Back To The Start Mario (Flash Movie)

[Hundegesicht]

This is an incredible flash video, IMO.

Back To The Start Mario
http://www.dosgames.com/backtothestartmario.html - Mirror Page
http://www.laughinggames.com -Steve's Website

This sprite movie was made by Steve Chris, an amazing artist who, for several years, has been a dedicated member of an internet community I'm part of. It was released quietly in a simple post, and, since then has become fairly popular as different members of said community have posted it in other places and it's now hosted by a couple of major art appreciation websites.

I'm posting it here at Civfanatics because I know there are a lot of people that are either members or lurk here, and I know that amoung those people, a lot of them either really love or really hate stuff like this. So watch, think, and post your opinion.

Thanks!

 

[Hundegesicht]

*bump*
Wow, that bad, eh? Well, I'll go ahead and make the first (and probably) last comment in my own thread.

 

[blackheart]

It's... unique. And kind of trippy. Although the political message at the end ruins the atmosphere.

 

[Mulholland]

It's Great!
And the message at the end makes it all that much more worthwile.

 

[Left]

Ha!

I love the running in ciricles part.

Nice message at the end.

 

[WillJ]

IMHO the message at the end would be better with examples less obvious than Hitler and bin Laden. But it gets WillJ's seal of approval! (which is of course all that really matters in this world)

 

[Hundegesicht]

WillJ, do you have an Official Seal of Approval jpeg I could show Steve? He'd probably add it in the credits, just for the hell of it.

And my friend's from India, so he used Hitler and Bin Ladin as examples because he figured they'd be the two most universally hated bad guys by our (mostly American) community. Anyway, his flash got added to www.albinoblacksheep.com today! Getting some publicity...

Thanks for the posts! I'm off to bed now, will check again in the morning.

 

[Truronian]

That was... bizarre. I think it would make more sense if I played Mario.

 

[zeon252]

It was very good, and the song was fitting too

 

[Godwynn]

Didn't see the ending coming at all. I was expecting a funny ending like most flash movies.

 

[WillJ]

@Hundegesicht: Here you go. I think I'll start using this elsewhere too.

(I can't get the background transparent.)

 

[Swissempire]

I like it

 

[Lozzy_Ozzy]

@Hundegesicht: Here you go. I think I'll start using this elsewhere too.

(I can't get the background transparent.)

Now you can.



EDIT: That looks TERRIBLE.

Let me fix it.

Sorry.

EDIT 2: Better, but not perfect...

I will have to carry it on in the morning.

I am too tired now, sorry guys!

 

[Ansar]

I dont get it. But it goes pretty cool with the music.

 

[Hundegesicht]

WillJ, thanks a ton for the official seal. I sent it to Steve, he should get a kick out of it! (Once Lozzy Ozzy finishes the transparent version, I can see such seals being used far too often on these forums...)

Everyone: thanks for all your comments so far! It means a lot more than you'd realize.

That was... bizarre. I think it would make more sense if I played Mario.

The movie uses characters and concepts from the Mario games, so yeah, it might be pretty confusing if you don't have that as a backdrop. Basically, though, listen to the words of the song. The scenes are matched with some of the lines in the song as the movie progresses. If you want to be spoiled and read what the creator's interpretation of his movie is, click below (a post of his):

Spoiler :

Regarding the movie,

Dogbreath, you're absolutely right about what this movie had to say. I used Mario like an innoscent slave to carry out orders from a much higher authority. Mario hated what he did but he was forced to do it anyway, because there was a MUCH higher level of authority controlling him (The mushroom people) When Mario was a baby he didn't know where or to what people he belonged to, so friendship was not based upon race or creed, but love, understanding, and just plain having fun together.

It's the adults (here I used the Yoshis) that know exactly what race Mario belonged to and thus snatched him away before befriending the Goomba. Thus the early discrimination begins. Mario is carried over to the Yoshis, and the Goomba put in the Koopa Troop. They have no choice. Why they do this is simply to keep their own races pure. The top reason why even Hitler exterminated Jewish people. He wanted his country to be pure, a higher Aryan race only. And all he had to do was gather up as many of his own race as possible and become their leader.

And as the discrimination grows and grows, and hideous slanders and rumors of each other are passed, and perhaps a few threats here and there war errupts, and for war there is no end but MORE war.

But wait, Mario still remembers some childhood instances when he WASN'T labelled, or told to hate, and free to do as he pleases. Who did he befriend then? The Goomba, the very race he was supposed to kill. This puts Mario in an uneasy position, and thus suicides, regreting all the damage he's done. In real life, the movie actually ends here. Him going back is a mere fantasy.

The Goomba tries to do the same thing (this is my own personal favorite scene by the way) and gets caught by his higher authority and killed. Mario never even realises he was the same friend from childhood, simply gets up and goes away.

At the end, the black and white photograph like pictures are just a look at the horrible mess the discrimination has lead to. As you can see BOTH the races are equally suffering from war. I'm portraying here the fact that in ANY war there is NO winner!

In the scene where Koopa is fishing and all that asks the question where is all this science and progress REALLY going to in this world? For war and newer millitary equipment, bombs, etc. Great scientists like Alfred Nobel invented and INTENDED the dynomite to help miners blow up caves to mine for valuable resources. But where was it specialised the most? It was made into Bombs to destroy human life. The brilliant Albert Einstein's Atomic theory was used (and still now) in developing bigger and nastier weapons of mass destruction.

Don't consider the above to be the "meaning" of the movie, though. Just a written explanation of some of the visual ideas.

 

[tomsnowman123]

That was interesting, it kept me watching, and it had a good message.

 

[Narz]

A little long but good, I liked the messege at the end, I saw it coming.

 

[MjM]

The message at the end was OK.

I loved the video though!

 

[Narz]

This sprite movie was made by Steve Chris, an amazing artist who, for several years, has been a dedicated member of an internet community I'm part of.

Just curious. What community is that?

Thanks!

 

[Hundegesicht]

Just curious. What community is that?

Thanks!

Ha! I was waiting for someone to ask!

It's Dosgames Forum (DGF), a discussion forum used by several dosgames websites. My nickname there is Dogbreath - I'm the forum admin.

When great books are written, they're read for decades afterward, sometimes centuries. On the other hand, over the past 20 years, thousands of amazingly beautiful, intricate, and well made games were released, and within 15 years almost all of them have been completely forgotten by the general public because of rapid advances in technology.

Our community is basically a group of people (90% men 16-30) brought together by a passion for these games, specifically games designed for MS-DOS. (Though there are plenty of NES/Mario lovers too, which explains Chris) As you can see, it's a pretty tiny community, with only about 4000 "members" and 1474 people who've actually posted. A lot of the posters there are very active in internet forums, though, which is why Steve's movie has gotten so popular over the past several days. (Hopefully, if you guys here really like it, you might spread it around a little more!)

Steve Chris found our community through Jorrit, the owner of dosgamesarchive - one of the sites that makes up DGF. He started out by making short .gif animations about Dangerous Dave and our Forum, movies we all thought were hilarious, but, looking back, probably only make sense to a couple dozen people.

Over the years he's gotten a lot better and really shown himself to be a talented artist, moving on from .gifs and paint(!), to BTTS Mario, his first flash movie.

So, if you're interested in games most people have forgotten, and enjoy crazy, trippy art, and crazy, trippy people, you should visit sometime. A word of warning, though. There aren't any language censors like on this site, so it may not be suitable for kids. Also, some of the people there might purposely act a little strange around "newbies." They're really very nice people, but it might take a couple 3 hour long IRC chat's too-late-at-night or having your inbox trashed or people messaging you threateningtotieyouupandmurderyourfamilywithachainsawwhileyouwatch before you get "broken in." All good fun, though.

Enough spam. Thanks for asking!