Captain America, Iron Man, Star-Lord, Dr. Strange. These B-list heroes have become household names over the last decade. Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Kirby. These have been household names for many decades and have the potential of becoming a TRILLION dollar franchise and feel free to quote me on that.

This seemed as good a time as any to pitch this idea, with the update on the animated Super Mario Bros film from Illumination Studios and Super Smash Bros Ultimate being released next month. To keep with the aforementioned Super Mario Bros film, all of these will be animated with voice actors as opposed to live-action.

There is a goldmine of animated characters that could be used from any number of properties to build a multi-film franchise around. But, much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is groundwork laid out for each character and a wide array of stories that could be told with each of them.

Let’s start with the most famous characters from this franchise: the Ice Climbers.

Just kidding, they won’t be involved.

Super Mario Bros (2022)

Plot: 

This film will see the Mario Brothers as hard-working, mildly-successful plumbers who enjoy what they do in the city they love, Brooklyn. Their sister, Pauline, is running for re-election as Mayor. Years ago, a pharmaceutical testing facility experimented on monkeys and gorillas and created a hyper-intelligent breed of monkey that was eventually shipped to an uninhabited island, Kong Island. After years of isolation and evolving, their leader, aptly named “Donkey,” believes they got the short end of the stick and wants to move his family back to Brooklyn and decides to have a sit-down with Mayor Pauline. Well, as you can imagine, the citizens don’t take to a giant, talking gorilla too well and react with violence. Donkey decides to react the same by kidnapping Pauline and forcing her brothers to step-up and rescue their sister.The ending of the film sees the city of Brooklyn agreeing to allow Donkey and his family to move back but Donkey realizes his family wouldn’t be accepted by this society and decides it’s better to stay on Kong Island. Mario and Donkey begrudgingly come to a truce and go their separate ways, but not before Mario gives Donkey a box of clothes (which include a tie with “DK” embroidered on, a baseball cap and a red shirt).

Post-Credits:

Luigi in on the job fixing the power plants’ plumbing. He goes into the basement and begins working when suddenly he hears a woman’s voice yelling for help and maniacal laugh coming from one of the open pipes. He takes a look inside when suddenly he gets sucked in and you hear the familiar “whomp whomp whomp” sound.

Main Cast:

Mario/Luigi – Charles Martinet

Donkey Kong – Terry Crews

Pauline – Kristen Wiig

Metroid (2023)

Plot:

The plot of Metroid won’t vary much from the original game.

In the year 20X5, a band of Space Pirates hijack a Galactic Federation-owned research planet in order to control the “Metroid” creatures that inhabit the planet. The creatures latch onto hosts and suck their life force from them. After many failed attempts to steal back the base, the federation decides to send in the bounty hunter Samus Aran to take back the facility and destroy the Metroids. Before heading down to the planet, she butts heads with hotshot pilot Fox McCloud, Team Leader of his own Airwing brigade, who doesn’t believe they should be giving this job to someone who doesn’t believe in the Galactic Federation.

After infiltrating the base, Samus accidentally alerts the Pirates and an all-out war arupts on the planet. Samus is making her way towards the “Mother Brain” to destroy all of the Metroids but before she reaches the Mother Brain she runs into the Space Pirates’ commander, the extraterrestrial dragon Ridley. She defeats Ridley but he is able to escape, though badly wounded. She places a time bomb on the walls surrounding the Mother Brain and escapes the planet before it explodes. Samus is now a hero within the Federation and goes on her way.

Post-Credits:

We see the timer on the bomb count down and as it hits 0:01 we see a portal of white light appear next to the Mother Brain and pull it in.

Main Cast:

Samus Aran – Brie Larson

Fox McCloud – Chris Evans

Ridley – Tony Todd

The Legend of Zelda (2023)

Plot:

This film will follow closely with the plot of Ocarina of Time.

The whole focus of this film is to have a fun fantasy film that establishes one of Nintendo’s most well-known heroes while also making his origin less cluttered.

Link will meet Zelda, who is avoiding the evil thief Ganondorf. She gives Link the Ocarina of Time to open the Temple of Time and receive the Tri-Force before Ganondorf can. The two of them enter the temple and are attacked by Ganondorf. Link grabs the Master Sword right as the Tri-Force splits up between the three.

Link wakes up seven years later to Sheik, a masked character who agrees to train Link and help him defeat Ganondorf. We learn Sheik is actually Zelda and the only way to defeat Ganondorf is with their portions of the Tri-Force. They defeat him and send him to the Dark Realm, along with his third of the Tri-Force.

Post-Credits:

We see Link fiddling with the Ocarina of Time when he suddenly has a vision of the future. Hyrule is in ruins and the world is on fire.

Cast:

 Young Link – Finn Wolfhard

Young Zelda – Millie Bobby Brown

Link – Logan Lerman

Zelda/Sheik – Alexandra Daddario

Ganondorf – Bryan Cranston

Star Fox (2024)

Plot:

This is a follow-up/spinoff to Metroid and adaptation of the first Star Fox game.

Following the battle in Metroid, Fox McCloud is disillusioned by the Galactic Federation after discovering they were weaponizing the Metroids. Not only that, he lost both of his legs in the final battle and had them replaced with cybernetic legs. He begrudgingly still works for them so he can live up to his father’s legacy as an outstanding pilot. His crew, Peppy Hare, Slip Toad and Falco Lombardi (who had lost his legs years prior and is helping Fox overcome this new change) have also stuck around.

The film is a straightforward airship film that focuses on this hotshot crew facing off against the evil Andross, who plans on unleashing a plot to destroy the planet Corneria, home of the Galactic Federation. Public approval ratings are at an all-time low for the Federation following the Metroid fiasco. It comes down to Fox and his team to defeat Andross, which they do.

Post-Credits: 

Samus comes to Fox extremely worried. She believes the Mother Brain somehow survived and is still out there. She asks him for his help but only him, she wants to play this close-to-the vest.

Cast:

Fox McCloud – Chris Evans

Flaco Lombardi – Jeremy Renner

Slip Toad – Patton Oswalt

Peppy Hare – Gary Oldman

Kirby’s Dream Land (2025)

Kirby will be pink, don’t worry.

Plot:

This film’s whole goal is establishing Kirby, his power set of extended hovering and his copying ability (but he won’t suck them in because that’s troublesome) and the fact multiple realities exist. This is a fun, family-friendly film with bright colors and juvenile humor.

King Dedede and his minions stole all of the food in the kingdom and are selling it back to the subjects at insane prices, which they’re willing to pay. It’s up to Kirby to find the food and deliver it back throughout the kingdom. While in King Dedede’s castle, Kirby notices a locked door with flashing red and white lights coming from underneath. He moves on without much thought in order to complete his mission. King Dedede apologizes to his subjects and remains in power while Kirby is now the people’s champion.

Post-Credits:

We see King Dedede enter the mystery room where he is talking to an unknown entity. He asks him how many more of his subjects are needed and with an ominous voice we hear “the pink one.”

Cast:

Kirby – None

King Dedede – Rowan Atkinson

The Super Smash Brothers (2025)

This is it. The film you guessed I was building towards.

Plot:

We’ve seen the heroes fight alone, we’ve seen some square off with each other. Now we see them fight as a team. We start off with King Dedede walking through the plan with the mastermind behind all of this, Master Hand. Master Hand is an other-worldly entity who finds lesser beings as his play things. He wants to “catch ’em all.” As he pumps out exposition, we pan over to see the Mother Brain in King Dedede’s secret room and inside the brain is Kirby. They’re using Kirby’s power mimicking ability to amplify the Mother Brain which is placing Metroids on King Dedede’s subjects building a horrifying army.

The Master Hand then opens up multiple portals and sends the army through. The creatures begin an invasion of Earth where we see Mario (who has been searching for his brother), Donkey Kong (building a civilization for his family on Kong Island) battling these creatures on Earth. We see Mario jumping on the Metroids and DK punching them off, freeing King Dedede’s subjects, who then turn around and go through another portal to receive another Metroid.

Fox and Samus get insane readings coming from Earth and fly there to investigate. These four heroes eventually find each other and team-up. Master Hand decides to intervene and attack the 4. They’re no match for him but suddenly a burst of blue light breaks up the fight and out steps Link. The five heroes are able to hold him off, which scares him and he flees through a portal. Using his newly enhanced cybernetic legs, Fox follows, unbeknownst to Master Hand.

Link explains that he saw a destroyed future and decided to come and assist in anyway he could using the Ocarina of Time. In the Master Hand’s home-world, Fox comes across a room of statues, including Pikachu and Captain Falcon. Master Hand has been collecting interesting creatures from across dimensions and has been using King Dedede’s subject’s undying loyalty as the perfect subjects. Fox accidentally frees Pikachu and Captain Falcon and they have a quick brawl. Once they realize they have a common enemy they decide to join the team.

Master Hand returns to King Dedede and reveals the final invasion plan. Captain Falcon, Fox and Pikachu follow and see Kirby inside the Mother Brain. As the invasion begins, they release Kirby and enter a portal to help. Without Kirby, they can no longer replace the Metroids on the subjects’ heads.

Blah Blah Blah, final battle, heroes win and defeat the Master Hand. They go their separate ways with mutual respect all around.

Post-Credits:

No post-credits.

Cast:

Master Hand – Patrick Warburton

Captain Falcon – Armie Hammer

Thanks for taking this journey with us! Let us know if we should create a Phase 2 or if this was more than enough. Tweet us @superbromovies on Twitter!

-Kellen Murack