People might have a lot of opinions about the new movie based on Super Mario – we certainly did in our Super Mario movie review – but there’s a broad agreement that it’s better than the ‘90s movie based on these characters.
Released in 1993, Super Mario Bros is widely considered to be one of the worst movies of all time, and a key argument against the idea of video game movies in general. It starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as sibling plumbers Mario and Luigi.
Leguizamo has been looking back on the widely mocked adventure movie due to the arrival of the new version, which casts Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as the brothers in animated movie form.
In fact, Leguizamo’s stance on the movie is clear. He told Variety that he simply won’t be watching it, and it’s because of the Super Mario Bros movie cast.
He said: “No, I will not. They could’ve included a Latin character. Like, I was ground-breaking and then they stopped the ground-breaking. They messed up the inclusion. They dis-included. Just cast some Latin folk. We’re 20% of the population. The largest people of colour group and we are under-represented.”
Leguizamo has previously explained that directors Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton had to fight for him to appear in the fantasy movie, fighting against a studio that did not want a Latin star in the lead.
Regardless of its forward-thinking casting, the 1993 Super Mario movie was savaged by critics and failed to earn back its budget at the box office. It has been experiencing something of a renaissance as a cult classic in recent years, but there’s still a long way to go before it can leave those lists of the worst movies.
For some of the other 2023 movies heading to cinemas, check out our guides to the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 release date, the Barbie movie release date, and the Fast and Furious 10 release date.