Super Mario Bros. Movie Plot Allegedly Leaked; Mario & Luigi Redesigns, Captain Toad, Pauline, Musical Numbers, and More

Ryan Pearson |

May 2, 2022

Source: Super Mario Party (2018), Nintendo

Alleged details of the Super Mario Bros. movie have been shared online, giving insight into the film’s overall plot, and other information.

The claims came via Reddit user VelVoxel_Raptor. While lacking credentials or evidence to prove it’s validity, the post being DMCA’d could suggest it is legitimate.

“Well I guess its real then xD,” VelVoxel_Raptor replied to his post after it was removed. However, the DMCA could also have been done so not to give a false impression of the final movie.

As for the “potential plot for the Mario movie” itself (as per a screenshot of the original post shared to ResetEra), VelVoxel_Raptor opens “Just going to preface this with ‘take everything with a grain of salt’, this is something that has been circulating a bit the last few days, some people who claim to have seen a test screening or those who have spoken to someone who has seen it.”

“What’s interesting is that a few different sources have been ‘lining up’ with one another,” VelVoxel_Raptor claimed. “Maybe they are copying off of one another or it’s all the same source but who knows. The last time something similar happened was with No Way Home, before the trailer even came out there were multiple sources lining up with the same details.”

“The only way to know if these details are true or not is to wait till the trailer comes out, by then we will know. If this is real, be weary, big spoilers ahead,” VelVoxel_Raptor cautions.

Starting with general details, VelVoxel_Raptor claims “The art style is cartoonish and full of life and color. It’s said to be of a similar art style to Hotel Transylvania but with Mario.”

“The humor is a bit mixed, it’s very punny/meta do [sic] not for everyone but there is no dabbing, no fart jokes, etc,” VelVoxel_Raptor somewhat confirms some of the assumptions that had been made thanks to Illumination’s involvement, while dashing others.

“For character designs, Mario and Luigi have slight redesigns, they also start off the movie with more worn and dusty suits with a muted color scheme (Mario has a blueish purple shirt instead of brown and Luigi has green overalls and a blueish purple shirt as well),” VelVoxel_Raptor alleges.

“They switch over to their more iconic colors later on in the movie and they have Brooklyn accents.” This would be consistent with the performance given in the Super Mario Bros. Super Show cartoon and live-action skits, as are other details later revealed.

“For other characters, DK Jr. Pauline, and Toadsworth are said to appear. Daisy is named (sp?) dropped. There are some female Toads but not sure if any are specifically named Toadette,” VelVoxel_Raptor alleges.

“There is also a non villainous character referred to as ‘Spike’ who shows up at the beginning and again at the end to congratulate them. He is kind of a greedy/bossy character.”

This is consistent with Sebastian Maniscalco revealing he was voicing Spike, prior to the reveal of Chris Pratt (Mario), Anya Taylor-Joy (Peach), Charlie Day (Luigi), Jack Black (Bowser), and others.

“When it comes to enemy types there are, Goombas, Koopas, Hammer Bros, Bullet Bills (and their towers), Banzai Bills, Lakitus, and 2 potentially new enemy types,” VelVoxel_Raptor purports.

“One is described as these black things with teeth that kind of look like ink. The other one is described as these tiny cute ninja things.” However, it’s possible these are the Fuzzy and Ninji enemies- the former being a ball of fur, typically shown with its hair fluctuating and shedding hair or even liquid or filth.

So, what about the plot? “The movie opens with a narration by Charles Martinet-” the iconic Mario voice actor’s alleged undisclosed role in the movie- “as he goes through the different jobs Mario had before joining the wrecking crew.” This would seemingly be inspired by the 1984 arcade and NES game.

“He fights Donkey Kong and saves Mario in the ‘real world’ (still animated from the sounds of it) New Dino City.” It may be the leaker meant to say Mario fights Donkey Kong and saves someone else, as “The fight is said to be choreographed really well and is quite fast paced, especially when Mario gets the golden hammer it can be ‘blink and you’ll miss [it]'”.

“In the present Mario is famous. When he hears reports of gorillas and turtles fighting he goes into the sewers to investigate,” VelVoxel_Raptor postulates. “Underground there are a ton of gorillas, some partying, others playing drums.”

“He runs into an older ‘cranky’ Donkey Kong-” this would be Cranky Kong, canonically the original Donkey Kong from the arcade games, while the Donkey Kong with a tie we see nowadays is his son- “and tries to communicate (but he can’t because Mario doesn’t speak gorilla).”

“They end up falling through a pipe into the Mushroom Kingdom.” Again, this would tie into the Super Mario cartoon having Mario discover the Mushroom Kingdom via a warp pipe.

“Some point in the beginning we hear the first ‘song’ of the movie,” VelVoxel_Raptor alleges, coming from Jack Black. “In this song Bowser sings as we see his younger years and his desire to take over Mushroom Kingdom. He then kidnaps Princess Peach, blows up Mushroom Kingdom, and heads for his ship.”

“Mario and Captain Toad” — first seen in Mario Galaxy before gaining his own spin-off game — “go on a journey to stop Bowser. At some point we get the second ‘song’ about plumbing, ” VelVoxel_Raptor states.

“Luigi is concerned because Mario has been gone for quite some time so he goes into the sewers to investigate and ends up in Mushroom Kingdom, specifically the ‘Forbidden Forest’ where he runs into Yoshi. Mario goes to fight Bowser but is defeated.”

“Kamek drops him off the ship into the Forbidden Forest where he meets up with Luigi and Yoshi,” VelVoxel_Raptor explains. “They get new costumes with their more iconic colors and head for Bowsers Castle.”

“At some point they come across these 3 ‘Bowser Clones’. They are mostly there to tell jokes but once they are defeated they shape-shift into this gross indescribable combination of enemies.” This would match how classic Mario games had fake Bowsers at the end of a world, turning into regular enemies on defeat.

“At some point before the final battle the final song plays where basically everyone sings. The Toads sing about saving the princess, Mario and Luigi sing about not losing hope, while Bowser and Peach argue to the beat of the song.”

“In the end, Kamek gives Bowser a mushroom causing him to grow” — again, consistent with how a giant Bowser has been the staple of Mario Bros. final boss battles.

“He chases Mario and Luigi through this pipe maze across many different locations,” VelVoxel_Raptor claims,”a desert, ocean, forest, and cloudy area, to name a few. Power ups like the fire flower and star make an appearance here as well (but don’t appear anywhere else in the movie).”

“Yoshi also fights with Kamek because they have some history. Kamek uses his wand to mess around with Yoshi altering the environment and what not.” This not only matches with the Yoshi’s Island series (where Kamek kidnaps a baby Mario and is thwarted by Yoshi), but how Kamek typically attacks by changing blocks into enemies.

“At the end of ‘the chase’ they trick Bowser into going through the last pipe ending up in his own lava pit.” Again, this is seen in classic Mario Bros. games and select others.

“Mario decides to open up a plumbing service in the mushroom kingdom and this is pretty much where the movie ends. Post credits scene is Bowsers skeleton.” This is likely hinting at “Dry Bowser,” or Bowser’s revival.

“Imo, if this ends up being the plot/way things go, it seems a bit better than expected,” VelVoxel_Raptor praises. “It kind of sounds like the Lego movie in a way with the plot themed songs and the many different characters and locations. Of course some stuff deviates from the source material but if you look at things like Sonic, that did quite well despite not being 1:1.”

The leaks were discussed by video game journalist Jeff Grubb, lending further credibility. A frequent source of behind-the-scenes information who most recently accurately leaked the reveal of Street Fighter 6, he discussed alleged leaks on the 44th GrubbSnax podcast.(1:02:32)

Grubb described the post as “pretty accurate,” but admitting there are “some things wrong.” After reading through it, he noted “one of the reasons I believe this [is legitimate], is because of the recent delay.”

“They probably have been showing this to test audiences, and they’re probably not super happy with this. Although it sounds fine to me. Sounds OK,” Grubb concludes.

The aforementioned delay pushed the Super Mario Bros. movie from December 21st this year. “This is Miyamoto,” the Nintendo of America Twitter account announced.

“After consulting with Chris-san, my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros. film, we decided to move the global release to Spring 2023–April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America. My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait.”