When the Super Mario Bros Movie was announced a few years back, no one could’ve predicted how things would’ve turned out. No one could’ve predicted that the movie would gross over a billion dollars at the global box office and become one of the biggest hits of 2023. No one could’ve predicted that a song called “Peaches” would take the world by storm. No one could’ve predicted that this may truly be the start of the “Nintendo Cinematic Universe,” and yet here we are. While most agree the movie wasn’t perfect, it clearly worked and got audiences to watch it over and over again.
Enter Matthew Fogel, who was one of the writers of the Super Mario Bros Movie. As noted by Resetera, he participated in a webinar and delivered some interesting notes about the writing process for the movie and how things ended up. The reason this will be so “illuminating” for some is that it acknowledges many of the criticisms the film got while also revealing how we got to the points we did.
For example, one of the criticisms was that the movie “rushed through things” to get where it needed to go, and Fogel admitted that they did that. He said during the webinar that their goal was to have “just enough” of a story with “emotional beats” to hold everything together. It’ll be interesting to see how much they change that going forward.
Another key criticism for some fans was Bowser. While he came off as intimidating in the initial trailer, and Jack Black played him perfectly throughout the film, most agree that Bowser’s comedic side was a bit over-the-top. Yes, even for Jack Black. Fogel didn’t do that initially with the character. Originally, Bowser was more of a “Marvel Villain” in terms of meanness and intensity. They kept that course for about a year before changing him to be more of a comedic villain.
As for Mario, the team tried to do a balancing act as they knew that people “know of Mario” given his role in pop culture, and yet they still did certain things to craft his identity. They also tried eliminating any exposition within the movie to not “lose viewers.”
Speaking of which, Yoshi apparently wasn’t in the film because the movie was “barely hanging on” in the state it was in. Finally, the team is putting together ideas for the sequel film.
So, if nothing else, this was a “unique look” at what went into the movie.
