 Hello, and welcome to Release Date Rewind. My name is Marc J. Parker, and I am a film lover, filmmaker, film celebrator. And normally this is an audio podcast wherever you get your podcasts on your favorite apps. But thanks to Portland Media Center, you are about to watch the video component of this show where I celebrate movie anniversaries with my friends. Each month I usually talk about two different movies that I love with different friends, and we talk about the making of the movies, trivia, any fun memories associated with them. So I hope you enjoy, because now it's time to rewind. I want to hear from you in your own words. What is Super Mario Brothers, the 1993 version, about? Can you make sense of this film in your own way? Tell us anyone out there who hasn't seen it, who just wants to hear it through us. What is it about? This is much harder than Poltergeist. Oh, it is. All right. So let's see. So the story is about two plumbers that are in a random mob war with another plumbing company. It's Scopeli. The Scopeli brother. Was it just Scopeli brothers or just Scopeli? I think it's Scopeli brothers, I think. So they're in a battle with Scopeli, and in order to try to win this battle with Scopeli, they go to a job, but the Scopeli brothers beat them to it. And in order to, in order for the Scopeli brothers to take them down, they, oh my God, don't they start a flood? And then they find themselves in a cave. They randomly get transported into, I guess this is the Mushroom Kingdom. And we come to see that King Koopa is this tyrant and dictator. Feels like the United States from 2016 to 2020. Totally. Total dictator. Yeah. It feels very Blade Runner in this other world, right? Very like Mad Max, Blade Runner 1984 or something. And in the process, we meet this woman named Daisy, who has this secret tale that she, secret origin that she discovers that she is the daughter of the king who happens to be the sludge. Oh my God. It's so gross. I love it. And in, in the, and then after that, man, this is tough. This one's a tough one. Oh, it's tough. I'm already confused, but keep going. I like it. All right. So we get to, we get the moral of the story here is that corruption does not, corruption and political, uh, what's the right, what's the right term to say, political corruption does not work in the end because Daisy is the true heir to the Mushroom Kingdom and our heroes must give up. Mario goes back with the true love of his life, Daniela, who by the way, I always like this. I like using these terms to just, you know, bust my friend's balls and he bust my balls too with this. He out kicked his coverage so much with Daniel. She is so pretty. She's so pretty. I love Daniela. I remember, it's funny again, because like I said, I haven't seen this in years, but the second I saw Daniela at the restaurant, I'm like, oh my God, his girlfriend and I love when she's with the other girls in their little like jail cell in the, you know, the other dimension. I love Daniela. She's so cute. And I love when he's above her and he's trying to like get her attention, but doesn't want to upset the goombas. Right. Love it. Yeah. And the big thing that Koopa wants in his, in his plot to become a tyrant is a random stone. You gotta remember the stone. Oh, the meteorite, Dave, I wanted that so badly. I wanted like, I wanted Nintendo or the movie studio. I guess what? Who was this? Like a Hollywood pictures? One of these things. I so badly wanted someone to sell me a necklace with that stone. I was obsessed. And I wanted it to be magnetic how it can like just go into like, you know, because it's in the egg. And then at the, you know, at the end, they're getting it into the big stone. Oh, I was obsessed with this market hot topic was around that you probably would have had. You are so right. Hot topic would have sold. The meteorite. Oh, man. And you probably would have been able to get that metal too. Yes. Yeah. I can see. I know. Can we, can we just talk? Well, I want you to, okay. I think you finished your story or maybe, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Can we just talk about how Daisy was born from an egg? Wow. Wow. The beginning, the baby hatching from an egg within this weird metal cylinder dropped off at the church. These nuns are bugging out. I mean, that's right away when you know, okay, this is not going to be your average movie. Right? No, not at all. Not at all. It reminds me, like I have a very soft spot for Batman and Robin. Oh yeah. Oh my, I've got a record like on other podcasts and just like with my friends about like the ideas that we can destroy Batman and Robin for not being Batman and Batman Returns, but when and Schumacher has gone on record in terms of like, this is a job that I was given and I was given a movie to sell toys and anyone that watches Batman 66 that praise Batman 66, look at that and they consider like some people consider Adam West the best Batman at in the 60s. That's what it was trying to accomplish. And that's what Batman and Robin was trying to accomplish. It was the movie it set out to be. This movie, I guess this is what it sought out to be, but I put it in the same conversation of Batman and Robin in terms of like, it gets the guilty pleasure vibe, right? Because you look at a movie that comes out in 1997, Mortal Kombat and Isolation. Oh yeah. And I think it's one of the worst movies ever made. I remember not liking that one. I liked the first Mortal Kombat a few years prior, right? But that other one, I, yeah. It doesn't, it doesn't capture. I feel like there's some magic here, even though it's not a good movie. But I think there's some magic for us. Like, I wouldn't show this, like I would show this to my daughter, but I wouldn't, if I had a cousin that was like 15 or 16 years old, I wouldn't dare because they wouldn't get it. Or even early 20s. I don't think they would understand like the fun of these movies because I think nowadays with film criticism specifically, there's very much a, this has to be a certain artsy-fartsy thing. Right, it has to be great or awful. There's very little in between. And listen, I'm the type of guy that like me personally, I can love something like going to last year, for example. I could love something like tar, but I could also love something like random, generic Marvel movie number 745. Right. And that's kind of the way I feel with Super Mario Brothers. I think it's like, it's very much like a magical experience to watch this movie. Oh yeah. Even on this show, that's why I love talking about all these random, well, because they're not all random, this one's kind of random, right? But I love talking about all these different movies that I love, you love because like we can talk about the Oscar winners. And then we can talk about the major flops that turn into cult classics. Right. You have your Titanic, your Evil Dead, you got Super Mario Brothers, you got Tar, right? So yeah, there's absolutely, I think a lot to love here, whether you do look at it with a nostalgic lens like you and I might be. Right. Or if you're someone our age, seeing this for the first time and just enjoying this whole world they built. I mean, it really does feel like an amusement park, you know? It does. They put so much effort into all this stuff, all that fungus, the dripping, you know, and how funny that that turns into Lance Henriksen. I totally forgot. I forgot that was Lance Henriksen too. Right. Has a cameo, how random, you know? But yeah, there's a lot of work involved in this movie and you can feel it. And I appreciate it, you know? Not all of it works. I think it's got a great soundtrack. I love that they have the divinals that they sang when I think about you, I touch myself, but this song is a different one, you know, in this movie. But yeah, you know, this movie, actually, I never thought of it this way, but we're watching it. It's a lot like Tank Girl. Did you ever see Tank Girl with Lori Petty? I saw it once. Oh, Dave, yeah. I don't remember much of it all. It's more wild than this. Wild with Naomi Watts is one of her first big movies. Is it? Oh, Naomi Watts. Yeah, Dark Hair, Malcolm McDowell. But it is Mad Max. It is wacky comedy action. And I feel like the early 90s, we were seeing some, you know, it's similar to Leprechaun for me, where it's just this total crazy, weird, wacky comedy, you know? So I appreciate at least that they just went gonzo and just tried something. And a buddy of mine. And I think this is probably as did it, was the execution what probably many people expected? No. But if you really think about it, can you imagine them trying to use CGI in 93 to get some of this stuff done? It would look ridiculous. Yeah. And, you know, they use a little bit of it. I love the watery rock, how they enter the other dimensions, right? Like, and it looks pretty rough, you know? It's not great CGI, you know? But I remember that very well, the fluid warped world to get in. Oh, and actually when we see Mario falling through the dimension to get to Koopa's city, right? It actually made me think a lot of Lawnmower Man. Do you remember that? I love Lawnmower. I love Lawnmower Man, yeah. I feel like that was right around this time as well. And that had some weird strange visuals. And so that was kind of similar, or even like Freddy's Dead, which came out around this time as well. Yes. Nightmare Six. Yeah, that one's rough, but that also had some weird trippy video gamey visuals. So yeah, this is definitely a certain specific era in film innovation, I'd say, you know? It's right before CGI started really taking into effect. Oh, yeah. And how funny. Again, going back to Jurassic, just a couple of weeks later, Jurassic makes this movie look like such crazy, bizarre, indie film, like, odd crap. And then you got Jurassic with the sleek CGI and all that, you know? I do think this era, like 93 to like 96, feels like a, what's the right word? Like a time capsule of an era before CGI doesn't get it right. Because if you look at movies that use CGI from like 98 to like 2003, 2004, some of them are unwatchable because the CGI is so bad. So I feel like this movie, this movie, yeah, it's not great, but I think it just came out at the right time for that era. I just don't think, I think this movie would not have any cult or any guilty pleasure vibe if it came out in the early 2000s with some really awful CGI. It would just be one of those movies people just said it and forget it and do your talk about it anymore. The bad of this movie, I think, it's what makes it so special in terms of like guilty pleasure. Totally. And you know, you know, we were just talking about the thing and practical effects and all that. There's something about practical props and effects and, you know, actual things. When Daisy touches Yoshi's face, I know that she's touching a thing and then she's not just imagining it, you know, and it's green screen. There's something that like you can just see that the dimension of, there's a physical thing. These goombas are, you know, like animatronic, whatever, little heads, right? And I really do appreciate that, you know. We haven't talked about what you think of the idea. We got to talk about the goombas. Oh my God. I'm not the whole creepy chair how it turns, you know, their heads into them. I think the goombas are so fun. Another scene I love that I remembered well is the elevator scene when Luigi starts swaying them and it's so stupid just to get them distracted so they can. With the dancing sequence, when they're finally in their suits. It's so out of, it makes no sense. But just the fact that they're making a dance, it's just so funny. You're so right. Yes. Sorry to cut you off. You are so right. It takes too long to get them in their iconic suits because the whole time I'm like, they're still not in the uniform like and no one's really in their uniform. Even Daisy in her mother's dress isn't pink. It's like purple. So yeah, it's just so weird to me because another movie would have absolutely put them in their, you know, their character uniforms much earlier. So I agree. But I do love you're right. What makes that elevator scene even more fun is they're finally there. The hats on, they're in their like overalls finally, right? And I understand because I do see in a lot of movies like Marvel recently did this with the Netflix show now on Disney. It's going to be a Disney plus in Daredevil. Okay, yeah. They kept Charlie Cox out of the outfit to the last episode. Oh, that's interesting. Okay. It worked. It worked for the show. But for here, I agree with 1000 percent. I think the, I understand why he starts the way he does. But as soon as they get into the Mushroom Kingdom, I feel like, all right, here we go. Now they're in where they're supposed to be in green and red. Let's let's let's get this going. Yeah. Because they steal these uniforms from like some workers. They just pull them out of like a locker, right? So they're kind of accidental. So I kind of wish they were like put in them when they're in prison earlier. Oh, it's a good one. Right. Like that's just their jumpsuit, but it happened, you know, because already they're like changing all sorts of things from the game. So might as well, you know, so yeah, that's one big critique I have is yeah, no one kind of like looks like they would in the game. Go ahead and say it. Dinos. You may think of evolution as an upward process. Loyal child of the royal family. What I care about is the future of our species. I think the Goombas are fun. What do you think of them? It was odd. Super odd. I actually I love them too. I actually. But again, nothing with nothing to do with the game. Any game in Mario, right? None. None. Right. No, not one thing. I don't. I really do think we you may we joked about the drugs being used on it set. Like who comes up with this design? It's just so odd of the little head and the big body. It's it's it's an interesting dine. It's very beetle juice to me. Right. When his head shrinks, you know, at the end, you know, I feel like and I feel like, you know, actually, I feel like I read that the right. So the writer director, I'm sorry, the directors because the writers were separate. The directors were a husband and wife team. Their names were Rocky Morton and Annabelle Jankle. I think they were foreign. And I did read somewhere. Maybe you did too, Dave, that they kind of I guess they came from animation. They did a lot of music videos. They had directed one movie before this called DOA with Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. So they had at least one other feature. But I feel like I saw a quote that they came from like a Tim Burton mindset, where like they got really funky with their work and animation and stuff. So that's why I do think of Beetlejuice and maybe some other Burton-esque things when it comes to this movie. You know, just gave this movie a better director. Oh, yeah. Oh, Tim Burton would would have been really interesting with this, especially back then, but he was just other great stuff. I just thought of like so many things. Right. Oh, my God. The production. I mean, I do think that the production design in this, despite if it's supposed to look that like apocalyptic, I think the production design is really good in this movie. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Very gritty. It's very like 90s grunge. What what the 90s thought the future would be like, you know, so it totally works for me for sure. Yeah, the set. So who got who got it right? Back to the future part two or Super Mario Brothers? So who got the future? Oh, God. That's interesting. I feel like probably back to the future, too. I don't know. I haven't seen that one in a while. What do you think? That back to the future, too, for a few like things. Yeah. The fact that you do have, and I did own a pair of the selfless sneakers. Yeah. That and the fact that they actually almost predicted the World Series in 2015. I will never forget the Cubs winning the World, almost winning the World. They missed it by a year. They won the World Series in 2016. Oh, my gosh. That's funny. Oh, yeah. But no, yeah. That's the future part, too. I don't think, yeah. Super Mario Brothers, outside of like my joke about like four years from 2016 to 2020. I don't think it's like, yeah, it's just. And you know, it's funny that you do bring that up because even my husband, Greg, was watching a little bit of it with me today. And he noticed, especially when Koopa is pretending to be their lawyer when they're in like the, I think Mario says, let's let's get out of let's bust out of this chicken coop or whatever. They're in those cages in prison, right? And Koopa shows up as their lawyer, quote, unquote, and is wearing, you know, a suit and tie. He does come off very Trumpian there, for sure. Maybe it's the blonde and the whole look and his grumpy face. So yeah, it's interesting to think, I mean, because obviously Trump was a big deal then. So maybe they were a little inspired by. Well, another back to the future to call back. Biff in the future is a alternate Biff is a Trump ripoff. Yeah. It's pretty much a satire on Trump. So you're on the nose there. You probably there probably is something there. Totally. Creepy how in that aspect, not much has changed in 30 years. Not much. Yeah. I know apparently, and you probably saw this too, apparently Disney got the rights to this just like a few weeks before or a few months, few weeks before filming. And that's why there was yet again another rewrite. And let me read you a little bit of trivia about this because it sounds kind of crazy what they did. So that's why Ed Solomon is the third writer. He had written Bill and Ted movies. He wrote Mom and Dad Saved the World. Disney brought him on. And the producers feared that the project was skewing too far from the intended audience. So without telling the directors and the cast, the producers in Disney brought in him and the script changed. And so I mean like that. And like apparently made the directors want to run away, but it was already too close to filming. So yeah, I think that's why we can tell there's like some, you know, because sometimes it's very silly and family friendly. Like there are times when John Leguizamo as Luigi is so dumb that I'm like, oh my God, come on, right? Like that whole flying bit. And then he's like, oh, I'm actually just hooked. Do you know that scene where then Mario jumps and the fungus helps him? I'm like, okay, this is actually like too silly, right? But then there's some sexual stuff. And also did you catch as an adult? I almost called him Hopper. Koopa like kind of wants to have sex or rape. Daisy, he's got his tongue out. He wants to kiss her. And then he says like, I'm not done with her yet. Ooh. So like there are definitely some adultish things going on, right? Kind of goes with the person you were talking about. Yeah, totally. You are again. So right. And maybe they knew something. Yeah. Um, no, no. Yeah, like I think the Disney of it all is a very interesting. I mean, I think the answer is one big question that goes back to when we started the old, why can't we find this anywhere? And it's probably a right stay. Yeah, yeah. Because it can't be on Disney Plus. It would be. But Disney has no, doesn't have the rights to it. Yeah, that's so interesting. Because what's the studio behind the new one? Is it? It's Universal. It's Universal. Okay. Oh, good. So it'll be on a peacock before we know it. Love that. Well, or maybe not. I don't know. You never know with really successful ones. I like to wait. But yeah, you're right. That is interesting. So I guess rights were for sale and Universal got it. Because it is weird. And it's also weird because it's not Disney. It was their one of Easter. It's like their subdivision. So that means like Disney proper didn't want to. So they knew it was going to be a little grungy, a little adult, a little weird. Right. So it's very interesting how little things. Yeah. Right. It's really wanted to jump in late, but didn't actually really want it. It feels like they threw in some of these movies to their sub departments when they didn't have as much faith to put the castle brand on it. Totally. Because I mean, there's some gems on their sub brands that you even look at like something like Merrimax is a sub brand. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. People forget. It's a long time. So essentially Scream is a. Yeah. Is that funny? Yeah. It's so funny. Some real violent horror films are sort of under Disney. Sort of Disney. Yeah. I remember when I got my screening, my screener to Hellraiser last year. Oh, yeah. That was pretty good. I liked it a lot. I thought she was fantastic as pinhead. Yeah. But no, the big LOL of it all was, it says every couple of minutes, it pops up property of Walt Disney. And it just, my head, I'm like, oh, that's so funny. That's just so funny. That is this violent horror movie. That is funny. Oh my God. That's so weird. Yeah. That is so weird. But no, yeah. Something not seen per se, but like two things that I wanted to note that I found out were in terms of someone that was offered the role to do, the directing job was Hal Dremis, but he turned it down. Interesting, because yeah, I did see that Ghostbusters was maybe a legit inspiration or at least sort of like, you know, subconsciously a inspiration. So that's interesting. I could see that. And he probably would have, I bet, made it much clearer. But interesting. So he turned it down. Yeah. And then I didn't see too many other director. That was the only one that I thought was true. Yeah. And then the big Luigi what if was, and I'm going to say the actor first, and then when you think about the era, it actually makes sense for what he was doing at the time. Tom Hanks. Yes. I did hear that Tom Hanks was being considered, which is so funny, because 93 was also the year of Philadelphia, I believe. Yes, sir. Came out later in the year after this. So can you imagine if he did this and then his next movie was Philadelphia? What a wild one. Tom Hanks in Philadelphia is probably in my top 10, 15 favorite corners of the ball time. I feel confident in saying that if he did Mario Brothers, and it was as bad as this was, he wouldn't have won the Oscar, because it would have had that prisoner of the moment mindset that you're thinking of like, okay, he had a great incredible performance in Philadelphia. But wait, didn't he do that? Mario movie? Right. Let's give it to someone else. And back then? Because nowadays that happens sometimes, but people don't care. But back then, people would have cared more about your choices and the timing of things. Right? Yeah. Wow, that's a really interesting thought. They must rescue the princess. And make it safely back. Later. Alligator to our world. Are you all right? Before time runs out. Other options if Bob Hoskins didn't take it? Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. I don't believe some of these, but we'll see. Jim Belushi. Okay. Danny DeVito too short. Right. I did hear that Danny DeVito was on their list. Yeah. Bruno Kirby. Bruno Kirby. Oh, yeah, he's in, I think when Harry met Sally. Right. Okay. Yeah, he's also in the Godfather part two. Oh, there you go. It all goes back to the Godfather. He plays a young Clemenza in the Nero sequences. That's cool. Joe Mantegna. Mantegna. Oh. I almost did his name wrong. Yeah. No, I think you said it right. Yeah. I forgot about him. Yeah. Let's see that. Kevin Klein. I don't know. But Kevin Klein, honestly, at this time, Kevin Klein was, I was about to say nominated, was considered for everything. I know he was the first choice for Death Becomes Her, the Bruce Willis role. Like he was up for every role at this time. No, that would be a, no. I remember if I remember, I think I got to the years, right? I think after 93, like 94, 95 was when he did In-N-Out, right? Yeah. I talked about it last year. That was 97. Oh, wow. That was like, oh, wow, never mind. September 97. Yeah. And then the last three that I saw was John Totoro. Too tall. Yeah. Oliver Platt. Oh, that's interesting. I could totally see that. I know he's tall as well, but, you know. And probably no offense to Bob Hoskins. Probably would have, the next person would have been my pick, especially if he would have gotten Koopa as Pacino, would be Joe Pesci. Wow, Joe Pesci. But you know, I wonder if Joe Pesci, I mean, because this was right after Home Alone 2. Yeah. I wonder if he'd be like, I gotta like do something else and not be with another guy doing crazy things, you know? But that, oh yeah, with him and Al Pacino. Oh my God. That's funny. Interesting. Yeah. And I saw that Danny DeVito not only was offered the role of Mario, he was also offered the director position apparently, but turned it down. What do you had? Had he had directed anything by then? I know he did. He might have, let me see real quick while we're talking about him. Okay. He's directed a few things, but I don't know what a lot of these are. Oh, there you go. So by the time the movie came out, he had directed Oh, yeah. throw mama from a train. Yep. And the war of the roses. And then Hoffa. I didn't even know he directed Hoffa. Okay. Yeah, wow. And he went off to direct a movie that everyone from our demo loves. Iconic Matilda. Yes, I forgot he directed that. That's why that movie is so good. Was there any other casting like trivia for the Samantha Mathis role? That was the one that had like the most actually. Oh, did it? Oh, I didn't see. Wendy Cruisin. Oh my gosh. She's she's so much older. She was in the okay. I'm going to talk about the movie The Good Son later this year. Do you remember The Good Son? I love the good son. Love the good son is so good. So good. She's the mom. So she's sorry. She's way too old. Yes, she's too old for Daisy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Good son is a classic. Kim Thompson. I don't know who that is. I don't know. That is Carol Kane. Really? Carol Kane. She was in the Adams family movies at this time. Carol Kane. She's older. Okay. That's random. Elizabeth Pena. Oh, okay. So they would go Hispanic. Interesting. Okay. That one. That one. I knew who she was. Yeah. Veronica Castro. No idea. No idea either. And then probably the worst pick. No offense to her. But she I only really like her in in a hocus pocus. Kathleen and Jami. Oh, Kathleen and Jimmy would. Oh, Jimmy. Yeah. She would have been really funny, which I can't imagine a funny Daisy. Daisy's like the pretty much like the only like kind of straight character like living in the real world. Do you know what I mean? Interesting. Okay. Super Mario Brothers. This ain't no game. I definitely wouldn't call this a bad movie. Would you call it a bad movie? Like a bad movie that you love? I wouldn't call it a good movie. I would call it a movie that accomplishes its goal. I consider like for me, me specifically with my taste, like a bad movie for me has a level of un-rewatchability. This movie is actually very rewatchable with a lot of like Easter eggs. Totally. Like you find in the movie. Yeah. Thanks so much for watching. Next time there's going to be a new movie that we'll talk about so stay tuned and please follow release date rewind on Instagram for updates. Bye. Bye.