Looking Back at the Super Mario Brothers Movie
One of my favorite sports/pop culture related websites is Grantland, and last week they posted an article about one of my all time favorite movies in an article entitled The Strange Case of the Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Yes, I am serious. I love that movie. And not even a single rat’s ass is given if I like this movie purely based on nostalgia. However, article author Karina Longworth disagrees with me:
As an unmitigated disaster, Super Mario is both emblematic of its time and troublingly anticipatory of the worst of our own time.
At least I’m not alone in my opinion…
It’s OK bros, someone likes your movie. Just hug it out.
Regardless of how you view the movie, the article offers a good retrospective. How different would the landscape of video game movie adaptations be had Super Mario Bros. been a financial success? The article quotes many producers who considered Mario to be the “Mickey Mouse of video games.” Had they made money on it, the mid-90’s would have probably been simply lousy with Mario movies.
And how weird would it have been had Dustin Hoffman gotten his wish and been allowed to don the red overalls? Or if Danny DeVito had said yes? Or if the producers hadn’t nixed the idea of Tom Hanks after Hanks had already agreed to a contract?
Interested in reading the article now? Consider yourself officially teased, suckah.
Weeeeeee!
