NFL
By: Lennox
First up, Toad. In the games, Toad showed up in several of the games in various ways. His first appearance was in the original Super Mario Bros. way back in 1985 as one of the several Mushroom Retainers and didn’t become a playable character until Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988). As far as the movie goes, Toad was portrayed as a good-natured guitarist who was transformed by King Koopa into a Goomba, which in the game is a mushroom-shaped enemy that serves more as an obstacle than a foe. In the movie, on the other hand Goombas were semi-humanoid dinosaur creatures. Another familiar character/protagonist was the instant favorite and lovable Yoshi, who debuted in Super Mario World (1990) on the SNES as Mario and Luigi‘s sidekick and trusted dinosaur steed. With a gluttonous appetite, Yoshi gobbled enemies with his long tongue and laid eggs that doubled as projectiles.
By this point, Mario and company had leaped the 16-bit era, and Yoshi’s entrance was nothing short of remarkable. Just seeing that green lizard, reptile, and or dinosaur bursting out of that egg had us gamers at the time intrigued and excited for this new character we never quite saw coming. Though Yoshi too made an appearance in the 1993 movie, his role wasn’t nearly as significant as it was in the games. In the movie, Yoshi was a pet of the royal family and aided Daisy in her escape from the clutches of King Koopa.
Now let’s talk about Daisy herself. Daisy made her first appearance in 1989’s Super Mario Land. Super Mario Land was produced as a launch title for the Game Boy, which was aimed to be a scaled-down version of its predecessor, Super Mario Bros. In Super Mario Land and the movie alike, Daisy was the damsel in distress and a princess, though she was kidnapped by the alien Tatanga in SML and King Koopa in the movie. In Super Mario Land, Princess Daisy was the ruler of Sarasaland, described as slightly tomboyish and energetic.
Like I mentioned before, the movie version of Daisy was the long-lost princess of the other dimension and descended from dinosaurs. In the movie, Daisy was depicted as Luigi’s love interest and not Mario’s. This might have caused some confusion to fans of the game or been considered a change to the original formula, but it in fact wasn’t. In the game series, Princess Peach was Mario’s love interest and not Daisy. As an added note, Daisy became Luigi’s love interest primarily through subtle hints and in-game interactions rather than explicit declarations, beginning with her role as his caddie in 1991’s NES Open Tournament Golf.
Now let’s move on to some of the other characters from the games that made an appearance in the 1993 movie (2 of the antagonists, that is). The next character/antagonist is Iggy. In the movie, Iggy is one of King Koopa’s henchmen as well as his cousin. In the games, however, Iggy (who first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3) is one of the Koopalings, a clan of seven siblings that act as leaders of the Koopa Troop under Bowser. He’s known as a crazed, mechanical genius and is known to have a childish personality. Another foe to make an appearance in the movie was Big Bertha. In the games, Big Bertha was/is an enemy that is first seen in Super Mario Bros. 3.
It is a female version of the Boss Bass and a large Cheep-Cheep that is seen in the deep seas and water levels, who tries to gobble up Mario and company. This, on the other hand, was far from what she was depicted as in the film. In the flick, Big Bertha was a large, robust woman bouncer of the Boom Boom Bar (a dance club in Dinohattan) who wore a thick, red leather outfit with spikes. Other than being large, Big Bertha had very little in common with the in-game character.
However, Much like Big Bertha’s depiction in the Nintendo Comics System (which ran from 1990 to 1991), the movie’s Big Bertha has a romantic attraction to Mario and even snags a kiss from him. Other honorable mentions include Bob-ombs, which acted as explosive devices, and Spike, who were and enemy/enemies that threw spiked balls or rollers from within their mouths (s). In the movie, Spike was another one of King Koopa’s henchmen working side by side with Iggy. As an added note, the Super Scope makes an appearance in the film, acting as a devolution gun.
As you can see, the Mario series had plenty of material to work with, and the film used quite a bit of that said material. Again, the huge and wide success of the game series seemed like a no-brainer to make it into a feature film. Unfortunately, the Super Mario Bros. film, released on May 28, 1993, was a box office failure, grossing $38.9 million worldwide against a budget of $42–48 million. Although the film received generally unfavorable reviews from critics and moviegoers alike at release and appeared on several lists of the worst films ever made, it has developed a cult following over the years. Though the film flopped, it did not deter other attempts at making other video game franchises into movies. With that being said stay tuned to From bits to flicks part 2 where I discuss another popular video game’s movie adaptation. Game on!
