Informations about Super Mario movie — you know, the one with Chris Pratt — was slimmer than Bowser’s chances with Peach, but that’s all about to change. This week, Nintendo announced a special Nintendo Direct tied to the movie, which means we’ll hopefully get to hear Pratt’s take on the plumber, without The iconic voice of Charles Martinet. Also, what the movie is actually about. Maybe.
Until Thursday, October 6 at 1:05 p.m. PT (when the Direct is scheduled to take place), all we have to do is…this poster. Let’s take a look:
It might not sound like much, but *knuckles crack*, we’re used to extracting all information from what looks like a dry information sponge, so do- trust us: we understand. Let’s go.
Toads
The first thing you’ll notice – other than Mario’s back – is the large number of toads in the foreground and background. Seriously, so many toads. The more you look, the more there are.
Now, that could mean one of two things:
- The film takes place in the mushroom kingdom and is full of toads, all the time
- The movie has a bit where Mario goes to Toad Town in the Mushroom Kingdom
We’re inclined to believe the second, partly because we don’t know if we could stomach two hours of Toad stuff, partly because we highly doubt Illumination wants to make a movie that’s just a talking man. to strange little mushroom men for two hours, but mostly because of Captain Toad (read on for our thoughts on him).
But our main question is: Do all toads have different voices? Did they throw in loads of actors for the Toad population, or just one, like the way games do? We don’t know if we’re ready for Toads all sounding different…or worse, like a bunch of actors all doing a Toad impression.
Captain Toad
Alright, so the toad that looks like it’s showing Mario around looks like a plot like Captain Toad. He may be – he has the bag and the sense of adventure – but he doesn’t have the hat. He could just be a normal fun guy.
But the fact that he’s apparently giving Mario a visit is significant. That means this is Mario’s first time here in Toad Town, right? Which means there’s at least a part of the movie where Mario is not in the city of toads. Phew.
Plus, we can probably safely assume that this toad is the one voiced by Keegan-Michael Key. We try to imagine it. Hmm. And… he has teeth. Have toads always had teeth?
But let’s turn our attention to what (Captain) Toad has on his backpack: camping gear. A blanket, mug, rope, frying pan, and lantern are all visible on his small backpack, which is the size of his entire body (seriously, Mario, you could offer to help him). Looking at the background and following Mario’s gaze to the top of this intimidating mountain, we believe that Mario and (Captain) Toad are about to try and climb said mountain. And what’s up there?
Princess Peach is back
It’s only Peach’s Castle! The iconic pink and white castle sits high on a colossal hill as a clear focal point for the poster, and we know what that means: that’s the point. Maybe for the whole movie, maybe just for this chapter of the movie, but either way Mario is going to get up there. With the help of (Captain) Toad.
We can also see the Peach stained glass window right in the center, which hopefully implies that old Peachy will look recognizably Peachsome in this film and not have a Princess Fiona makeover from Shrek to give her the look more human. It’s always been a bit creepy that she has somewhat human proportions compared to Mario’s tiny, cartoonish appearance. But that’s probably the point.
A mixture of artistic styles
While much of the art in this poster (unsurprisingly) bears a strong resemblance to animation studio Illumination’s other work – the soft, vibrant cartoonish roundness of Despicable Me, in particular – the movie seems to mix it up a bit. To the bottom left, we can see an antiques booth, with voxel versions of old-school Mario items, like a P-Switch and the infamous ax that knocked Bowser into the lava.
Up top, the cartoonish stuff gives way to more photorealistic shrubs and grass, looking a lot like one of those “Mario made in Unreal Engine” videos we see all the time.
References galore
A brief overview of the references we’ve seen – see if you can find them too:
Toads in Peril
Perhaps the easiest easter egg to spot (not counting the antique store) is the multitude of endangered toads. It looks like they’re all trying to climb the hellish platforming level that will bring Mario and his friend Toad to Peach’s Castle, and unsurprisingly, they’re not doing very well. We can see a toad falling off donut blocks, a toad that got stranded after going through a pipe, and lots of toads that look like they’re stuck somewhere they shouldn’t be.
If this were a video game, we’d assume Mario’s job was to save all those toads. But since this is a movie, we’re guessing it’ll just be comic relief. Hope you like slapstick!
Yoshi?
If you’ve spotted this Yoshi’s egg hidden at the back of the antique store, you’re probably asking yourself the same question as us: is Yoshi coming to see this movie?
And, if so… who expresses it? Yoshi is usually quite taciturn aside from saying “Yoshi!” and “mlem!” but we wouldn’t be surprised if they fired a Chris Pratt on Yoshi as well. Who do we think they would hire? Our money is on JK Simmons.
World Currency
Everything in this town costs coins. This means that the coins – which we see carrying a toad, and they are massive — are the official currency of Mushroom Kingdom, just like in the games. Do they disappear when Mario touches them? Is he able to put them in his pocket so he can buy stuff? And why everything so expensive? 4 pieces for a cupcake is crazy.
Link to Super Nintendo World?
This jumble of pipes looks like a plot like Super Nintendo World, the Mario-flavored theme park tucked away in Universal Studios. Nintendo pushed Super Nintendo World really hard recently, despite the fact that one of them is in Japan and no one is allowed to fly in Japan yet due to COVID reasons, and the other one in the US is not yet built.
It seems strange that a movie based on a series like Super Mario would include a reference to a theme park that is too based on Super Mario, but maybe that movie is also an advertisement for the theme park. Somehow.
Shoe improvement
Mario’s outfit is very high resolution, right? Look at these jeans. Look at those seams and folds. Phew. It’s zonte.
But there is one big update that we are not sure about. Mario’s shoes have always been very cartoonish – just big brown shapes on his feet. We always assumed it was slip-ons. He’s a busy boy. But here we can see that he has laces. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?! Probably nothing. It’s just different.
Mario’s boom
Mario’s butt looks bad. It looks moist and lumpy, like a bad omelette. He’s had better butts in the past! Maybe they needed to tone it down so he wouldn’t dominate the conversation like Mario’s nipples always do?
A guess about the plot
If we had to guess, we’d say Mario has to go up to the castle for some reason. It doesn’t look like the castle is up there by accident – like a horrible earthquake or some kind of Bowser-related incident – but it’s clearly a perilous journey, with lots of toads falling all the way up. Why they didn’t build a reasonable staircase is beyond us.
But one would guess that Mario’s adventure to the castle is only a small part of the plot. We can’t imagine two hours of Toad-themed Mario platforming would be particularly great. This especially makes for a cool poster!
It’s also thought that this scene probably takes place very early on, since Mario isn’t accompanied by Luigi or Donkey Kong yet.
“Only in theaters”
Looks like it’s not coming to streaming services immediately, like many movies during the pandemic. Still in the fine print, we can see that the film is unrated and is likely coming in 3D as well, since the “Real D” logo is at the bottom – it’s a company known for its 3D projection technology .
What is missing
Well, we know Mario (Chris Pratt) and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) are in the movie, and we now more or less know what they look like (although that’s not a huge surprise). But we haven’t seen Luigi (Charlie Day), Bowser (Jack Black), Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) or Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) yet – and if Luigi isn’t accompanying his brother here, when exactly will he?
So many questions. And not many answers, unless the question is “will there be toads?”
Well, that’s about all the nuggets we could dig out of this particular vein of Super Mario movie information, but we’re curious if you think there’s anything we’ve missed. Let us know in the comments if you managed to release something new!
#Super #Mario #movie #teaser #Poster