Starting at the beginning, there once was a plumber named Mario who hopped barrels and other obstacles while trying to save his girlfriend from a treacherous ape. The enormous success of Nintendo’s iconic 1981 video game, Donkey Kong, led to an even more popular sequel, Mario Bros. in 1983, which paired Mario with his brother Luigi. By the time Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. on their new gaming system, the NES, in 1985, Mario and Luigi were bonafide superstars of the video game world and Hollywood was calling. Finding even more success in the 1989 cartoon, The Super Mario Brothers Super Show, it was time to bring Mario and Luigi to the big screen, in the 1993 film, Super Mario Bros.

The story takes place in Dinohattan, a parallel world deep below our own, where man descended from dinosaurs. King Koopa has his sites set on the world above his own, having successfully staged a coup against the King of Dinohattan. College archeology student Daisy, the King’s daughter, has her own worries at the moment though, namely defending her home from the unscrupulous Scapelli brothers, eager to build a high rise in its place. Coming to her aid (although she seems perfectly capable of taking care of herself) are Mario and Luigi, rivals of the Scapelli clan.

Daisy also has a coveted treasure dangling around her pretty neck – a sliver of a meteorite, which could reconnect the upper and lower worlds were it to ever be reunited with its meteor source. Koopla, unlike Mario and Luigi, is fully aware of the neckwear’s power and sends his goons, Izzy and Spike to capture poor Princess Daisy. For Luigi (who has become smitten with the Princess) and Mario, the choice is clear, they must travel into the bowels of the subterranean world and rescue this damsel in distress. But plenty of dangers await in the form of Toad, the Goombas and Bob-omb (all familiar faces from the video games,) not to mention the inevitable showdown between the brothers and King Koopa himself.

There was no shortage of familiar faces in Super Mario Bros. Actors Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo took on the roles of Mario and Luigi, respectively. Samantha Mathis was the beautiful underground Princess and classic bad guy, Dennis Hopper, played the menacing King Koopa. Musician, Mojo Nixon, also appeared as Toad.

Fans of the video game series gave a lukewarm reception to the film, having noticed a number of glaring discrepancies between the two mediums, and overall, Super Mario Bros. didn’t quite manage to reverse the trend of video-game based movies doing poorly at the box office. Luckily, with the release of the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 game systems, Mario and Luigi’s star wouldn’t fade despite the performance of Super Mario Bros. at theaters. As recently as 2007, they have still been roaming the video game realm on the popular Wii console - a respectable 22-year legacy for these two iconic video game plumbers.