Welcome to the Weekly Movie Thread, your place on the Avocado to discuss films with your fellow commenters. Want to make a recommendation? Looking for recommendations? Want to share your opinions of movies, both new and classic? 

This week, we see the release of the all animated Super Mario Brothers Movie. It looks to be a very faithful adaptation of the video games. The characters are on model, each of the worlds look like actual video game, and judging for the online chatter no one has any problem with any of the voices.

So of course were going to talk about the 1993 movie instead. The one that makes you go, “Why?” Like they clearly had the budget to do sone fantasy backgrounds and stuff. But instead of whimsy the went with a nightmare dystopia.

One where Goomba are tiny-headed lizard people. A sticky substance is spreading and devolving people. And King Koopa is played by Dennis Hopper in spiky blonde hair.

It is, by far, one of the most baffling adaptations ever. It’s also something I don’t think we’ll ever see again in this IP dominated film landscape. Thirty years ago, crusty producers would have no idea what this Super Mario thing was, and thus setting it in a desolate wasteland straight out of an Albert Pyun movie would seem perfectly reasonable. What is this? Some bizarre Japanese stuff? This isn’t going to fly in America! This adorable mushroom man needs to be a punk rocker or something.

But maybe not adhering to the demands of capitalism isn’t always a bad thing. Maybe letting an artist with a weird vision be free leads to some amazing creations. For every Super Mario Bros., there a film about a cartoon rabbit, or a man hunting replicants, or ice-wielding princess from Arandelle that didn’t strictly follow the source material and became their own works nevertheless.

Today’s bonus prompt: what film adaptation do you like that takes a massive departure from the source material?