Super Mario Bros The Movie Mario Used Figure

Super Mario Bros. (1993): when Nintendo met Blade Runner… and things got weird

In 1993, Hollywood brought the world’s most famous video game mascot to the big screen with Super Mario Bros. But instead of the bright, colorful world of Nintendo’s games, audiences got a gritty, cyberpunk reimagining.

Directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, the film follows Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo), New York plumbers who stumble into a dystopian parallel dimension ruled by King Koopa (Dennis Hopper), a half-human, half-reptile dictator. Goombas are hulking henchmen with tiny heads, Yoshi is a realistic miniature dinosaur, and Peach is swapped out for Princess Daisy.

Dark sets, industrial style, and oddball humor made the movie wildly different from its source material. Upon release, Super Mario Bros. was both a critical and commercial flop, but over time it earned cult status among collectors and fans of so-bad-it’s-good cinema.

Merchandise included posters, a small line of action figures, trading cards, and even a comic adaptation. Today, it’s a prized piece of retro Nintendo history for hardcore fans.