Super Mario Bros - Trust the Fungus

Waffling Taylors Goes To The Movies

Don’t forget to check out the other episodes in the series. Make sure to click here to see which movies we’ve already covered - we’re sure that you’ll love what you have to say.

Featured Image

Players

Squidge

Jay

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Content Warning

At 13:32, I say:

Jay

no wonder Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo reportedly spent all of their time making this movie high as balls

At 29:18, I say:

Jay

I’m a plumber, I know what I’ll do: I’ll f%*k off

At 41:22, I say:

Jay

It’s meant to show that the police are corrupt. She’s a prostitute

At 49:00, I say:

Jay

Iggy and Spike interrupt a sex party

But there’s a content warning shortly before it.

At 49:46, Squidge says:

Squidge

BOOBIES

But it fits within the thing we’re describing.

At 1:14:23, Squidge says:

Squidge

How the hell

when describing a scene which includes the electric shock of a main character

Please listen responsibly

Show Notes

And we’re back with another movie review / discussion. This time it’s the 1993 “classic” Super Mario Bros.. This is yet another episode that we recorded in early 2020

you can hear Squidge reference me sitting on a yoga ball

this episode was recorded at around the same time as the first discussion about the FFVII remake with Lulu

In fact, here’s a screenshot of an app called RCU - which I use to copy files from my ReMarkable

an e-ink tablet that you can write on

which shows the last modified date of the notes I took for this episode:

I’ve blurred out the names of files for future episodes

yes, one of them was recorded in July, 2020

We sat on this episode for a while because we had some amazing content being released at that time; namely:

• Coding the Classics With Eben Upton
• Itchy, Tasty with Alex Aniel
• Dreamcast Year Two with Andrew Dickinson

Thoughts Going In

Although this title is meant to have been based on the NES title of the same name, I remain convinced that it had more links to the third game in the series or the SNES games. Mainly because this movie has two of the the Koopalings in it

the less said about me forgetting Birdo’s name, the better

I also drop some knowledge about Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic and how that was brought out in the West as Super Mario Bros. 2, because the original Super Mario Bros. 2

named Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels outside of Japan

was seen as too hard.

Birdo

Also, can we take a moment to talk about how brave it was for Nintendo to create an openly trans character and feature them as a recurring character throughout their series? Seriously, it’s blooming awesome that Nintendo did that. Not so awesome that Nintendo of America saw fit to censor it, though. Here’s a quote from the Wikipedia article on Birdo:

Since the character’s North American introduction, Birdo’s gender identity has been an issue of discussion and speculation. The Japanese manual for Doki Doki Panic, when translated into English, states her name to be Catherine and as a man who thinks of himself as female, adding that she likes to wear a bow and would rather be called "Cathy." [9] However, in the first edition manual for the North American release of Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo is referred to by a text block that states "he thinks he is a girl" and would "rather be called "Birdetta". In later printings, mention of Birdo being male was omitted. Mention of this fact is further not included in most later games featuring the character and seems to have been retconned to Birdo always being a female to begin with

Sources mentioned:

• 9 - https://www.gamingalexandria.com/highquality/fds/Doki%20Doki%20Panic/Doki%20Doki%20Panic%20-%20Manual.pdf
• 10 - Super Mario Bros. 2 manual. Nintendo. 1988. p. 27. He thinks he’s a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth. He’d rather be called Birdetta
• 6 - https://web.archive.org/web/20090721131757/http://www.craveonline.com/gaming/article/top-10-underrated-games-65303/2

Squidge

Upon rewatching [Super Mario Bros.] as an adult, my God it is not a kids movie

And he’s not wrong, dear readers

and listeners, of course

The Plot

• Dinosaurs ruled the earth 65 million years ago

something something Jurassic Park

• A meteor struck the planet and splits it into two dimensions
  • One for the dinosaurs
  • One for the humans
  • All of this is told via Mario Paint
• 64,999,980 years later a giant egg is left at a convent. It opens, revealing a baby girl
• Mario and Luigi are two down on their luck plumbers who hang plungers as trophies

• Who may or may not be brothers
• And you wont be able to forget that they are Italian-American
  • Seriously, there are so many “Italian” things in their apartment and van that you won’t forget
• Meanwhile Iggy and Spike are eating hot-dogs and looking for women

• “Two arms, two legs, and a head” - Iggy’s amazing description
• Mario & Luigi meet a palaeontologist called Daisy
  • And Mario is the greatest wingman in the universe

Jay

Is this dialogue written by a 6 year-old?

• Mario and Daniela dress up, but Luigi and Daisy don’t

• Meanwhile at the dig-site, shenanigans are afoot
• Mario cares about Daisy more than Luigi does
• Everything goes all Stargate x Bladerunner
• The Dinosaur Wrestling League is born

• Egg abuse

Jay

Is [King Koopa] a despot? I don’t think he is. He’s just trying to make life bearable for his people

• Plumber Alert
• At 29:16 into the movie, this happens:

• It all goes Mad-Max
• “Lazard, Lazard, Conda, Dactyl, and Cohen”
• De-evolving

• The most bonkers car chase scene in existence
  • but by-golly is it fun to watch
• Iggy and Spike interupt a sex-party

seriously, go watch the scene at 42:30

and pay attention during the shot with Koopa facing away from the camera

you might have to watch it multiple times

when Koopa says "What are you doing here, instead of being in the desert, heading them off?"

Mud, it’s clean and dirty at the same time

• Lena finds the harem
• Big brains means that you know big words, right?
• Koopa needs Daisy to be “dolled up”

I hate that phrase, by the way. And I felt terrible typing it

• At 49:45: “You are so fresh, and so clean”

I said 49:25 in the episode

• Birtha, Bob-bombs, and jumping boots
  • But not before some egregious grinding
• King Koopa orders the most foul sounding pizza ever
• Two stuntmen nearly die
• The Mario brothers finally look like the Mario Brothers

• Dancing Goombas
• The Wrestlemania Connection
• The totally radical mattress ride & breaking an ankle
• Physics which don’t make sense
• Scapelli becomes a monkey
• Thwomps and SNES Super Zappers
• They replace the rightful king

  Super Mario Bros. 3 called and asked for it’s plot back

• Yoshi waves bye-bye

• Mario and Luigi go home
• Daisy runs through New York with a flame-thrower in hand
• Credits
• Super racists after credits scene

at 01:03:29, btw

That’s essentially it.

After Thoughts

Squidge

I would say this: it is NOT a kids film

I’ve always held that if you took the Nintendo and Super Mario Bros. licenses away from this movie, it would be a fun dystopian

almost cyberpunk-y

adventure for young adults. But I agree with Squidge: this movie is not for kids. There are flashes of moments for kids, but the majority of it is not for kids.

How Would You Rate It?

We don’t usually rate games or movies, in fact we have never done that. And this was a conscious decision that we made early in the life of the site

we discussed this with Chief on one of his early episodes

But we needed to figure out a way to tell you all whether we think you should watch this movie or not. In order to do this, we decided that we’d need three ratings for three categories.

The ratings are:

• Love it (best)
• Try it
• Fling it into a tree (worst)

And the categories are:

• As an action movie
• As a video game movie
• As a Super Mario Bros. video game movie

Squidge’s Ratings

Jay’s Ratings

External Links of Interest

• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Super Mario Bros. on IMDB
• Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

• Intro music is Among The Stars, from the Cosmos Music Pack by Muz Station Productions
• Spoiler Break music is Spectrum (Subdiffusion Mix) by Foniqz (BandCamp)
• Pallet Cleanser music is Breath Deep Breath Clear (Wu Chi) by Siobhan Dakay
• Outro Music is I N e e d Y o u 私の側て by G.H (removed from BandCamp)