WARNING: The following article contains massive spoilers for both Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
On the surface, one would think that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Super Mario Bros. Movie are drastically different, and in one way — they are. The former completely bombed at the box office, left a bad taste in the mouths of critics and Marvel fans and tarnished the good reputation of Marvel Studios. Meanwhile, the latter celebrated the biggest box office opening of any video game adaptation, smashed several records, and is currently well on its way to earning $700 million in profit around the globe. Despite their commercial performances butting heads, there are actually more similarities in Ant-Man and Mario’s respective worlds than meets the eye.
Who’d have thought that a pint-sized Avenger and a Brooklyn-born plumber could have so much in common? Although they hail from different universes, the narratives of their solo outings aren’t so far removed. We do have to wonder how two strikingly identical projects had such differing outcomes, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that quality over quantity certainly played a part. Without further ado, let us compare and contrast these starkly opposite yet fascinatingly similar movies.
An unlikely hero is transported to a kooky realm
Within the first third of both movies, our protagonists are transported to a strange realm. For Ant-Man, he finds himself sucked into the Quantum Realm, which is only accessible through magic, Pym Particles, or a Quantum Tunnel. In 2016’s Doctor Strange, the titular Stephen Strange passed through the Quantum Realm briefly when The Ancient One separated his astral form from his physical body and projected it through several dimensions. Both Scott Lang and Janet van Dyne have found themselves trapped in the Quantum Realm, which Hank Pym describes as “a reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity.”
In the same vein, both Mario and Luigi find themselves transported through a Warp Pipe into the Mushroom Kingdom and the Dark Land, respectively. There, Mario meets Toad and Princess Peach, while Luigi crosses paths with Bowser, King of the Koopas. The Mushroom Kingdom is the main setting for the Super Mario game series, which Princess Peach rules and Bowser often invades. In these realms, our heroes meet their allies, who will eventually assist them in taking down the looming threat, which we’ll get to right now.
Said hero engages in conflict with an evil tyrant
Both Quantumania and The Super Mario Bros. Movie welcome terrifying tyrants into the mix, whose main objectives are to conquer the worlds from whence they came. For Kang the Conqueror, he truly believed that conquering the multiverse would save it from his own variants in the Council of Kangs and prevent incursions from happening, such as the one committed by a variant of Doctor Strange in Multiverse of Madness. In Quantumania, this version of Kang has been trapped in the Quantum Realm after he was exiled out of space and time by the Council of Kangs, leading him to become a dictator there.
As for Bowser, his main motivation for total domination is to ultimately marry Princess Peach and assume control of the Mushroom Kingdom — as well as snag himself a blushing bride. It’s been no secret in the Super Mario lore that Bowser is madly in love with Peach, frequently kidnapping her and forcing her into marriage. In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, however, we also see the beginning of Bowser’s immense hatred towards Mario, whom he deems competition for the affection of Princess Peach. Both Kang and Bowser rule with an iron fist, using subordinates as collateral to fuel their selfish gain.
The tyrant captures and imprisons a member of the hero’s family as blackmail
After an insightful backstory of how Janet van Dyne and Kang the Conqueror became trapped in the Quantum Realm, we discover that Kang had tricked Janet into helping repair his multiversal power core, unaware that she had given him exactly what he needed to overpower her and assume control of the Quantum Realm. When Kang meets the Langs again, he demands that Scott help to restore his power core or else he will kill Cassie. That doesn’t happen, thankfully, as Darren Cross, aka M.O.D.O.K., sacrifices himself to oppose Kang.
In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, after being transported to the Dark Land, Luigi encounters several Dry Bones in a spooky graveyard, eventually leading him to Bowser’s Castle, where he’s captured by a group of Shy Guys. After taking Luigi on a blimp, the Shy Guy guards deliver Luigi to Bowser, who proceeds to use Kamek’s magic to torture him. He demands to know more about Mario, whom Luigi reveals to be his brother and Princess Peach’s current object of attraction, much to Bowser’s chagrin. Luigi is imprisoned along with the Penguin King and his subjects, among others. This drives Mario’s determination to rescue Luigi from Bowser’s clutches.
The hero joins forces with a rebel army to defeat the villain
Within the Quantum Realm, Scott encounters a band of resistance warriors known as the Freedom Fighters, consisting of various creatures who were targeted by Kang. Jentorra is the leader of the Freedom Fighters, accompanied by Krylar, Quaz, Veb, Xolum and later, Janet van Dyne. We don’t have the pleasure of meeting the Freedom Fighters before Quantumania, but they turn out to be imperative in taking down Kang. In the movie, the Freedom Fighters come under attack from M.O.D.O.K., who was revealed to have survived the apparent death at the hands of Scott.
When Bowser warns Princess Peach that he’ll be coming to invade the Mushroom Kingdom, she rallies her forces to discover that the Toads aren’t suitable for all-out war, so she suggests to Mario that they seek an alliance with the Great Kong Army, led by Cranky Kong, Donkey Kong’s father. Cranky initially declines the proposal, but reworks his terms to insist that Mario fight his son in hand-to-hand combat. If Mario wins, the Great Kong Army will be at Peach’s disposal in the fight against Bowser. Naturally, Mario wins, albeit with a little help from some power-ups. Cranky Kong, DK, and the other Kongs assist Mario and Peach on the Rainbow Bridge.
Princess Peach borrows from Ant-Man’s toolkit in the climactic battle
As we all know, Ant-Man’s whole shtick is shrinking. On occasion, just to change things up, he’ll even enlarge himself to become Giant-Man, a super-sized version of Ant-Man. As the name suggests, he’s much more accustomed to shrinking. We’ve seen Scott in action several times, be it an Avengers team-up, a solo outing, or just a regular Saturday — if he feels like it. That’s what makes it all the more amusing when The Super Mario Bros. Movie borrows a page from Scott Lang’s book.
In the climactic fight against Bowser, Mario and Luigi use the Super Star to overpower the Koopa army and subdue Bowser. Princess Peach then walks over with a Mini Mushroom which, when ingested, shrinks the user down to almost microscopic size. In a rather amusing exchange, Peach shoves the Mini Mushroom into Bowser’s mouth, much to his protest, which shrinks the Koopa King down to an adorable scale. Toad then does the honors of snatching Bowser by his tail and sealing him in a jar. Of course, this wasn’t a reference to Ant-Man as Mini Mushrooms have existed in Mario lore for decades, but it’s an interesting comparison.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is available to stream on Disney Plus, while The Super Mario Bros. Movie is showing in theaters everywhere. Wa-hoo!
