Video game movies still have a bad reputation for not living up to expectations. The Super Mario Bros. film from the ’90s certainly did a lot to hurt the genre and send Nintendo screaming and running from Hollywood for the better part of two decades. This is why we still don’t have a live action Zelda movie!
Pixels didn’t really do the genre any favors last summer, and even the successful video game films like the Resident Evil movies tend to get away from the things that made the games so much fun in the first place. Earlier this month, a filmmaker known as “Banks” released a new short film called Donkey Kong in Real Life, in which Banks starred as Mario himself.
As for the plot, there really isn’t one and there doesn’t need to be. It’s just Mario climbing a recreation of the first level from the Donkey Kong video game as he dodges fireballs and barrels as the big ape tries to keep him away from his girlfriend, Pauline. But it’s really amusing to watch!
Related: Watch the Live-Action Short Film ‘Metroid: The Sky Calls’
Banks also created the special effects seen in the short video, and as eye-pleasing as they were, I was more impressed by Banks’ musical score for the video, which gave the classic Donkey Kong and Super Mario World themes a modern flavor. This approach to video game films probably wouldn’t hold up to a feature length project, but this was really good and Banks deserves some professional gigs after demonstrating the range of his abilities here. You can find out more about Banks at his website.
What did you think about Donkey Kong in Real Life? Throw a barrel at us and share your thoughts below!
