When Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton's 1993 film "Super Mario Bros." was released in theaters in the spring of 1993, it was almost instantly pilloried by both critics and fans of the Nintendo video games on which it is based. The fans were incensed that the movie bore no resemblance to the games, transforming their whimsical, friendly cartoon kingdom setting into a metallic, filth-ridden, "Blade Runner"-like urban dystopia. The games' villain, an evil fire-breathing Koopa (a variation on the Chinese Dragon Turtle, essentially) named Bowser, was similarly turned into a humanoid dinosaur named King Koopa, played by Dennis Hopper.

The story was also wholly original. "Super Mario Bros." is based on the premise that the meteor that killed the dinosaurs actually created a parallel timeline. In

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