The Super Mario Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 2005 computer-animated fantasy adventure comedy film based on Nintendo's Mario video game franchise. Directed by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter, and produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Nintendo, it is the first film in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe (NCU). The film features an ensemble voice cast including Robin Williams and Steve Carell as the titular brothers, alongside Natalie Portman, Kiefer Sutherland, Kel Mitchell, Adam Sandler, Mel Brooks, John Turturro, Charles Martinet and Mark Hamill. The film features an origin story for the brothers Mario and Luigi, Italian-American plumbers who are transported to an alternate world and become entangled in a battle between the Mushroom Kingdom, led by Princess Peach, and the Koopas, led by Bowser.

After the critical and commercial failure of the 1993 live-action film, Nintendo was reluctant to license its intellectual properties for film adaptations. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto became interested in developing another film when he met DreamWorks founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. By 1997, the four were discussing a Mario film and in January 1999, Nintendo announced that it would collaborate with Columbia Pictures to produce it. Production was underway by 2000, and the cast was publicly announced in October 2002.

The film was released theatrically in the United States on April 6, 2005 by Sony Pictures Releasing, and in Japan on April 28, as the first film in Phase One of the NCU. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but a more positive reception from audiences. It has grossed $677 million worldwide, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2005 and setting box office records for the biggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and the highest-grossing film based on a video game. Two sequels have been released: The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 (2010) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie 3 (2014).

Plot
Italian-American brothers Mario and Luigi have recently started a plumbing business in Brooklyn. Their father disapproves of Mario's decision to leave his steady job under his antagonistic ex-employer Spike and believes he's dragging Luigi down with him. After seeing a significant manhole leak on the news, Mario and Luigi go underground to fix it, but are sucked into a Warp Pipe and separated.

Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, ruled by Princess Peach, while Luigi lands in the Dark Lands, ruled by the evil Koopa king Bowser. Bowser seeks to marry Peach, and will destroy the Mushroom Kingdom using a Super Star if she refuses. He imprisons Luigi to blackmail Mario, whom he sees as competition for Peach's love. Mario meets Toad, who takes him to Peach. Peach plans to ally with the primate Kongs to help repel Bowser, and agrees to take Mario and Toad along. In the Jungle Kingdom, King Cranky Kong agrees to help on the condition that Mario defeats his son, Donkey Kong, in a fight. Despite Donkey Kong's strength, Mario defeats him using a Tanooki Suit.

Mario, Peach, Toad, and the Kongs use karts to drive back to the Mushroom Kingdom, but Bowser's army ambushes them on Rainbow Road. When a Koopa General destroys part of the road, Mario and Donkey Kong plummet to the ocean and are eaten by an eel-like Maw-Ray while the other Kongs are captured. Peach and Toad return to the Mushroom Kingdom and urge the citizens to evacuate. Bowser arrives aboard his flying castle and proposes to Peach, who reluctantly accepts after Bowser's advisor Kamek tortures Toad. Mario and Donkey Kong, after bonding over how their respective dads never take their decisions seriously, escape the Maw-Ray by riding a rocket from Donkey Kong's kart and hurry to Bowser and Peach's wedding.

At the wedding reception, Bowser intends to execute all of his prisoners in lava in Peach's honor. Toad smuggles an Ice Flower in Peach's bouquet, which Peach uses to freeze Bowser. Mario and Donkey Kong arrive and free the prisoners, with Mario using a Tanooki Suit to save Luigi. An enraged Bowser frees himself and summons a Banzai Bill to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom, but Mario knocks it off course and directs it into the Warp Pipe where it detonates, creating a vacuum that causes Bowser's castle to be transported to Brooklyn. As they fight Bowser, Mario and Luigi grab the Super Star, become invincible, and defeat the Koopas. Bowser is shrunk with a Mini Mushroom and imprisoned. Mario and Luigi are hailed as heroes and celebrated by Brooklyn's populace, including their parents and Spike. In the aftermath of the battle, Mario and Luigi move into a new house together in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Voice cast
Additionally, Robert De Niro and Charles Martinet, who voices Mario and Luigi in the Mario games, voices the brothers' father and Giuseppe, a Brooklyn citizen who resembles Mario's original appearance in Donkey Kong and speaks in his in-game voice. Rosie Perez voices the brothers' mother, the plumbing commercial woman, Mayor Pauline, a yellow Toad, Luigi's bully and baby Peach. Rino Romano and John DiMaggio voice the brothers' uncles, Tony and Arthur, respectively. Khary Payton voices the Penguin King, the ruler of the Ice Kingdom descended upon by Bowser's army, while Eric Bauza voices the Toad General. Daveigh Chase, voices Lumalee, a nihilistic blue Luma held prisoner by Bowser, and Scott Menville voices the Koopa General, the winged, blue-shelled leader of Bowser's army, as well as a Red Toad.
 * Robin Williams as Mario, a former plumber from Brooklyn who travelled to the Mushroom Kingdom to save Princess Peach from Bowser with Luigi.
 * Natalie Portman as Princess Peach, the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom who is captured by Bowser and is the love interest of Mario.
 * Steve Carell as Luigi, the scared younger brother of Mario, who assists him in his mission to save Princess Peach from Bowser.
 * Kiefer Sutherland as Bowser, a Koopa from another dimension who captures Princess Peach to force her to become his wife.
 * Kel Mitchell as Toad, the royal guard of the Mushroom Kingdom who is friends with Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi.
 * Adam Sandler as Donkey Kong, A tie-wearing gorilla.
 * Joe Ranft as Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong's little brother.
 * Mel Brooks as Cranky Kong, Donkey Kong's grandfather.
 * John Turturro as Foreman Spike: The supervisor of the Wrecking Crew.
 * Mark Hamill as Kamek: A wizard and Bowser's servant and advisor.

Development
After the critical and commercial failure of the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film adaptation, Japanese video game company Nintendo became wary of licensing its properties for film adaptations. According to Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, he recognized 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." Miyamoto knew that the process of making a film was far different from that of making a video game, and wanted a film expert to lead the effort.

Emails between Viacom and DreamWorks Pictures founder Steven Spielberg were released revealing that Paramount Pictures had been attempting to secure the film rights to the Mario franchise for nearly three years. Chairman Jonathan Dolgen, CEO Sherry Lansing and Vice President William Bernstein visited Nintendo in Tokyo in February and July 1996 in an attempt to secure a deal. In October, Spielberg emailed Rothman and said he had never made the deal with Nintendo. Paramount suggested recruiting Nickelodeon Movies' Harriet the Spy director Bronwen Hughes to help develop the project, while Greenstein said he could "think of 3–4 movies right out of the gate" and expressed hope in "build[ing] a Marioempire." However, after the emails leaked, Panitch denied that a deal had been made, stating that negotiations had only begun. BuzzFeed News noted that the emails did not take into account potential conflicts with Sony Pictures' corporate sibling Sony Interactive Entertainment, one of Nintendo's chief competitors.

Miyamoto met Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, founders of DreamWorks Animation and Carl Rosendahl, founder of PDI. Miyamoto found their creative processes similar to his own and felt he would be the proper lead for a Mario film. They had started more earnest discussions by 1998, knowing that if they felt it would not work that they could easily walk away. In November 1999, reports emerged that Nintendo was collaborating with Columbia Pictures to make an animated Mario film. Third Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi clarified that a deal had not been finalized, but that an announcement would come soon. Yamauchi hoped that if the deal was successful, a 2002 release date would be possible.

In January 2000, Nintendo announced that the film would progress with Miyamoto and Pascal co-producing. Katzenberg said the film was a "priority" for Sony and that it will most likely come out in 2003. He added that Miyamoto would be "front and center" during production. In June 2002, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated that the film was "moving along smoothly" with an expected 2004 release date. Iwata also said Nintendo would own the rights to the film, and both Nintendo and Sony would fund the production.

Following the full casting announcement, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Pete Docter, having worked on Pixar films, were confirmed to be directing, with Michael Arndt, Joe Stillman, J. David Stem, and David N. Weiss attached as screenwriters after previously scribing DreamWorks' Shrek 2 (2004).

Casting
Shigeru Miyamoto announced that Robin Williams, Natalie Portman, Steve Carell, Kiefer Sutherland, Kel Mitchell, Mark Hamill, and John Turturro would headline the voice cast and that Martinet would be featured in "surprise cameos". The announcement was met with a mixed reaction from fans; while some welcomed the idea of celebrity actors voicing the characters, others questioned and criticized the choices, in particular Williams as Mario instead of Martinet (who has voiced the character since 1992) or an Italian actor. Spielberg said Williams would not be voicing Mario with a thick Italian accent as Martinet has traditionally done; voice actor Khary Payton described Williams' voice a "cousin to the Sopranos". Voice actress Tara Strong criticized Williams' casting and expressed a preference for Martinet to voice Mario instead, lamenting on what she described to be Hollywood's disregard of professional voice actors. In response to the criticism of Williams' casting, Ardnt stated, "For us, it made total sense. He's really good at playing a blue-collar hero with a ton of heart. For the way that Mario is characterized in our film, he's perfect for it."

Plot details were kept secret from the actors during recording, according to Samberg, who noted he had to record his dialogue in many different ways, after which the directors selected the version they believed would be best suited for the scene. Upon the trailer's release, voice actors Khary Payton and Eric Bauza confirmed their parts in the film; Payton voices the Penguin King and Bauza is slated to appear in a yet-undisclosed role.

Animation and design
The film was animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks in British, Columbia. Production was underway by September 2002, with animation work ending in October 2004. Post-production work on the film had wrapped by March 2005. Lasseter stated that Sony updated their lighting and rendering technology for the film, with Stanton claiming that it "pushed the technical and artistic capabilities of [the] studio to new heights."

Lasseter, Stanton and Docter wanted the animation to juggle stylized animation with realism, with Docter claiming that "there are moments of cartoony fun, but […] we wanted it to feel like a big adventure film and that there are stakes and maybe you believe that these characters can die, so they're not super-squashy and super-stretchy, and we used consistent volume on the characters to make them feel a little more grounded." For the go-karts featured in the film, the directors worked with a vehicle design artist and artists at Nintendo to create go-karts that fit their portrayal in the film while drawing inspiration from their portrayal in the Mario Kart games.

In an interview with GameSpot, Stanton said that he, Lasseter and Docter took a "blockbuster approach" when making The Super Mario Bros. Movie. He stated: "To me, this is a movie that's been like 40 years in the making, you know, and I've always considered Mario more of an action game. The characters look comedic, but the story is always high stakes, you gotta save the princess or save the world or whatever in the game. So we wanted to reflect that action sensibility." The two brought in artists they knew from television and worked closely with them to craft the film's action sequences. Skudder in particular was crucial in making the action, especially the Rainbow Road sequence. According to Lasseter, Stanton and Docter, Skudder spent months working on the sequence, which they also described as the film's most technically challenging. The road itself was a visual effect, and every shot of it had to go through the visual effects department, which was time-consuming and expensive.

Donkey Kong's design was changed for the first time since the video game Donkey Kong Country (1994). For his new design, artists incorporated elements of both his modern design and his original design from his debut appearance in Donkey Kong (1981). For Mario's family, Horvath and Jelenic were given early designs of Mario by Nintendo to use as reference; they ended up using slightly altered versions of those designs in the final film.

Music

 * Further information: Super Mario Bros. (soundtrack) and Music of the Nintendo Cinematic Universe

During an October 2004 Comic Con presentation, Miyamoto confirmed that Rupert Gregson-Williams is set to compose the score for the film. Gregson-Williams is working closely with longtime Mario composer Koji Kondo to incorporate themes from the games within the film's score. He described the composition as "big", featuring an orchestra, choir and bands, as well as "Italian instruments, accordions, live drums, mandolins […] whistling human voices", and "eight-bit [sounds ]". Recording sessions for the score began on November 17, 2004, at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros. Warner Bros. Studios]. Sound mixing took place at Skywalker Sound, where Kondo and Miyamoto responded positively to a fifteen-minute suite of new themes Gregson-Williams had written for the film. Music in the film references leitmotifs from Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario 64, and upcoming Super Mario 3D Land, among other Mario games.

Marketing
On August 31, 2004, Nintendo opened a website based on the film, earning the domain of “supermariomovie.com”, and a teaser poster being released on the site. An announcement teaser, teasing the title, cast, and animation work, was released on September 1.

On October 6, the teaser trailer was released live in a presentation. In a short questions and answers period following the trailer reveal at New York Comic Con, Kiefer Sutherland stated that "Bowser has a musical side" in the film, teasing a theme for the character. The teaser trailer received over three million views in 24 hours. Journalists generally praised the trailer's visuals and tone, as well as Sutherland and Mitchell's performances as Bowser and Toad. However, Williams' performance as Mario was described as lacking in emotion and sounding too similar to his normal speaking voice. Vic Hood from TechRadar noted a slight New York accent in Mario's lines, calling it a possible throwback to Mario's depictions in American media such as ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Super_Mario_Bros._Super_Show! The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!] and the 1993 film, before Charles Martinet debuted as the character's official voice actor in Mario's Game Gallery'' where he spoke full dialogue for extended periods of time.

On November 29, the first official trailer was shown in Comic Con. Public reactions were still largely favorable, though online discourse continued to center on Williams' performance as Mario.

On December 8, the first clip of the film, showing Toad guiding Mario through the Mushroom Kingdom and to the entrance to Peach's Castle, was revealed at The 8th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. The Verge 's Ash Parrish commented, "Despite the skepticism surrounding Robin Williams' performance as Mario, the movie's visuals — and I cannot stress enough, only the visuals — look incredible".

On January 29, 2005, a preview clip of the film was released during the NFC Championship Game. Some entertainment news sites pointed out the addition of Sandler's "iconic laugh" heard as Donkey Kong in the clip. Emma Roth from The Verge commented, "I'm pleasantly surprised at how well his voice (and laugh) suits the character" while Luke Plunkett from Kotaku commented, "Adam Sandler has been hired to... just be Happy Gilmore".

On February 12, 2005, a commercial for the film was released during Super Bowl XXXIX, featuring a rendition of the title theme from ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Super_Mario_Bros._Super_Show! The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!]''. A corresponding website which was featured in the trailer was also released, which advertises the Super Mario Bros. Plumbing Service from the film as if it were, according to Plunkett, "...a struggling small business servicing the Brooklyn and Queens areas".

Theatrical
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released theatrically in the United States on April 6, 2005, and later in Japan on April 28, in both regular formats and in IMAX 2D and 3D. The film was previously scheduled to be released on December 17, 2004 and April 8, 2005 (the former of which was taken over by Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events in response to the film's delay to the later date). On February 28, 2005, it was announced that the film would be released two days earlier, on its current date, to more than 60 markets while maintaining the April 28 date for Japan and stating that additional markets are to follow during April and May. It released in 65+ countries on dates ranging from April 6 to 8. It was released on April 26 in South Korea and is scheduled to be released May 26 in Poland. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the first film of Phase One of the NCU.

Home media
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released on VHS and DVD on November 1, 2005, in wide- and full-screen editions, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film was released on Blu-ray on September 19, 2006. It includes behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, and an alternate opening.

The film was also collected in a 10-disc box set titled "Nintendo Cinematic Universe: Phase One – The Beginning" which includes all of the Phase One films in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe.

Box office
As of May 16, 2005, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has grossed $347.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $330.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $677.9 million, becoming the fourth-highest grossing film of 2005.

In the United States and Canada, Super Mario Bros.: The Movie was released alongside XXX: State of the Union, and was initially projected to gross around $125 million from 4,025 theaters in its five-day opening weekend. It was also expected to gross around $100 million internationally. After making $31.7 million on its first day and $26.5 million on its second, five-day estimates were raised to $141 million. Projections were re-adjusted yet again to $191 million after the film made $55 million on Friday. The film went on to debut to $146.4 million during the traditional three-day weekend and $204.6 million over the five-day frame, surpassing the $72.1 million opening of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life to become the top opening weekend for a video game adaptation, as well as surpassing its $190.8 million lifetime gross to become the top grossing video game adaptation ever. The film surpassed Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith for 2005's biggest opening weekend. Overall, The Super Mario Bros. Movie generated the third-highest domestic opening weekend for any animated film, after The Incredibles and Shrek 2. It over-performed in other territories, making $173 million for a global opening weekend of $377.2 million, surpassing The Day After Tomorrow 's record. It also became the highest-grossing film based on a video game after just one week of release.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 89% based on 137 reviews and an average score of 8.00/10. The site’s consensus reads: “Super Mario Bros. heightens the bars of its predecessor with a fun, funny animated action comedy that fans of the series are sure to enjoy that includes twice the character development that the original did (none).” On Metacritic, the film has a score of 90 out of 100 based on 37 critics, indicating “generally positive reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a positive grade of an “A” on an A+ to F scale.

Writing for Variety, Andrew Barker called it "generally entertaining and better than the original" and concluded: "Even when it doesn’t really have a reason to exist, the Super Mario Bros. movie is purely better than the original for plenty of reasons". Neil Genzlinger gave the film a mostly positive review in The New York Times, writing: "The new Super Mario Bros. might well be the best video game movie 13-or-unders have yet seen, just as the original was for their parents back in 1993. Those parents might find it an enjoyable trip down memory lane, even if they do now recognize it as largely a well-served collection of video game-movie tropes". Eddie Goldberger echoed that sentiment in The New York Daily News, writing "It is a massive improvement over the original with way more bits of humor." Tirdad Derakhshani wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "It's not exactly a superhero film, but it does provide an enjoyable ride. It's good fun.", adding: "It’s a perfect remake and a perfect film in general.". Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mike McCahill called the film "not so funny". Bilge Ebiri wrote in New York magazine: "This new Super Mario Bros. isn't anything special... But it's not a travesty, and that feels like cause for brief celebration".

Other critics took a more skeptical view of the film. Writing a review for The Village Voice, Alan Scherstuhl stated, "Super Mario Bros. 2005 is better than the original (and that is a fact), but there are many other video game movies out there that are arguably a better time than this one. But I still recommend it to fans of the series, especially." Linda Cook wrote in The Quad City Times, "The Super Mario Bros. remake is good, and that can’t be argued with." Randy Cordova in The Arizona Republic wrote, "Ultimately, the whole affair is hilarious."

Sequels
Coming soon

Transcripts
Coming soon