V.G. Movies #2: Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen.

[Welcome back to the Evolution of Video Game Movies series. Every week, I will be moving forward through time, starting with the earliest and ending with the most recent of video game movies. I will be detailing the histories of the games and how the films came about, and both my and fan reaction to the adaptations. Practically all of my background information is either common knowledge or from Wikipedia. So without further ado, let's move on to the next film on the list.]

THE HISTORY

Last time, I discussed the video game crash of 1983-1985 and its potential causes. One of those reasons had been an influx in gaming systems, allowing too much competition. Again, one of those competing systems was a platform called the ColecoVision. Now, one of ColecoVision's most famous titles was that of Donkey Kong, released New Years Eve 1982. This game was the first platformer to include jumping and, as such, is considered the first true platformer and the originator of the genre as it is today. Though it didn't start with Coleco.

Nintendo wanted some characters they could market over multiple games, so they took a look at Popeye (brute steals girlfriend, hero has to save) and became inspired. In the game, the main character, Jumpman, must save his pink-dressed, blonde-haired girlfriend. Now, with computer animation being relatively new at the time, animators found it tricky how to get the little guy to move right. They couldn't draw a mouth, so a mustache was put there instead; hair was hard, so they put a cap on him; and they couldn't see his arms move, so colored overalls it was. They also eventually renamed the girlfriend and Jumpman after people they knew or who had helped them, giving them the names Pauline and Mario, respectively. The game became wildly popular in the arcade and was eventually sold to Coleco for home console porting.

Popularity was intense, so a spin-off entitled Mario Bros. was developed. Mario now had a brother, Luigi, and though Mario was originally a carpenter, he was made a plumber due to his look and location. The game was about the two brother plumbers who must save New York after strange creatures start coming out of the sewer pipes. But bouncing around and attacking enemies from below was too easy, so the concept of just knocking them onto their backs and kicking them away was born. What kind of creatures came from that idea? Turtles, as their shells made it easy for them to get stuck on their backs.

Although released during the crash, the game was popular enough not to be affected. And so a sequel was called for, which was also to be used as a swan song for the Famicom (the Japanese name for the NES). Enter... Super Mario Bros. for the NES. And now, the turtles could be stomped on, since they just felt flipping them first would be illogical. They also wanted Mario to be able to change sizes, so while looking into ancient folk lore, they discovered stories where people would walk into forests and eat magical mushrooms. Thus, the mushrooms and the Mushroom Kingdom were born. The game was released in 1985, along with the NES itself (in America), and helped save the video game industry from the crash.

The game's popularity skyrocketed, and Japan wanted to release a film immediately to cash in on the success. On July 20, 1986, they released an anime movie in Japanese theaters. The film was called Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen (or, roughly translated, Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!). Nobody knows how well it did or anything like that. The film was never released in another language, nor was it released on DVD. It's also almost impossible to find on VHS, making it one of the rarest movies in the world.

However, you can find fan-made subtitled and dubbed versions on YouTube. And that's how I saw it.

THE FILM

(Note: It's come to my attention that some of the following problems I had with this film are more than likely translation errors. Whoever made the translations on YouTube apparently did so poorly, causing for at least some of the confusion I had with the story.)

Holy Hell is this movie weird. I'm serious. The game itself makes more logical sense. There's no way a formal review can do this justice. So in that light, I'm going to do a Jason Soto-style review where I take you through the movie and give my thoughts as we go.

The movie begins with Mario playing a video game similar to Super Mario Bros., but with a couple differences here and there. Luigi comes in and complains a few times, but leaves him alone. And then... out of nowhere... Princess Peach and a bunch of the monsters from the Mario games fly out of the TV. Peach proclaims she's being attacked by Bowser, who is trying to take over her Mushroom Kingdom. Then Bowser himself bursts through and kidnaps the princess back into the game, leaving Mario in a panic. But he finds her necklace on the floor and takes it.

So you know how Mario and Luigi are supposed to be plumbers? Well, despite being referenced as such later in the movie, they work at a grocery store. You see them with a customer, but then Luigi notices the necklace... and this is where things stop making sense. Luigi states that the necklace belongs to the Mushroom Kingdom where they will be able to find a ton of treasure. (Luigi is a greedy spaz in this film.) So I guess the video game world and the real world exist in the same universe? But earlier, Luigi thought Mario was insane for saying Princess Peach had shown up asking for help, etc., since she's just a video game character.

Anyway, a centipede dog thing shows up, steals the necklace, and causes the brothers to chase after him. They chase him to this field full of pipes... which are there for no reason. Just empty pipes laying around. They end up going down one of the pipes after the centipede dog and travel to the magical universe of the Mushroom Kingdom... which I guess ISN'T part of their own world. Because they meet this old hermit guy who tells them they are the legendary heroes who will save the princess. Why are they the chosen legendary heroes? Because they play video games and can thus find treasure better. I kid you not. There's no telling of a prophecy or a magic book that speaks of their greatness. They just know about the Mario Bros. and know they are the legendary heroes... because they play video games. Anyway, they have to find the mushroom of growth, the fire flower, and the invincibility star in order to defeat Bowser.

So they start on their journey (with the centipede dog tagging along), where we have our first of many montage sequences. They're spotted by a couple Goombas as they rest for the night. The Goombas trick Luigi into eating some mushrooms... which he basically gets stoned off of. Again... no joke. They alter his emotions. Then a flying turtle kidnaps them and tries to feed them to its bird children. But while they're in the nest, Mario spots a crystallized mushroom. He climbs the tree to get it, releasing it... but also gets showered by a bunch of coins that spray from the tree. They fall to the ground... and the coins turn into female versions of Toad (or Toadettes). They thank the brothers for freeing them and give Mario the growth mushroom, then give him a kiss on the cheek.

Begin another montage full of bizarre imagery that has Mario using the mushroom to fight against stuff (like bullets and koopa troopas). But the Goombas from earlier followed them and give them bad directions, leading them into a forest of the man-eating plants. They quickly escape, though... but I guess because three of the plants got tangled up, the entire forest sinks into the ground? I'm not sure how that works.

But they're not out of trouble yet, as a turtle-in-a-cloud shows up and throws spikes at them for trespassing. He waters the spikes and gives them light so they turn into the giant spiky turtles. But Mario sits on a growing vine and flies into the air where he grabs onto a piece of the cloud and rips it off. He starts to control the weather with it and makes it snow. The enemies below (who have surrounded Luigi and centipede dog) are bored waiting for Mario to do something. Everybody gets covered in snow. But then the snow melts and everything turns to grass and flowers and the cloud turns into another Toadette. Um... yeah. The Toadette gives him a fire flower.

Cue montage. Mario uses fireball powers. They break some stone boxes to get coins and some boxes of ramen noodles with labels that have their faces on them... still with me? The Goombas then trap them in a cave, and it's at this point we switch perspectives for a minute. Now we're with Peach and Bowser. Peach is angry and wants to be set free, but Bowser just wants to marry her. In fact, he has a little school-boy crush on her and loves her. To show this, he transforms into different weird things. Peach tries to get him to turn into a teddy bear and trap him in a box, but it doesn't work.

Back in the cave, Luigi digs an escape while Mario daydreams about dancing with Peach. They barely escape the hammer-throwing turtle and find the invincibility star. But it falls into the water. Mario and centipede dog jump in after it. Amazingly, Mario can breath and talk just fine underwater. He looks around for the star while being chased by inflatable fish. He finds it in a clam, but gets trapped inside, so the centipede dog has to tickle it to release Mario, and they swim off. But they're chased again and escape into an old sunken ship that starts to rise out of the water. Then they're attacked by a giant squid, so they blow air (despite being underwater) to make the sail push them out. They finally escape, grab Luigi, and sail off... um... into the sky. But it does eventually come back down onto the water.

The wedding ceremony starts, but Mario and Luigi arrive just in time. Bowser escapes further into his castle with Peach, leading the others to chase after him. You can imagine the weird things they have to avoid while following (WHY would somebody have a room with a lava pit and elevating platforms? What purpose does that otherwise serve?). But Luigi accidentally floods the place while looking for more gold coins, which somehow causes the entire castle to collapse. But Bowser attacks Mario in the rubble. Mario goes to eat the invincibility star to fight back, but some food randomly appears out of nowhere to distract him, and he drops the star to eat the noodles. But then Luigi shows up with the star.

Long story short here, Mario eats the gold star, becomes invincible, and saves the princess. Fun fact--the way he defeats Bowser (by spinning him and tossing him by his tail) was a method later adapted in the hit game Super Mario 64. Anyway... then... get this... the centipede dog transforms into a boy who looks younger than Peach. And then Peach reacts with a "Daddy?" Yeah, that's right. The centipede dog was a transformed king the whole time... but the king looks even younger than his daughter. Anyway, Mario and Luigi leave with no real reward or anything. Then there's an after-credits scene where the grocery store customer from the beginning goes inside and is served by Bowser and his Goombas. The end.

Honestly, whether you think my description there was weird or not... I don't think I even covered the tip of the iceberg on how bizarre this little movie gets. A lot of it has to do with the visuals. The animation itself is fine, but there is a lot of bizarre stuff going on in this movie. Half of it makes no sense whatsoever. I didn't even mention the fact that the entire movie is playing a mixture of J-Pop and music from the games. And there are game sound effects littered throughout. At certain points, anytime the brothers even walk one step, you get the "Mario jumping" sound. Just stuff like that. And on a nit-picky side, Luigi's outfit is blue in this, while it's usually green.

There's no wonder this movie was never released after its theater debut and a minor VHS release. The thing is a trippy trainwreck. You can tell they just wanted to incorporate every little thing from the game in this film but had no idea how to do it. We all know this is a near-impossible story to adapt as it is, but they didn't even try to have it make any sense. If you're a super-fan of the series, I'd say track it down for completionist's sake. Otherwise, only bother with it if you just want something bizarre.


WTF

(P.S. I know this is two weeks in a row with this rating, but I promise that'll stop. Stay tuned next week where I take a look at the American's attempt to adapt the non-adaptable.)

Short Review: Ghost In The Shell.

Premise: In the future, two cyborg cops hunt down a super-hacker called The Puppetmaster who is hacking into cyborgs' ghosts (souls) and taking over their shells, making them do criminal acts.

Starring: A bunch of voice actors you won't know.

My Reaction: This is one of the biggest inspirations for The Matrix, as most people know. Now, I'd seen bits and pieces of this movie years ago. I remembered certain parts, specifically the battle against the giant tank thing near the end (there were others, but that was the main one). But I'd decided to finally sit down and watch the whole thing through. As we know, I'm a pretty big anime fan, so this isn't a big deal. But man, this movie was rough. I was also forced into the displeasure of watching it with English dubbing. The animation quality was poor. I know the characters are pretty much robots, but they were so monotone and boring. The story is dragged out and sometimes confusing. I kept waiting for the movie to be almost over, and I'd realize there was still 30+ minutes left. Don't get me wrong, it had its good moments. But you know what those moments were? The only parts I had any memory of from years ago. Go figure. And man was there a lot of animated nudity...


Stop Saying Okay! Okay.

2 In 1 (Altered Opinions): Sunshine and Metropolis.

This 2 In 1 was originally going to be a separate review to introduce a new kind of article, but I found a second movie to help with a similar theme. The theme for this entry is altered opinions. What I mean by that is that my original opinion was either good or bad, and after rewatching the films, my opinion changed. In this case, for both movies, my original opinions were both negative and became more positive. The first review for this one is a short one, as I've already reviewed it once on the blog (Sunshine). The second review is of the Anime version of the movie Metropolis, made back in 2001. And as an afterthought, I just realized that both movies somehow have importance with the sun... So let's get to it.

Sunshine.

Previously, I reviewed this movie with a big rant about the awful ending.

Well, I finally got myself to give it another viewing. I have to say, it was much more enjoyable the second time. To take the focus off the ending for a moment, I must reiterate just how amazing the visual effects are. I even noticed things I missed the first time around and began to appreciate it even more on a visual level.

As for the ending, I guess because I knew what to expect and knew exactly what to look for, I understood everything a whole lot more. Everything I didn’t understand about the ending the first time through, I understood more this time. I appreciated the insanity of Captain Crispy, as I dubbed him, and the reason for why he was doing what he was doing. I still feel the movie could have gone a different route, but the route it did go is more appreciated by me now. I get it fully and even like it more.

However, I still don’t care for the super-speedy blurry cam every time Captain Crispy is in the vicinity. That was just as annoying the second time through as it was the first.

Overall, the first 2/3s are still far superior, but I enjoyed the third act quite a bit more this second time around. I’m still not going to rate the movie, though, because I don’t want the ending to bring down the score of the amazing majority.

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Metropolis.

When I first bought (impulsively) and watched Metropolis for the first time quite a few years ago, I remember disliking it quite a bit. All these years later, I finally decided to give it another shot. It’s based on a Manga that’s based on the original dystopian flick of the same name from the 1920s. It’s a futuristic tale where robots and humans live together, but not in harmony. The massive city of Metropolis has finally built their Ziggurat, a modern Tower of Babel. But there are many levels of the city: the surface level (the 'good part of town', so to speak), area 1 (basic working class and slums level), area 2 (factories), and area 3 (sewage). But now that this Ziggurat, which allows the user to distort sunspots on the surface of the sun to therefore cause radiation to cause all robots to malfunction, has been built, it needs somebody to constantly run it. Duke Red, head of a corrupt side of the government, has Dr. Loughton create the perfect robot (a human-looking android, basically) named Tima so that she can be said tool. Meanwhile, a Japanese detective and his nephew, Kenichi, come into town to arrest Dr. Loughton for illegal operations. But Duke Red’s apparently adopted son and right-hand assassin, Rock, strongly loathes robots and believes his ‘father’ should sit on the throne of the Ziggurat, so he attempts to destroy Tima. However, he fails, and Kenichi ends up travelling through the lower areas with Tima while trying to stay alive as Rock continually tries to kill them.

Now, while I still don’t think this movie is a masterpiece, I appreciated it a lot more than I remember doing the first time. The animation is done very well (though a bit too cartoonish, if that makes sense, with the overly large noses on some characters). Though the action of the movie looks great, especially with anything Rock does. The music, I thought, was very fitting. Most of it falls somewhere in the vicinity of the 1920-1950s, and at least half of it is jazzy. The song during the climax scene was done very well and works really nicely with all the destruction and such.

The problem with the movie rests with the characters and the plot. I’ll start with the characters: For being around each other so much, they barely interact. And when they do, it’s usually Tima repeating ‘Kenichi’ over and over again. There’s no character development or connection. I really don’t feel anything for any of the characters. It’s just kind of like… they’re there.

As for the plot, it really feels like there was a lot missing. The movie could have been longer than it was, really (which might have helped with character development). For instance, Kenichi and Tima start off together in area 3 with this cleaning robot. The next thing we know, they’re leaving area 3, and they’ve nicknamed the robot ‘fifi’ for no apparent reason. And they get this big attachment to the robot, yet there wasn’t shown enough interaction for it to really show us. Similarly, a little bit later, Kenichi and Tima come across a group of resistance fighters. But we aren’t shown them actually meeting or introducing each other. There’s about two or three minutes talking about how they want to overthrow the government… and the next thing we know, we’re seeing a full-out coup d’etat. There were no forms of transitions anywhere in there. Nothing. It felt like there was 30 minutes of the movie just missing, like there should be a whole section of the movie with Tima and Kenichi hanging out and talking with the resistance guys. And there are other scenes and moments just like those throughout the movie.

Not to mention that the case the detective dude is trying to solve isn’t a mystery to the viewers, as we saw everything that happened. Detective mysteries are only effective if both the detective and the audience are equally in the dark and have to figure it out simultaneously. Otherwise, it’s boring and silly.

So really, if you’re a fan of anime or sci-fi (such as Blade Runner), watch this one, if anything, for the animation style, the atmosphere, and the music. The story itself isn’t too bad, but there’s a lot lacking. A bit more length could have helped this issue, as well as character development and such. The good and the bad really kind of cancel each other out, for the most part. And although I’d like to give it one notch higher, I’m afraid the whole movie just doesn’t cut it enough to grant it that score.

Stop Saying Okay! Okay.

Recent East Asian Cinema #2: Spirited Away.

Welcome to the second of seven posts that will detail East Asian cinema, giving genre history leading up to a recent movie which will be reviewed! I hope you enjoy the series. For more information or previous entries, check the posts below this one.

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Genre: Anime.

History: Anime is short for animation, and is primarily used to describe Japanese animation that usually stems from Manga (Japanese comic books). The term itself, in Japan is used for all animation; however, it is used, as stated, to describe Japanese animation for English speakers. Anime isn’t your typical animated family-type film. It can be, but that’s not what it’s stuck to. The genres of Anime are just as broad (and then some) as any other type of movie.

Believe it or not, Anime as we know it began because of Walt Disney. Japanese animators were impressed with the style of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, so they decided to try and mimic the style. It was only meant, however, to be temporary for animators with little skill when production companies were in a pinch.

But when Manga became popular in the 1970s, they began to become adapted into an animated format in this Anime style. The “father of Anime,” and overall Japanese equivalent to Disney himself, is Osamu Tezuka, who was both a creator of Manga and Anime. He was responsible for such works as Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion (which, ironically, later came into controversy with Disney's own The Lion King).

But Anime was still primarily a Japanese thing. It wasn’t until the 1988 anime film Akira (based on the Manga of the same name) that Anime began to become popular in the Western World. After Akira, which brought a second wave of Anime fans all around, the style began to grow and expand even more, having any movie type from giant robot action/dramas to slapstick comedy to gay porn. There wasn’t a subject that anime wouldn’t tackle.

Currently, the most acclaimed director of Anime is Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli. He became well-known in the Western World with his film Princess Mononoke in 1997, which was, at that time, the highest grossing film of all time in Japan. He later created Spirited Away, the film we will be focusing on today, which was the first Anime film to ever win an Academy Award.

Spirited Away (2001).

Country of Origin: Japan.

Original Title: Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi.

Director: Hayao Miyazaki (and Kirk Wise for English version).

Spirited Away is a weird (as most Anime can be considered… cultural thing), yet endearing movie. Chihiro is a rather whiny and stubborn young girl moving to a new town with her parents. When her dad tries to make a shortcut to their new house, they get lost and end up in front of an old, abandoned theme park (or so it seems). Even with Chihiro’s refusals to go in, they end up wandering around until they find some food, which they chow down on (except for Chihiro, who denies). Chihiro wanders off and discovers and old bathhouse. But when it starts to get dark, a mysterious young man, Haku, warns her to hurry and get across the river before it gets dark. She goes to her parents, but they have been literally transformed into pigs… and then the previously empty riverbed is now so full it’s like an ocean. Chihiro has thus been ‘spirited away’ into the spirit realm. Haku helps her to get a job at the bathhouse, run by the cranky old witch Yubaba, who takes her name away and re-dubs her Sen. There, Chihiro/Sen must work it out with spirit creatures/gods, as well as face the hatred from the other workers for being human, until she can figure out a way to get her parents back to normal and get home.

There’s a lot of bizarre things in this movie, but it all works for the world we’re given. My favorite scene in the movie has to be the ‘stink spirit’ (who is more than he seems), and Chihiro has to work harder than she ever has before to help make this situation right. It’s a great scene in the movie, and is really a turning point.

If there was anything that would be negative about this movie, it’s that there’s no real plot. The purpose is about Chihiro making it through long enough until she can find a way to return her parents to normal and get home. It’s a basic enough thing. But in between that time, so many other random things happen. They all do have some sort of purpose to the ending of the movie, but it’s really difficult to put this into a first/second/third act. It’s almost as if the movie has 4 acts: The human world, bathhouse part 1 (up through the stink spirit), bathhouse part 2 (the No-Face stuff), and the Zeniba stuff. It just makes the movie feel disjointed at points. But that’s probably just me.

The animation style is great, as it’s a mix of hand-drawn animation and computer graphics. And, amazingly enough, the American dubbing actually doesn’t suck. Chihiro is kinda shouty at times, but that’s how the character is anyway. Another thing I loved about the movie were its usually subtle commentaries. It touched a lot on gluttony and greed, via the food/pig stuff and No-Face respectively. And, ironically, Chihiro is renamed Sen (sin), and she’s the only character who doesn’t give in to any of the bad things in the movie.

Overall, the movie is a great film. It has amazing character development with Chihiro, which is really what the whole thing was about. The English dub actually, I think, added something to it that worked really well. Miyazaki has stated that, in the original Japanese version, Chihiro doesn’t remember a thing about the spirit world and there’s no real proof that she learned anything from the experience. However, in the English dubbing, they add in a line at the end that contrasts feelings Chihiro had about her new school, showing that she’s really grown as a person. And that really gives the movie meaning. However, regardless, it is still a great movie either way.

A Keanu 'Whoa'