Super Mario Bros. (1993)

Episode 39,   Apr 10, 2023, 05:29 PM

For the month of April the Watchcast crew will be digging through the detritus of early video game movies, and we're kicking things off with the mother of all game-to-cinema adaptations in the profoundly weird Super Mario Bros.!

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - NOTE: Some timecodes may be inaccurate in versions other than the ad-free Patreon version due to dynamic ad insertions. Please use caution if skipping around to avoid spoilers. Thanks for listening.
(00:00:16) - Intro.
(00:04:59) - Talking a bit about earlier Mario adaptations.
(00:09:14) - The long and twisted history of how this got made.
(00:19:36) - Some casting what ifs. 
(00:24:18) - Boy, the people who starred in this movie do not have nice things to say about it!
(00:33:11) - This is about as off-putting a "family" film as this era ever produced.
(00:35:18) - The set-up for this weird-ass movie.
(00:43:02) - Truly this is a movie about the plight of struggling working class plumbers and under-funded archaeologists.
(00:50:34) - Some special effects and set design talk.
(00:53:20) - The depiction of the Koopa dimension.
(00:59:00) - Break!
(00:59:18) - We're back, and things are nutty in this Koopa Kingdom.
(01:02:30) - A valid question: what is Koopa's plan?
(01:06:54) - The movie's endless parade of baffling aesthetic choices.
(01:14:05) - Yoshi, what have they done to you?
(01:18:35) - The bonkers car chase.
(01:24:17) - Nothing says Super Mario Bros. like a goofy club scene.
(01:29:52) - Finally, the Mario brothers get their jumpin' powers (and their awful secret handshake).
(01:36:43) - Heading into the final confrontation (which takes like 25 minutes).
(01:48:09) - Final thoughts on the film.
(01:51:47) - Outro.

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