I have watched a fair few fanedits over the years and I thought it might be time to do a semi-regular segment where I review some of them and talk to the people who make them. First up is a movie that gets a lot of flack over the years, but this fanedit has made it so much better...
Super Mario Bros...potentially the WORST video game movie of ALL TIME (well...House of the Dead may be a close contender!!)...but I feel that this movie has gained an unwarranted bad reputation. Yes, I watched this movie on my Quest for the WORST Movie, and it's fair to say the movie really is not brilliant by any standard...but when you take into account so many odd and unusual things that happened behind the scenes, and the "Rainbow Script" made things VERY complex, it's not surprising really. However, after doing a bit more research recently, I did learn that the movie that was released in cinemas was not the actual vision that everyone had.
It was great to hear recently that some fans have found various pieces from the movie that were missing, and there has been an awesome Extended version made. So, let's give it a watch!
Now, you should know what this movie is all about. It's the story of two Italian plumbers called Mario and Luigi, who rescues a princess from the evil King Koopa. Now, don't expect a movie that's like the video game or you will be sorely disappointed, but now we have a better version of the movie with more story and a better soundtrack, and the movie makes more sense and is a lot more watchable. and has a higher entertainment value. THIS IS THE VERSION WE DESERVED! Now the story makes more sense, and this is the version I'll be watching from now on.
With the Extended Cut also recently being released (and will with any luck be polished a bit more than it is) there will be more versions of this story told that is far superior to the theatrical cut and with any luck means this story will get a little bit more respect as it might deserve.
I spoke to the creator of this fanedit, TheUndertaker180, and asked him about his edit of the movie as well as his thoughts on the fanedit and workprint scenes.
Hello, Undertaker180, and thank you for taking the time to talk about your Fanedit of Super Mario Bros. which I have to say I really enjoyed very very much! First off, what have you called this Fanedit?
I have called this the Super Mario Bros Ultimate Final Cut.
How long did it take to make the edit and what tools did you use?
SMBUFC was just over a week's non-stop work, using the tools Topaz Video Upscaler, Womble, and tmpeng video editor which are the tools that I use to make my fanedits.
Wow, that is pretty quick! So why exactly did you make this Fanedit?
Well, I was talking to someone on a Facebook Workprint group and they requested I make an extended version after seeing my editing skills and the fanedits I've made previously.
Nice! It is good to see that people are acknowledging your skills, they are pretty good. What other Fanedits have you made?
I’ve always been into restoring and remastering films that I like and adding deleted or uncut scenes back into them. My proudest achievement is restoring and upscaling all the only fools and horses collection (fully uncut) which are extremely rare and now almost impossible to find.
So what has been added to the standard cut?
There are several versions of my edit, and they were released in a very short space on time.
The first time it was 99% complete with missing audio because the workprint wasn’t available.
The second time the workprint was leaked so I was able to complete it 100% but with darker picture quality from the workprint.
Third time...a video restorer who is restoring the film in the hopes of a general release with the Super Mario Bros archive uploaded the restored version and I was able to grab it for better picture quality from the workprint scenes so now it is 100% fully uncut and complete. Just over a week's non-stop work.
Finally, there is the fully completed version with all scenes intact, original workprint/theatrical soundtracks, and intros. I’m currently working on full subtitles for this now to put onto a professional-looking DVD along with menus, subtitles, 4K trailer, AND the workprint.
Wow! That is a lot of work, and making a DVD as well would be amazing, I'd certainly be interested in a copy of that for my collection!!
This of course could not have been done as fully as you have without the workprint and the restored version, which as with so many workprints was a really difficult task for a while because of Workprint hoarders who refuse to share. What are your views on the elitism of the Workprint Collector circles?
If people have rare workprints it’s better to share them in workprint groups as nobody likes hoggers. I knew of about 5 people with the workprint of SMB and once they obtained it they shied away and hogged it without sharing it back to the workprint community and I hate that. It’s really not cool.
Undertaker180, thank you for taking the time to talk about the Fanedit!
You can check out the Fanedit by downloading it from HERE