1 min read

Story circle: The Super Mario Bros. Movie

(spoilers for the movie, of course)

the super mario bros. movie has an unusually clear story circle structure:

  1. mario and luigi and their plumbing business...
  2. and their mean ex-boss, and disappointed family.
  3. "we're going to save Brooklyn!" but they get sucked into the pipe and are separated.
  4. mario goes through peach's trials, and succeeds, kind of, so she takes him along. arena fight.
  5. mario beats DK! the kongs are on our side!
  6. ambush! disaster! mario and DK are eaten by a big fish. evacuate the kingdom! all is lost! peach "accepts" bowser's proposal.
  7. wedding... sacrifices... peach has a gun! I mean an ice flower... BULLET! BROOKLYN!
  8. oh no, brooklyn! but star! so fine. bad ex-boss is humbled. parents are proud. lesson: just have superpowers, dummy.

(in retrospect — what ever happened with that burst pipe? I guess brooklyn managed the situation just fine without them after all...)