Super Mario Bros.
Movies
Movie infoPoster
Directed by: Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton
Written by: Parker Bennett, Terry Runte
Release date: May 28, 1993
Rating: PG
Running time: 104 minutes
Super Mario Bros.: The Movie poster

Overview

The live-action Super Mario Bros. movie hit theaters in May 1993 following 12 years of successful "Mario" games. Even with the momentum of a popular game series and comparisions to Blade Runner, the Mario movie failed to live up to many people's expectations. While the film may have alienated some Mario fans with a plot loosely based on the game series, a clean-shaven Luigi, and a diminutive Yoshi, several references to past Mario games and one "explosive" scene gave longtime fans another reason to watch until the end. Questionable scripting aside, the big-screen adaptation of the Mario series did its best to recreate the magic of the games without the magic of animation.

Plot
The Mario brothers set out to save Princess Daisy from a parallel dimension ruled by dinosaurs.

Starring:

  • Bob Hoskins as Mario Mario
  • John Leguizamo as Luigi Mario
  • Dennis Hopper as King Koopa
  • Samantha Mathis as Princess Daisy

Downloads, etc.

Reader reviews

I think they should have based it on the Super Mario Brothers game. - Ruggiakids

I really liked it. But the only people that should have been real are the bros. and Daisy. Toad would have been computerized as a mushroom, Koopa as a turtle and Goomba as a small mushroom thingie. - Daniel Raffa

I think the Super Mario Bros movie would of been way better if they had the actors of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show play the characters and I don't really see John Leguizamo playing Luigi (He didn't even have a mustache) or Bob Hoskins playing Mario (his mustache wasn't the right shape). When I first saw the movie I hated it but then the second time I saw the movie I thought it was cool. I think they should make a sequel with better people who actually look like the Mario Bros. and make Bowser look like Bowser from the games. - C6YR

I do think it would of done better as a cartoon. There were also too many differences between it and the cartoon show and games. I think someone should make a new movie as a cartoon or computer animated. - Justin Light

Yeah sure, it was great... for kids that is. I saw when I was 10 and thought, "Wow, where are all the fireballs and raccoon leaves like good ol' Mario?" The fact is, like most people think so, if it was a cartoon with some slight changes, then yeah, it could have been better. But the storyline left a lot to be desired, and was almost TOTALLY different from ANY Mario Game or story out there. Even the animated cartoon series was a lot better in that respect. - Raj Ghetia

Man, I LOVED the SMB movie. I couldn't believe when I saw it the first time that people were telling me the critics hated it (like everything else). Of course, the storyline doesn't exactly follow the game, but why would you want it to? You would know what happens. - dralson

It was cool.. to a point.. King Bowser Koopa should've been animated, true.. he also should have been a dinosaur.. it should've been animated and should have stuck to the storyline... - Sol

I was totally disappointed with this film. To me it had nothing to do with Mario whatsoever. The world that was made and the story the movie had was just plain stupid. I was hoping for a fun-filled Mario adventure not some realistic thing with a character named Mario and his brother Luigi. I truly was sad that the only Mario movie ever made was this horrible. - ajweitz

I saw the Mario Brothers movie a while back and I didn't think it was all that bad. I thought it could have used a lot of work in the special effects department though. The only thing that really ticked me off is that Koopa was played by a human. That just doesn't sit right with me. He should have at least been an animatronic or something. - Nick

I liked the movie. It can really only be liked by TRUE Mario fans though. I rent it a lot and watch it on TV whenever it's on. The special effects aren't that great, and it REALLY messes up the story, but if you realize it has its own plot, it's a cool movie. There's everything from Bob-ombs to Goomba's shoes, with the fungus in the mix. I agree with most people, it would have been better animated. Actually, computer-animated would be best, but, I liked the plot, even though it REALLY messes me up, 'cause it doesn't tie in with the games. - OOLemmy

Frankly, it was rubbish. Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper's lowest moment. It is frankly criminal to make a movie of a game that, while brilliant, has a plot that is just an excuse for you to actually be doing this. Stupid inconsistencies with the games, absolutely laughable acting (the actors obviously have never even seen a Mario game in their lives). That said though, it was chock-full of little nods to the games. Such as the lifts called Thwomps (I believe they were spiky too). If you watch the crowd sequences, and look at the stalls on the side, you can see all sorts of Mario paraphernalia. So, while a rubbish film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie might be worth watching for the Mario fan, just to see the references to the games. - Alex Duin

Speaking as a Mario die-hard, I quite enjoyed it, although I didn't like how some of the characters looked (Koopa particularly)... if this film had stuck closer to the games' feel and had exploited the enormous potential of the Mario license better (diverse worlds, loads of enemies, multiple transformations, etc), it may have had a broader appeal... I suppose it would have worked very well as an anime, or as a less sci-fi thing (Mario and sci-fi doesn't mix very well). Serious Mario die-hards will probably want to own it and will enjoy spotting some of the Mario references. Providing that the liberties taken with the Mario universe don't put them off, that is. As for people who don't care that much about Mario... well, if they don't take this film too seriously, or if they aren't over 12 years old they might enjoy it as well. Summing up: it's quite nice, but not as superb as it could have been... and why doesn't Wario appear in it? - alias

I don't think anyone really liked the movie, but I think that it rocked. The boots and the flamethrower guns were cool!!! The Bob-ombs were cool because they were so small yet so feared. HA. It was great with fungus all over the Mushroom Kingdom.
This movie ought to have a sequel. My score is 8 out of 10. - chance

Being a major Mario fan, I was excited, no, enthralled about this new movie. I had my parents take me to the theater to see it on the premier date. When the movie first began, I was happy to hear the old familiar SMB tune. Then, all of a sudden, it brought up this thing about the meteor-killing-the-dinosaurs theory. I wondered what the heck THAT had to do with anything. I was really disappointed about the storyline, but I noticed some cool connections. Like Big Bertha, for example. She had a... crush I guess you'd say, on Mario. Eventually, she let him go but helped him out anyway. To see a story of similar form, look in the old Valiant Super Mario Bros. Comics for a story called "Love Flounders," which I believe is in Volume #4. The only other cool thing was the song "Walk the Dinosaur." - SkyPrincess

I saw the movie a while a ago, but I still remember liking it. The whole scene, the plot, and the movie itself was great. - Smoke

I saw that movie once on TV. Let me put it bluntly: It was stupid. My kid brother (5 at the time) loved it. It was a kid's movie, really. It was all about something called de-evolution and how Koopa had these guns that turned the dinosaur people into "Goombas" (Big Dumb Puppet-People) and People into Monkeys. This king guy (Daisy's Father) got turned into a fungus that helped out Mario and Luigi, so they got the whole mushroom thing in. The climax surrounded this meteor that was a "dimensional gateway" or something and had to get it to open with Daisy's necklace. Mario and Luigi win in the end, of course. The special effects were nothing special. Heck, "Star Wars" was better, and that preceded it by 16 years! It was really a cartoon with real people in it. It should have been a cartoon, IMHO. That's what I think most people think of it.
I also hated that Yoshi was such a wimp. - Rayman

I've seen the movie, and actually it was pretty good. It should have been computerized or animated, though. Jurassic Park came some time later, and they could have made King Koopa computerized. If it was animated, it probably would have been a bigger hit than it really was. I liked the fireball weapon, and there were no blocks or anything. Maybe the Koopas should have had some sort of "shell" on their backs or something. - Monica

I don't actually stand too far away from middle ground on the movie, in fact I enjoyed the movie very much. I think it would have been much better if Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool were the only real characters and the rest were all computerized. With all said and done, I agree with Alex Duin. Because of the plot lacking so much, the only assumption I can make is that the only reason that the movie was made was to cash in on the then current "super" popularity of the Mario Bros. - rlpeckbert

I really enjoyed the movie, it was a different perspective of the Mario Bros. I liked how hey made Luigi Mario younger, John Leguizamo made the movie more humorous and gave it a light tone. Turning a game to a movie with a good plot that was not predictable would have been hard, and I think they did a good job. True, the special effects are not all that great but the movie does well without it. Yoshi just steals your heart away and Dennis Hopper did an excellent job as the clean freak, dinosaur descendant who wants to take over the world. The damsel in distress theme is typical, but this movie just pulls it off. After 9 years it's still a movie that I could watch. I really wouldn't mind if there was a sequel. - "*ChaRiSmA* SOK

My thoughts? I think that the script was terrible. Super Mario didn't work well as a "cyber" thriller. The Sci-Fi elements clashed with the respected fantasy elements of the games. Sure, it made for a nice film, but it was as if they recycled Blade Runner instead of doing a Super Mario film. The De-evolver thing was stupid and impossible. From a scientific standpoint, it made no sense. Also, I don't think that it makes evolutionary sense for reptiles to become humanoid. We look the way we do because we evolved mammalian. BTW, Hopper can't act, he just shouts a lot, which I suppose some people think are the same.
Also, in the thought-provoking dept., anyone else notice the auspicious lack of something? No, I'm not talking about acting, plot, or any number of things. The movie, unlike anything else Nintendo has _ever_ licensed does not bear, in the credits, on the box, or with a fox, the Nintendo logo, much less the "Official Product". Even Pokemon gets the Official Product on every episode and every film, no matter how bad, not to mention the various toys and cereals and "Mario Teaches Typing". The film didn't have one. This both surprises and informs me. It seems that Nintendo saw the film as as much crap as many of us did, and didn't want to be associated. Nintendo probably had little to do with the creative process, they just sold the rights for quick cash. - --WorldMaker--

I thought the SMB movie was good for the most part. I will agree that it didn't meet most people's expectations, but if the movie had been like the animated video game, think how pointless it would have been. There would have been no plot, the time of the movie would probably have been no more than 85 minutes long, and people would have eventually demanded a live version of Super Mario Bros. This is a movie that comes along once in a generation. It has a unique style unlike most other movies that spawned from video games. I'll admit that the film had some "plot holes" in it as well as an ending that was left wide open for a sequel, but I think that people should appreciate this film for what it is and quit comparing it to the video games! I still feel that a Super Mario Bros. sequel should have been made from where the movie left off. - RTW-Jr

I loved the Super Mario Brothers movie, and look forward to purchasing it on DVD. I thought the highlights were the wisecracking big-brother Mario and the bumbling Iggy and Spike (Fisher Stevens is a wonderful visual actor). Plus, all the little "tie-ins" in the background were great, like the guy carrying the Whoomp! box and the Boom-Boom bar. How they left the movie open for a sequel but then never made one was very disappointing. - Cheyenne

The bad acting is humorous. Who couldn't help but laugh at Dennis Hopper's line "Plumber Alert!" And what's with Aretha Franklin in jump boots? It looks like the Bob-omb props were modeled from malted milk balls. I won't even mention the Goombas (even though I just did.) The funniest part is imagining Miyamoto's face after seeing this. There are enough funny things in this to keep you interested for a while. Luckily the bad acting makes this movie enjoyable. John Leguizamo's finest moment! - seachange86