If you’ve seen either or both of the recent Mario movies, you know that the films are basically an hour and a half each of rapid-fire references and cameos. Basically every major plot point, joke, action, and crowd scene in each film is another opportunity for the filmmakers to go, “Hey, remember this guy/thing?!” Given that, it perhaps will shock you none at all to learn that even more cameos may have been planned for the The Super Mario Bros. Movie, including what would have been an utterly ridiculous pull from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, of all things.
This comes from the professional website of Douglas Lovelace, a storyboard animator with a robust resume spanning Lucasfilm, DreamWorks Animation, and more. Lovelace was apparently an uncredited storyboard artist on The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and in his portfolio he’s shared what seem to be a number of storyboard sketches from his work on the film. Specifically, it looks like Lovelace worked on the big wedding scene between Peach and Bowser, and from the looks of his art, a number of cameos were originally planned for that scene that didn’t make it into the final version.
In the storyboards you can see characters like Wart, Birdo, and Mouser sitting in the crowd for the wedding, none of whom wound up appearing in the The Super Mario Bros. Movie, instead eventually showing up in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie; Wart’s even a prominent villain! The storyboards show Birdo in particular as the subject of an awkward gag in which, when Toad objects to the marriage, she plops an egg out of her…nozzle.
But the most interesting cameo in here is this weird yellow bird guy sitting coolly, watching Peach walk down the aisle. Recognize him? That’s Rawk Hawk from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door! If you’re unfamiliar, Rawk Hawk is the top fighter in the Glitz Pit, a wrestling arena where Mario has to fight his way to the top to earn a Champion Belt, and the Crystal Star attached to it. Rawk Hawk is a jerk of a character, constantly bragging about himself and degrading everyone else, though he gains some level of respect for Mario—sorry, “The Great Gonzales” after Gonzales thrashes him in the ring.
Rawk Hawk being present in The Super Mario Bros. Movie would have absolutely been one of those wacky, super deep, blink-and-you-miss-it cuts that most people would have missed or misunderstood entirely and read about online later. What amuses me the most about this particular storyboard is that here, he almost looks a bit like Fox McCloud (or, Falco, I guess), complete with arrogant expression and sick boots. Fox, of course, shows up in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Rawk Hawk is nowhere to be found in either.
While I lament that both Mario movies are basically long reference-fests ala Ready Player One, I can’t deny that there’s a piece of my brain pleasantly tickled when I see one of Nintendo’s weirdest, most obscure dudes get all of one second in the spotlight. Though none of these guys made it into the wedding scene, King Boo did! So did King Bob-omb! It’s pleasantly silly to me that fellow royalty showed up to the marriage of the millennium. Honestly, forget the big cameos like Fox and the Babies Mario and Luigi. I’ll be rooting for Goombella in the next one (also if we don’t get Wario and Waluigi soon I am going to riot).
Check out the rest of the storyboard, too. The fight scene is really cool.
