What a Concept: Why the fuck do I like this Mario Rock Opera?

In the Early 2000's, Jonathan Mann (probably most known for holding and still maintaining the world record for most consecutive days writing a song) unleashed Act 1 the Mario Opera. In 2014, he released a performance of it on YouTube, and in 2019 I watched that recording. I didn't like it that much, but the more I thought about it and relistened to songs, the more it grew on me (discovering the old album recordings certainly helped my enjoyment of it).

So. Why the fuck do I like it?

Well first off, here's some versions of it if you don't want to have it spoiled for you:

Live Recording (The Lyrics are better at the cost of you not being able to hear most of them).

Concept Album (Way better sound quality).

The Opera starts by setting us up for the only storyline Mario consistently has (Bowser kidnaps the Princess, Mario go save her), but then switches to something more meta.

"Mario is just a Video Game Character..."

This line turned my morbid curiosity for this thing into interest, suddenly it was trying something different than what you typically see with Mario. 

Also fun fact, the vocals used in this song for the concept album are the same ones used for the demo recording (very noticeable when the princess says "That's me!", sorry Jonathan).

Next up we get a song that basically amounts to setting up the characters in-universe, Mario loves the Princess, the Princess loves Mario, doesn't get more complicated than that. Interestingly, for the live recording, Jonathan changed the lyrics to their wedding vows so that now Peach declares (or at least starts by declaring) how much she loves Mario rather than how much Mario loves her (and omits the lyric "Mario you love me, not just for my pink dress", for the better), Mario's vow follows suit, singing about how much he loves Peach instead of how much Peach loves him (and omits the lyric "Princess Peach you love me, and not just for my overalls", again, for the better). In the original recording, their love easily comes off as somewhat shallow, whereas here it comes off as way less shallow (honestly without the new line of Peach loving him since she was a little girl, it could come across as though they met yesterday and are getting married today). 

Next song, Bowser kidnaps the Princess, shock horror. The Live Recording does some more interesting lyric changes, hinting towards what's yet to come with Mario and Bowser insinuating that it's almost like it's something that's happened before (though Mario is not aware of this whole Routine of Bowser kidnapping the Princess and Mario saving her, to him this is the first time this has happened). Though the original set of lyrics are also interesting, Mario sings about his urge to protect the Princess sort of coming out even though he doesn't entirely understand it, and we also get a bit more of a unique Bowser characterisation, here (and expanded on briefly in act 2+3) he is a King, used to getting everything, therefore he believes he deserves whatever he wants, including the love of the Princess, the only remnant of this is the line "OK then we'll have it your way!" remaining in both versions.

It was at this point I realised I may care too much about this thing.

After this, we get "I was wrong", which I can scarcely comment on, though it's interesting to see Mario be unsure of his ability to save the Princess, usually by the time the Princess is so much as out of sight, he's ready to kill whoever he needs to save her, but here he sees his very being as stupid for even believing he could be something greater than just a plumber.

Now, most of the instrumentals for these songs up to this point have been slightly altered Mario music from the early 2D games (SMB1 - SMBWorld and the Super Mario Land Games), for this song I'm not sure if it's Mario music altered to a point where I don't recognise or Mario music I haven't heard or if it's just an original instrumental, please someone let me know, it hasn't driven me crazy for a year, but it hasn't not annoyed me either.

Next up, Mario Goomba Exchange, where a Goomba bullies Mario so hard that he decides to jump on him right then and there, honestly it's another characterisation I love, just this Goomba who seems to be invested in getting under his skin and at the end basically prompts Mario to jump on him, letting out an almost terrifying laugh as Mario does so. Apparently, in the original stage production (oh yeah there was a stage production, I think that was before the Concept album release, all that remains footage-wise is a gamer tv show talking about it), this scene was set up like a recreation of the opening moments of 1-1, that's interesting.

Ok so I don't want to move on without mentioning the Lyric change here, in short it's definitely for the better but before going into the specifics, here's the content warning (mention of rape) and all text talking about this will be in Red so you can skip past it without reading it.

"No, I mean it, she's his plaything
He keeps her in a cage that's swinging
Back and forth, back and forth and when he decides
To have his way with her, he takes her out and ties
Her up to a bed made of steel
All the servants hear the squeals
When he's done he calls those servants
We come in for sloppy seconds!"

That's the original lyric, there are several reasons I don't like it, but mainly how it's unnecessary, the only reasons it's here is for shock value and to motivate our male character, which are both iffy reasons to say the least. For the Live Recording, it was changed so that Bowser has her do things like "singing" and "getting flowers to make him powerful", and ends with the line "you'll never see your love again!", which works about as well as that and also doesn't do any of the things I've just criticised, as was his intention. In relation to this, he said in an interview "I had some nasty bits about Bowser and the Princess [Peach] that I decided to tone down", and honestly, it really is for the better.

Moving on, Mario has a Freakout through 1-1, falling into killing more and more enemies and also kind of deep down feeling bad about it, meanwhile the Mario Theme plays (also the bits that go before the Mario Theme is actually some music from Super Mario Land), this is Mario. I think this is one of the few songs here that has had the lyrics kept the same. In Mario, it is possibly possible to make it through the game without killing a singular enemy, but nobody ever does this, let's be real, you're killing anything you can in those games because they make good sound and they give point.

Next song, he meets Toad. I have nothing to say except no version of Toad in this Opera doesn't sound annoying, and it's implied that some higher power sent them to help Mario, the last thought Mario had in Freakout was "I wish I had a friend who knew the way" and on comes a friend who knows the way, Toad says they were "sent" here, they seem to have some greater understanding of how everything works, etc etc. This is followed by a song where Toad shows him around 1-2, he finally figures out what a power up is and he gets more used to just killing enemies, I really like the laid-back Toad House theme they have here.

The interesting parts of this song is Mario having realisations about what he remembers. He knows how the Power Ups work, but he has no idea why (remember, from his perspective this should all be new to him as if no other Mario game has happened before). Then, as Toad abandons him, he further realises that he's been to this level before. He realises this has all happened before.

This prompts the song this entire act has been building to, the one that made me realise "huh, I really like this take on Mario", The Lizard Wizard. This routine, Bowser kidnaps Princess, Mario saves her, he realises it has happened and has happened a lot. Worst of all, he realises his lack of control over all of this, (he is just a video game character after all) "I have done, I've done everything for you, I keep doing them, I'm compelled". Consequently, he is also killed by Magikoopa, this all sets up a second act that is technically out in the form of "Act 2+3" which sets up an Act 3 which isn't there, basically what I'm saying is you can easily just end it with Act 1 like Jonathan has apparently been doing for all these stagings, this is the ending.

Also I'd like to just finally mention the images you see in the background, done by Colin Snyder, they're simplistic but they match tonally what's happening in the songs, luckily you can find some of this art on like 50 art portfolio websites. The Lizard Wizard ends with this graphic of Magikoopa standing there while a bunch of Mario's fall from the sky, it's lovely.

Ultimately, it's this view of what Mario is, a puppet not in control of his actions following a predestined path, is why I like Act 1 of the Mario Opera.

Now, there is an Act 2, but I'll save my thoughts on it for another time, that one is just wild, whoops here's my Twitter, follow me for my own ego.