I pretty certain I'm the nameless guy who Max Force told to go fuck himself for defending the 'Mario' movie in the 'Hobbit' vlog, so what does that tell you about how I'll respond to this post?
I was in the exact target demographic when 'Super Mario Bros.' came out: a preadolescent Nintendo player who owned every 'Mario' game, had a 'Nintendo Power' subscription and even drank those horrible Mario-themed Shasta drinks, and I must have seen that film about 3-4 times in the theater. I loved the weird cyberpunk setting and the weird de-evolution sub-plot and especially Dennis Hopper's twisted performance...this was long before I knew about 'Blade Runner', 'Brazil' or 'Max Headroom', so I was enamored with seeing this kind of dark visual aesthetic. I liked it a hell of a lot more than I did the corny Mario cartoon.
20 years later, I can clearly see its flaws, but I still think for something that was made as an obvious cash-in, they came up with something truly original(-ish) and entertaining. I can't help but feel that if they made an adaptation of the cartoon, complete with a talking dinosaur puppet Bowser and copious pasta jokes, it would have been an even bigger disaster. Just my two cents.