Summary

The Super Mario Bros. Movieshares a concept with one of Nintendo’s weirdest adaptations, and highlighting it could be the key to a massive cinematic Nintendo crossover.The Super Mario Bros. Moviefeatures plenty of loving tributes to the history of the game franchise and Nintendo as a whole, with easter eggs pointing to other titles from the franchise. While the focus remained largely onMario and the characters directly connected to him, the film’s universe also quietly set up several ways to expand the universe thanks to references to other games likePunch-Out!andKid Icarus.

The success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie seems to have given Nintendo more confidence to push forward with other adaptations, including a live-actionLegend of Zeldamovie and a potential Donkey Kong spin-off. However, one element ofThe Super Mario Bros. Moviemight be the specific detail needed to bring all those different games to createa massive connected Nintendo cinematic universe. That element was an important part of the inciting incident that brought Mario and Luigi to the Mushroom Kingdom, and a similar concept was used to bring together a number of otherwise disconnected characters in an earlier attempt at an connected Nintendo universe.

Princess-Peach-from–The-Super-Mario-Bros

10 Princess Peach Stories That Would Be Perfect For Super Mario Bros. Movie 2

Princess Peach’s character was greatly expanded in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the upcoming sequel could continue this with these 10 stories.

Captain N: The Game Master Was A Wild Nintendo Adaptation

Captain N: The Game MasterUnited Nintendo Characters Years BeforeSuper Smash Bros.

Captain N: The Game Masterwas a bizarre adaption of multiple videogame properties, but itcould be a solid inspiration for the future of the cinematic Nintendo universe. Debuting on TV in 1989 after being created as a comic for Nintendo Power,Captain N: The Game Masterfocused on Kevin Keene, a regular teenager from the real world who was sucked into Videoland. In this reality, Kevin discovers that he must lead a group of heroes, including Princess Lana and versions ofCastlevania’s Simon Belmont, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus against the nefarious Mother Brain and her villainous allies.

The show lasted thirty-four episodes, and featured cameos from several other Nintendo characters like Donkey Kong,Punch-Out!’s King Hippo, and the versions of Link and Zelda who had appeared inThe Legend of Zeldaanimated show. It was an episodic adventure story with a truly bizarre central premise that adapted the famous videogame characters into unexpected forms.Nearly every notable Nintendo series at the time appeared in the showin some capacity, except forSuper Mario Bros.— potentially because they had their own animated show on at the same time. However, similar ideas to the series can be seen in unexpected places, such as inThe Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Captain N and his team assembled in the Palace Of Power in Captain N: The Game Master

Captain N Would Work With The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Mario Actually Has Some Specific Similarities With Captian N

Captain N: The Game Masteractually shares some key thematic elements withThe Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Super Mario Bros. Movies focuses on a version of Mario from a relatively realistic version of the world. Both Kevin and Mario are seen playing video games before their respective adventures, andboth end up sucked into a fantastical worldlike the ones they’d previously been playing in.Captain N: The Game Mastereven drew a direct parallel between the portal that took him to the Videoland and the Warp Pipes that bring Mario and Luigi to the Mushroom Kingdom.

This quietly givesCaptain N: The Game MasterandThe Super Mario Bros. Moviea key world-building connection, which could be used to expand the world and the way Mario and his allies can hop between other worlds and kingdoms. Given how the characters from the Mushroom Kingdom eventually bounced back to Brooklyn for the climax, it could easily explain how other Nintendo characters could run into one another. This kind of connection could be used to set up a potential massive cinematic Nintendo crossover, and an adaptation of Nintendo’s ultimate crossover.

Bowser and Mario from The Super Mario Bros Movie

A New Captain N Could Set The Stage For A Smash Bros. Film

The Warp Pipes Could Bring Everyone Together

TheSuper Smash Bros.games are a crossover between the various Nintendo properties. Initially debuting on the Nintendo 64 with twelve different Nintendo characters battling one another, the series eventually expanded to include characters from other franchises like Square Enix and Sega as well. TheSuper Smash Bros.series is effectively the Nintendo equivalent of the Avengers films, bringing together the various different heroes and villains of several videogames for a series of massive brawls. If Nintendo ever wants to produce aSuper Smash Bros.crossover movie,they’ll need an easy way to bring together charactersfrom such differing worlds as the Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, and Dreamland.

Utilizing a concept like Captain N within the Super Mario Bros. cinematic universe could explain how the characters could all come together for a singular unified story, and it would make sense within the established world.Bringing back Captain N for a new generation could bring focus to the premiseof people from various worlds coming together to fight a massive singular threat. The fact thatThe Super Mario Bros. Moviehas already set up the same kind of potential world-building thatCaptain Ndid means the new films could ultimately follow in that obscure character’s footsteps.

01546856_poster_w780.jpg

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Cast

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an animated adventure film featuring Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi. Released in 2023, the movie follows the brothers as they are transported to a magical world through a mysterious pipe, leading Mario on a quest to rescue Luigi after they become separated.