Okay, fair enough. I wasn't very steeped in Nintendo lore at the time, I just played the games. I'm guessing that was the norm.

The movie was definitely a big mess. Most of the people involved were very talented, but it suffered from severe executive meddling. What interests me most about it is that it was directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, who brought the same cyberpunk aesthetic to the film as they brought to Max Headroom. It was what got them brought in to direct the film in the first place. If you haven't seen Max Headroom, both the British and U.S. versions (which Morton and Jankel both were responsible for) are really good.

Anyway, the script they wanted to direct was more adult and not intended for kids and definitely would not have followed what Nintendo had in mind for Mario et al, but that script apparently was what convinced Bob Hoskins and Fiona Shaw to do the movie. I'd love to have read it. Then the producers brought in Ed Solomon to do a two-week rewrite and give it a lighter tone. Solomon is a good writer. He co-wrote the Bill and Ted movies amongst others. But two weeks was not enough time and they had the wrong directors in place to do a movie with a lighter tone.

Would Nintendo fans have enjoyed the movie they wanted to make? Probably not. But I think it also might have been a good movie as opposed to the end result.

You can read about the mess in this article- https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/mar/22/super-mario-bros-movie-killing-fields-chariots-fire-video-game