In a new interview with SYFY the original Super Mario Bros. movie directors explained that they had their script ripped up at the last minute as Disney, who was one of the financiers for the film, insisted taking on Bill & Ted writer Ed Solomon who ended up ripping up the original script and rewriting. The news was shared by Super Mario Bros. directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel who had thought that what they had written would rival Batman (1989) They said in the interview that they were led to believe that the inclusion of Ed Solomon was only going to lead to a few dialogue tweaks. However, it ended up being a completely different script from what the pair has written.
“I remember saying to Annabel, ‘This is it. This is going to be our Batman,” Morton explained to the magazine (whose April 2023 issue is now on sale) while discussing the original, less-than-perfect script turned in by Barry Morrow. “It was very fantasy-oriented and childlike. I wanted to make a film that was mainly for kids, but also had qualities their parents could enjoy.”
“It was brilliantly esoteric,” added Jankel. “A road movie that very possibly would’ve make a fantastic film that probably would’ve been equally revolved because it was such a huge step away from the game. We were animators and through in visual terms, so for us, Morrow’s journey wasn’t going to work.”
“My son was obsessed with dinosaurs at the time, so the idea was that the dinosaurs didn’t really get wiped out, they just got shifted into another dimension and the plumbers get shifted there, too. That’s how the whole story is triggered,” Morton explained, going on to say that the overall idea was for the narrative to serve as a meta prequel to the Mario mythos.
“This was the true story of what really happened before the plumbers return to Brooklyn. Of course, by that point, they’re TV celebrities and a couple of Japanese executives from Nintendo want to turn their story into a game, but it gets lost in translation. That’s how we ended up with the Nintendo game.”
None of this came to pass once Disney, a last-minute financier, insisted on hiring Bill & Ted writer Ed Solomon to overhaul the screenplay. “It wasn’t even the 11th hour, it was morel like 11.59,” Jankel said. “We were led to believe it was going to be a little dialogue tweaks, but in actual fact, it ended up being a completely different script.”
Maybe if it didn’t constantly switch around producers and constant script rewrites it would’ve been decent, but not a rival to Batman.
No. First mario movie is only real “BAD”!
I think the only thing the 1993 Mario Bros. film beats Batman on is having a cult following, since Batman 1989 is largely praised while Mario Bros. is… not.
I have a copy of Mario Bros., don’t ask why. I was hoping to have a viewing party for it with my coworkers who’ve never seen it before the animated movie released, but things kept falling through.
I really love the Live Action Movie. For me it has a lot of charm and creativity. From what I heard the New Movie is really leaning on easter eggs and references. Back then you they only had the NES Games to pull from and they did, Yoshi, Bob-ombs, Mushrooms, Bullet Bills Plumbing.
It’s a fun movie, I love it.
I thought it was great.
The original film is great and captures the same feel as one of the Mario rpg titles. So many people dont get the “based on true stories” angle of the plot. Always wanted to see something like the setting of the movie show up in one of the games.
Mario Bros (1993) directors thought film would rival Batman (1989)? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!
To be fair, I do like the movie.