The appearance of Pedro Pascal in the last saturday night live gave the show a perfect opportunity to usurp the dark, dystopian tone of The last of us — as well as the checkered history of video game adaptations — by imagining a world in which HBO brought the same “prestige dystopian drama” approach to a Mario Kart adaptation.
“It’s a me,” growls Pascal, “mario,” aping his gruff demeanor as Joel in The last of usin what may or may not be a casting dig for action hero Chris Pratt as the famous plumber in the upcoming Super Mario Bros movie.. The sketch takes the form of a trailer for the imagined series, with Peach playing the role of Mario-style cargo Ellie, and Yoshi, Toad, Luigi (and his mansion) and Bowser all appearing in HBO form appropriately. tattooed and rude. A Goomba is thrown as a Clicker, and Mario loads a shotgun with red shells.
The mashup of the game’s two properties is a beautifully executed, if obvious joke, pitting the colorful and surreal absurdity of the Nintendo game against the grim brutality and cinematic style of The last of us — which, of course, are exactly what made it such a perfect subject for an HBO series. Above all, the skit pokes fun at both equally, rather than condescending to Mario Kart’s gameplay qualities. The choice of Mario Kart, rather than a main Super Mario game, is also inspired – if only because, if SNL had chosen the latter, the result might have seemed uncomfortably close to reality Super Mario Bros.. 1993 movie, such a bizarre cultural artifact it exists beyond parody.
And if you really want to see the world of Mario Kart turned into filmed entertainment, don’t worry – the trailers indicate that the karts and the famous Rainbow Road will appear in The movie Super Mario Bros. when it comes out in April. In the world of IP franchising, nothing is too silly to try for real.
