Universal’s publicity machine is rapidly getting up steam ahead of the December release of the much-anticipated movie adaptation of the Super Mario game franchise, possibly as a prelude to a Nintendo cinematic universe. It’s a good time for video game movies, with HBO Max’s Mortal Kombat scoring a box office hit last April, which has a sequel currently in development, and what looks like being the second installment in a series of Sonic the Hedgehog films premiering early next month.

The new, animated Super Mario Bros. film still lacks a title, but what it doesn’t lack are big-name stars. With Avengers alum Chris Pratt voicing Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy (Peaky Blinders, The Queen’s Gambit) as Princess Peach, Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Lego Movie) as Luigi, and the ever-dependable Jack Black as Bowser, Universal has certainly succeeded in attracting some of Hollywood’s biggest hitters to the project.

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Plot details are being kept tightly under wraps, but Mario lovers will have a pretty good idea of what to include and what not to include in December’s extravaganza.

Don’t Change the Main Characters

     Buena Vista Pictures

This is not the first time New York’s most famous plumbers have appeared on the silver screen. The previous movie looked like a sure bet on paper when it was released in 1993. Bob Hoskins, then enjoying the highest profile of his career after excellent performances in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1998) and Hook (1991), was cast as Mario, with John Leguizamo (When They See Us, The Mandalorian) as Luigi, and Dennis Hopper as King Koopa.

Where the film went wrong was in the liberties it took with the main characters. Whereas King Koopa was an eminently recognizable turtle-like creature in the video games, Hopper played the part as a creepy gangland boss, albeit with some rudimentary prosthetics – a sort of prototype of the megalomanic Deacon he would go on to play two years later in Kevin Costner’s epic Waterworld. Worse, rather than including Princess Peach from the original game as the foil for the two main characters, the makers decided to introduce Princess Daisy instead. Princess Daisy was a relatively new character known only to Nintendo Game Boy users and players of the critically panned NES spin-off game Mario Open Golf. Samantha Mathis, who would rapidly go on to better things (How To Make An American Quilt, American Psycho), does competent work with a one-dimensional character. Still, it’s hard not to conclude that Daisy would have made for a more compelling female lead.

Expand the Universe but Don’t Alter the Premise

In Skyfall (2012), Naomie Harris’ character is eventually discovered to be none other than Moneypenny, M’s usually office-bound secretary and Bond’s chief flirt in previous films. And why not make her into a field agent? A virtual tabula rasa in the Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, the makers of Skyfall offended no one. It contradicted no canonical backstory for the character by creating one of their own. The case of Moneypenny is an excellent example of how to alter the premise of a story element in a sympathetic way.

A more productive way forward for video game adaptations is to expand the universe instead. The Sonic film managed this with aplomb, setting the action in the fictional town of Green Hills, Montana, in an affectionate nod to the original game, but more importantly placing Sonic’s phenomenal speed, ring collecting, Jim Carrey’s maniacal Dr. Robotnik at the center of the plot. In other words, all the usual components of a Sonic game were present, but in a locale that allowed them space to develop and grow. Again, the makers of the Mario movie would do well to avoid the mistakes of the 1993 production, which placed the action in Dinohattan rather than the familiar environs of the Mushroom Kingdom and made Mario and Luigi actual plumbers in a strange pivot that did not endear the film to fans. The new movie will benefit from a focus on developing the Marioverse rather than changing it wholesale.

Get the Tone Right

     Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

If Mario is known for anything, it’s for the happy-go-lucky, charming feel of the games. And while the 1993 film did this well, it was also tonally awkward, veering between family-friendly knockabout action and bawdy humor. Scenes that felt forced and out of place include Bob Hoskins burying his face in the bosom of Big Bertha (Francesca P. Roberts) and Dennis Hopper, who vented on set at the constant script changes, propositioning Daisy. Placing the film more squarely as children-oriented should avoid such pitfalls and allow the characters’ likability to come to the fore.