Email: Mushroom Kingdom Revisited

 Hi Sean,

I notice that you’ve been bringing up the mythos of Mario, and it reminds me of something I saw last year. An old forum (now discontinued) had gotten together after someone posted the idea of “reimagining” Mario.

The ideas below are probably not something you would want to reproduce on your blog, but they are hillarious and you might enjoy them.

Mario’s world is so rich, drawing upon Alice and Wonderland as you explained, that there is plenty of scope for interpretation – as “I, Mario: Revisiting the Mushroom Kingdom” discovered.

These particular individuals came to a realization that the actual subject material in Mario was actually very disturbing, or gritty. You have the invasion of the idyllic Mushroom Kingdom by a giant dinosaur and his army of flying, beaked turtles and live mushrooms.

In that vein, they decided to do a neo-Battlestar Galactica or “grimdark” reinterpretation of Mario. Trying to make it more “realistic” or gritty.

It was pointed out that the idea was absurd since making the Mario series into a “grimdark” world just returned it to its literary roots that were relatively allegorical – Mario is just a cheery interpretation of the  fantasy works that you mentioned and stepping back into the original works constitutes a reversion.

But I’m not a literary critic so let me just post the images that I am sure you will find interesting if you have never seen them:

The Now-Defunct Forum

http://specter24.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=PermArt&action=display&thread=195

Images
 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/AmazingTrout/IMarioWorld1.jpg

[awesome]
 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/AmazingTrout/IMarioWorld3.jpg

[awesome]
 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/AmazingTrout/IMarioWorld4Color.jpg

[awesome]
 
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/9761/koopasketchesxl5.jpg
 
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8581/imsketchessmb2mc3.jpg

http://xs102.xs.to/xs102/06250/Boo2.png
 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/wut_elz_link/rbofimp.jpg
 
http://img173.exs.cx/img173/5274/clowncar9to.jpg
 
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q199/naftaliash827/beezo.jpg
 
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y51/Scutilla/I%20Mario/Shyguy-Bean.jpg
 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/Binjovi/PirahnaPlant.jpg
 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v356/Electronic_Samurai/Goomba.gif
 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/AmazingTrout/Snifit.jpg
 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/AmazingTrout/Paragoomba.jpg [awesome]
 
http://img336.imageshack.us/img336/3799/imgoombas28xw.jpg
 
 
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9881/beezohh7.jpg
http://carra.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Peach-23762025
http://specter24.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=CharArt&action=display&thread=160
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/7107/marioface2um4.jpg
 
Imagine what a Hardcore Mario would look like!

[I am not sure if this proposal represents Hardcore tendencies, or if it is just an insane idea.]

Also, on that subject, I think there needs to be a Hardcore version of “Oregon Trail.” ;)

Interesting stuff. I’m sure most of it was done tongue-in-cheek.

I always imagined the Mushroom Kingdom to be a more sinister place especially when Bowser and his armies were around. This is probably one reason why I like Super Mario Brothers 3 since the world is not a pleasant place. Flying airships, Chain Chomps, Thomps, and especially the Koopa Kids and the army/navy/air force in World 8 are all quite sinister. In comic books, it is said that a good villain is as important as a good protagonist. One of the reasons why Super Mario Brothers made a splash while Mario Brothers didn’t was the addition of a real villain of Bowser in Super Mario Brothers. You see this trend occur much in entertainment (example: Star Trek: TNG got popular once the Borg appeared).

Super Mario World was becoming a little too much ‘Candy Land’. Bowser in a clown car was impossible to see as a credible villain. The ‘Candy Land’ factor increased much fold with Yoshi’s Island so much (with the crayon colored world and babies crying) that a Windwaker backlash resulted.

So there might be something with a sinister Mushroom Land.