The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s Honest Trailer mocks Zack Snyder’s frequent use of slow motion. Based on the iconic Nintendo video game franchise, the animated adaptation follows Mario (Chris Pratt), who must ally himself with Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) to free his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) from Bowser (Jack Black) before the villain conquers the Mushroom Kingdom. The Super Mario Bros. Movie released to positive audience reception and has earned over $1.2 billion globally, setting records for the highest-grossing video game movie; it is currently the highest-grossing movie of 2023.
Screen Junkies now releases their latest Honest Trailer, which takes aim at The Super Mario Bros. Movie and its overuse of slow motion.
The video imagines Snyder as the director of a future Max Payne adaptation, a video game with slow motion action as its main gameplay mechanic. The director is an apt focus for comparison, as his most prominent films, including 300, Sucker Punch, and Justice League, heavily feature slow-motion. Screen Junkies also pokes fun at Luigi’s lack of screen time, Rogen and Key’s obligatory casting, and Bowser simply being an animated version of Black.
How The Super Mario Bros. Movie Defied Expectations
For decades, studios have attempted to translate video games’ popularity to the big screen. Poorly-received early attempts including Street Fighter, Double Dragon, and the original Super Mario Bros. movie nearly killed studios’ desire to mine the video game industry. Throughout the next two decades, Hollywood continued to test the waters with very little success. Thanks in part to the increasing capabilities of visual effects technology, only recently have video game adaptations truly become mainstream.
After Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Uncharted made a statement at the box office, The Super Mario Bros. Movie proved how a video game franchise can properly make the transition to the big screen. It avoided backlash by remaining faithful to the source material when adapting iconic characters. Although hiring Pratt was controversial, audiences were pleased with the characters’ overall design, dodging the controversy Sonic the Hedgehog faced with its titular character. Setting the film within the Mushroom Kingdom and using environmental elements pulled from various Mario games helped create a sense of nostalgia for the older audience while pleasing the younger generation of fans.
Although no sequel has been announced, The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s resounding financial success will more than likely prompt Nintendo and Illumination to build a cinematic franchise. As Luigi was largely left out of the film, a possible sequel can give him time to shine. Black recently spoke to Screen Rant and expressed interest in a Bowser’s revenge story after the final events of the film. With The Super Mario Bros. Movie likely staking a claim to the biggest movie of the year, Hollywood has certainly taken notice with a slew of video game adaptations already in development.
Source: Screen Junkies
