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Super Mario Bros.[b] is a 2009 computer-animated action-adventure comedy film based on the video game franchise of the same name created by Nintendo. Directed by Ash Brannon and Mike Mitchell from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and a story by Shigeru Miyamoto, Joe Stillman and Brian Lynch, it is the thirteenth film overall in the Nintendo Cinematic Series. The film features the voices of Zac Efron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Amy Poehler, Jack Black, Gilbert Gottfried, Keegan-Michael Key and Patrick Warburton. The film follows two Brooklyn brothers named Mario and Luigi who embark on a mission to rescue the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach, from the clutches of a ruthless fire-breathing koopa named Bowser before it's too late.

Super Mario Bros.' first effort in the Hollywood film industry first happened in 1993 under the now-defunct Disney-owned Hollywood Pictures film company, only for it to be a critical and commercial failure. After being so incredibly appalled from the disappointment of the film, Shigeru Miyamoto, the person behind the iconic video game series, declined the production of any further Mario film adaptations. However, after seeing the success of the Nintendo Cinematic Series following the release of Donkey Kong (2005), Miyamoto agreed to be involved with a second attempt at a Mario film. Ash Brannon was assigned to direct the film in November 2005, while Miyamoto was tasked to write the film with Joe Stillman and Brian Lynch in January 2006. Fast & Furious producer Neal H. Moritz was signed to the project in May 2006 following negotiations with Nintendo and Universal Pictures. An international co-production between the United States and Japan, the film was produced by Universal Pictures, Nintendo Films, Relativity Media and Original Film, with the animation being handled at Reel FX Creative Studios.

Super Mario Bros. premiered on September 12, 2009 at the Regency Village Theater, before it was theatrically released on November 27, 2009 by Universal Pictures, as part of Phase Two of the Nintendo Cinematic Series. The film later was released in Japan on March 19, 2010 by Toho. Upon release, the film received universal acclaim from critics, audiences and fans of the video games, with praise for the animation, voice cast, screenplay, musical score, plot, story, Easter eggs and references to the classic games, and faithfulness to the source material. Grossing $1.202 billion worldwide against its $120 million production budget, Super Mario Bros. broke numerous box office records, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2009 (until it was surpassed by James Cameron's Avatar), the highest-grossing animated film of 2009, and is currently the twenty-sixth-highest-grossing film of all time behind Iron Man 3, and the sixth-highest-grossing animated film of all time behind Incredibles 2.

The film's success spawned a media franchise alongside the main video game series, which includes two sequels: Super Mario Bros. 2: The Next Level in 2013 and Super Mario Bros. 3: The Wrath of to the Koopas in 2016; and a spin-off 2D animated television series that aired on Nickelodeon in 2011. The show serves as a reboot to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, a 2D animated cartoon produced by DIC Entertainment. An untitled fourth film is in development.

Plot[]

Mario and Luigi are two Italian brothers who live in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, and are the two people behind the "Super Mario Bros. Plumbing". But after the brothers failed to complete a simple plumbing problem, Mario is suddenly not so confident about the business succeeding after his father, Papa Mario, tells him he's crazy for doing a plumbing business during dinner, but his mother, Mama Mario, encourages him to keep going and that he'll do good with the business. But later that very same day, when they investigate a sewer blockage below the streets of Brooklyn, Luigi stumbles upon a vibrant green pipe. When Mario wasn't looking, Luigi gets sucked down the pipe, to which Mario investigates where the scream came from. He then gets sucked down the pipe as well.

Cutting to a brightly colored alternate world, both Mario and Luigi crash-land on a patch of soft grass, before they regain consciousness and look at their surroundings. Mario looks over and sees a small man with a mushroom on his head; his name was Toad. Confused, Mario asks if Toad can show him and Luigi around, to which he agrees. Meanwhile, back in Brooklyn, Mario and Luigi's parents can't find them anywhere in their home, or in the city at all. As they venture through their new world, Toad tells Mario and Luigi that Princess Peach, the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, was kidnapped by a giant fire-breathing koopa named Bowser. He also tells the brothers that Bowser plans to inflict damage upon the Mushroom Kingdom in only a matter of days, and asks for them to help the people out and protect the Mushroom Kingdom, to which they swiftly agree to do so.

Mario, Luigi and Toad take a ride to a small hut outside of the Kingdom, where they meet a brown gorilla-like creature named Donkey Kong, as well as his younger brother Diddy Kong. Mario and Luigi knew they couldn't do this on their own, so they enlist the help of the two Kongs, to which they both wholeheartedly accept the offer. Cutting to Peach's Castle, Mario and Luigi are confronted by Toadsworth, an elderly Toad and the oldest of the Toads in the Kingdom. Toadsworth orders Mario and Luigi to venture out of the Kingdom and search for clues in order to plan their attack on Bowser's Kingdom, nicknamed the Dark Zone. But then, Toad had an idea.

Up in the Dark Zone, Princess Peach is seen trapped in a cage, while being taunted by Bowser. Demanding to be let go, Bowser simply laughs menacingly and declines her offer. Then, as he kept taunting her, his supervisor Kamek enters the room, informing Bowser that two mustached humans have entered the Mushroom Kingdom, and that they are planning to rescue the Princess. Furious upon hearing such news, Bowser sends out his kids -- the Koopalings -- to take out the brothers. Cutting to the dark forest, Mario and Luigi are seen running through the forest, looking for traces of Bowser. Then, the two see a giant airship up above, shooting cannonballs at them. Mario then sees a springy mushroom ahead of them, to which he makes an effort and jumps high up into the air, grabbing onto the side of the ship. Luigi jumps after him and grabs onto Mario's hand, before they enter an empty room with nothing around. Then, the Koopalings drop in from the roof and stand in front of the plumbers, before they engage in combat, fighting each other.

Eventually, Mario and Luigi come out victorious in their fight with the Koopalings, and drop down from the ship. Little did they know, Bowser's young son -- Bowser Jr. -- just so happened to be surveying the chaos in the room below, and flew back up to the Dark Zone in his Koopa Clown Car to inform his father. Landing in the water below, Mario and Luigi climb onto dry land before they meet up with Toad and the rest of them in the castle, to which Toad had something to show the brothers. They decide to follow Toad, to which he reveals a special go-kart creation lair underneath the castle grounds. Though initially skeptical about this idea, Mario willingly accepts it and picks out his kart, along with the others from the Kingdom.

Soon, they are seen exiting the go-kart creation lair and entering onto a colorful roadway known as "Rainbow Road". A cloud-riding koopa called "Lakitu" appears in view to begin the race. As the green flag waves around, everyone makes it down the road, to which Mario sees the road is supposedly about to end up ahead. Then, he decides to floor the gas pedal of his go-kart and make the jump onto the road below. But little does he know, the Koopalings were directly behind them, waiting on a ledge in their own karts. As they race on the Rainbow Road, Mario and Luigi look behind and see them approaching. The Koopalings and the rest of Bowser's armed forces purposefully ram and shove into the karts of the other drivers from the Mushroom Kingdom. But Mario, Luigi, Toad, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong managed to keep a steady lead and away from the Koopalings. But their problems were far from over.

A blue-shelled Koopa Paratroopa, named the Koopa General by Bowser himself, chases after Mario and Luigi with a giant go-kart with a built-on death machine. In an attempt to get away, Mario retreats to a shortcut on the track, leaving Luigi to go without him for the rest of the track. This shortcut would prove to be a hell zone for Mario, as it was full of twists and sharp turns. The Koopa General's death kart inches closer and closer to Mario. Then, there were an array of mystery boxes up ahead. Grabbing one, Mario received a green shell and tossed it back at the death kart, making it swerve around on the track. Then, a Bob-Omb was sent back at the death kart, blowing it up. As Mario raced down the twisted track, the General became infuriated, and retracts to his shell as it races at hyper speed towards Mario, who was only moments from reaching the end of the shortcut.

Becoming increasingly stressed and terrified, Mario floors the gas pedal as it races down the twisted track, spiraling through loops and clearing near-impossible bends on the track. As the blue shell neared closer and closer to him, Mario had a plan to maneuver the shell and trick it into going for another entity. He grabs a mystery box and retrieves a red shell. He shoots it towards another Koopa Troopa's kart, to which the blue shell heads for it. Relieved, Mario raced back onto the main track, meeting up with Luigi and the others, who made it out of the chaos perfectly unharmed.

Back in the Dark Zone, Bowser is seen getting ready for his wedding with Princess Peach, something that the latter did not want to attend, but had no other choice. Then, from behind the front door of Bowser's Castle, Donkey Kong busts down the door with his incredible strength, to which the group are confronted by a group of Spinies, Dry Bones, Goombas, and Koopa Troopas. As the wedding ceremony is about to take place, Peach punches Kamek away as he's about to pronounce both the two as husband and wife. As Mario and the rest approach the wedding ceremony, Bowser loses all composure and grabs Peach, before he gets into his Koopa Clown Car.

Mario jumps on top of a Koopa Troopa and grabs its shell, hurling it at the Koopa Clown Car. As it begins to descend to the ground below, Mario pounds a question block which dispenses a feather, to which he grabs. Jumping off of the ledge, he flies toward the descending Clown Car, before he grabs Peach's hand and pulls her out from it. The Koopa Clown Car crash-lands below on the ground, while Mario safely lands with Peach in his arms. As the rest of the gang approach Mario and Peach after safely getting down, Bowser emerges from the water, even more furious than ever. He began blasting fireballs toward them, with Mario having to run away from the path, holding Peach in his arms. The chase comes to an end when Donkey Kong runs up and knocks Bowser out. Weakened deeply, Bowser regains consciousness after only a short few minutes, the gang was standing in front of him. Peach grabbed a blue Mini Mushroom from nearby and planted it in his mouth, making Bowser shrink to a small size. Mario couldn't help but laugh at Bowser's misery, before he puts him in a sealed jar. Soon, it was time for Mario and Luigi to head home to Brooklyn, but Peach told the brothers that they could visit the Mushroom Kingdom anytime thanks to the pipe that led them there in the first place.

In the final scene of the movie, Mario and Luigi are seen in present-day Brooklyn working for their business, now known as "Super Mario Bros. Plumbing and Adventure Services". And when they have the time, they warp-pipe to the Mushroom Kingdom where they see Princess Peach, the Toads, and Donkey Kong regularly. It soon ends with the camera entering the pipe, showing the logo and entering the credits.

In a mid-credits scene, the camera pans down to a small island off the coast of the Mushroom Kingdom. As the camera zooms in on a sign, it reads "Welcome to Yoshi's Island", before a meteor blasts it down. A small, bright green dinosaur was seen running from the meteor shower, hinting a sequel.

Voice cast[]

Charles Martinet provides the voice of Mario and Luigi's father, and Giuseppe. His voice work is also seen in the commercial for Super Mario Bros. Plumbing. Candi Milo voices Mario and Luigi's mother, a lady in the commercial, and some toads in the Mushroom Kingdom. Hank Azaria voices Lakitu, a Koopa that rides on a cloud, and is the announcer of the Mario Kart races.

Production[]

Development[]

To be added

Writing[]

To be added

Casting[]

To be added

Animation and visual effects[]

The animation for the film was handled at Reel FX Creative Studios.

Soundtrack[]

Main article: Super Mario Bros.: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by Christopher Lennertz, who had previously composed the music for the 2008 film Disaster Movie. The soundtrack was released through Capitol Records on November 10, 2009.

Release[]

Super Mario Bros. premiered at the Regency Village Theatre on September 12, 2009, before it was theatrically released on November 27 in the United States by Universal Pictures. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for "rude humor, mild language and brief mild peril".

Marketing[]

Home media[]

Super Mario Bros. was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 28, 2010 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Reception[]

Critical response[]

Based on 266 professional critic reviews, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 98% of those reviews were positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. On the website, the critics' consensus reads, "Super Mario Bros. knows what it takes to make a very enjoyable video game movie. With appropriate Easter egg placements and genuine accuracy to the classic games, in addition to its astonishingly beautiful animation and stellar voice performances, it makes the perfect movie for any dedicated gaming individual." Using a weighted average calculator, Metacritic assigned the film a score of 91 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film a rare average grade of A+ on its A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak reported that 99% of audiences gave the film a positive review, with 92% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Box office[]

Coming soon.

Accolades[]

Coming soon.

Notes[]

  1. In Japan, Toho released the film.
  2. Known in Japan as Super Mario Bros. Movie: The Great Adventure of Mario and Luigi; Japanese: スーパーマリオブラザーズ MOVIE マリオとルイージの大冒険, Hepburn: Sūpāmarioburazāzu mūbī Mario to ruīji no dai bōken
  3. Ponyo, a film by Studio Ghibli, was released in 2008 in Japan by Toho. However, the English dub of the film was released in the United States in 2009 by Walt Disney Pictures, and was produced by The Kennedy/Marshall Company.


Template:Nintendo Cinematic Series

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