We all know that Mario began life as the protagonist of Donkey Kong, although he was referred to in the early days simply as "Jumpman" and it has been widely reported that he only gained his famous moniker when the resemblance between the character and the late Mario Segale – the landlord of Nintendo of America's Tukwila warehouse in the early '80s – became apparent.
We also know that Nintendo – and Shigeru Miyamoto – were actually working on a Popeye game prior to Donkey Kong becoming a hit; because the process of securing the rights to the comic character from King Features Syndicate was taking longer than expected, the choice was made to remove Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto (or Brutus, which is the name often given to Popeye's arch-enemy due to confusion over who actually owned the copyright to the name, King Features or Paramount Pictures) and replace them with entirely new characters.
All of this is well known, of course – as is the fact that following Donkey Kong's amazing success, Miyamoto got his chance to produce a proper Popeye game for arcades shortly afterwards (a Game & Watch showcasing the character was also produced).
However, Twitter user katewillaert has uncovered what could be an interesting new theory on how Mario actually came to be – and his origins could be tied even more closely to Popeye than we at first assumed.
We'll let katewillaert take it up from here:
Far-fetched? Perhaps. But also maddeningly plausible. After all, Mario was originally a carpenter before he was a plumber (check out the toolbox on that photo) and while the overalls and shirt have their colours reversed in the final game, this could be to do with how the colours looked on-screen during play (it has been reported that the dungarees were added to the sprite in Donkey Kong so Mario's arms would be a different colour to his body and therefore the running animation would be easier to parse for players).
This is one rabbit hole we didn't think we'd be diving down today, but it's been fun all the same.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 29
He seems to be on mushrooms. So it’s a valid theory.
If this explanation is true I feel like it kind of removes some of the wonder of how Mario was created. Sometimes things are better left unexplained.
Popeye and Brutus are the best magazines you can find on bookshops here in Japan. I love those.
I never knew if there was a Popeye magazine.
Cool. So the name probably came from the real estate dude, but the image from that magazine. Getting inspiration from random places. Why not?
Typo! It’s Olive “Oyl”, not “Oly.”
This is really fascinating!
@Jayofmaya
Yeah, like everything.
While beeing alive you've got influenced by a lot of Things you see and experience.
So when you creat something, it has a little of that Stuff.
After so much Time and so many Stories in Human History, it is impossible to create something that never has been before.
After all, every Story has a little Gilgamesh.
You could argue that Mario began as the antagonist of donkey Kong
Mario will be real
Real in 1981
The quarantine has given us a lot of time to waste, why not spend it going down rabbit holes of Mario's origins?
Have people never heard of Charlie Chaplin or Groucho Marx? They seem to be the most obvious source of inspiration for Mario. And Donkey Kong was obviously King Kong.
Really fascinating stuff, if true. I loved the old Popeye cartoons growing up. Obviously, I love Mario. So it's really neat to see there may be a connection between the two. And it sort of makes sense
This theory is wrong. Nintendo has basically confirmed the original story several times. Let it go.
Sounds a bit of a stretch to me.
Why doesn't someone just ask Miyamoto? haha.
This is it! This is Mario! It’s all so true and clear!
I say canon till Miyamoto himself refutes! Done!
Could be the inspiration, even if it was subconsciously. I also heard the hat and mustache were used because they looked better pixelated than hair and just a plain nose & mouth. Similar to the point mentioned in the article about his dungarees.
I believe it! Totally likely.
A magazine for city boys, you say?
The original device name for the DS was "CityBoy" as a play off the GameBoy.
The plot thickens!!!
Also, Nintendo's (and Japan's, I'd assume) interest in Popeye wasn't anything new at the time. They had been licensing him (and other American cartoons, like the Disney stuff & Peanuts) for years already in their playing card & toy business, so I doubt this magazine had anything to do with their interest in the character, or the inspiration for Mario.
That is a big tool box no doubt. 🤔
Nah... I don't think this theory holds any water.
Miyamoto has discussed often the origins of Mario and has been very consistent in what influenced the design of the character.
And the limitations of that era of videogames is what actually gave Mario his signature look. Such as his hat and mustache. He wears a hat because they couldn't animate the hair. In fact, Mario could've looked vastly different if they had access to better technology.
@Zidentia @GC-161 I think it's possible that miyamoto lied about the origins of Mario to avoid a lawsuit after the game and character became so popular. Remember, they were sued after donkey Kong released by Universal pictures for the likeness to King kong. They definitely didn't want to go through another lawsuit again- especially bc they were a smaller company at the time.
“...The warehouse where the Radar Scopes had been gathering dust was run by Don James, whose wife was named Polly. As a way of thanking the warehouse manager, who received a lot of heat from the landlord over Nintendo’s uncollected rent, they decided to rename “Lady” after his wife. Lady became Pauline, close enough to Polly.
Around this time, the Tukwila warehouse’s owner showed up in person to angrily remind Arakawa about the rent. As the legend goes, the owner, Mario Segale, interrupted a conversation over what to call Jumpman. Segale said his piece, and he grew so incensed he almost jumped up and down himself. After the landlord left, eviction threat delivered, someone suggested the name Mario. It was a joke, since both men had mustaches. But everyone liked the name."
Excerpt From: Jeff Ryan. “Super Mario - How Nintendo conquered America"
If Mario and Miyamoyo had a kid, it would look like the magazine dude.
His expression is very Mario. I call Cannon.
@glaemay Aside from moustache Mario doesn’t seem to have much in common with either. As for King Kong, Miyamoto thought that “Kong” is English for “gorilla”. This connection is pretty obvious.
@Cool_Squirtle And it's very possible that the person pushing this theory wants 15 minutes of fame. See how that works? We can both assume who's right. I rather believe in the man that never changed his story of how Mario came about and even has produced the concept art for the character.
And in regards to the Donkey Kong lawsuit, Universal Studios knew that they didn't had a case against Nintendo even before they sued. But they expected Nintendo to just give up since they were 'nothing' at the time. Big mistake.
And besides, its ridiculous to assume that Mario was infringing on the copyrights or trademarks of any company and that they had a case. Considering that such a case would be even weaker than Universal Studio's.
And why would Nintendo even worry about that if they didn't worry at all about the whole Kong situation?
@ottospooky Jumpman* Mario's dad.
@Cool_Squirtle Unless you use the actual photograph there is no chance for litigation as the image of a blue collar worker whether it is a carpenter or a plumber is not an image you can copyright.
He could have been influenced by this but by his own recounting there does not appear to be an conscious effect so it does not matter.
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