The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Based on Nintendo’s Mario video game series, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an animated adventure comedy released in 2023 in the United States. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and written by Matthew Fogel, it was distributed by Universal and produced by Universal Pictures, Illumination, and Nintendo. Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, and Fred Armisen are among the ensemble voice cast members. The movie tells the origin story of Mario and Luigi, two Italian-American plumber brothers who are separated after entering a fantasy world and becoming caught up in a conflict between Princess Peach’s Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser’s Koopas.
Super Mario Bros. (1993) was a critical and commercial failure, and Nintendo was hesitant to license its intellectual assets for motion picture adaptations after that. During the Virtual Console service’s development, Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Mario, developed an interest in creating a different movie. He had a meeting with Chris Meledandri, the CEO of Illumination, through Nintendo’s collaboration with Universal Parks & Resorts to establish Super Nintendo World. They began talking about a Mario movie in 2016, and Nintendo declared in January of 2018 that it will develop it in collaboration with Universal and Illumination. The cast was revealed in September 2021, and production had already started by 2020.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
The film features Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike. It is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (coworkers on Teen Titans Go!, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies), and features a screenplay by Matthew Fogel (The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru). Producers Chris Meledandri, the CEO of Illumination, and Shigeru Miyamoto, of Nintendo, are behind the picture.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie Details
| Directed by |
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| Written by | Matthew Fogel |
| Based on | Mario by Nintendo |
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| Edited by | Eric Osmond |
| Music by | Brian Tyler |
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Running time
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92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $100 million |
| Box office | $1.362 billion |
Plot
Mario and Luigi, two Italian-American brothers, recently launched a plumbing company in Brooklyn, much to their father’s dismay and the mockery of their former boss Spike. Mario and Luigi travel down to address a big water main break that they saw on the news, but they get separated when they get dragged into a Warp Pipe.
Luigi lands in the Dark Lands, controlled by the villainous Koopa king Bowser, while Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, ruled by Princess Peach. If Peach rejects Bowser’s advances toward marriage, he will use a Super Star to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom. To put Mario in danger—who he views as a rival for Peach’s affection—he imprisons Luigi. After Mario meets Toad, he is taken to Peach. Peach intends to form a coalition with the Kong apes.
Voice cast
- Chris Pratt as Mario a struggling Italian-American plumber from Brooklyn, New York, who is accidentally transported to the world of the Mushroom Kingdom and embarks on a quest to save his brother.
- Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, who entered the world of the Mushroom Kingdom as an infant and was raised by the Toads.
- Charlie Day as Luigi, Mario’s timid younger brother and fellow plumber, who is captured by Bowser and his army.
- Jack Black as Bowser, a tortoise-like monster and the King of the Koopas, who rules the Dark Lands, steals a powerful Super Star, and plots to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom by marrying Peach.
- Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, a Mushroom Kingdom resident whose species is also named Toad, who aspires to go on his first real adventure.
- Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, an anthropomorphic gorilla and heir to the throne of the Jungle Kingdom.
- Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, the ruler of the Jungle Kingdom, and Donkey Kong’s father.
- Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike, Mario and Luigi’s antagonistic former boss from a company called Wrecking Crew.
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, a Koopa sorcerer and Bowser’s advisor and informant.
The twins’ father is also played by Charles Martinet, who performed the voices of Mario and Luigi in the Mario video games from 1991 until 2023. Giuseppe, a resident of Brooklyn, is a man who speaks in Mario’s in-game voice and resembles Mario from the original Donkey Kong. Luigi’s bully, a yellow toad, Mayor Pauline, the brothers’ mother, and baby Peach are all voiced by Jessica DiCicco. The uncles of the brothers, Tony and Arthur, are portrayed by Rino Romano and John DiMaggio, respectively. Eric Bauza provides the voices of Diddy Kong and the Toad General, while Khary Payton plays the Penguin King, the emperor of the Snow Kingdom who is attacked by Bowser’s forces. Lumalee, a blue Luma who is imprisoned by Bowser and is nihilistic, is voiced by Juliet Jelenic, daughter of co-director Michael Jelenic. Scott Menville does the voice of the winged Koopa General.
Production
The Japanese video game firm Nintendo started to be cautious about licensing its properties for film adaptations after the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie was a critical and financial failure.[17] The concept for a new Mario movie originated, so says Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, from introducing their earlier games to the Virtual Console and other services. Miyamoto realized that “our content business would be able to develop even further if we were able to combine our long-beloved software with that of video assets, and utilize them together for extended periods” because such changes took time for the company..[18] Knowing that creating a film differed greatly from creating a video game, Miyamoto sought a film specialist to oversee.
Emails between producer Avi Arad, studio head Amy Pascal, head of TriStar Pictures Tom Rothman, and president of production for Sony Pictures Animation Michelle Raimo Kouyate were leaked after Sony Pictures was hacked in November 2014. These emails disclosed that Sony had been trying for a number of years to obtain the film rights to the Mario franchise. In an effort to close a transaction, Arad paid visits to Nintendo in Tokyo in February and July of 2014. Arad informed Pascal via email in October that the agreement with Nintendo had been finalized. Pascal proposed bringing in Sony Pictures Animation’s Genndy Tartakovsky, director of Hotel Transylvania, to assist with the project’s development, while Kouyate stated she could “think of 3–4 movies right out of the gate” and expressed her desire to create a “Mario empire.”
Marketing
The teaser clip was unveiled in real time during a Nintendo Direct session on October 6. Following the trailer’s release at New York Comic Con, Jack Black teased a theme for the character by saying, “Bowser has a musical side” in a brief Q&A session. In just one day, the teaser trailer garnered over three million views. The tone and aesthetics of the trailer, along with Black and Key’s portrayals of Bowser and Toad, were largely applauded by journalists. Pratt’s portrayal of Mario, though, was criticized for sounding too much like his speaking voice and missing emotion. A subtle New York accent was noticed in Mario’s words by Vic Hood of TechRadar, who speculated that this was a nod to Mario’s representations in American media like The.
Release
On April 1, 2023, the cast and crew of Super Mario Bros. Movie attended its global premiere at Regal LA Live in Los Angeles, California. April 5, 2023 saw its theatrical debut in the United States, and on April 28, 2023, it was released in Japan in both standard and 3D IMAX formats. The movie was originally supposed to come out on December 21, 2022, and April 7, 2023. However, due to the film’s postponement, DreamWorks Animation’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was supposed to open on the earlier date. It was revealed on February 28, 2023, that the movie would be released in more than 60 markets two days ahead of schedule on that date.
Reception
With $574.9 million in revenue in the US and Canada and $787.1 million in other regions as of January 14, 2024, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has brought in a total of $1.36 billion worldwide. In just one week after its release, it broke records as the highest-grossing video game-based movie. As the highest-grossing movie of 2023 at the time, it also made history as the first video game-based film to gross $1 billion globally.The year’s highest-grossing animated feature is still Barbie, even though it was overtaken in September. It became the highest-grossing Illumination picture when it surpassed Minions in May 2023. Time Limit Hollywood computed the movie’s net profit at $559 million after deducting marketing, talent participation fees, and production costs; box office