The Super Mario Bros. movie is heading for big box office success. Now available on Netflix is its predecessor from 1993, which was a disaster for almost everyone involved.
The Super Mario Bros. movie has to be a success. That way people might forget how horrible its predecessor Super Mario Bros. was. This is not a review of the film itself, but the verdict of director Rocky Morton, star John Leguizamo and especially lead actor Bob Hoskins. Not to mention viewers and critics at the time of the film’s release in 1993. The film is available on Netflix.
First Super Mario movie on Netflix: Mario actor is still haunted by the shoot years later
“The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Bros. It was a fucking nightmare,” Mario actor Hoskins told the Guardian as recently as 2007 . Morton called the shoot an “excruciating experience” (via SciFiNow ), acting legend Dennis Hopper called it a “nightmare” (via A.V. Club ) and Leguizamo got so drunk out of frustration that he nearly killed co-star Hoskins, according to ScreenRant. What happened?
According to a Nintendo interview with Morton, script changes threw the film into chaos. Hoskins and Hopper called the directing couple Morton and wife Annabel Jankel “control freaks” full of “arrogance”. Thirty years later, what is clear above all is the chaos that must have reigned on the set. And when the film was finally released, it was picked apart by audiences and critics (via Rotten Tomatoes ).
Super Mario Bros. is set in New York, where plumbers Mario and Luigi (Leguizamo) are struggling to make ends meet. Because they want to save the young woman Daisy (Samantha Mathis), they end up in a dinosaur parallel dimension where the nasty King Koopa/Bowser (Hopper) is in charge.
Such whimsical adaptation conceits, a spotty script and wooden acting caused the film to flop for many at the cinema. The groundbreaking production design alone received much praise and may have ensured that the film has now developed a cult factor among some fans.
