Bringing Back A Wild 1980s Animated Series Could Be The Key To Nintendo's Movie Crossovers

The Super Mario Bros. Movie shares a concept with one of Nintendo’s weirdest adaptations, and highlighting it could be the key to a massive cinematic Nintendo crossover. The Super Mario Bros. Movie features plenty of loving tributes to the history of the game franchise and Nintendo as a whole, with easter eggs pointing to other titles from the franchise. While the focus remained largely on Mario and the characters directly connected to him, the film’s universe also quietly set up several ways to expand the universe thanks to references to other games like Punch-Out! and Kid Icarus.

The success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie seems to have given Nintendo more confidence to push forward with other adaptations, including a live-action Legend of Zelda movie and a potential Donkey Kong spin-off. However, one element of The Super Mario Bros. Movie might be the specific detail needed to bring all those different games to create a massive connected Nintendo cinematic universe. That element was an important part of the inciting incident that brought Mario and Luigi to the Mushroom Kingdom, and a similar concept was used to bring together a number of otherwise disconnected characters in an earlier attempt at an connected Nintendo universe.

Captain N: The Game Master Was A Wild Nintendo Adaptation

Captain N: The Game Master United Nintendo Characters Years Before Super Smash Bros.

Captain N: The Game Master was a bizarre adaption of multiple videogame properties, but it could be a solid inspiration for the future of the cinematic Nintendo universe. Debuting on TV in 1989 after being created as a comic for Nintendo Power, Captain N: The Game Master focused on Kevin Keene, a regular teenager from the real world who was sucked into Videoland. In this reality, Kevin discovers that he must lead a group of heroes, including Princess Lana and versions of Castlevania‘s Simon Belmont, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus against the nefarious Mother Brain and her villainous allies.

The show lasted thirty-four episodes, and featured cameos from several other Nintendo characters like Donkey Kong, Punch-Out!‘s King Hippo, and the versions of Link and Zelda who had appeared in The Legend of Zelda animated show. It was an episodic adventure story with a truly bizarre central premise that adapted the famous videogame characters into unexpected forms. Nearly every notable Nintendo series at the time appeared in the show in some capacity, except for Super Mario Bros. — potentially because they had their own animated show on at the same time. However, similar ideas to the series can be seen in unexpected places, such as in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Captain N Would Work With The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Mario Actually Has Some Specific Similarities With Captian N

Captain N: The Game Master actually shares some key thematic elements with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Super Mario Bros. Movies focuses on a version of Mario from a relatively realistic version of the world. Both Kevin and Mario are seen playing video games before their respective adventures, and both end up sucked into a fantastical world like the ones they’d previously been playing in. Captain N: The Game Master even drew a direct parallel between the portal that took him to the Videoland and the Warp Pipes that bring Mario and Luigi to the Mushroom Kingdom.

This quietly gives Captain N: The Game Master and The Super Mario Bros. Movie a key world-building connection, which could be used to expand the world and the way Mario and his allies can hop between other worlds and kingdoms. Given how the characters from the Mushroom Kingdom eventually bounced back to Brooklyn for the climax, it could easily explain how other Nintendo characters could run into one another. This kind of connection could be used to set up a potential massive cinematic Nintendo crossover, and an adaptation of Nintendo’s ultimate crossover.

A New Captain N Could Set The Stage For A Smash Bros. Film

The Warp Pipes Could Bring Everyone Together

The Super Smash Bros. games are a crossover between the various Nintendo properties. Initially debuting on the Nintendo 64 with twelve different Nintendo characters battling one another, the series eventually expanded to include characters from other franchises like Square Enix and Sega as well. The Super Smash Bros. series is effectively the Nintendo equivalent of the Avengers films, bringing together the various different heroes and villains of several videogames for a series of massive brawls. If Nintendo ever wants to produce a Super Smash Bros. crossover movie, they’ll need an easy way to bring together characters from such differing worlds as the Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, and Dreamland.

Utilizing a concept like Captain N within the Super Mario Bros. cinematic universe could explain how the characters could all come together for a singular unified story, and it would make sense within the established world. Bringing back Captain N for a new generation could bring focus to the premise of people from various worlds coming together to fight a massive singular threat. The fact that The Super Mario Bros. Movie has already set up the same kind of potential world-building that Captain N did means the new films could ultimately follow in that obscure character’s footsteps.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Mario jumps to the big screen in The Super Mario Bros Movie, directed by Teen Titans Go! collaborators Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and more appear in this animated comedy that pits the characters in an all-new adventure set in the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond. 

Director

Aaron Horvath , Michael Jelenic

Release Date

April 5, 2023

Writers

Matthew Fogel