Blue plumber’s suit, red hat with an M, white gloves and mustache: Super Mario’s looks are unmistakable. In a number of video games, he flickered across the screen, through green tube after green tube, to finally free Princess Peach from Bowser’s clutches time and time again.
Games like Mario Party and Mario Kart also achieved cult status and are still enjoyed by many adults today. But the names of Mario and his partner Luigi are no coincidence: “The fact that Mario and Luigi are Italians and are called what they are called is due to a dispute over rental income,” reports the “SWR”.
Real estate entrepreneur Mario Seagle rented a warehouse to Nintendo near Seattle in the early 1980s. “Because of rent arrears, Seagle is said to have loudly asked the then America boss Minoru Arakawa to pay one day in the offices of Nintendo in front of the assembled workforce.”
The disputes were resolved, but Nintendo immortalized the landlord’s first name in the video games. Before that, the little figure was called “Jumpman”.
As the “SWR” reports, the appearance of Mario and his brother Luigi also has practical reasons: Their caps, for example, were easier to develop for the game makers. Because they didn’t have to “animate a hairstyle that would have to move with the jumps”. Instead, the hat always sits perfectly in place.
The striking mustache not only gave the two of them a unique look, there was also no need to animate changing facial expressions. Whether the two are smiling or looking grim can never be seen in the games.
It should be different in the new film “The Super Mario Bros. Film”, which will be shown in cinemas from April 5, 2023. There, the two plumbers must protect the world from Bowser and the Koopas. In the trailer you can see that the legendary rainbow track from Mario Kart also appears in a sequence. In addition to Super Mario, Princess Peach, Toad and Luigi are also part of the party.
However, the origin of his name is not as exciting as his brother’s: “In the 1980s, the name was one of the most popular male names in Italy and it is also reminiscent of the Japanese word for ‘similarity’,” writes the “SWR”.
Source: “SWR”
