Discover all the curiosities and easter eggs of Super Mario Bros The Movie with Chris Pratt and Jack Black. We reveal the easter eggs and hidden details of the most epic moments of Super Mario Bros The Movie.
If you are a true Super Mario Bros fan, you will surely enjoy knowing the hidden messages and details of the movie, as well as the moments to which they belong. So, here are the best curiosities of Super Mario Bros The Movie.
75 FUN FACTS about SUPER MARIO BROS THE MOVIE
- A game cabinet in the pizzeria early in the film is called “Jump Man.” The character of Mario was originally known as “Jumpman” when he first appeared in the video-game Donkey Kong (1981). The character’s name was changed to Mario as a tribute to the landlord of Nintendo of America’s warehouses, Mario Segale.
- A French restaurant called “Chasse du Canard” can be seen in the background of some shots in Brooklyn. “Chasse du Canard” translates as “Duck Hunt,” another early Nintendo game, which was often packaged with Super Mario Bros. (1985). The restaurant’s logo is a duck from the Duck Hunt (1984) game.
- When Luigi’s phone rings, his ringtone is the startup jingle from the Nintendo GameCube. The default caller icon also resembles the default Mii on the Nintendo systems since the Wii.
- The music played during Mario and Luigi’s plumbing commercial is actually the theme music of the kid show El show de Super Mario Bros. (1989), starring Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi.
- One of the residents in the Mushroom Kingdom is seen buying a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) cartridge at the antique store. The owner of the store tells him to blow into it to get it to work, a reference to how many gamers would have to blow into the NES cartridges to get errant dust out of them.
- Although the film is obviously based on Mario, there are many references to other Nintendo franchises. The pizzeria is called the “Punch-Out!!” Pizzeria after the video game Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (1987) (shortened as “Punch Out!!” when Mike Tyson wasn’t related to it) in which Mario had a cameo as the referee, and a model of an Arwing fighter from Star Fox (1993) can be seen in Mario’s bedroom, as well as a poster of Captain Falcon’s blue pod racer from F-Zero (1990) and sequels. Additionally, the game that Mario plays in his bedroom on an NES-style console is the classic Hikari shinwa: Parutena no kagami (1986).
75 FUN FACTS about SUPER MARIO BROS THE MOVIE
- At the beginning of the movie Mario and Luigi had to run to their first job. This is not only a recreation of the classic side-scrolling action from the original 8-bit Super Mario Bros. (1985) NES game, but also at the end Mario jumps to a pole of a restaurant called Castle Burger. The way he slides from it is exactly as he does in the game. Also the shape of the restaurant is the same as the castles at the end of every stage.
- The spikey red-shelled turtle like things that Bowser didn’t know the name of are called Spiny from the game Super Mario Bros. (1985).
- Many of the actors attended the premiere of the film in outfits inspired by their characters. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day wore matching red and green suits, Jack Black wore a suit with Bowser’s spikes on the back and flames on the cuffs, and Anya Taylor-Joy wore a recreation of Peach’s motorcycle outfit that’s seen in the film.
- Designs for Mario and Luigi’s parents and relatives were based on sketches made by Nintendo that went unused in games.
- When Mario and Luigi descend to the sewer in order to stop the water flow, they inadvertently break through a wall and find an unused part of the sewer, which has a sign that states ‘Level 1-2’. This alludes to an infamous glitch from the original Super Mario Bros. (1985): in World 1-2, a sewer level, the player could jump through a certain wall and end up in a warp zone that led to the ‘Minus World’. For many years, fans believed that this was a secret world built into the game, while in reality, it was glitch that led to an improperly loaded environment, creating an unwinnable situation. In the movie, level 1-2 contains the portal to the Mushroom Kingdom, thereby genuinely giving access to a secret world.
- The Super Mario Bros. plumbing van’s logo is the logo font that’s been used since the original Super Mario Bros. (1985). Additionally, the images of the brothers on the van are old promotional images from the game’s early days.
- A billboard that can be seen in the background on one of the buildings in Brooklyn features an advertisement for ‘Hanafuda Cards’. Nintendo was originally founded in 1889 for the purposes of producing and selling hand-crafted hanafuda. Nintendo has focused on video games since the 1970s but continues to produce cards in Japan, including themed sets based on Mario, Pokémon, and Kirby.
- Spike, the man in blue who mocks Mario and Luigi at Punch-Out!! Pizzeria, is actually Foreman Spike. He was introduced in Wrecking Crew (1984), where Mario and Luigi work using hammers as demolition workers, Spike is an NPC (Non-Playable Character), who appears in the game as Mario & Luigi’s rival demolishing walls (preventing Mario and Luigi from winning points for destroying them), that in addition can push them off of the platforms if he hits them.
75 FUN FACTS about SUPER MARIO BROS THE MOVIE
- Marks the first time in non-video game media where Princess Peach is referred to as such outside of Japan, rather than as her original name Princess Toadstool.
- In the movie Mario wears two suits, Cat and Tanooki. Cat Mario was introduced in Super Mario 3D World (2013), which allowed Mario to climb or cling to walls, claw swipe enemies, and to claw dive on enemies from mid-air to slam into them. While, Tanooki Mario was introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988), which not only allowed Mario to fly, but to turn him into statue for a few seconds (pushing “down” in the scroll and B button) which gave Mario invulnerability.
- The brand of piano Bowser plays is called “Ludwig Von Koopa”. This is the name of the eldest Koopaling in the Super Mario Bros. video games, introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) (Final Boss in the world 7).
- When Mario and Toad enter the Mushroom Kingdom, you can see the “Crazy Cap Store” in the background, this can be found and used to purchase cosmetics in Super Mario Odyssey (2017).
- The musical piece performed by Bowser and Kamek together at the piano is the famous “Underground Theme” from Super Mario Bros. (1985).
- In the plumbing commercial, Mario and Luigi appear making a poor visual effect pretending fly over NYC using a yellow cape. It’s a hint for a suit named Caped Mario, which was introduced in Super Mario World (1990). The suit is obtained getting a Cape Feather, which grants the player the ability to fly indefinitely through the levels and attack enemies by spinning it around (using X Button or Y Button). In addition, while falling with Caped Mario (pushing A Button or B Button) the player can float down slowly.
75 FUN FACTS about SUPER MARIO BROS THE MOVIE
- A painting of the hunting dog from the Famicom/NES game Duck Hunt (1984) can be seen at the end of the hallway in the apartment where Mario and Luigi take their first plumbing job.
- The song “Peaches” debuted at #83 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Jack Black his first solo hit and his first hit overall since Tenacious D’s “The Pick of Destiny” peaked at #78 in 2006.
- The website shown at the end of the Super Mario Brothers’ Plumbing commercial (www.smbplumbing.com) was a real site at the time of the film’s release. The website gave the business’ phone number as 1-929-556-2746 (1-929-55-MARIO). At the time of the film’s release, calling that number would play a recorded message from Luigi.
- The film surpassed 2019’s Frozen II as having the highest-grossing opening worldwide for an animated film, grossing $375.6 million. It also achieved the highest-grossing opening for a video game adaptation worldwide, surpassing 2019’s Detective Pikachu. In addition, the film achieved the second highest-grossing opening weekend in the US and Canada for an animated film behind Incredibles 2, earning $146 million in a 3-day frame and $204 million in a 5-day frame over Easter weekend. On April 13th, it became the highest-grossing video game movie of all time, surpassing 2016’s Warcraft in 9 days.
- Kamek’s first appearance in non-video game media, as well as the first time he has an English voice actor.
- In the Punch-Out Pizzeria, there are a bunch of pictures on the walls from characters in the Punch Out video games such as Little Mac, Bear Hugger, Glass Joe and Doc Lewis.
- Despite the film’s release being pushed back from December 2022 to April 2023, Happy Meal Toys of characters appearing as they do in the film still came around less than a month after the originally intended release date.
- A Pikmin glass ornament can be seen in the lounge of the customers that Mario and Luigi attempt to repair the sink.
- Mario was originally named Jumpman in Donkey Kong (1981); Luigi actually first appeared in the TV ad for the first Mario Bros. (1983) video game in 1983, played by a live actor. It was the first ad to be set entirely within a game world.
75 FUN FACTS about SUPER MARIO BROS THE MOVIE
- When Mario is in his room playing Greek mythology-based Nintendo game Hikari shinwa: Parutena no kagami (1986) on his Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), a copy of the Greek epic poem “The Odyssey” is seen in the background. This is also a reference to the game Super Mario Odyssey (2017).
- The studio behind the film Illumination Entertainment previously referenced the Mario games in a few of their films. Both Lorax: En busca de la trúfula perdida (2012) and Gru 3: Mi villano favorito (2017) had mentions of Donkey Kong, referring to the Donkey Kong (1981) arcade game of the same name where Mario made his first appearance. Mascotas (2016) had a scene where a turtle shell slides along the ground knocking out things in its path like Koopa Troopa shells do.
- After obtaining the Super Leaf power up, Donkey Kong comments on Mario looking like a raccoon. Later, Luigi asks Mario why he’s dressed like a bear. This is a reference to Super Mario Bros. 3, where the Super Leaf power up was introduced to turn Mario into Raccoon Mario, but another, much rarer power up can be found that turns Mario into Tanooki Mario. The power up looks like a teddy bear, and Mario’s form resembles a cat-bear (red panda) more than a raccoon. Despite the differences in appearance, Raccoon Mario and Tanooki Mario share the game mechanics associated with flying. This is how both Luigi and Donkey Kong could be correct in their description.
- The look of Mario’s father is based on the character design from the Legend of Zelda character Talon who first appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998). Mario’s father and Talon are bald-headed, with a lot of hair on their forearms, and have a mustache that extends to their sideburns. Ironically Talon’s design was actually based on Mario.
- Some of Bowser’s roars are provided by Kenny James, his current voice actor in the games.
- Universal, the film’s distributor, is the same studio behind 1989’s El campeón del videojuego (1989), which prominently featured Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988) among other NES games.
- While Mario and Luigi are working their first plumbing job, the woman is seen reading a book entitled “Galaxy” with a planet from Super Mario Galaxy (2007).
- Anya Taylor-Joy dressed up as Princess Peach for Halloween in 2022 and attended the red carpet premiere wearing Princess Peach’s Signature Pink Racing Suit.
- Jack Black used Darth Vader as inspiration for his Bowser voice.
- The medley played in the end credits includes the Gusty Garden Galaxy theme.
- Peach is shown wearing the biking jumpsuit that debuted in Mario Kart Wii.
75 FUN FACTS about SUPER MARIO BROS THE MOVIE
- Toad’s monster-truck kart makes the same noise as his horn in Mario Kart 8.
- Shigeru Miyamoto originally wanted Donkey Kong (1981) to be a game based on the Popeye comic strip. After failing to secure the rights, he replaced Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl with Mario, Donkey Kong, and Pauline, respectively. Nintendo eventually did secure the rights, and produced Popeye (1982).
- The various karts and bikes all have gliders as first introduced in Mario Kart 7.
- When Mario and Luigi are watching on TV the news about the flood in Brooklyn, below in the screen there is a round of headlines among which audience can read “detects signals from the FS-176 system”. It’s a hint for the Metroid franchise: FS-176 is the solar system where orbit the planets Bilium, Oormine II, Tallon IV, Twin Tabula and Zebes. Bilium, Oormine II and Twin Tabula are mentioned in Metroid Prime (2002) (not having another apparition), while Tallon IV is where the game set, and Zebes is the planet where set Metoroido (1986), Super Metroid (1994) and Metroid: Zero Mission (2004).
- In the film’s Japanese Dub, Bowser is voiced by Kenta Miyake, who is known for being the Japanese voice of Vector the Crocodile from the Sonic the Hedgehog series and the Japanese voice of a handful of Pokemon. Interestingly enough, these characters would appear alongside Bowser in the Mario & Sonic crossovers and the Super Smash Bros. series.
- Just after meeting Toad in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario watches a strange creature like a yellow-spotted orange ball two long spiny green brambles for legs and yellow suction cup-like feet, which moves in lateral way with long steps. It is Bramball, introduced in New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009).
- Toad’s backpack has patches depicting Fossil Falls and Tostarena.
- A construction site has a sign with a picture of a Super Hammer on it.
- The countdown sound from Mario Kart 8 is used for the Illumination Entertainment logo.
- Anya Taylor-Joy has admitted to playing some of the Super Mario games as research for voicing Princess Peach.
75 FUN FACTS about SUPER MARIO BROS THE MOVIE
- The hardhat-wearing Toads resemble the Builder Toads from the Super Mario Maker 2 game’s Story Mode.
- (at around 23 mins) When Mario walks in front of the Antiques Shop in Mushroom City, inside the shop it can be found some items from Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988): -Lakitu’s Cloud (a white cloud with a smiley face): it’s used by Mario and Luigi to skip a level in the map. -Hammer: it’s the weapon Mario and Luigi use when they acquire Hammer Suit. -Music Box: it serves to make sleep the enemies. Only can be used on the map. -P-Wing (a white wing with a red “P” inside): it gives Mario the ability to fly permanently for a level. -P-Switch (a blue block with a white “P” letter on it): that it must be activated by jump on it. Upon activation, all Brick Blocks from an area are turned into coins and viceversa just for 10 seconds. Also make to appear onscreen Blue Coins that are hidden in some levels.
- The release date of the film was revealed in a Nintendo Direct in September of 2021.
- During Peach’s backstory, she’s very briefly seen dressed in an outfit that’s actually a Toad’s typical ensemble adapted to human proportions.