In case you hadn’t yet heard, Mad Max: Fury Road is awesome. I’ve already seen it twice and will probably go see it again at some point before it drives off into Home Video Valhalla (WITNESS!!!). One of the best parts about it is that it delivered on the promise of the amazing and evocative first full trailer, with its use of stark visuals, blistering action, and bombastic classical music. How many movies can say their trailer is just as good as the movie being advertised? Nowadays, that’s very rare.
And it’s this trailer and its utter badassery that editor/effects person/director/genius Kris Sundberg used for his truly impressive mash-up trailer Mario Kart: Fury Road. What makes this so ingenious is just how subtle all the additions are. It takes the initial Fury Road trailer and simply adds to it things from the various Mario Kart games, utterly seamlessly. From the opening shots of the barren desert road with those distinctive Mario clouds and floating Question Blocks, to each car having shells attached to the back, to Immortan Joe’s branding being very clearly Bowsery, Sundberg has woven in tons of recognizable Mario Kart-isms into the two-minute 21-second trailer.
You’ll have to really pay attention to each and every shot, because sometimes it’s as simple as grading the colors of the clothing differently, or adding Mario’s hat to the edge of a shot, or giving the War Boys’ explosive spears Bob-ombs. But, there’s really no missing the hilariously-placed Mario sound effects, especially on the shot when Max is on the pole. That there is comedic gold.
For reference, here’s the Un-Mario‘d trailer below.
How many references can you spot? Try and list them all below, if you dare!