Super Mario Bros./Trivia

The series as a whole:

• Creator Backlash: Miyamoto was not pleased with Lost Levels, due to it being a blatant rehash of the original game, as well as too difficult for its own good. He much preferred the US Super Mario Bros. 2.
• Talking to Himself: Yes, most characters are Heroic Mimes, but nonetheless, Charles Martinet voices both Mario brothers, their baby versions, and both "Wario brothers".
• Throw It In: Blocks which release multiple coins were originally the result of a glitch and not intended to be in game, but were kept since they were liked.

The NES Game:

• Breakthrough Hit: Super Mario Bros was the breakthrough for Nintendo as a console game developer and the breakthrough for the industry as a whole after the crash of '83.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: According to Cracked, the NES version of Super Mario Bros. was going to be a shoot-em-up platformer, and Mario was going to carry guns, like the beam gun similar to those in Metroid and a rifle. Also, he was going to punch and kick enemies while empty-handed, ride on clouds (which was previously rockets in earlier development) and fire at enemies in cloud drive-bys that would soon become bonus coin stages. Also, the "jump button" was going to be "up" on the Control Pad, leaving the "A" button open for attacks, which, to quote The Angry Video Game Nerd, would have been "f--king f--ked up".

The Cartoon Series:

• Fan Nickname: Particularly among The Annotat Xperiment, the song "Mega Move" is known as "the surf(ing) music" because of its first appearance during a beach scene in Super Mario Bros. 3.
• Old Shame: The Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon has an episode centered around the Princess going to a Milli Vanilli concert... HaHA, that's so Nineties...

The film:

• Creator Backlash: Averted. Shigeru Miyamoto actually admitted that he liked how the movie took creative liberties.
• Creator Killer: Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields), the producer of the film, never really recovered from the film's failure, though his adaptation of The Scarlet Letter certainly didn't help.
• Executive Meddling: The script by writers Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais was so sophisticated and intelligent that it inspired Bob Hoskins, Dennis Hopper and Fiona Shaw to sign onto the project. However, the producers feared it wasn't kid-friendly enough, so they forced heavy re-writes and barred directors Rocky and Annabel from contributing to them.
  • Further changes to the script in terms of special effects and character-development severely limited their vision even further.
  • In the end, over 20 minutes of footage was cut to get Mario and Luigi into the parallel world sooner while the atrocious animated intro was inserted to make up for it.
• Fake American: Bob Hoskins does such a good job at playing one that between this movie and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, many American kids were genuinely surprised to discover that he's actually British.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Alternative Rock musician Mojo Nixon plays Toad.
  • Lena is Aunt Petunia.
• Hey, It's That Voice!:
  • Italian dub: Mario is Indiana Jones, Luigi is Agent J, and King Koopa is Principal Pixiefrog.
• Money, Dear Boy: Dennis Hopper and Bob Hoskins did it for the paycheck.
• Old Shame: John Leguizamo's film debut. His next film, To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper as well, though they were both well into their careers.
  • Conversely, many of the non-leads have stated it was one of their favorite movies to work on. Some even say it is their favorite movie.
• What Could Have Been: Multiple figures were once involved in the project, from the directors wanting Kevin Costner for Koopa, Dustin Hoffman lobbying for the chance to play Mario as a treat for his kids, and Harold Ramis, the producer's original choice for director (contrary to popular rumor, Danny DeVito was never a choice for the role of Mario).
  • An early draft of the script shows that Bowser only disguises himself as a human in his first two scenes, the Princess character is named Hildy and Bowser wants to marry her in attempt to obtain the Crown of Invincibility with which to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Actual game enemies such as Piranha Plants and Thwomps make appearances, Toad accompanies the Mario Bros. throughout their journey as a main character, a baby dinosaur named Junior thinks Mario is his mother, Luigi gets Raccoon Power at one point, one of Bowser's lackeys tells Mario "Your Princess Is in Another Castle", Mario and Luigi sing a Villain Song for Bowser, Bowser ends up falling into a pit of lava... In other words, this draft is much more faithful to the games.
  • Five early scripts, including the aforementioned Fantasy script, can be read on The Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive's Scripts page.
  • According to this issue of TV Guide, the movie was originally planned to be released in 1991 and would have been animated.
  • Jerry Goldsmith was attached to score the film but pulled out due to scheduling conflicts.