not just the jagged teeth, now that you've made the comparison. The simplicity of the sprite allows for a lot of "parallels," such as the horns easily being construed as the T. rex's brow-ridges. The T. rex also has lots of little bumps and rounded spikes along its head and neck, which is reminiscent of Koopa's shell. Nothing more than a coincidence, of course, but cool nonetheless.

It's been awhile since I've posted in this thread but the project is still ongoing. We've had several high-profile interviews in recent months, but unfortunately have yet to post them onto the site because we need to wait for the interviewees' next availability to finalize things. However, we have had a couple of minor interviews since that might be of interest. The first is with Dave Nelson, the engineer that headed the project to build Yoshi. His answers are a bit sparse, but he was able to relate the startling fact that the Jurassic Park production had actually visited their shop to see what they were doing and were considering hiring them all to outsource some dino-work. Didn't work out, though. It can be read here. Our next interview is a lot more informative and certainly more fascinating. Rob Burman, the designer that molded the various de-evolved Koopa prosthetics, shared his full experiences and many photos of the prosthetics. No matter your feelings on the movie, you can't deny how cool T. rex-Koopa looked. They put a lot of work into something that ultimately only had 13 seconds of film-time. It can be read here. Finally, this is a bit off-topic but perhaps some of you might be interested in knowing that we've updated our Toys section to showcase every toy they made. Be sure to check out the fine craftmanship ERTL put into their line of toys for the movie here.

Thanks! The interview with Mojo really was great. Even though it was the first interview I set up it has continued to be by far one of our best. Ryan and I actually interviewed Parker Bennett, one of the original scriptwriters, last weekend and it may even match Mojo's, though we'll have to let the fans and everyone else decide that. It was very informative about the story's development and concepts that never made it in or aren't apparent in the actual movie, to say the least. We have a few upcoming interviews, but one of our bigger ones is with Mark Goldblatt, the film's editor. He should have a lot to say about the numerous deleted scenes. And that's a big deal for fans as tons of backstory, characterization, and subplots were removed that would have made for a much better experience. All so they could get the run-time and rating down. Those cuts also necessitated the horrid animated prologue, which makes us hate it even more. A few members on the board have the full set of those cards, myself included, but if you can get high-quality scans go for it--we could use them for the site.

Yeah. He passed earlier this year. We made a big deal out of it and we're hoping that through these interviews we can pay homage to him. There are some great stories coming out about him and his interactions with the rest of the production, so that certainly makes it worth it.

Dennis' passing is why we're doing this. It was something Ryan would "get to" at some point, but then Dennis died and I realized that if I didn't lend my services the site would never get as far as it has. It's very unfortunate that we've missed our chance with Dennis Hopper, but we do have plans to speak with Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, and Samantha Mathis, if they'd let us. We will be speaking with Richard Edson and a few others not long from now, so we are getting some of the lead cast.

I haven't been posting around here as much as I was because I've been focusing on working for another site. Generally I work for different sites in either writing or mediating dialogue with other sites/people. One of my recent projects in this area is for the Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive in mediating interviews with members of the cast and production of the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. I'm aware that not many people seem to enjoy the movie and that this sentiment extends even here. However, the movie does have its fans. We appreciate the movie for what it was and what it was trying to do. If you're familiar with the production or any of the early scripts you can understand the turmoil the movie went through simply to get into theaters. Tons of footage was ultimately cut due to time and budget that we're only just recently uncovering. While most of this footage was unnecessary, some of it would have lent more towards the world the movie was creating. These interviews are a way of uncovering the original vision for the movie. The first interview I managed to set up is with Mojo Nixon, the actor for the movie's Toad. It's a real riot. It gives you a look into just how crazy the production really was as well as what kind of people the actors (Dennis Hopper, Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo) were onset. You can read it on the site here. Two weeks later I conducted my own interview with Mark Jeffrey Miller and Michael Harding. Mark played both the 'fried Tweeter vendor' that you can see in the background of some of the Koopa Square scenes and a 'Lizard Man' that was cut from the final film. Mike was one of the four lead actors that acted as a Goomba. I conducted this nearly hour-and-a-half interview myself and spent three days transcribing the entire conversation before finally being able to put it up on the site. But it was certainly worth it. This interview reveals many stories involving the cast and crew, including the turmoil of production, the agonizing time it took to film something only to have it removed from the final film, the near death of several actors, and the mutual dislike towards directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. This interview is everything fans of the movie have come to expect from those involved: a deeply personal experience of both friendliness and sheer disgust at how the production went. The way Mark and Mike reminisce almost brings us into the production ourselves and makes us a part of the experience. It's just a brilliant look into the past from two men that were there and saw it all from their own perspectives. It can be read on the site here. We have many more future interviews lined-up, including more actors, special effects workers and animatronic puppeteers, makeup artists, and even the film's editor. We've also just recently interviewed the writers of the original fantasy script and one of the writers final hard-edged science fiction script. Neither are up on the site yet as we're building up to that point, but you won't believe the process that went into developing the world of the movie and how many Mario references were ultimately cut due to budgetary concerns. We create a thread a week prior to every interview so that the community can suggest questions to ask, so any of you are free to join the forums to get involved in these interviews. Otherwise just stick around here and enjoy them as I continue to post. Feel free to read the interviews and comment either on them or the movie. We've had some good reaction so far, so hope you all like it as well.

I'd give it a 6. Not worth seeing alone, though. Grab a few friends or family and it's enjoyable.