Super Mario Bros. is a 2013 traditionally animated film produced by a collaboration of Disney, Steven Spielberg, and of course Nintendo. It is mostly based of the first 1985 game, but with many elements from later games like character design.
The idea for a Mario had been circulating in 2005 by Sony. But this was eventually moved to Disney due to a fall-out between Nintendo and Sony Pictures. The script for the film was taken from an early draft for the infamous 1993 film, allowing the team to write a script relatively quickly. In casting the characters, the producers went an unconventional route, using professional voice actor cast that had few to no celebrities. The film's soundtrack was similarly unorthodox: it features a score by Rare composers David Wise and Grant Kirkhope (mainly the former, with some having written some songs for early in the stage where it was a musical). All this, in addition to its tone, music, and 2D animation, led Nintendo to confiscate the rights from Sony when the latter tried to force several changes that would remove these elements.
Plot
Mario and Luigi Marchelli are two Italian-American plumbers from New York who own a struggling business called "Marchelli Bros. Plumbing." One day, they are working on a plumbing job. Luigi is talking about trying to find a girlfriend, while Mario is very cynical about women after Pauline, his love, ditched him three days before the wedding to hook up with their cousin, Rocco. Luigi's messing around when Mario isn't there. Which extends the job to three hours due to fixing the pipes, something that frustrates Mario. Mario is infuriated even further when Luigi gives money to a bum.
Later that night, Luigi has a nightmare that he's walking down a rainy street with a girlfriend; she points out a sapphire locket in a gutter, which Luigi retrieves for her, but a reptilian claw grabs her when he heads back to her. The next morning, he goes outside for some fresh air only to run into goons working for Eddie Pascal, a mob boss who loaned money to Mario so he can pay the bills. After the goons start hassling Luigi; Mario says he should be the brunt of the hassle, and claims he's got a big job the next day that'll pay Eddie off. The next day, however, Mario finds out that the engineer he's working for is also looking for bribes before he'll take the work, and after he calls Mario a "shrimp," Mario flies into a rage and tries to throw the engineer's expensive golfing equipment out the window, but is stopped.
The next day, Luigi entertains a group of children about a story of a fisherman and a genie (from Arabian Nights). The story goes like this: There was once a fisherman who discovered a genie in a bottle floating in the sea. When released, the genie, vengeful of his imprisonment, decides to kill his master. The fisherman outsmarts the genie, however, by tricking him into going back into his bottle to prove how powerful he is. He then throws the bottle back into the sea. After Luigi's finished telling this story, Mario approaches him. Luigi tells Mario that he got them a job at a church which will take two days. Mario is delighted until Luigi confesses that the job's for free. Mario is angry about this, but decides to do the job anyway because it's a church.
While working, Luigi finds an green pipe-shaped well, with its lid laying on its side, in a locked off room in the church's basement. Luigi ponders wether to tell anyone or to simply place the lid on the well. Ultimately, he decides to see if it has dried up or not first, reasoning that it being dried would make the issue more serious if someone fell down. Luigi finds an unused bucket and rope that was conveniently nearby, then he lowers it into the well. He raises the bucket back up, and sees nothing wrong. He pours the bucket's contents to the earthen ground. He is then about to completely place the lid on the well when he sees a bright blue glow under the bucket, as well as a feminine voice calling for help. Luigi picks up the bucket and sees it is a sapphire emblem. However, Luigi assumes the voices and glow were hallucinations and puts the emblem in his pocket, hoping to pay off Pascal latter.
However, Luigi then notices that the well's lid is coming off by itself. Luigi goes back to put it back on, but the broach emerges from his pocket and tries to go back down the well. Luigi then falls in when trying to hold on to the broach, and finds the well doubles as a magic portal to a strange land. On the shores of a small lake, he meets Toad, a mushroom like person, who invites him to his home. There, Luigi meets his wife Toadette and their friend, Yoshi. A green dinosaur like creature with a fairly chipper disposition.
After Luigi asks a wide variety of questions, Toadette begins sobbing, and Toad confesses that they invited him not out of hospitality, but with the intention of betraying him to King Bowser Koopa. A large lizard creature who has only recently taken over their land Fungaria, better known as the Mushroom Kingdom. Yoshi further explains that Bowser killed off the royal family except for the oldest child, Princess Elizabeth Patricia; though it is also believed the king and the prince may still be out there somewhere. Bowser has ordered all to turn in any humans they come across so they can be interrogated on the royal family's whereabouts. But now that he has come to know and like a human, Toad repents his original intention and escorts Luigi back to the lake. Telling Luigi to simply swim back into the lake's center to reach the portal back home.
Luigi eventually returns stuck in the well, but he finds that Toad has also thrown an rope anchor into the portal, which he uses to climb up out of the well. When he comes up, Mario is angry about him seemingly gone missing for all that time. Luigi tries to explain everything about Toad and Yoshi, but Mario does not believe his story about another world inside the well, which is now found to be a normal, deep well. As such, he threatens to have Luigi pay the rent for several days.
During the second day of the job, Mario notices Luigi sneak into the far basement. He follows him and jumps into the well. Whereupon he also ends up in the Mushroom World. When he climbs out, he sees a man named Mr. Koopa there, a tall fellow in a coat. Koopa claims he is a private eye, who was sent after a family of mushrooms and green lizard who are part of a local crime syndicate. The group has also come to harbor the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, who is on the run for allegedly trying to murder her little brother. He requests Mario's help in tracking them down. Having often suffered at the hands and other criminals, Mario agrees to help where he can. Then he describes what Luigi told him. When the brothers finally reunite and return together through the well, Mario realizes that the trio Luigi met and the group Mr. Koopa described are one and the same. But he says nothing about it at all.
The next day, Luigi asks that they go to mass at the church they had been working at. At Luigi's insistence, the two sneak into the basement during communion, and enter the Mushroom Kingdom together. Luigi guides them to the Toad's house, but they find it ransacked, with the Toads and Yoshi outside being attacked by Piranha Plants. Luigi quickly saves them, and they fight of the Piranha plants. They free Toad, who along with Yoshi thank Luigi and introduce themselves to Mario, but they are interrupted when a large flying warship passes over.
The warship lands, allowing them to see that Bowser is aboard, along Toadette, who he seems to think is the Princess, and with various others- Koopa Troopas, Yeelahs (burly, bearded Mushroomers who serve in Bowser's Vichy-like militia), and Kamek. Bowser returns to his regular form, and Mario realizes he was the Bowser character Luigi described. Luigi is furious that Mario told Bowser about the Toads and Yoshi. But Mario keeps insisting he wouldn't have said anything if he knew who he was telling it to. At Toad's instance, the group tries to refocus their energy and rescue Toadette, but Bowser flies off in the ship and leaves two Yeelahs to kill them, but when Luigi shows them the locket, they bow down before the plumbers.
After a brief battle, Toad decides to take them to meet Natlow. A wizard who sees the locket, an heirloom of the royal family, but desires to prove their worthiness by sending them on a quest to the Pit of No Return where Bowser banished all their magical items, and he wants his magic wand back. Natlow also notes the Out Pipes on the map, which can get them to various places, even home, and also mentions the quest will make them infinitely richer. Mario likes both of those, but Luigi is interested in legitimately saving the day, and maybe getting the girl. Natlow sends his daughter, Peach, with them to keep them safe from any unfamiliar dangers. While a priest comes over to bless them on their journey, a Koopa spy sends all this information to Bowser.
It is revealed that Bowser wants to marry the Princess so he will be connected to the royal family, granting him the Crown of Invincibility, but she must willingly marry him. Kamek creates a box of chocolates that will make her fall in love with him, but she must eat them all for it to take absolute effect. Kamek also explains that the it's the only way to change her appearance as well as her feelings. Why Bowser wants the Princess' appearance to be altered is never explicitly revealed, but it is heavily implied that he once had a human form, and is ashamed of the fact. But Kamek then exclaims that Bowser didn't actually kidnap the Princess. However, Bowser reveals that knows that, explaining that he knew said princess long ago. Bowser orders Kamek to instead give Toadette alcohol- laced chocolates so she'll reveal the truth inadvertently.
A koopa troopa, receiving the note from the goomba spy, informs Bowser that the plumbers are still alive. He also infers that Peach, who he knows about from spies sent after Natlow, is with the plumbers. When asked why he pretended to think Toadette was the Princess, he explains it's part of his plan to capture the real princess. He proceeds to dispatch two Hammer Brothers to take care of them. While he sends two goombas to interrogate Toadette.
Mario, Luigi and Toad find a pipe that emits items "lost" in our world - pens, combs, shoes, etc, and they discover Mario's father's Swiss army knife, which was given to Luigi when he was a kid but lost. Mario's a bit pissy about that. They camp out there and Mario complains to the group about Luigi, and how having a brother is "like having a rock in your shoe you can never shake out. It's underwear that always keeps riding UP!". Toad gets annoyed with Mario's ranting and has Yoshi go with him to look for fruit the group can eat the next day. But Peach is offended by Mario's ranting and rebukes him for being ungrateful that he has a loving family. It then turns out that Luigi was pretending to be asleep and heard the whole thing. However, Luigi makes no mention of it.
In the morning, the group are continuing on their way but Mario tries to lead them to an Out Pipe, infuriating the others. But they have no time to complain before Mugger and the Hammer Brothers attack on horses, prompting our heroes to flee via a carriage that is pulled by a talking horse. The Hammer Bros. are defeated by being pelted with fruit but the group's carriage crashes, and they hide out near a hag who claims she was made ugly by a spell and needs kissed by someone with a warm heart to cure her. She attempts to seduce Mario, but he rejects her advances. But he finally gives in when she offers to hide them from the approaching Mugger. Mario's kiss is insufficient as apparently his heart is too cold, but the hag hides them anyway. After Mugger leaves, Luigi, fed up with Mari's behavior, lets Mario to go home. Mario starts to walk off, but Peach prevents him from leaving, saying that she sees something in him that manifest in him having the will and courage to do the right thing. Mario is confused about this, but decides to stay.
In the morning, they meet a hag who claims she was made ugly by a spell from a friend of Bowser and needs kissed by someone with a warm heart to cure her; Mario's kiss is insufficient as apparently his heart is too cold. The group soon makes their way to the Pit of No Return. It's filled with traps, including Thwomps and Bob-Ombs, but they find the stockpile of magical items, though they can only take one; Toad takes magic mushroom powder that can break any spell, Peach takes a Starman, Luigi takes a "box of flight gear", while Mario takes Natlow's wand and attempts to sneak a gem with him, but is forced to give it up when a Boo Buddy nearly strangles him.
They escape with their lives, only to run into some Troopas. Toad and Luigi are shoved down the Pit while Mario and Peach fight off the Koopa troops using a Super Mushroom and Koopa Troopa shells, respectively, and speed out of the forest on Yoshi, who came back during the battle. Luigi uses the flight gear (a Super Leaf) to gain raccoon ears and a tail to fly into a tunnel with Toad, but by that time Mario and Peach have fled and Bowser's crew have gone.
Mario says to Peach how he wished he could get some time alone from his brother, but now that he believes Luigi died in the Pit he knows now to wish for the wrong things. Mario tells Peach his back story:
Peach then tells Mario that he has learned his lesson and then tells her own backstory:
Natlow appears out of nowhere and reclaims his wand. The three head to Natlow's castle, but on the way Natlow is zapped by lightning in a storm and all that is left of him is ash and the ruby locket.
Peach plunges into grief, and confesses to Mario that she is the real Princess Elizabeth, and that Natlow is really King Henry. She also confesses that Toadette is not the lost princess that Bowser is looking for: she is. Peach tells Mario that she and The Toads are also childhood friends, and they are about the same age, with the Toads both being a bit older. When Bowser took over. Henry decided to trick Bowser by having Toad and Toadette hide out in the country side and have Bowser think that Toadette was in fact Princess Elizabeth by giving them the royal heirloom. Henry then disguised himself as a wizard and publicly (but not privately) changed his daughter's name to Peach to hide her from Bowser and still raise her as a future leader in the case something happened to him. This initially worked despite the fact Toadette lost the heirloom in a lake during a fishing trip she, Toad, and Yoshi were on. Mario, already angry over the fact that people are suffering because Natlow did what he did, is infuriated that Peach essentially stood by, and tells her if it wasn't for her cowardice, he wouldn't be in this mess and Luigi would still be alive. He leaves her alone to grieve, and says that he no longer needs her help, as she has done more harm than good.
However, Bowser and some Koopa Troops arrive, and abduct Elizabeth. Knowing because they fed the alcohol laced chocolate to Toadette, who they explain to have dropped off elsewhere. When asked how they found him, Bowser explains in a long monologue in the process he took to get Elizabeth.
Later, Luigi and Toad are in an underground cavern, and are being chased by a Monty Mole. They are saved when the bean Luigi bought starts growing into a beanstalk and takes them to the surface. Toad finds Toadette, who explains how she was interrogated then dropped of randomly when the real Elizabeth's whereabouts were deduced.
Luigi then takes off, heading inside Bowser's castle nearby, but it's actually an illusion by Kamek and Luigi is kidnapped. The Toads try to head off and track down Mario. Eventually, they succeed when they hijack a narrow gauge steam engine, and drive it down a line until coming to a river where they find Mario and Yoshi and tell them what's going on. Mario decides to redeem himself and once he finds the castle, he saves Luigi by using the Starman to temporarily become invincible and knock out Kamek and the three Fire Bros guarding Luigi. As there are only three sets of armor to be worn, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi take them and sneak into the real castle while The Toads develop a plan to cure Elizabeth.
Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi accidentally end up on stage during Bowser's bachelor party. Where a now fully transformed and brainwashed Elizabeth is present. The Marchellis and Yoshi are prompted to do a song and dance about how Bowser is adored. They are exposed, however, when Toadette accidentally uses the Mushroom Powder on Elizabeth too soon, restoring her to normal. Everyone of them are captured except Toad and Toadette, who escaped when Toadette made her mistake. But Elizabeth says that she is willing to marry Bowser if he spares the life of the man who she truly loves, Mario, along with everybody else's. Bowser accepts that deal, but on condition that The Marichellis, The Toads, and Yoshi stay in the dungeon until after the wedding, and then are banned from the kingdom.
In the dungeon, the brothers have a heart-to-heart where Luigi explains he wanted to leave Mario, but before their father died, he and their mother made him promise to look after Mario, as they feared that he only cared about his dreams, and he would grow bitter and hateful if things didn't go his way, and Luigi thinks he's failed in that task. He gives Mario the Swiss army knife back. In the morning, Toad and Toadette rescue them by poisoning the dungeon keeper with a Poison Mushroom, and Mario apologizes for unwittingly ratting them out to Bowser. But while escaping, they accidentally pull a lever that opens a trap door, sending them falling into a waterlogged chamber filled with Cheep Cheeps and Bloopers. Mario manages to fight them off with another Super Mushroom. Using his giant size, Mario begins smashing through the castle to get to the wedding.
Bowser starts the wedding, but our heroes don't foil it before Elizabeth says "I do," unknowingly granting Bowser the power of the Crown of Invincibility (both of them believe that the power is granted when they are pronounced man and wife).
When Mario arrives, he and Elizabeth embrace. Mario begins to speak but Elizabeth asks to keep being called Peach. Peach tells Mario that the whole thing about her deciding to marry Bowser was a trick, and that she had faith that Mario would come back and defeat Bowser when his guard was down. While she is explaining this, Bowser puts the Crown of Invincibility on his head and becomes invincible. Mario fights Bowser and loses his Super power. Peach gives him a Fire Flower from her bouquet and he becomes Fire Mario for the first time. The fight between Mario and Bowser spills in a chamber with a rickety bridge over a sea of lava.
Meanwhile, in the great hall, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Yoshi use Fire Flowers to fight off Kamek and Bowser's other minions. The battle soon also spills into the lava chamber, where Mario soon meets Bowser. On the bridge, Mario loses his firepower and is knocked off, but manages to grab a rope to safety. Remembering the story Luigi was telling the kids back in Brooklyn, he knows he can't use brawn to win this match.
He goads Bowser into making himself bigger and bigger. Bowser's Troopas think it's a trap to make him crush the platform he's on, so he floats into the air to rectify that, but Mario's real plan was to make the crown unable to fit on his head anymore. The crown falls off and Bowser returns to normal. He falls onto the bridge, splitting it in half, and seemingly falls into the lava. Mario jumps onto the half that is closer to where the other heroes are standing. He climbs up and grabs Peach's hand, but before she can pull him up, Bowser reappears, claws Mario in the legs and attempts to throw him down into the lava. Peach zaps Bowser with the ruby locket, causing him to lose his grip, pull Mario and Peach down with him, and for all three to start falling. Bowser teleports himself back to his own kingdom, which could indicate a possible return in a sequel. Yoshi suddenly reappears, and uses his tongue saves Mario and Peach before they could fall into the lava.
Kamek appears riding a stream of fire, and vows revenge before vanishing. Natlow reappears, having faked his death. He uses his wand to reveal himself as King Henry, who was believed to be gone. Returned to his kingdom, King Henry announces he will let his daughter explore both worlds as she pleases, as he has been able to get his son Oliver to return in case Peach is unable to be heir. He has also married a bartender called Ursula to help him rule over the Kingdom. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and The Toads are presented tiny medals, which disgusts Mario - he was expecting infinite riches. Henry explains he is infinitely richer - in his heart. Toad thinks he should return to his job at his general store, or perhaps become a private eye. As some people, including King Henry, have trouble pronouncing Mario's surname, Marichelli. Mario tells them to call them the “Mario brothers,” despite Luigi’s objections.
A few days later, Peach is estatic to learn the Cream is still alive, having been raised by a woodcutter. The hag returns and kisses Mario, and like she said, she transforms into a beautiful red-haired woman, slightly younger than Peach. Mario is mesmerized, and Peach recognizes her as Princess Daisy Daisy, who she introduces. Though she makes it clear that she wants to be Mario's girlfriend. Luigi whispers something, and Mario says "I think you could do it if you tried." The movie ends with the Toads guiding Mario and Peach heading into the Out Pipe, ready for a new adventure. While Luigi and Daisy look on- only to realize they were holding hands with each other.
NOTE: This plot is largely copied and pasted from a synopsis of an early draft of the 1993 film's script, which can be found here. You can compare the two, and notice that in this version (the wiki page), there are renamed characters, new characters, and added subplots (as well as corrected grammatical errors).
Cast
* indicates an actor who is still alive in the timeline where all this was real
Production
Interest in making another Super Mario Bros. movie had been prevalent ever since a planned 1993 movie was cancelled due to disastrous developmental problems. In the meantime, several cartoons produced by the Jim Henson company and Marvel with Nintendo's involvement were produced.
However, a serious attempt did not begin until late 2005. At this time, Sony, which had been developing software for Nintendo ever since a CD ROM add on for the SNES in 1992, began exploring the idea of producing a computer-generated Super Mario movie that would be based off of the more modern games. After much persuasion, Nintendo decided to give Sony the rights to produce a Mario animated film.
Nintendo hired several people to start work on the film. To lead them, Nintendo had Yoshiaki Koizumi, a protege of series creator Shigeru Miyamoto supervised. Miyamoto recalled Koizumi asking for the job.
In the weeks that followed, more big-name animators were attached. Notably present was Gennedy Tartakovsky, who had worked on many shows for Cartoon Network, namely Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. In late 2008, he was joined by Craig McCracken, who had created The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary friends. Also included were many old coworkers of their like Chris Savino, and Paul Rudish, and people who worked with Craig's wife Lauren Faust on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a movie of which was also originally considered for Sony. The group got together and started work on the film.
At first, the project went slowly but steadily. However, in early 2009, progress came to a complete halt, and Nintendo confiscated the rights to their IP from Sony. The details were later leaked in the 2014 Sony hack. Not to mention that many animators formerly involved left, such as Gennedy, who went to make a Popeye film for Warner Bros. Animation. Along with these hacks included some private emails Craig sent to the higher ups at Nintendo proper. At first Craig made cryptic comments publicly. Making them seem like they were just bitter about issues that stalled production. Their statements alone seemed a bit unreasonable to many. As production on these things happened all the time.
However, these leaks further elaborated on the details of what had been going on, and why the group was so upset. During the time Gennedy and his team had been writing the drafts and other early ideas for the films, things had gone downhill for them.
The details were found in emails Craig sent to Nintendo higher ups, namely a January 3, 2009 which tagged Koizumui. Craig complained that Sony executives had issues with the film as it was originally put together. They objected to…
A miracle finally came in late 2010. When Steven Spielberg arrived on the scene. Spielberg was convinced that the project was viable not as a computer-generated film, but as a traditionally-animated one.
He successfully convinced Nintendo to work with Disney, and revive the project. He and Don Bluth, at this point a prominent voice in Disney, had previously worked together on An American Tail (1986), and The Land Before Time (1988). Spielberg also convinced Disney to continue the use of traditional animation after the lackluster performance of The Princess and the Frog (2009).
The making of the movie was led by Koizumi, Spielberg, Bluth, Gennedy, Craig, Bluth's longtime animation partner Gary Goldman, and Disney Animator James Lopez, who worked on an independent project, a steampunk adventure film called Hullabaloo, alongside Bluth at the same time Super Mario' Bros. was being produced. After Super Mario Bros. was released, Spielberg and Craig joined the production of Hullabaloo as well, and that film was released by Disney on November 21, 2015.
Meanwhile, Spielberg hired ILM (the company that created the special effects for the Star Wars films, E.T., the Jurassic Park films, Titanic, the Avatar films, and the Harry Potter films) to do the special effects. Spielberg's goal was to achieve unprecedented special effects: the "cartoonizing" of live-action effects, which Spielberg compared to "moving paintings.”
In addition, Spielberg proposed John Williams (composer of the Jaws films, the Star Wars films, E.T., the Jurassic Park films, and the first three Harry Potter films) to compose the score. However, Koizumi got Spielberg to let them keep Wise and Kirkhope. Bluth was initially skeptical, but agreed after hearing their work for Rare franchises.
Grant Kirkhope recalls his excitement when Don Bluth chose to approve his work for the film.
In addition, the fact that they were working at Disney meant the crew had the chance to use an early draft for the 1993 film. Which allowed them to rewrite the story faster than otherwise. Now, the film would be ready by late 2012. Though Disney requested they instead have it in early 2013.
At first, the Disney executives tried to force similar changes to Sony. But John Lasseter ordered them to back off. As he knew Nintendo would just try to confiscate the rights again. above from that he was personally satisfied with the final product. In the end, the Disney executives were disappointed and were reluctant to do any screening for critics. Especially considering the unwillingness of the crew to do any revisions to the final product. But they were pleasantly surprised when many did indeed like it.
Deleted Scenes
The film premiered in New York on October 18, 2014, in a major night for fans of the Big N. Disney had considered giving it a quieter premier, but Nintendo insisted otherwise. In addition to the cast and crew doing the usual red-carpet event, many people involved in the production showed up as guests and did photo-ops with the fans. Meanwhile a "Mario" convention was held next door to the theater, with tens of thousands of fans attending, and with the cast appearing for a press conference after the screening was over. In the months preceding the film's release, it recieved quite a bit of coverage for its many unorthodox production methods. Which only helped fuel interest in the film. In addition, voice actress Tara Strong and Billy West praised the writers for their decision to hire professional voice actors rather tan celebrities. They heavily promoted the film on their coial media for this reason, which led to even more interest among the non-gamer crowd. Nintendo themselves also heavily pushed for its success. Promoting it in such was a free pre-orders for those who bought tickets across the country. The film was released worldwide on October 23, 2014. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $85.2 million domestically and $154.3 million worldwide. Ultimately, it grossed $538.7 million domestically and $975.0 million worldwide, making it the third-highest grossing movie of 2013 domestically and the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2013 worldwide.
The film was critically acclaimed, ranking 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4 stars out of 4 on Roger Ebert's website. Doug Walker, the creator of the webseries The Nostalgia Critic, famously described the hard history that the production suffered. And its eventual success. Referring to it as "The Carlie Brown Christmas of Video Game Adaptations."
The film was successful at the Oscars, recieving siz nominations and winning three (not counting the Special Achievement Award):
A DVD release of the film took place March 2, 2014. The release contasins various bonus features among them bering the obligatory trailers. Plus inverviews with the cast and crew. And most importantly, scenes from earlier versions of the film. Some deleted scenes from later reevisions of the film had parts their animation completed.
In addition, the DVD has several commentaries for the film. Mainly about production and the like.
The idea for a Mario had been circulating in 2005 by Sony. But this was eventually moved to Disney due to a fall-out between Nintendo and Sony Pictures. The script for the film was taken from an early draft for the infamous 1993 film, allowing the team to write a script relatively quickly. In casting the characters, the producers went an unconventional route, using professional voice actor cast that had few to no celebrities. The film's soundtrack was similarly unorthodox: it features a score by Rare composers David Wise and Grant Kirkhope (mainly the former, with some having written some songs for early in the stage where it was a musical). All this, in addition to its tone, music, and 2D animation, led Nintendo to confiscate the rights from Sony when the latter tried to force several changes that would remove these elements.
Plot
Mario and Luigi Marchelli are two Italian-American plumbers from New York who own a struggling business called "Marchelli Bros. Plumbing." One day, they are working on a plumbing job. Luigi is talking about trying to find a girlfriend, while Mario is very cynical about women after Pauline, his love, ditched him three days before the wedding to hook up with their cousin, Rocco. Luigi's messing around when Mario isn't there. Which extends the job to three hours due to fixing the pipes, something that frustrates Mario. Mario is infuriated even further when Luigi gives money to a bum.
Later that night, Luigi has a nightmare that he's walking down a rainy street with a girlfriend; she points out a sapphire locket in a gutter, which Luigi retrieves for her, but a reptilian claw grabs her when he heads back to her. The next morning, he goes outside for some fresh air only to run into goons working for Eddie Pascal, a mob boss who loaned money to Mario so he can pay the bills. After the goons start hassling Luigi; Mario says he should be the brunt of the hassle, and claims he's got a big job the next day that'll pay Eddie off. The next day, however, Mario finds out that the engineer he's working for is also looking for bribes before he'll take the work, and after he calls Mario a "shrimp," Mario flies into a rage and tries to throw the engineer's expensive golfing equipment out the window, but is stopped.
The next day, Luigi entertains a group of children about a story of a fisherman and a genie (from Arabian Nights). The story goes like this: There was once a fisherman who discovered a genie in a bottle floating in the sea. When released, the genie, vengeful of his imprisonment, decides to kill his master. The fisherman outsmarts the genie, however, by tricking him into going back into his bottle to prove how powerful he is. He then throws the bottle back into the sea. After Luigi's finished telling this story, Mario approaches him. Luigi tells Mario that he got them a job at a church which will take two days. Mario is delighted until Luigi confesses that the job's for free. Mario is angry about this, but decides to do the job anyway because it's a church.
While working, Luigi finds an green pipe-shaped well, with its lid laying on its side, in a locked off room in the church's basement. Luigi ponders wether to tell anyone or to simply place the lid on the well. Ultimately, he decides to see if it has dried up or not first, reasoning that it being dried would make the issue more serious if someone fell down. Luigi finds an unused bucket and rope that was conveniently nearby, then he lowers it into the well. He raises the bucket back up, and sees nothing wrong. He pours the bucket's contents to the earthen ground. He is then about to completely place the lid on the well when he sees a bright blue glow under the bucket, as well as a feminine voice calling for help. Luigi picks up the bucket and sees it is a sapphire emblem. However, Luigi assumes the voices and glow were hallucinations and puts the emblem in his pocket, hoping to pay off Pascal latter.
However, Luigi then notices that the well's lid is coming off by itself. Luigi goes back to put it back on, but the broach emerges from his pocket and tries to go back down the well. Luigi then falls in when trying to hold on to the broach, and finds the well doubles as a magic portal to a strange land. On the shores of a small lake, he meets Toad, a mushroom like person, who invites him to his home. There, Luigi meets his wife Toadette and their friend, Yoshi. A green dinosaur like creature with a fairly chipper disposition.
After Luigi asks a wide variety of questions, Toadette begins sobbing, and Toad confesses that they invited him not out of hospitality, but with the intention of betraying him to King Bowser Koopa. A large lizard creature who has only recently taken over their land Fungaria, better known as the Mushroom Kingdom. Yoshi further explains that Bowser killed off the royal family except for the oldest child, Princess Elizabeth Patricia; though it is also believed the king and the prince may still be out there somewhere. Bowser has ordered all to turn in any humans they come across so they can be interrogated on the royal family's whereabouts. But now that he has come to know and like a human, Toad repents his original intention and escorts Luigi back to the lake. Telling Luigi to simply swim back into the lake's center to reach the portal back home.
Luigi eventually returns stuck in the well, but he finds that Toad has also thrown an rope anchor into the portal, which he uses to climb up out of the well. When he comes up, Mario is angry about him seemingly gone missing for all that time. Luigi tries to explain everything about Toad and Yoshi, but Mario does not believe his story about another world inside the well, which is now found to be a normal, deep well. As such, he threatens to have Luigi pay the rent for several days.
During the second day of the job, Mario notices Luigi sneak into the far basement. He follows him and jumps into the well. Whereupon he also ends up in the Mushroom World. When he climbs out, he sees a man named Mr. Koopa there, a tall fellow in a coat. Koopa claims he is a private eye, who was sent after a family of mushrooms and green lizard who are part of a local crime syndicate. The group has also come to harbor the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, who is on the run for allegedly trying to murder her little brother. He requests Mario's help in tracking them down. Having often suffered at the hands and other criminals, Mario agrees to help where he can. Then he describes what Luigi told him. When the brothers finally reunite and return together through the well, Mario realizes that the trio Luigi met and the group Mr. Koopa described are one and the same. But he says nothing about it at all.
The next day, Luigi asks that they go to mass at the church they had been working at. At Luigi's insistence, the two sneak into the basement during communion, and enter the Mushroom Kingdom together. Luigi guides them to the Toad's house, but they find it ransacked, with the Toads and Yoshi outside being attacked by Piranha Plants. Luigi quickly saves them, and they fight of the Piranha plants. They free Toad, who along with Yoshi thank Luigi and introduce themselves to Mario, but they are interrupted when a large flying warship passes over.
The warship lands, allowing them to see that Bowser is aboard, along Toadette, who he seems to think is the Princess, and with various others- Koopa Troopas, Yeelahs (burly, bearded Mushroomers who serve in Bowser's Vichy-like militia), and Kamek. Bowser returns to his regular form, and Mario realizes he was the Bowser character Luigi described. Luigi is furious that Mario told Bowser about the Toads and Yoshi. But Mario keeps insisting he wouldn't have said anything if he knew who he was telling it to. At Toad's instance, the group tries to refocus their energy and rescue Toadette, but Bowser flies off in the ship and leaves two Yeelahs to kill them, but when Luigi shows them the locket, they bow down before the plumbers.
After a brief battle, Toad decides to take them to meet Natlow. A wizard who sees the locket, an heirloom of the royal family, but desires to prove their worthiness by sending them on a quest to the Pit of No Return where Bowser banished all their magical items, and he wants his magic wand back. Natlow also notes the Out Pipes on the map, which can get them to various places, even home, and also mentions the quest will make them infinitely richer. Mario likes both of those, but Luigi is interested in legitimately saving the day, and maybe getting the girl. Natlow sends his daughter, Peach, with them to keep them safe from any unfamiliar dangers. While a priest comes over to bless them on their journey, a Koopa spy sends all this information to Bowser.
It is revealed that Bowser wants to marry the Princess so he will be connected to the royal family, granting him the Crown of Invincibility, but she must willingly marry him. Kamek creates a box of chocolates that will make her fall in love with him, but she must eat them all for it to take absolute effect. Kamek also explains that the it's the only way to change her appearance as well as her feelings. Why Bowser wants the Princess' appearance to be altered is never explicitly revealed, but it is heavily implied that he once had a human form, and is ashamed of the fact. But Kamek then exclaims that Bowser didn't actually kidnap the Princess. However, Bowser reveals that knows that, explaining that he knew said princess long ago. Bowser orders Kamek to instead give Toadette alcohol- laced chocolates so she'll reveal the truth inadvertently.
A koopa troopa, receiving the note from the goomba spy, informs Bowser that the plumbers are still alive. He also infers that Peach, who he knows about from spies sent after Natlow, is with the plumbers. When asked why he pretended to think Toadette was the Princess, he explains it's part of his plan to capture the real princess. He proceeds to dispatch two Hammer Brothers to take care of them. While he sends two goombas to interrogate Toadette.
Mario, Luigi and Toad find a pipe that emits items "lost" in our world - pens, combs, shoes, etc, and they discover Mario's father's Swiss army knife, which was given to Luigi when he was a kid but lost. Mario's a bit pissy about that. They camp out there and Mario complains to the group about Luigi, and how having a brother is "like having a rock in your shoe you can never shake out. It's underwear that always keeps riding UP!". Toad gets annoyed with Mario's ranting and has Yoshi go with him to look for fruit the group can eat the next day. But Peach is offended by Mario's ranting and rebukes him for being ungrateful that he has a loving family. It then turns out that Luigi was pretending to be asleep and heard the whole thing. However, Luigi makes no mention of it.
In the morning, the group are continuing on their way but Mario tries to lead them to an Out Pipe, infuriating the others. But they have no time to complain before Mugger and the Hammer Brothers attack on horses, prompting our heroes to flee via a carriage that is pulled by a talking horse. The Hammer Bros. are defeated by being pelted with fruit but the group's carriage crashes, and they hide out near a hag who claims she was made ugly by a spell and needs kissed by someone with a warm heart to cure her. She attempts to seduce Mario, but he rejects her advances. But he finally gives in when she offers to hide them from the approaching Mugger. Mario's kiss is insufficient as apparently his heart is too cold, but the hag hides them anyway. After Mugger leaves, Luigi, fed up with Mari's behavior, lets Mario to go home. Mario starts to walk off, but Peach prevents him from leaving, saying that she sees something in him that manifest in him having the will and courage to do the right thing. Mario is confused about this, but decides to stay.
In the morning, they meet a hag who claims she was made ugly by a spell from a friend of Bowser and needs kissed by someone with a warm heart to cure her; Mario's kiss is insufficient as apparently his heart is too cold. The group soon makes their way to the Pit of No Return. It's filled with traps, including Thwomps and Bob-Ombs, but they find the stockpile of magical items, though they can only take one; Toad takes magic mushroom powder that can break any spell, Peach takes a Starman, Luigi takes a "box of flight gear", while Mario takes Natlow's wand and attempts to sneak a gem with him, but is forced to give it up when a Boo Buddy nearly strangles him.
They escape with their lives, only to run into some Troopas. Toad and Luigi are shoved down the Pit while Mario and Peach fight off the Koopa troops using a Super Mushroom and Koopa Troopa shells, respectively, and speed out of the forest on Yoshi, who came back during the battle. Luigi uses the flight gear (a Super Leaf) to gain raccoon ears and a tail to fly into a tunnel with Toad, but by that time Mario and Peach have fled and Bowser's crew have gone.
Mario says to Peach how he wished he could get some time alone from his brother, but now that he believes Luigi died in the Pit he knows now to wish for the wrong things. Mario tells Peach his back story:
- Years ago, a then 17-year-old Mario had a bright future ahead of him. He was a star football player at his high school, he had completed Eagle Scout, and was being offered many scholarships. But he was forced to abandon it all when his father was killed in a car accident, and since his mother couldn't do all the work alone, he and Luigi had to to find a job often. Since then, he's been stuck as a measly plumber with no future, and his sweethearts have often abandoned him for fairly petty reasons.
Peach then tells Mario that he has learned his lesson and then tells her own backstory:
- Peach was often fairly estranged from her family. The only true friend she had was her brother Cream, who was ten years younger than her. But Natlow barely paid attention to either of the two because he was so focused on trying to repair the nation after a severe power struggle (she also had many of her friends die in many of these power struggles). Not to mention keeping invader after invader at bay.
- She eventually fell in love with a foreign prince. But his kingdom became the next to attack Fungaria. They had tried to elope, but the Prince went insane, chasing Peach to run away. Mario tries to ask more about the prince, but she refuses to answer and goes on.
- Cream eventually went missing and was presumed dead. Something Peach rues to this day, as she was supposed to look after him but was asleep at the time. Even worse is that she has heard rumors he is alive. But those sound too outlandish for her.
- She also harbors resentment over the fact that Natlow constantly seemed to underestimate Bowser, and refused to try and fight Bowser off completely.
- Because of all this, her childhood and teenage years were lonely and regimented, and she harbors some resentment towards Natlow. She also harbors resentment over the fact that Natlow has been deliberately waging the rebellion in a way that the goal is not outright victory, but to hold the Koopa Kingdom off until the "prophesied ones," two people a soothsayer described, arrived to destroy The Koopas' plan. She also reveals that she personally does not believe in the prophesy, as she believes that prophesies are false constructs designed to gain power over others, and that self-determined destiny is what makes events happen. Hence why she strove to get Mario and Luigi to stay on the quest when the going got tough.
Natlow appears out of nowhere and reclaims his wand. The three head to Natlow's castle, but on the way Natlow is zapped by lightning in a storm and all that is left of him is ash and the ruby locket.
Peach plunges into grief, and confesses to Mario that she is the real Princess Elizabeth, and that Natlow is really King Henry. She also confesses that Toadette is not the lost princess that Bowser is looking for: she is. Peach tells Mario that she and The Toads are also childhood friends, and they are about the same age, with the Toads both being a bit older. When Bowser took over. Henry decided to trick Bowser by having Toad and Toadette hide out in the country side and have Bowser think that Toadette was in fact Princess Elizabeth by giving them the royal heirloom. Henry then disguised himself as a wizard and publicly (but not privately) changed his daughter's name to Peach to hide her from Bowser and still raise her as a future leader in the case something happened to him. This initially worked despite the fact Toadette lost the heirloom in a lake during a fishing trip she, Toad, and Yoshi were on. Mario, already angry over the fact that people are suffering because Natlow did what he did, is infuriated that Peach essentially stood by, and tells her if it wasn't for her cowardice, he wouldn't be in this mess and Luigi would still be alive. He leaves her alone to grieve, and says that he no longer needs her help, as she has done more harm than good.
However, Bowser and some Koopa Troops arrive, and abduct Elizabeth. Knowing because they fed the alcohol laced chocolate to Toadette, who they explain to have dropped off elsewhere. When asked how they found him, Bowser explains in a long monologue in the process he took to get Elizabeth.
- When he first invaded, Bowser made a series of deliberate follies to make Henry think Bowser was incompetent. This included stranding their own equipment on the wrong side of the river when they retreated.
- Bowser made sure that King Henry thought he was stupid. Then he unleashed the true might of his army and completely overtook Fungaria.
- That way, when King Henry decided to tick him into thinking Toadette was Princess Elizabeth. he knew to to start looking for her, and contemplate what what to do next.
- When he kidnapped Toadette, he continued to play along with everyone's belief that he was as stupid as Henry thought.
- Now that Toadette, who he knew wasn't the real Princess Elizabeth, was kidnapped, he continued to act like he thought Toadette was the Princess. Then he had Toadette interrogated on everything she knew.
- Bowser knew that the real Elizabeth would probably be part of the party going to rescue Toadette. Furthermore, he was able to deduce her identity easily. Simply comparing an amateur snapshot of her during the travels to one of her as a child.
- Yoshi: Hey, no fair!
- Bowser: It's not fair, it's elementary. So far, I'd say my only mistake was overestimating how many people he'd send. Instead of his entire army's might, he sent a tomato colored simpleton and a weak lizard. Just pathetic...
Later, Luigi and Toad are in an underground cavern, and are being chased by a Monty Mole. They are saved when the bean Luigi bought starts growing into a beanstalk and takes them to the surface. Toad finds Toadette, who explains how she was interrogated then dropped of randomly when the real Elizabeth's whereabouts were deduced.
Luigi then takes off, heading inside Bowser's castle nearby, but it's actually an illusion by Kamek and Luigi is kidnapped. The Toads try to head off and track down Mario. Eventually, they succeed when they hijack a narrow gauge steam engine, and drive it down a line until coming to a river where they find Mario and Yoshi and tell them what's going on. Mario decides to redeem himself and once he finds the castle, he saves Luigi by using the Starman to temporarily become invincible and knock out Kamek and the three Fire Bros guarding Luigi. As there are only three sets of armor to be worn, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi take them and sneak into the real castle while The Toads develop a plan to cure Elizabeth.
Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi accidentally end up on stage during Bowser's bachelor party. Where a now fully transformed and brainwashed Elizabeth is present. The Marchellis and Yoshi are prompted to do a song and dance about how Bowser is adored. They are exposed, however, when Toadette accidentally uses the Mushroom Powder on Elizabeth too soon, restoring her to normal. Everyone of them are captured except Toad and Toadette, who escaped when Toadette made her mistake. But Elizabeth says that she is willing to marry Bowser if he spares the life of the man who she truly loves, Mario, along with everybody else's. Bowser accepts that deal, but on condition that The Marichellis, The Toads, and Yoshi stay in the dungeon until after the wedding, and then are banned from the kingdom.
In the dungeon, the brothers have a heart-to-heart where Luigi explains he wanted to leave Mario, but before their father died, he and their mother made him promise to look after Mario, as they feared that he only cared about his dreams, and he would grow bitter and hateful if things didn't go his way, and Luigi thinks he's failed in that task. He gives Mario the Swiss army knife back. In the morning, Toad and Toadette rescue them by poisoning the dungeon keeper with a Poison Mushroom, and Mario apologizes for unwittingly ratting them out to Bowser. But while escaping, they accidentally pull a lever that opens a trap door, sending them falling into a waterlogged chamber filled with Cheep Cheeps and Bloopers. Mario manages to fight them off with another Super Mushroom. Using his giant size, Mario begins smashing through the castle to get to the wedding.
Bowser starts the wedding, but our heroes don't foil it before Elizabeth says "I do," unknowingly granting Bowser the power of the Crown of Invincibility (both of them believe that the power is granted when they are pronounced man and wife).
When Mario arrives, he and Elizabeth embrace. Mario begins to speak but Elizabeth asks to keep being called Peach. Peach tells Mario that the whole thing about her deciding to marry Bowser was a trick, and that she had faith that Mario would come back and defeat Bowser when his guard was down. While she is explaining this, Bowser puts the Crown of Invincibility on his head and becomes invincible. Mario fights Bowser and loses his Super power. Peach gives him a Fire Flower from her bouquet and he becomes Fire Mario for the first time. The fight between Mario and Bowser spills in a chamber with a rickety bridge over a sea of lava.
Meanwhile, in the great hall, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Yoshi use Fire Flowers to fight off Kamek and Bowser's other minions. The battle soon also spills into the lava chamber, where Mario soon meets Bowser. On the bridge, Mario loses his firepower and is knocked off, but manages to grab a rope to safety. Remembering the story Luigi was telling the kids back in Brooklyn, he knows he can't use brawn to win this match.
He goads Bowser into making himself bigger and bigger. Bowser's Troopas think it's a trap to make him crush the platform he's on, so he floats into the air to rectify that, but Mario's real plan was to make the crown unable to fit on his head anymore. The crown falls off and Bowser returns to normal. He falls onto the bridge, splitting it in half, and seemingly falls into the lava. Mario jumps onto the half that is closer to where the other heroes are standing. He climbs up and grabs Peach's hand, but before she can pull him up, Bowser reappears, claws Mario in the legs and attempts to throw him down into the lava. Peach zaps Bowser with the ruby locket, causing him to lose his grip, pull Mario and Peach down with him, and for all three to start falling. Bowser teleports himself back to his own kingdom, which could indicate a possible return in a sequel. Yoshi suddenly reappears, and uses his tongue saves Mario and Peach before they could fall into the lava.
Kamek appears riding a stream of fire, and vows revenge before vanishing. Natlow reappears, having faked his death. He uses his wand to reveal himself as King Henry, who was believed to be gone. Returned to his kingdom, King Henry announces he will let his daughter explore both worlds as she pleases, as he has been able to get his son Oliver to return in case Peach is unable to be heir. He has also married a bartender called Ursula to help him rule over the Kingdom. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and The Toads are presented tiny medals, which disgusts Mario - he was expecting infinite riches. Henry explains he is infinitely richer - in his heart. Toad thinks he should return to his job at his general store, or perhaps become a private eye. As some people, including King Henry, have trouble pronouncing Mario's surname, Marichelli. Mario tells them to call them the “Mario brothers,” despite Luigi’s objections.
A few days later, Peach is estatic to learn the Cream is still alive, having been raised by a woodcutter. The hag returns and kisses Mario, and like she said, she transforms into a beautiful red-haired woman, slightly younger than Peach. Mario is mesmerized, and Peach recognizes her as Princess Daisy Daisy, who she introduces. Though she makes it clear that she wants to be Mario's girlfriend. Luigi whispers something, and Mario says "I think you could do it if you tried." The movie ends with the Toads guiding Mario and Peach heading into the Out Pipe, ready for a new adventure. While Luigi and Daisy look on- only to realize they were holding hands with each other.
NOTE: This plot is largely copied and pasted from a synopsis of an early draft of the 1993 film's script, which can be found here. You can compare the two, and notice that in this version (the wiki page), there are renamed characters, new characters, and added subplots (as well as corrected grammatical errors).
Cast
* indicates an actor who is still alive in the timeline where all this was real
- Charles Martinet: Mario Marchelli
- Rob Paulsen: Luigi Marchelli
- Jodi Benson: Princess Elizabeth Patricia "Peach" Toadstool
- Dean Stockwell: King Henry Christopher Toadstool
- Carlos Alazraqui: Yoshi
- Wayne Allwine*: Toad
- Russi Taylor: Toadette
- Jim Cummings: Bowser
- Michael Bell: Kamek
- Kath Soucie: Princess Daisy Minnie Call/ the Hag
Production
Interest in making another Super Mario Bros. movie had been prevalent ever since a planned 1993 movie was cancelled due to disastrous developmental problems. In the meantime, several cartoons produced by the Jim Henson company and Marvel with Nintendo's involvement were produced.
However, a serious attempt did not begin until late 2005. At this time, Sony, which had been developing software for Nintendo ever since a CD ROM add on for the SNES in 1992, began exploring the idea of producing a computer-generated Super Mario movie that would be based off of the more modern games. After much persuasion, Nintendo decided to give Sony the rights to produce a Mario animated film.
Nintendo hired several people to start work on the film. To lead them, Nintendo had Yoshiaki Koizumi, a protege of series creator Shigeru Miyamoto supervised. Miyamoto recalled Koizumi asking for the job.
In the weeks that followed, more big-name animators were attached. Notably present was Gennedy Tartakovsky, who had worked on many shows for Cartoon Network, namely Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. In late 2008, he was joined by Craig McCracken, who had created The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary friends. Also included were many old coworkers of their like Chris Savino, and Paul Rudish, and people who worked with Craig's wife Lauren Faust on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a movie of which was also originally considered for Sony. The group got together and started work on the film.
At first, the project went slowly but steadily. However, in early 2009, progress came to a complete halt, and Nintendo confiscated the rights to their IP from Sony. The details were later leaked in the 2014 Sony hack. Not to mention that many animators formerly involved left, such as Gennedy, who went to make a Popeye film for Warner Bros. Animation. Along with these hacks included some private emails Craig sent to the higher ups at Nintendo proper. At first Craig made cryptic comments publicly. Making them seem like they were just bitter about issues that stalled production. Their statements alone seemed a bit unreasonable to many. As production on these things happened all the time.
However, these leaks further elaborated on the details of what had been going on, and why the group was so upset. During the time Gennedy and his team had been writing the drafts and other early ideas for the films, things had gone downhill for them.
The details were found in emails Craig sent to Nintendo higher ups, namely a January 3, 2009 which tagged Koizumui. Craig complained that Sony executives had issues with the film as it was originally put together. They objected to…
- Several jokes and plot points involving risque notions. Most significantly, the scene where Toadette was ordered to be tricked by being fed alcohol-laced chocolate.
- The use of professional voice actors instead of celebrities.
- The original soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope and David Wise.
- The "misogynist implications." That is, the fact both Peach and Toadette, the only two major females, are kidnapped at certain points.
- The film being "too dark" for children, which they wanted the film marketed to mainly.
- Their unwillingness to go for a large budget.
- The team's extreme unwillingness to do a test screening.
A miracle finally came in late 2010. When Steven Spielberg arrived on the scene. Spielberg was convinced that the project was viable not as a computer-generated film, but as a traditionally-animated one.
He successfully convinced Nintendo to work with Disney, and revive the project. He and Don Bluth, at this point a prominent voice in Disney, had previously worked together on An American Tail (1986), and The Land Before Time (1988). Spielberg also convinced Disney to continue the use of traditional animation after the lackluster performance of The Princess and the Frog (2009).
The making of the movie was led by Koizumi, Spielberg, Bluth, Gennedy, Craig, Bluth's longtime animation partner Gary Goldman, and Disney Animator James Lopez, who worked on an independent project, a steampunk adventure film called Hullabaloo, alongside Bluth at the same time Super Mario' Bros. was being produced. After Super Mario Bros. was released, Spielberg and Craig joined the production of Hullabaloo as well, and that film was released by Disney on November 21, 2015.
Meanwhile, Spielberg hired ILM (the company that created the special effects for the Star Wars films, E.T., the Jurassic Park films, Titanic, the Avatar films, and the Harry Potter films) to do the special effects. Spielberg's goal was to achieve unprecedented special effects: the "cartoonizing" of live-action effects, which Spielberg compared to "moving paintings.”
In addition, Spielberg proposed John Williams (composer of the Jaws films, the Star Wars films, E.T., the Jurassic Park films, and the first three Harry Potter films) to compose the score. However, Koizumi got Spielberg to let them keep Wise and Kirkhope. Bluth was initially skeptical, but agreed after hearing their work for Rare franchises.
Grant Kirkhope recalls his excitement when Don Bluth chose to approve his work for the film.
In addition, the fact that they were working at Disney meant the crew had the chance to use an early draft for the 1993 film. Which allowed them to rewrite the story faster than otherwise. Now, the film would be ready by late 2012. Though Disney requested they instead have it in early 2013.
At first, the Disney executives tried to force similar changes to Sony. But John Lasseter ordered them to back off. As he knew Nintendo would just try to confiscate the rights again. above from that he was personally satisfied with the final product. In the end, the Disney executives were disappointed and were reluctant to do any screening for critics. Especially considering the unwillingness of the crew to do any revisions to the final product. But they were pleasantly surprised when many did indeed like it.
Deleted Scenes
- When Luigi first enter the Mushroom Kingdom, and before meeting Toad, he gets on to shore, where he sees Mushroom Kingdom wildlife in the form of aquatic animals and muppet-like creatures. To the tune of Click Clock Wood, Spring from Banjo Kazooie, several antics go on amongst them until a duck notices Luigi and screams "A HUMAN!" Causing them to run away. This scene was later completely animated as a bonus feature, and a version of the film with the scene was included in the film's DVD release. Akin to Human Again being animated for a rerelease of Beauty and the Beast.
- An alternate take of the epilouge where Peach continues to be called Elizabeth until the last scene.
- A scene where when Mario first enters the kingdom with Luigi, Toad, Toadette and Yoshi are in their house when they arrive. But they are still preparing to leave.
- Several scenes of Ursula, which indicate she may have had a bigger role once.
- An alternate take of the final scene. In which the woman who was turned into a hag and Princess Daisy were seperate characters. As well as Cream having a side conversation with Peach about how he wanted to get to know Mario even more. Which apparently foreshadowed Cream replacing Luigi once the latter eventually living in Sarasaland.
- On the subject of Cream, and earlier draft would have started with him being under the guise of a normal kid who Mario was helping on an Eagle Scout Project when he disappears into the Mushroom Kingdom. Which would cause the events of the film.
The film premiered in New York on October 18, 2014, in a major night for fans of the Big N. Disney had considered giving it a quieter premier, but Nintendo insisted otherwise. In addition to the cast and crew doing the usual red-carpet event, many people involved in the production showed up as guests and did photo-ops with the fans. Meanwhile a "Mario" convention was held next door to the theater, with tens of thousands of fans attending, and with the cast appearing for a press conference after the screening was over. In the months preceding the film's release, it recieved quite a bit of coverage for its many unorthodox production methods. Which only helped fuel interest in the film. In addition, voice actress Tara Strong and Billy West praised the writers for their decision to hire professional voice actors rather tan celebrities. They heavily promoted the film on their coial media for this reason, which led to even more interest among the non-gamer crowd. Nintendo themselves also heavily pushed for its success. Promoting it in such was a free pre-orders for those who bought tickets across the country. The film was released worldwide on October 23, 2014. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $85.2 million domestically and $154.3 million worldwide. Ultimately, it grossed $538.7 million domestically and $975.0 million worldwide, making it the third-highest grossing movie of 2013 domestically and the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2013 worldwide.
The film was critically acclaimed, ranking 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4 stars out of 4 on Roger Ebert's website. Doug Walker, the creator of the webseries The Nostalgia Critic, famously described the hard history that the production suffered. And its eventual success. Referring to it as "The Carlie Brown Christmas of Video Game Adaptations."
The film was successful at the Oscars, recieving siz nominations and winning three (not counting the Special Achievement Award):
- Best Animated Feature (nominated)
- Best Adapted Screenplay (won)
- Best Original Score (nominated)
- Best Sound Mixing (won)
- SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Dean Stockwell for Outstanding Vocal Work
A DVD release of the film took place March 2, 2014. The release contasins various bonus features among them bering the obligatory trailers. Plus inverviews with the cast and crew. And most importantly, scenes from earlier versions of the film. Some deleted scenes from later reevisions of the film had parts their animation completed.
In addition, the DVD has several commentaries for the film. Mainly about production and the like.
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