Seth Rogen; John Leguizamo and Bob Hoskins inSuper Mario Bros.(1993).Photo: Jon Kopaloff/Getty; Everett
Seth Rogenisn’t holding back on how “disappointed” he felt as a kid watchingSuper Mario Bros.
Speaking withVarietyat Saturday’s premiere of his upcoming animated filmThe Super Mario Bros. Moviein Los Angeles, Rogen, 40, remembered, “When I was 11, I saw the originalMario Bros.movie and I was so excited.”
“Butit’s one of the worst films ever made,” he continued. “I was so disappointed. I think it made me realize that movies, like, could be bad. That never occurred to me until that moment.”
And while the realization “really bummed [him] out,” Rogen added of his new film, “It’s nice to vindicate that moment. It’s nice to know that 11-year-olds out there won’t be disappointed in the same way that I was.”
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John Leguizamo and Bob Hoskins inSuper Mario Bros.(1993).Hollywood Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstoc
Rather than a direct adaptation of the story featured in the limitedMariogames released up until that point, the plot followed Mario (the late Hoskins) and Luigi (Leguizamo, now 62) as they set out on a quest to a dystopian, dinosaur-laced alternate dimension to rescue Daisy (Mathis, now 52) from the evil clutches of King Koopa (the late Hopper) — and meet some fan-familiar friends and foes along the way.
But the film’s commercial failure may have prevented further adaptations over the last 30 years. AsMariofranchise creatorShigeru MiyamototoldVarietyrecently (without naming the 1993 movie specifically), “We were fearful of all the failure of past IP adaptations, where there’s a license and a distance between the original creators and the creators of the films.”
“The fans get outraged and mad because the studios didn’t do justice to the original work. We really didn’t want a backlash,” added Miyamoto, 70.
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“I was in a movie with Dennis Hopper you wouldn’t have recognized me in because I was covered in grease,Waterworld, and he was acting like Bowser in that,” said Black, 53. “Then I was thinking about Dennis Hopper inBlue Velvet. He was Bowser-y in that movie, too.”
“I guess maybe there is a little Dennis Hopper in my soup just from osmosis. But I can’t say that I’ve seen that. I should watch it, though,” he added.
Donkey Kong inThe Super Mario Bros. Movie(2023); Seth Rogen.Universal ; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Meanwhile, Rogen voices Donkey Kong in the newSuper Mario Bros. Movie, and is also co-producing the upcoming animated filmTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
In an interview withthe A.V. Clublast November, Rogen said hisTMNTreboot won’t be a typical action flick.
“Wefound a way to make it deeply personal,” he said. “It’s a teenage movie. We’re putting a lot of our own feelings — of awkwardness and insecurity and a desire to belong and be accepted and all that — into the movie.”
“And as I sit around with the other people working on [the film], I’m like, ‘We found a way to care about this,’ which is great,” Rogen added.
The Super Mario Bros. Movieis in theaters now.
source: people.com
