Holammer
Member
Jared Knabenbauer, some internet celebrity known as ProJared shares an interesting insight into how Nintendo at one point in time wanted to distance Mario from his Plumber origin and background, transform him into an everyman.
This was during E3 2013, a decade ago. It was during the "Year of Luigi", and Nintendo was creating a video all about Luigi with YouTubers showing up as "experts" weighing in on how amazing Luigi is as he does parkour. Whatever. Not important. 2/10
There was no script for the video or anything, just the broad idea of Luigi Does Parkour and Everyone Says He's Awesome. So everything myself and others said in the video is unscripted. They basically told us to come up with whatever on the fly and just improvise. So we did 3/10
However, after I made some joke about how his ability to traverse any obstacle in life was second only to his deft hands on a plunger, they immediately stopped me and called cut. "You actually can't say that part." "What?" a confused me asked. 4/10
They then explained. Nintendo wanted to quietly and subtly 'phase out' the idea of Mario and Luigi being plumbers. They wanted the Bros. to be even more of an everyman by not even letting them have a specified occupation. 5/10
They basically wanted to get the world to slowly forget about their plumber origins, something has been so directly tied to their identity since the Mario Bros. arcade game. 6/10
It wasn't just that though. We also were not allowed to mention anything about Mario and Luigi being from Brooklyn. Their origin was to become nebulous by intent. We also couldn't say anything about them being Italian! Nothing about their favorite foods or accents. 7/10
Ever notice how much "less Italian" Mario started sounding starting about 2010 or so? Compare his brief sound clips and dialogue these days to how he sounded in Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, or Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. Less and less Italian. 8/10
The three main defining characteristics of the Mario Bros., and Nintendo wanted them all to go fade away. Now this may have been their plan in 2013, and clearly, it didn't stick. The first thing they do in Super Mario 3D World is fix a pipe. 9/10
And obviously, the Mario Movie makes it clear they are plumbers. This is just what almost was. There's a timeline out there where Mario & Luigi got homogenized and some of their most defining and endearing traits erased from history. /
This was during E3 2013, a decade ago. It was during the "Year of Luigi", and Nintendo was creating a video all about Luigi with YouTubers showing up as "experts" weighing in on how amazing Luigi is as he does parkour. Whatever. Not important. 2/10
There was no script for the video or anything, just the broad idea of Luigi Does Parkour and Everyone Says He's Awesome. So everything myself and others said in the video is unscripted. They basically told us to come up with whatever on the fly and just improvise. So we did 3/10
However, after I made some joke about how his ability to traverse any obstacle in life was second only to his deft hands on a plunger, they immediately stopped me and called cut. "You actually can't say that part." "What?" a confused me asked. 4/10
They then explained. Nintendo wanted to quietly and subtly 'phase out' the idea of Mario and Luigi being plumbers. They wanted the Bros. to be even more of an everyman by not even letting them have a specified occupation. 5/10
They basically wanted to get the world to slowly forget about their plumber origins, something has been so directly tied to their identity since the Mario Bros. arcade game. 6/10
It wasn't just that though. We also were not allowed to mention anything about Mario and Luigi being from Brooklyn. Their origin was to become nebulous by intent. We also couldn't say anything about them being Italian! Nothing about their favorite foods or accents. 7/10
Ever notice how much "less Italian" Mario started sounding starting about 2010 or so? Compare his brief sound clips and dialogue these days to how he sounded in Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, or Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga. Less and less Italian. 8/10
The three main defining characteristics of the Mario Bros., and Nintendo wanted them all to go fade away. Now this may have been their plan in 2013, and clearly, it didn't stick. The first thing they do in Super Mario 3D World is fix a pipe. 9/10
And obviously, the Mario Movie makes it clear they are plumbers. This is just what almost was. There's a timeline out there where Mario & Luigi got homogenized and some of their most defining and endearing traits erased from history. /
