Seth Rogen ruffled some feathers recently while stumping for his new animated film, The Super Mario Bros Movie. Seth Rogen took time to comment to Variety during the movie’s premiere on Wednesday.
Seth Rogen, who voiced Donkey Kong in the new film based on the smash hit video game of the mid-80s (and loosely based on the 1993 film), made it clear that this film is his attempt to give the franchise’s attempts at the big screen success, a redemptive arc.
“When I was 11, I saw the original ‘Mario Bros.’ movie, and I was so excited. But it’s one of the worst films ever made. I was so disappointed. I think it made me realize that movies, like, could be bad. That never occurred to me until that moment.”
The original film Rogen is referring to is the 1993 live-action film of the same title, starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. The movie did quite poorly at the box office and in the eyes of movie critics, who snubbed the film to such a degree that Nintendo avoided the temptation to adapt another video game to film for 30 years.
Yet the movie has also developed a cult classic aura about it that keeps some fans of the film both engaged with the lore via Comic Cons and forums, as well as drawing ire toward Seth Rogen’s recent disparaging remarks.
When TMZ asked if he would be watching the new Mario movie, John Leguizamo responded with a curt response: “Hell No.” When asked to elaborate on his decision to pan the movie, Leguizamo highlighted his concerns with casting: “No, I will not [be watching]. They could’ve included a Latin character…Like I was groundbreaking, and then they stopped the groundbreaking. They messed up the inclusion. They dis-included. Just cast some Latin folk! We’re 20% of the population. The largest people of color group, and we are underrepresented.”
He went on to highlight that the studio originally didn’t want Leguizamo to play the part of Luigi because of his ethnicity, but the directors fought hard to bring him aboard.
Speaking of the fan base, Leguizamo had this to say: “I’m O.G. A lot of people love the original…I did Comic-Con in New York and in Baltimore, and everyone’s like, ‘No, no, we love the old one, the original.’ They’re not feeling the new one.’ I’m not bitter. It’s unfortunate.”
