Commentary by Devin McCue, Sumner Newscow – Happy Friday. One day, when I was five or six, my dad and I were hanging out in the basement of my childhood home. Instead of watching TV or reading, as we were wont to do, my dad brought out a machine that would change my life.

An original Nintendo NES.

Kids born after me probably had an Xbox 360 or even a Nintendo Switch as their first console, but mine was my dad’s old NES and the best game on it was Mario 3. Mario 3 came on a cartridge the size of a DVD case and had as much memory on it as most calculators today.

You couldn’t save your game, so you had to leave the console running through the night and the controllers had exposed wiring that should’ve sent my house up in flames, but I didn’t care because it was just that fun. The obsession didn’t stop there, either. I bought a Gameboy, DS, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, and now a Switch because I’ve been a lifelong Mario fan since that first day in the basement.

So, you can imagine my delight when DreamWorks and Illumination premiered The Super Mario Bros. Movie (playing at the Regent this weekend).

The Mario movie is principally a kids’ movie, with plenty of bright lights, a simplistic plot, and “high” stakes that don’t stress a developing mind. Even with those pitfalls, however, the rest of the film seemed tailor-made for Mario superfans like myself.

There are countless easter-eggs and niche shoutouts to old games that only the adults in the crowd would notice, weird Donkey Kong characters like Dixie and Funky Kong made appearances, even Luigi’s ringtone is the original GameCube start to jingle.

Staying faithful to the games made this movie fun to watch, rather than a shameless cash grab (I’m looking at you 2016’s Assassin’s Creed). What makes it even better is the fact that this type of filmmaking is part of a larger trend.

Videogame movies and TV adaptations used to be garbage. The original Mario Bros. movie, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, the list goes on and on. But more recently, shows like the Last of Us and Arcane and movies like Mortal Kombat and Dungeons and Dragons have turned the tide.

Filmmakers have finally figured out how to make big-tent movies that stay true to the source material, and it turns out it wasn’t that hard.

As I’ve already mentioned, one of the easiest ways to earn a fan’s praise is to include some easter-eggs from the original games. Those little details, like a frightened Koopa from Paper Mario in the background, will make people like me squeal at the screen in delight.

Apart from appeasing us, easter eggs show the crowd that the creators have actually played the games before. It gives fans reassurance that even if some parts of the movie don’t match up perfectly with the games (like how long Mario can fly in the Tanuki outfit) the overall themes are still loyal.

Another trick to getting fans on board is to ensure the characters’ motivations mirror theirs’ in the games. Bowser isn’t trying to take over the Mushroom Kingdom because he’s simply a maniacal dictator; he’s doing it to earn Princess Peach’s love.

Is it crazy? Sure, but this is a Japanese game series where an Italian American plumber eats mushrooms to gain superpowers to defeat turtles. It’s not that serious.

Many movies like to give their villains a redeeming motivation like Killmonger in Black Panther. Still, with cartoonish motivations like Bowser’s in the Mario universe, it’s much better to lean into the silly aspects of the character. That’s why casting Jack Black as the voice actor was the perfect decision. Look no further than Black’s original song that made it into the movie:

Video games have been a vital addition to pop culture since the 1970s and I’m glad their stories are finally being brought to a new format. They don’t have to be great films, as long as they stay true to the vibe of their source material. Mortal Kombat and the Mario Movie aren’t good because the stories will stand the test of time and win tons of accolades.

They’re good because they remind me and many like me of the long hours we spent running to save Princess Peach only to find out she’s in another castle.

Meme of the Week

I, unfortunately, can’t look at every meme that dominates the internet every week, so if you see a meme and think it should be the meme of the week please send it to: SumnerCultureCow@gmail.com

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