The Super Mario Bros 1993 is Actually Great | Mario 1993 SPEED-ART
Hey hey hey! I'm back with another Speed-Art, this one of Super Mario from 1993. So I uploaded The Evolution of Super Mario to my channel last month, and for it I had to watch the 1993 Mario movie for the first time, I had seen bits and pieces of it growing up on cable, and seen clips floating around the internet, but had never seen it all the way through, and after hearing so many terrible things about it I was expecting like Jack and Jill levels of bad film-making, but that’s not what I saw. I saw a movie that had a lot of good, surrounded by a lot of weird choices. So today I want to highlight 5 reasons why Super Mario Bros 1993 isn’t so bad.
Number 5: Casting
Let’s talk some casting, Bob Hoskins as Mario Mario is a great get, not only does he look the part but he does a perfect if slightly exaggerated Brooklyn Accent. He’s a little older than the character is usually portrayed, but I think it harkens back to how old the character was initially conceived. You also get Luigi Mario played by John Leguizamo, he’s probably closer in age to the modern representations of Luigi and Mario, and I think is perfectly cast. He’s not as big a coward as the character is sometimes portrayed, but I think making him younger than Mario and implying that he was more or less raised by his brother gives them a more interesting dynamic. And I have to mention the great Dennis Hopper as King Koopa, now say what you want about this version of Bowser, but Dennis Hopper is doing a lot with the material, he’s both able to be comedic and captivating when on screen, like this is the chain-wielding adversary of Leatherface Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and the bad guy from Blue Velvet, how they scored him to play a devolved Dinosaur is mind-blowing, like the guy is a legend and chews the scenery up whenever he gets the chance. And say what you want about the direction they took the characters, the acting for what it is by our leads is to me as good as it could have been.
Number 4: Production Design
Production Designer, David Snyder, also worked on Blade Runner of all films, and he brought that same level of craftsmanship to this film. Now is it weird that the Mushroom Kingdom looks like a Cyberpunk New York City? Sure, but it doesn’t look bad. There’s also a lot of thought put into the city, for one example, because this universe’s Dinosaurs didn’t go instinct and instead evolved, all the cars in the city are electric, which is why you see sparks during the chase scenes. There’s also little nods to the games on some of the storefronts, so there’s actually a lot of thought put into the city these character inhabit.
Number 3: CGI Innovations
Recently I watched a Corridor Crew video that outlined some of the CGI innovations this film did for the first time, such as the particle effects, that would probably be pretty easy for today, but this film had to walk so that CGI artists nowadays could run. Also, it’s the first film to use the Kodak Cineon Scanner, which allowed them to digitize shots. The first film to use the software Flame, which helped them to morph characters, and they created the LUTs scanner to take LOG footage and make it look more natural. So it’s actually the first film to implement a lot of these tools, and paved the way for all modern movies. This film was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but lost to another Dinosaur film, Jurassic Park.
Number 2: Yoshi’s Appearance
Now, say what you want about Yoshi not looking like or acting like himself here, but I’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t feel anything for the tiny dinosaur onscreen. The puppetry for him is really well done, and I assume the face is using animatronics, which look great. So again, if this wasn’t Yoshi, and was instead just a non-Nintendo character, I think people wouldn’t complain about his design or use in this film.
Number 1: I Love How Weird It Is
Movies based on source material these days I think are too afraid of upsetting fanbases to stray too far away from the source material, and whenever they do fans of the original are seemingly in an uproar. But in the 1990s you could make a weird Cyberpunk Dystopian Mario movie and market it as the film of the year and the studio wouldn’t step in to stop you. Not the Studio did have some notes, but the fact that this weird film could be released 30 years ago is absolutely insane, and that’s kind of why I like the movie. Now is it a film I’m gonna toss on every year, probably not, but do I think it’s moniker as the “Worst Movie Of All Time” is undeserved, yeah I do, especially after watching some movies that are way worse – I’m looking at you Krampus movies! But I think this film is being re-evaluated today, and I wish Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper were alive today to see the fans of their film, because I know they both hated working on it, along with most of the cast, but it certainly has a cult following today, and if someone enjoys this film more than the 2023 film, I don’t think I’d question them. 2023 is defintely the better Mario film, but which one is the better film in general is up to the viewer to decide.
So what do you think of the 1993 Mario movie? Is it as bad as people say, or do you maybe have a little bit more respect for it after watching this speed-art? Either way I’d love to know. I'd also like to thank all my Patrons, including the recently signed up Daniel Stirland and Joe Ferri, there's links to check out the latest animations on Tell It Animated down below, and until next time, I’ve been Aaron, and I'll tell you something later!