Between plumbers and mushrooms. The cinema adaptation of the classic videogame Super Mario Bros

Abstract

In this article, cinema and video games converge with the aim of analyzing the audiovisual treatment of the characters who acquire an important role in the film Super Mario Bros: The Movie (Horvarth and Jelenic, 2023) and the transformations raised with respect to the video game that is taken as a reference. For this purpose, a qualitative content analysis of descriptive-interpretative cut is developed and attention will be given to those aspects that are more significant in their physical, psychological and social dimensions. The results indicate that all the film characters play a primary role in that they all have to achieve the main objective, for which reason they all interdependently pursue that common goal. Additionally, the film narrative allows for a deeper and more nuanced study of the characters and their relationships. By the same token, so as to flesh out this narrative there is a series of references to characters, costumes, elements and spaces not only appearing in Super Mario Bros. 1 but also in other interactive fiction games released by Nintendo.

Keywords

• Cinema
• character
• cultural industry
• Super Mario
• video games