Project Mario

Project Mario is a Project series movie that released in 2022. It takes place in 2024 during the time of the USA presidential election. Originally, it was released in 2 parts, being the first two acts of the movie but when the final act was finished the movie was released as one feature length film.

### Release Date

July 14th, 2022 (Part 1)September 20th, 2022 (Part 2)December 31st, 2022 (Full Movie)

## Synopsis

As Donald Trump's reelection campaign draws closer, Luigi, the far-right brother, unleashes war onto Mario, the anti-Trump left-winger. After Luigi's assassination attempt on Mario fails, he calls Donkey Kong for reinforcements. Mario is now a fugitive in the criminal underground and must escape the clutches of the many assassins coming for him. Now being threatened by Donkey Kong, Mario must recount his past and carefully plan his next moves to stop Luigi once and for all.

### Themes

Project Mario has many underlaying themes that require multiple rewatched under a different lense to fully grasp. The first major theme is the easiest to understand, being how politics divide people and destroy the closest of relationships including family. A lot of history is implied between Mario and Luigi, that being they used to be chill but once they got into politics they betrayed eachother into a corner causing both of them to have their lives ruined. Mario lost his family and Luigi got addicted to drugs and has increasingly more violent outbursts. The second major theme is the satirization of the thug/hood life. The marketing for the movie and most of the material in the film itself parody thug life mentality in an absurd and abstract way. It became a sole part of the tone of Project Mario and has many layers to it that are still yet to be discovered. It is said by expert analysts that people will be discovering new layers of messages that the movie brings for years to come.

## Production

Project Mario started development about less than a day before releasing the first act as a short film. It was 100% improvised and wrapped up filming the day it began. The editing was fast as well yet no expense was spared in ensuring the quality of the movie. A few weeks after the first part released, work began on the second act and finished in September 2022. It continued the improv style the first part was known for and ended on a cliffhanger for the finale. The third and final act started filming on September 30th, 2022 and finished filming in November. Project Mario as a whole was now in post-production and instead of releasing as "Part 3", it was set to be released as one full movie in December. There were slight changes in the full version, most notably changing the opening song and adding an establishing shot in the second act. There was a deleted scene intended to be included but was cut from the final product.

## DVD Release

On January 1st, 2023, it was announced that Project Mario would be getting a release on home video and revealed the DVD cover. The DVD release was released later on with a promotional trailer. The DVD release included all trailers for the movie as well as a deleted scene and a remix of Luigi's theme.

## Sequel

Overforce has stated that there are plans for a sequel to Project Mario in the early stages of development and a storyline has been decided upon if a sequel is to be made.

## Trivia

The scene where Mario gets captured by Donkey Kong's hitmen and is tied up and then warned by D.K. is a direct homage to the scene in the television show Breaking Bad where the character Gustavo Fring threatens Walter White in the desert while being tied up.

The scene where Mario chases Luigi with a chainsaw is a direct homage to the horror movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) in which the main antagonist, Leatherface chases his victims with a chainsaw as they escape, ending with Leatherface having a meltdown swinging his chainsaw around violently as they get away.

At the end of the DVD promotional video, there was originally going to be a blunt included with the DVD and box but was removed due to it being false advertising.

There was initially going to be a "Golden Chainsaw Edition" of the DVD release using the re-release poster that also included the chainsaw prop used in the movie as a bonus collector's item but the idea was scrapped.

The scene in which Mario has a revelation about Luigi's true intentions before the sniper duel is a homage to the ending of James Wan's Saw (2004) and the Saw film franchise's editing style in general, complete with the ending song from the movie.