Ok, so the new trailer for the Super Mario Bros. movie is now out, and in this video, we’re going to be breaking down all the easter eggs, hidden details, and things you missed in it. This is packed with Easter eggs from beginning to end, and is it just me or does Mario sound exactly like Chris Pratt? I can’t quite put my finger on why, but the teaser begins much like how Mario began all the way back in his first game appearance. Released in 1981, the game Donkey Kong saw Jumpman being introduced to the world. The basic structure was that you played Jumpman and had to rescue the Princess from the clutches of the evil Donkey Kong. The structure of each level was littered with red metal girders that you had to run and jump along in order to get to the top. We actually see these girders early on in the teaser, and it’s the platform that Mario and Donkey Kong end up fighting on.
Well, I say fighting.
It’s pretty one-sided.
That’s what you get, you f**ker.
Donkey Kong will be voiced by Seth Rogan, and he’s going to be a big character in the movie.
Mario Movie Trailer Breakdown
Now, in one of the best defenses I’ve ever seen, pay close attention to that crowd noise.
This is actually pulled from the original Mario 3 commercial.
Huge shoutouts to Tanooki Joe on Twitter for that one, and it shows how much attention to detail they’re paying.
Now early on, we see Mario walking out, and to the left and right of him are weights. There’s also a sword standing up in the back and some wall carvings that look like a giant ape.
There’s then a barrel, and Donkey Kong used to jump in these in his solo games before he was shot across the sky.
As he enters the arena, we then get some classic iconography from the pair’s games.
Firstly, there are floating brick structures with a golden one in the middle that look like the ones you encounter in pretty much every Mario game.
There are golden blocks on their own and also tires.
When we pull out to see the girder in full, we can also spot more barrels and platforms, as well as a blue ladder, which is what Jumpman used to climb to get up to the top.
The arena itself has a giant statue of Kong right at the back, and in a nice bit of attention to detail, this actually looks like it’s 8-bit.
Just below that is a more modernized Donkey Kong face, and on the throne sits Cranky Kong. In the game’s lore, this was the first Donkey Kong that Mario faced off against all the way back in the 1981 game. He’s sort of appeared in the other games as a cranky old character telling the young Donkey Kong off because kids today ain’t got no respect.
Kids ain’t got no respect.
Now Mario says Let’s go before he jumps in headfirst, and this is a catchphrase the character often drops in the games.
Donkey Kong has his famous red tie on that has the letters DK on it, and up in the observation box we see Toadstool and Princess Peach.
There are also some bananas there, and these are what Donkey Kong used to collect in his solo games. Cranky eats one later on, and he’s pretty much the donkey King Kong of this entire land. When we see the map later on, we can actually see their land at the top, next to the volcano. To the left of it is a desert pyramid land similar to the one in Mario 64. There’s the mushroom kingdom just below it, and this will be the first place that Mario is stopping off. To the right of that is Yoshi’s Island, and we know we’ll be visiting here due to a quick shot in the teaser later on. There’s also Bowser’s Land, which, if you look closely, has some ice, and we know from the first trailer that Bowser does invade Penguin Land, which I think this is.
So a little theory time theory time theory time theory time.
So yeah, this is probably the penguin land, and then Bowser arrived there on his ship and took over. This then possibly turned it into the lava land we see, and he’s flying back on his ship to take over the rest. The land at the top is probably where he came from, and then he moved down from there to take over the rest.
Anyway, that concludes theory time, which was relatively brief, a bit of a waste of time time time time, but moving on.
Another nice bit of attention to detail is that there’s a golden star above the ship as he flies over the land.
Anyway, the audience itself is also made up of apes, and you can see they’ve got loads of different clothes and costumes on. Huge shoutouts to Nin10Doland for pointing out that when Mario first exits the tunnel, you can see characters that might be from the Donkey Kong games, such as Wrinkley Kong. To the left of the tunnel, there are two characters with bonnets on that look exactly like the one she has.
When we pull out to a later shot, we can even see two characters holding big letters that say DK and also smaller chimps that resemble Diddy Kong, but these are obviously just kids rather than being him.
Mario gets smashed like it’s the like button for the video, and also make sure you subscribe because we’ve got videos like this that point out everything Yoshi and everything Yo…don’t shi f**k.
Anyway, cut to Bowser’s castle.
Bowser in the Mario Movie
So Bowser has Luigi at this point, and I’m guessing that he’ll have him for most of the movie. This seems like it’s early on, and the pair probably gets separated upon being sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom. We have a bit where they are clearly in the normal world, which I’m guessing is out in Brooklyn.
Luigi has his trunk, and later on, when we see them getting sucked into the world, you can see that he also has it there.
We know from the first trailer that when Mario lands, he’s by himself, so I’m guessing that they get separated during this and Luigi crash lands somewhere where he’s captured by Bowser’s forces. The movie is probably going to be about Mario rescuing his brother because we know from later shots that Peach is working alongside him rather than being someone who needs to be saved.
So it’s the women helping to save the men. Take that, patriarchy.
We do get a shot where Mario seems to be working on his day job just fixing a sink, and this could be the opening of the film that has them then getting pulled across.
During their conversation, we actually see his army, which is made up of pretty much every type of trooper that he has.
The first ones we see fly away from the camera, and though we only get a split-second shot of these, I think these might be Swoopers, which are now just called Swoops.
Most of the forces here are Koopers, and we see all the different colored shells that they have. Now the ones that we can see with the helmets on are the Hammer Bros., and there are quite a lot of them too. There’s a big one that a couple is huddled around, and a Piranha plant swoops in and steals some food from one.
Piranha plants are quite common too; you’ll be able to recognize them from their red color and the white spots they have.
Shy Guys appear there as well, and they’re more of a niche villain after first being introduced in Super Mario Bros. 2. One of them appears to have a black mask on rather than just the white one, and shoutouts again to Nin10doland for pointing out that this is actually a sniff. Definitely go check out their channel for some amazing Nintendo trivia.
There are also some Goombas, and as we zoom in, we see a stack of them standing on top of each other.
They’re all doing some pretty funny stuff with a Hammer Bro tucking his shell in as the Piranha plant goes to bite him. There are a couple of Koopers doing a limbo stick too, and the trailer is absolutely packed.
There’s a bomb-omb that explodes as we get closer, and this takes us into the transition of the next shot.
However, if you pull back, you’ll also notice a spiked red shell crawling along the floor, and this belongs to a spiny.
I also love how this area is full of Bowser statues, and there’s one when Luigi is first brought in, showing how bad his ego is. He’s going to be voiced by Jack Black, and I really can’t wait to see what he brings to the movie.
There’s a cool shot where he pulls out a hair from Luigi’s moustache and starts to interrogate him about his brother while he also does the usual villain monologue about what his plan is.
Cut to the mushroom kingdom, and we see Princess Peach in her classic pink dress. Up the stairs and behind her, we can also see the stained-glass window, which first debuted back in Mario 64. This was released as its own poster just before the trailer dropped, and there are a couple of significant details in it.
At the top is a star, and I’m guessing that this is where they’re kept. At about a minute and 34 seconds in the teaser, we get a split-second shot where Bowser burns an ice doorway, and at the top, we can also see a star there too. This probably belonged to the penguin, and taking it from there might explain how he has one.
There’s also a painting to the left that looks like a tall, tall mountain. Paintings are of course important in the mushroom kingdom, as 64 showed us that we could jump into them and be transported to other worlds.
Lastly, the windows in the castle have clouds painted onto them that look like they’re ripped right out of the game.
Now we get a shot from behind Peaches’ head and can see lots of toadstools there.
On the ground is an interesting detail, though, as we can see a star emblem. Cast your mind back to Mario 64, and something similar was on the ground there too when you first entered the castle.
At the back of the room, we can see two toad guards with helmets and axes. I’m guessing these are either taken out or they run away, which is why they’re on the floor in the next shot. Tend to lean more towards them running away, which is why there’s just one Toad with her instead of the big group we see in the earlier shot.
Peach has changed her outfit now too, and she’s wearing her motorcycle outfit from the later Mario games. Originally, she just wore the dress, but this changed over time. She rides her motorcycle later on, but we’ll talk about this more when we get to that section.
Peach will be voiced by Anya Taylor Joy, and she’s going to be taking the fight to Bowser, which we see in the next shot of them walking out to his airship.
My man Bamalam pointed out that the trees to the left of this shot have stripes on them and that they look similar to the trees from Super Bell Hill.
We then see Mario running through training, and this quote-unquote level is packed with Easter eggs.
So in the middle, a flag rises up, similar to the ones that you’d see at the end of levels.
There are also several green pipes that look like the classic ones from the game, as well as some canons.
These would fire out bullet bills, who we later see popping up in the scene. This charges Mario, but we can see from the next shot that it looks like it’s made out of fabric rather than being an actual bullet. The one that hits him is a bigger bullet, and this is known as a Banzai Bill.
Again, this is not real, and this is reflected in the pipes that have piranha plants popping out of them. If you look closely, you’ll see that they have joints on them.and because of this, I’m guessing they’re fake.
This is reflected in the fire bars too, which Mario gets really close to. However, if you look closely at them, you’ll see that they’re actually fake, again cementing this idea that they’re not really. This all just seems like it’s part of the obstacle course to put Mario through his paces.
We also have golden blocks as well as the bricks being used for ledges. To the right, we can see slightly different platforms, and in the games, these would drop away when you stood on them. This happens to Mario later on when he jumps off a switching platform.
On top of this, we have the eye blocks from Super Mario World, some of which have spikes on them.
From here, we cut to Mario, Toad, and Peach walking along a giant bridge. At this point Mario is hit by a cheep cheep,” which is sort of a flying fish that used to jump up in the game.
I hated avoiding those f**ks who do me head in.
Mario Kart in the Mario Movie
A nice little detail is that Peach pulls the cheep cheep off Mario’s face, and then it hits Toad and starts sucking on him.
Now at this point, we get what for me is the money shot.
Mario in the Tanooki Suit swooping down is probably my favorite moment in the trailer, maybe tied with the Mario Kart one that we see later on.
He glides down from the sky, and we can see Bowser’s airship closing in on the castle, which we get a birds-eye view of.
There are six stars on a path surrounding the castle, and this reminded me a lot of Star Road from Super Mario World.
Mario swoops down, and in a blink and you’ll miss it moment, you might spot that there’s a bull chasing him. Think this might be a bullet bill; it might be a banzai bill, but it happens so fast that it’s difficult to fully make out all the size proportions.
See, guys, size matters, and we are actually selling a size matters t-shirt over at our merch shop, Zero Edition.
I’m telling you to head over there right now.
Now Mario isn’t the only one who’ll be getting a power up, and Peach will be embracing some flower power to take on Bowser.
In the next shot, we see her in a field of fire flowers, and Peach touches one. In the next shot, she holds it in her hands, and you might notice that her outfit is white and red. This is actually her fire peach costume, which changes the color of her dress to give her a fire costume.
I’m not saying the costume is fire. Well, I am, but you know what I mean.
Then we get a sunset shot, followed by Yoshi’s Island.
There are loads of the little guys running along past a stream, but no green one.
So trailer 0/10 would not recommend to a friend.
Don’t wanna drop a theory again, but I do think we will see a green one at some point, and the reason they’re holding it back is probably to give it to Mario later on.
We then get the penguin kingdom, which I’m guessing is how the movie starts, before going to Brooklyn to meet Mario and Luigi.
This leads perfectly into the pipe-sucking scene that follows. Over the top of this peach, we talk about there being lots of galaxies out there, and for a sequel, we might do a Mario Galaxy type movie where he travels to different planets.
Lastly, here’s another money shot.
The Mario Kart scene
Here we see Peach on her motorcycle and also Donkey Kong. It’s basically like a Mad Max scene here, and Mario gets his classic red kart.
We can see Donkey Kong, and behind him is what looks to be Funky Kong. He’s a very obscure character, but looking at the shades and bandana, it does indeed seem like it’s him. Most of the characters here are in fact apes, so I’m guessing that they’ve just come off the back of the Donkey Kong fight and are heading out to take on Bowser.
To the left there’s also what appears to be Kiddie Kong but no Diddy, which is utterly outrageous.
There are lots of karts here, including one for Toad, who gets a monster truck, and one for Mario.
I mean, urrrrgghh, I guess…it sounds like it; I just dunno if it fits in with the rest of the performance he’s giving.
Kinda reminds me of when Cyborg said “booyah” in Josstice League in that they’ve just dropped a catchphrase in for the sake of dropping a catchphrase.
The guys are getting enough s**t online for the voice anyway, so I don’t wanna add to it, and instead I will say that I think the film looks awesome, and it’ll no doubt be the best Mario movie we’ve ever had.
Sure, it won’t be difficult because of the last one, but they’ve completely nailed the aesthetic here, and absolutely everything looks like it’s ripped out of the games. I hope this breakdown has shown you how much they’ve put into it, and even the final shot has him drifting, which is directly from the games.
They have completely packed every shot with something that links into the franchise, and it makes me think that they’re really putting the effort in here to make it so that it’s going to be as close to the games as we can get.
and that I appreciate.
I think putting Mario into an animated movie like this is the best way to go about it, and it looks like it’s going to be the best video game movie of all time.
This was a big main trailer to launch the movie with, and I am really hyped to see what comes out of it.
Obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts as well, so make sure you comment below and let me know if there’s anything I missed. The trailer is packed, so I’m sure there’s some stuff there, but this was basically me going through it frame by frame to see what references I could find.
We’re running a competition right now and giving away 3 copies of House of the Dragon Season 1 on December 15. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is like the video, make sure you subscribe with notifications on, and drop a comment below with your thoughts on the episode. We pick the comments at random at the end of the month, and the winners of the last one are on screen right now, so message me at @heavyspoilers if that’s you.
If you want something else to watch, then make sure you check out our breakdown of the perfect scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming. We break down the entire thing, so it’s definitely worth checking out if you want to know more.
With that out of the way, thank you for sitting through the video; I’ve been Paul, and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace
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