With every game that brings a great hero, comes a great villain.
And nothing is more iconic than Mario and Bowser.
Since 1985, these two have fought each other in most of their games for the sake of Princess
Peach.
With the Mario movie coming in less than a month, we thought we would talk about Bowser
and how he could become the best villain that Illumination has created up to date.
I’m Kyle with Wickedbinge, and this is why Bowser will be Illumination’s best villain
to date.
A small disclaimer before we begin: we know that Illumination is still a relatively new
studio and it may not have the best library for villains.
However, we’ll still do our best to compare what we know of Bowser to each one of Illumination’s
most memorable villains.
We’ll discuss how Bowser could be better than all the villains we have seen to date.
With that out of the way, let’s get started.
First, we’ll talk about the voice actor for Bowser, Jack Black.
While Kenneth W. James is the current voice actor for Bowser in the games, Jack Black
will be voicing Bowser for the movie.
It’s a smart play for Illumination since Jack Black’s voice work is extraordinary.
He has voiced many memorable characters recently, such as Po for Kung Fu Panda, Professor Shelly
Oberon for Jumanji, R.L.
Stein for Goosebumps, and many more!
And let’s be real… if you watch any of this guy’s press interviews - he is absolutely
loving every bit of playing Bowser.
And from what we’ve seen so far, he’s killing the role.
One can only hope that he gets a musical number or two… here’s hoping, anyway.
With Black voicing Bowser, he will be able to give the character a proper personality
that fans will enjoy.
He has pointed out that he’s been a Nintendo fan since Donkey Kong was released (1981)
and said, “I was there when Nintendo was in short pants.”
Jack Black will be perfect for what the story needs and will make Bowser a great villain.
Next, we’ll talk about how Nintendo has overseen the making of the Mario movie.
After the commercial failure of the Super Mario Bros. film in 1993, Nintendo became
wary of licensing its properties for film adaptations.
However, while working on the Super Nintendo World theme parks at Universal Studios Hollywood
and Universal Orlando Resort, the creator of Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, met the founder
of Illumination (Universal Studios animation division), Chris Meledandri.
Miyamoto found that Meledandri’s creative process was similar to his and tapped him
to lead the Mario movie.
In January 2018, Nintendo announced that Miyamoto and Meledandri will be co-producing the Mario
movie with Miyamoto front and center during production.
In January 2020, the Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa stated that the film was moving along
smoothly and also stated that Nintendo would own the rights to the film with Nintendo and
Universal funding the production.
Miyamoto stated that he worked with Meledandri for seven years of planning and six years
of production and that he wanted to make sure the movie is faithful to the fans that played
the games.
He also wanted a film that everyone can enjoy, players and nonplayers.
Miyamoto and Meledandri have spent a lot of effort overcoming the challenges that came
with making the movie but feel like they got it right.
Next, we’ll talk about how Bowser stays true to the source material.
First will be his design.
Bowser is shown much like his video game design.
He is able to breathe fire, he’s the largest of the Koopas with horns in his head, and
has a mighty spiked shell on his back.
As for his personality, he’s a dictator that will get anything he wants regardless
of the cost or damages it may cause.
He is also unwilling to work for what he wants, as he would rather take it by force.
As for motives, he wishes to rule the Mushroom Kingdom with the power of the stars and dethrone
Princess Peach from her place as monarch.
It is currently unknown what he wants to do if he succeeds and takes over, but based on
the games, we can speculate that he wants to rule the kingdom as monarch with an iron
fist.
Next, we’ll talk about Bowser’s castle and the army, The Koopa Troop.
Not only does Bowser breathe fire, but he is strong.
He has a large castle and a large army known as the Koopa Troop at his disposal.
His method of attacking kingdoms is shown that he will travel in his castle with his
army in tow to attack each kingdom he goes to.
His castle is able to fly across the kingdoms with lava falling wherever it goes.
While it is currently unknown how his castle flies, it’s quite convenient for him to
be able to take over kingdoms, not being restricted to one place.
As for his army, from what we know, his army consists of Goombas, Koopas, Shy Guys, Swoopers,
Bob-Ombs, etc.
Bowser’s right-hand man is shown to be Kamak, a Magikoopa with many magic tricks up his
sleeve.
The scale of his army is massive.
Reviewing the trailer, each one of his columns is shown to be at least 10 by 10, a hundred
soldiers for each one.
This shows that Bowser’s army consists of hundreds or even thousands of soldiers at
his disposal.
Bowser’s army has personality as well.
Some will stand with Bowser while others show fear, though they are all loyal to him and
will do anything he commands.
Next, we’ll talk about how Bowser compares to Illumination’s past villains.
Though Illumination doesn’t have many villains, we’ll compare Bowser to some of the most
memorable villains that they produced.
We won’t be able to go through all of them but we’ll mention the villains that made
the most impact on their movies or franchises.
We’ll start with the Despicable Me franchise, starting with Bowser and Gru first.
Bower and Gru have a lot of things in common.
Most significantly, they both have a massive army that have proven loyal, with Gru having
the Minions and Bowser having the Koopa Troop.
They both have a right hand man, with Gru having Dr. Nefario and Bowser having Kamak.
After adopting the three girls, however, Gru changed into a good guy and he’s not as
much of a villain as he used to be.
Bowser, on the other hand, is still rotten to his core and doesn't seem to care about
anyone but himself.
Next is Bowser and Vector.
What Bowser and Vector have in common is the pride in what they do.
Bowser takes pride in his army and his power while Vector prides himself in being a modern
villain.
Unlike Vector however, Bowser has taken over several kingdoms from what we know, while
the greatest thing that Vector ruled was the Moon that he stole from Gru.
For that reason, Vector is nowhere close to being as good a villain as Bowser.
The last villain we’ll talk about for Despicable Me is Bowser and Scarlet Overkill.
Bowser might have more things in common with Scarlet Overkill than anyone else in Illumination
history.
They both built and ruled over a villainous empire.
They also wouldn’t tolerate anyone that humiliated either of them.
However, Bowser’s army of Koopas will stay loyal to him no matter what, even if he is
defeated at the end of the movie.
Scarlet lost her reputation as the greatest villain after she was defeated and lost her
supporters when Gru used his freeze ray to steal the Queen’s crown.
The next pair we’ll be talking about is Bowser and the villain from The Lorax, Aloysius
O’Hare.
Bowser and O’Hare both ruled over an empire.
While Bowser rules an army, O’Hare runs the O’hare Air company that made millions.
At the end of The Lorax, however, everyone turned against O’Hare and kicked him out
of town.
While Bowser’s army will stay loyal to him, even if he’s banished.
The next pair we’ll be talking about is Bowser and the villain from the Sing franchise,
Jimmy Crystal.
Both Bowser and Jimmy Crystal have different kinds of empires but they both rule them with
an iron fist.
While Bowser’s empire consists of his castle and army, Jimmy’s empire rules over the
music world and is not afraid to threaten anyone that might ruin Jimmy’s reputation.
The difference between them is that Jimmy needed to hide his evil side from the public
while Bowser preferred to show it off to the Mushroom Kingdom.
Snowball became a good guy after he found his forever home.
Moreover, with the size difference, Bowser will be able to crush Snowball under his foot.
Finally, we’ll be talking about the last pair we’ll cover, which is Bowser and Sergei.
Sergei is considered to be the best villain that Illumination has produced so far.
Bowser and Sergei are both ruthless leaders and treat their Koopas or animals with little
or no respect.
The main difference between them, however, is that Bowser rules several kingdoms while
Sergei operates a circus in New York City.
It’s too soon to tell, but as much as we like many of Illumination’s bad guys…
We think that Bowser is going to quickly take the crown for best best villain in the studio’s
library.
With Jack Black voicing Bowser, how Nintendo has overseen the production of the Mario movie,
how Bowser commands his army, how large his army is, and how Bowser will compare against
past Illumination villains.
There will be no doubt that Bowser will be the best Illumination villain yet.
So what do you guys think?
Did we miss any reasons or points as to why Bowser will be Illumination's best villain?
Should we cover anything else before the Mario movie releases?
Let us know in the comment section below.
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And as always, Stay Wicked!