With a new feature film arriving April 5, excitement is once again bubbling for the world-renowned Super Mario franchise.
Starring Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen and several more big names, the Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic-directed, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is set to arrive in North American theatres on April 5 via Universal Pictures, Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment.
“A Brooklyn plumber named Mario travels through the Mushroom Kingdom with a princess named Peach and an anthropomorphic mushroom named Toad to find Mario’s brother, Luigi, and to save the world from a ruthless fire-breathing Koopa named Bowser.” – IMDB
The final trailer was posted on March 9 along with a link to the official Canadian website where tickets can be booked in advance. US viewers can use the thesupermariobros.movie link for ticket sales.
While the hype surrounding the movie has been immensly positive—in terms of critics and social media reaction—a recent post by @MarioBrothBlog, an “obscure Mario content” specialist, shared a 1996 Super Mario 64 manga theory which gives it a dark spin.
The image theoirzes that the Super Mario Bros. 1-Up mushrooms are grown from the rotting corpses of deceased, failed Marios, who might have died at the hands of a sneaky Koopa Troopa, or an aggressive Piranha Plant… the manners in which Mario can die are endless, but the image suggests that Mario bodies are the special ingredient giving the shrooms a mega boost.
Source: Super Mario 64 4Koma Gag Battle (Japan), Shounen Oh Comics, 1996, ISBN 4-334-80355-5
Alongside the image, @MarioBrothBlog wrote: “A 1996 Super Mario 64 manga suggests that 1-Up Mushrooms grow from the bodies of dead Marios, perpetuating the cycle of life and death.”
In a separate tweet, they added: “Please note that these manga are filled with jokes and eccentric theories such as this, so this should be taken more as an interesting thought experiment than anything that would actually be endorsed by Nintendo!”
As defined by Wikipedia, “Manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term manga is used in Japan to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word is typically used to refer to comics originally published in the country.
For those just getting familiar with the manga content, SUPER MARIO KUN is the name of the popular Mario manga series written by celebrated writer and artist Yukio Sawada and published by Shogakukan. A couple of years ago, Nintendo teamed up with celebrated writer and artist Yukio Sawada for a special release, Super Mario Manga Mania.
Super Mario Manga Mania is the first ever localization of SUPER MARIO KUN after 30 years of publishing in Japan, as a collection of stories featuring the lesser-appreciated game titles including Super Mario Sunshine, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and Super Paper Mario.
There’s just under a week to go until the release of the movie, but you can already find a ton of related content, easter eggs and fan theories on YouTube that can hold you over in the meantime. You can even find videos telling you how the movie is going to set itself up for a sequel.
Plus, if you’re like me and don’t know every little detail about the Super Mario franchise, it’s interesting to look at some of the videos dissecting the trailer to see what the inspirtion and context behind some of those scenes are. Stay tuned for more Super Marios related content.
