Infamous 1993 Super Mario Bros. Film was Originally a Love Story

3rd November, 0 replies

Nintendo, Mario, Luigi, Super Smash Bros.



Nintendo Life has posted an interesting interview with Rocky Morton, the director of the infamous 1993 movie Super Smash Bros. Amongst other things, Morton details the original idea behind the film:

"What caused the biggest problem was the fact that we went into production with a script that Annabel [Jankel] and I liked and was originated by Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais, who wrote The Commitments. And they were really sensitive to this story of the two brothers, and the love story between the two brothers, and the fact that they had lost their parents; Mario had to bring up Luigi on his own. And he became this mother figure to Luigi, and what Luigi really wanted from Mario was an elder brother figure — you know, a male model — and it frustrated him, and he disrespected Mario because of that. Throughout [that initial version], it was about how they reconciled that problem and how Luigi fell in love with Daisy along the way. So it was very much a personal, emotional story between the two of them."

So, what happened? Well, in an attempt to make sure the film had broad enough appeal to get funding they were forced to depart from this darker, more serious tone and create a more child-friendly script:

"We were spending so much money; they needed more money and it was an independent production at the time — I think it was financed by a French bank or something — so they decided to try and pre-sell it to a studio to raise the money to finish it. The reaction from the studios was that the script that was written was too dark and too adult, and it should be rewritten — or dewritten, as I called it — to a lower level, adding stupid gags and making it more childlike, which is what happened. It got rewritten about two or three weeks before principal production, so by the time the script came in we were ready to shoot."

Things soured when the cast discovered that they were working from a completely different script, as Morton recalls:

"All the actors had read and signed up for the original script, and this new script came in which was much more full of gags and sort of childlike, and they didn’t like it very much. So I had to sort of defend the script — and I didn’t like it either — and encourage them to carry on. And it was very awkward, and uneasy, and difficult."

The interview closed by asking Morton what his abiding memory from working on the film was. His response? "Humiliation".

Source:

gamrreview.com/news/92101/…

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