Super Mario Bros. (1993)
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Two Italian-American plumbers must journey into a parallel dimension to rescue a princess from a ruthless ruler.
The story
In 1973, a mysterious woman leaves a large egg at a Brooklyn orphanage, which hatches into a girl. Twenty years later, Italian-American brothers Mario and Luigi, working as plumbers in Brooklyn, are nearly forced out of business. When Luigi meets Daisy, a local archaeology student, they witness her being kidnapped by henchmen of the ruthless President Ko11. The brothers pursue them through an interdimensional portal into Dinohattan, a city in a parallel dimension populated by a humanoid dinosaur race. The duo must navigate this strange world to find Daisy and her necklace, which holds the key to the dimensions' stability.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After a meteorite split the universe into two dimensions, a humanoid dinosaur race emerged in a land called Dinohattan. In 1973, a girl named Daisy was sent to Brooklyn, where she grew up. In the present, Mario and Luigi, Brooklyn plumbers, are forced to enter a portal to rescue Daisy after she is kidnapped by the henchmen of President Koopa. They travel to Dinohattan, where they find Daisy is the long-lost princess of that realm. They are joined by Toad, a good-natured guitarist turned into a Goomba, and the henchmen Iggy and Spike, who turn against Koopa. While Luigi rescues Daisy, Mario saves his girlfriend, Daniella. The villain's girlfriend, Lena, attempts to seize the power of the meteorite but is fossilized. Ultimately, Mario and Luigi use a devolution device to turn Koopa into a prehistoric beast. The dimensions are separated, and Daisy remains in her home world while the brothers return to Brooklyn as heroes.
- Original title
- Super Mario Bros.: The Movie
- First release year
- 1993
- Runtime (minutes)
- 104
- Production countries
- United States; United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Rocky Morton; Annabel Jankel
- Writers
- Parker Bennett · writer; Terry Runté · writer; Ed Solomon · writer
- Cast and characters
- Bob Hoskins · Mario; John Leguizamo · Luigi; Dennis Hopper · President Koopa; Samantha Mathis · Princess Daisy; Fisher Stevens · Iggy; Fiona Shaw · Lena; Richard Edson · Spike
- Genres
- science fantasy; adventure
- Themes
- brotherhood; identity; exploration
- Tone and mood
- dark; weird; adventure
- Setting
- Brooklyn, New York City and the parallel dimension of Dinohattan in 1973.
- Premise and plot tags
- portal fantasy; multiverse; buddy comedy
- Source material / true-story basis
- Mario video game series by Nintendo
- Franchise connections
- Mario
- Reception
- The film was a financial failure and received generally negative reviews from critics, leading it to be considered one of the worst films ever made, though it has developed a cult following.
- Awards and nominations
- Best Visual Effects · Academy Awards · 66th · not nominated
- Production trivia
- The film was the first American feature-length live-action film based on a video game.; The production used the composting software Flame before it was acquired by Autodesk.; The film was the first to be scanned with the Kodak Cineon film scanner to create a digital intermediate.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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