Have you heard there’s a new Super Mario Bros. movie in development? Unless you’ve
been completely away from the internet for the past few months, we’re going to bet you have.
This hotly anticipated adaptation of the game series has been subject to so many opinions,
predictions and of course theories ever since the project was announced. With the release of
two trailers, a cast list, a bunch of promotional images and a few unconfirmed leaks, everyone and
their mother seems to have their own idea of what the movie will be and what will happen. Today we
will be taking a look at many of the educated guesses people have had regarding the project
and which ones leave us cautious, optimistic and cautiously optimistic.
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge and this is The Super Mario Bros. Movie Theories We Love and Hate!
Our only real rule for this list is that we will not be covering any of the theories we
brought up in our Super Mario Bros. Movie Predictions We Love and Hate video. That
video was made before the release of this new trailer so now we have more information to
go off of. Check that video out too as we still stand by many of those predictions.
With that said, let’s drive our go-karts off of a cliff and into our list!
In a brief shot in the second movie trailer, we see a clear shot of the Toads standing around a
map of several islands in the Mushroom Kingdom. This makes us wonder, who does each island
belong to? We know three rulers for sure, those being Bowser, Princess Peach and King Penguin,
all demonstrated in the first two trailers. However, that leaves three other islands open
to speculation. We see a brief shot of Cranky Kong in an Emperor outfit while Mario and Donkey
Kong fight in the colosseum, so we’re willing to bet the grassy island in the middle of the
map belongs to the Kongs. The island with the mountain range somewhat resembles Yoshi’s Island.
Considering we saw a herd of Yoshi running around we also wouldn’t be surprised to see
a Yoshi King as the ruler of that island. That leaves one more island, that being the Dessert
Island with the pyramids. Call it a hunch, but we think that we could be looking at Sarasaland from
Super Mario Land. That would mean that island is ruled by none other than Princess Daisy,
who we would love to see in the film. Personally, we love these theories. We’re sure that these
islands will provide Mario with a lot of fun and interesting characters to meet, and having
Daisy amongst the movie’s roster would be pretty amazing. It also could open the possibilities
of more islands being explored in future movie installments like, dare we say, Delfino Island?
Speaking of future installments, a lot of people have theorized this movie is the beginning of a
new animated cinematic universe starring Nintendo characters. Going back for a second to the
implementation of the different islands, this very easily could lead to a prequel movie following the
events of Yoshi’s Island as well as a spinoff movie following the events of the Donkey Kong
Country games. Both of these ideas would work well in the context of the game series and given the
amount of sequels and prequels that Illumination has greenlit, we can see both them and Nintendo
being open to such possibilities. What’s more, if we step outside of the Mario universe for a
second, this movie could also be the gateway into getting movies made based around other Nintendo
properties such as The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Pokémon, Star Fox and many more. If this
happens, could there be a possibility of all these franchises overlapping for an epic Avengers-style
Super Smash Bros. movie crossover? We sure hope so because we absolutely love this idea. It took
a while for comic book movies to become as mainstream as they are and video game movies
could be the next big thing to follow depending on the quality and success of this upcoming film.
We’re sure that this upcoming movie is going to feature some great tie-ins such as toys,
promotional material and even potential sequels or spinoffs. However, considering the subject matter
of the film many have theorized that The Super Mario Bros. Movie will also be adapted into,
you know, a video game. Much like Street Fighter: The Movie The Game before it,
The Super Mario Bros. Movie has the option to come full circle and become a video game based off of
a movie based off of a video game. Considering the movie clearly features many of the locations
found in the games, it’s not like it would even be that unfathomable to see the game adaptation
of this film. The only real differences would be the voices and character models, both of which
could be adapted. While we do think this idea has potential, we must say we have mixed feelings
about it overall. When our only real point of reference for this practice is Street Fighter:
The Movie The Game, we have to wonder if it would be good to give Mario the same treatment. Also,
while much of the voice cast seems to work well within the movie, the last thing we’d
want is to have the movie’s cast replace Charles Martinet and the other actors within the context
of the games. It happened to Sonic so it could happen to Mario too, which we would be against.
With the release of the second trailer for the film, it would seem that Princess Peach,
along with Toad, is joining Mario on his journey rather than being captured by Bowser. Based on
another scene, it would appear that Luigi is the damsel in distress who needs rescuing. We still
consider this a theory because we haven’t seen much of what Luigi’s role is yet so we’re not
sure what his role in the movie will be exactly. Could Bowser be keeping Luigi hostage in order
to lure Mario into a trap? It sure looks like it to us. While this idea once again has potential,
we do have to say we dislike it conceptually. Perhaps Illumination and Nintendo wanted to
do a gender reversal since it's 2022 and the “woman waiting for a man to rescue her” trope
is not as welcome as it once was. We have no problem seeing Princess Peach in action as she
has taken on a more active role in games such as Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario 3D World
and Super Princess Peach, along with the early cartoons and Nintendo Power comics. However,
we feel this could be giving Luigi the shaft a little bit if he spends the majority of the
movie in captivity. Luigi is a reluctant hero, not a damsel in distress, so this could lead to being
a potential Flanderization of his character, even with Charlie Day’s great performance. Still, not
all hope is lost with this plot as Luigi could be actively trying to sneak his way around Bowser’s
Kingdom which has the potential for some really cool prison escape sequences. However, if Luigi is
trapped and simply waiting for Mario’s rescue, we have to say this is a missed opportunity.
We know based on the second trailer that Mario and friends will be speeding around in their go-karts
at one point or another in the film. What the trailer does not reveal is the context of why
Mario and his friends are riding their go-karts. The plot of the film, from what we can tell,
involves Bowser traveling from island to island in an attempt to invade each kingdom and gain a
monopoly as the ruler of all of them. How the heck does a go-kart race fit into that equation? Well,
first off, we speculate what we are seeing in the trailer is not actually a race per say.
We see earlier in the trailer that Mario is fighting Donkey Kong in a colosseum but
later we see Donkey Kong, alongside many other Kongs, riding with Mario on Rainbow Road. Not
only are they not throwing items at each other, which indicates a race in the Mushroom Kingdom,
but they seem to be following Mario’s lead, kind of like the biker gangs in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Perhaps after Mario’s encounter with Donkey Kong in the colosseum, the two teamed up after
determining Bowser as a mutual threat. The Rainbow Road they are driving on likely isn’t even a race
course so much as it is a pathway to Bowser. This actually would even work canonically with the
games as Rainbow Road was used as a path to Bowser in Paper Mario: Color Splash. We like this idea,
but we can’t say we love it. While Mario rallying a gang of Kongs to take down Bowser via Rainbow
Road is really cool, we would like to see an actual race take place too featuring the items
and courses we know and love. If the movie somehow manages to accomplish both of these scenarios,
we will say right now we retroactively bump this theory up from a like it to a love it position.
Sticking with explanations for certain scenarios, let’s theorize why Mario and Donkey Kong are
fighting in the first place. In the opening shot of the second trailer, it seems Mario and Donkey
Kong are facing off in a gladiator ring that resembles the first level of the arcade game
Donkey Kong. This could definitely lead to a really cool fight scene featuring hammers,
barrels, and maybe even sentient fire beings which spawn from oil drums. That’s all well and good,
but what led to Mario and Donkey Kong duking it out to begin with? We’re going to assume that,
upon finding out Bowser is invading all the different islands, Mario, Peach and
Toad travel around from island to island both to warn the residents of the upcoming attack as
well as recruit new people to help overthrow Bowser. Donkey Kong is likely the hero and
protector of the Kongs’ Island and sees Mario as an invader himself. This would be really fitting
for Donkey Kong’s personality as it demonstrates the character’s heroism while at the same time
showing he jumps into action without considering the other side of the story. The colosseum battle
is being conducted by Cranky Kong too who isn’t the friendliest primate, even with members of
his own family. Cranky is likely the one who set up the battle in the colosseum under the
pretense that Mario, Peach and Toad can leave if they win. Personally, we have mixed feelings on
this theory. Even though its consistent with the personality traits of Cranky and Donkey Kong, the
whole “misunderstanding” plot point has been done to death, especially in children’s entertainment.
We’re confident that Mario fighting Donkey Kong will be really cool to see in action but if this
turns into a really predictable subplot to get to that point than don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Mario is going to be engaging in a fight scene with Bowser at some point in the movie. That’s
not a theory, it goes without saying. But, given the number of Toads, Kongs, Penguins and Yoshi we
see throughout the trailers, many have theorized that this is going to accumulate in all-out action
sequence among many armies. While seeing all these characters pop up in the trailers is exciting,
they also have to serve a role in the narrative itself otherwise they’ll end up as nothing more
than distracting background characters. Engaging in an epic Lord of the Rings style action sequence
would be a great way to make the presence of all these characters feel justified. Does that mean
we’re going to see Koopa Troopas stabbing Toads with their spears or Princess Peach
cutting Goombas in half with her battle axe? Obviously not, this is a family movie at the
end of the day. Even so, we do like this idea. Even without casualties, a fight scene between
all the different armies would be pretty epic and seeing the studio work around extreme violence in
this scenario could lead to some creative choices. We won’t deny that the lack of any
sort of life or death consequences in a battle like this could feel limiting, which is why we
fall short of loving this idea. Under the right circumstances, this still could really work.
Moving away from plot details, let’s end off this video with a much more financial
theory. Many speculate that this movie will be Illumination’s biggest success yet, both
critically and financially. Illumination is by no means an unrecognizable company. Those annoying
Minions certainly have their place in pop culture, bringing delight to many and seething hatred to
many others. They’ve also adapted many famous Dr. Suess properties such The Lorax and The Grinch as
well as producing other financially successful original series like the Secret Life of Pets and
Sing movies. While they aren’t exactly creating the same level of financial hits that Pixar and
DreamWorks are known for, Illumination has found modest success from working on a much lower
budget than those aforementioned film studios usually have for one of their projects. However,
Super Mario is obviously a huge intellectual property that has seen financial success in
many different countries. Mario is as easily recognizable if not more so among children
than classic cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse. We’d also wager that the Mario
series has a larger adult audience than their of those characters either, so there are very few age
ranges that this movie will not appeal to. All you really got to do is read the YouTube comments for
any given Mario video to see what we mean. Not only do we think that this speculation is very
likely to come true but we also really love the theory in itself. Illumination’s films have been
mostly financially successful but critically mixed, with many complaining that the company
plays it safe with its character designs and never reaches outside its target demographic with its
stories. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is definitely aiming to be enjoyed by all ages given the amount
of old-school Mario references. Illumination is also putting a lot more effort into the
look of the film than they usually do, featuring beautiful environments, character designs and
cinematography. Not only could this film be a big step forward for video game movies in general but
it could be a giant leap forward for Illumination as a company given the amount of effort they’re
putting into it. We’re sincerely hoping that it works out well for all parties involved.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our
choices. And tell us what we should cover next. Remember to hit that notification
bell and binge more of our videos. But most importantly, stay wicked.