Seth Rogen says 1993's Super Mario Bros. made him "realize movies could be, like, bad"
Seth Rogen, the newest voice of Donkey Kong calls the 1993 film "one of the worst films ever made"
As the newest voice of Donkey Kong, Seth Rogen is hoping to save a generation of kids from heartbreak with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The actor recalls heading to the theater in 1993 to see Super Mario Bros. at 11 years old, only to have his illusions of film shattered. With a boyish glow in his eyes, he gazed upon the silver screen only to realize his video game favorites had been stuck into “one of the worst films ever made.”
“When I was 11, I saw the original Mario Bros. movie and I was so excited,” Rogen tells Variety. “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.”
Thirty years later, Rogen feels confident that The Super Mario Bros. Movie will not leave modern children feeling the same disappointment.
“It really bummed me out,” he continues. “It’s nice to vindicate that moment. It’s nice to know that 11-year-olds out there that they won’t be disappointed in the same way that I was.”
The live-action take on the video game franchise starred Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi. Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel’s Super Mario Bros. was widely panned, earning less than its $42 million budget in box offices worldwide. Leguizamo recently came to the defense of the film, attesting that the film has some die-hard fans out there.
“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,” Leguizamo told IndieWire in 2022.
Rogen will soon appear in another animated adaptation of a ‘90s kid favorite: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He’ll voice Bebop in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, with a star-studded cast including Paul Rudd, Giancarlo Esposito, Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Natasia Demetriou, Ayo Edebiri, Post Malone, and Maya Rudolph.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently playing in theaters nationwide. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is set to arrive in theaters later this year on August 4, 2023.