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Trivia: At the tryouts, you can actually find some familiar faces. Comedian Dane Cook plays "Waffleman" in a cameo. Dana Gould also appears in a cameo as "Squeegeeman." And "Pencilhead" is played by Doug Jones, who is perhaps best known for playing roles under heavy makeup, appearing in films like "Hellboy," "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Shape of Water" as various monsters and creatures.

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Trivia: The new puppet seen in the film was nicknamed "Mr. Snuggles" behind-the-scenes.

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Trivia: The shoot was very hectic. Most of the cast were played by comedians/comedic actors, and they constantly were trying to one-up one another and arguing over the comedic tone of the film.

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I remember seeing a "Star Wars" knockoff on TV years ago. I believe it was from the late 70's or early 80's. I don't remember much about it other than a scene that was copying the Death Star trench-run scene, where a couple spaceships were flying down this sort-of mechanical tunnel with really iffy special effects. I seem to remember the scene being overly red/orange tinted. I also think this may have been a foreign film (like Japanese), but I'm not 100% sure. Ring anyone's bell?

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Trivia: The villain Lord Rathbone is named after Basil Rathbone, an actor who famously played Sherlock Holmes in fourteen films produced in the 1930's and 1940's.

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Trivia: At one point, Roy casually mentions his real name is "Wyatt Earp." Wyatt Earp was a famous frontiersman who among other things was a gambler, gunslinger and lawman. He was also involved in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

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Trivia: The character Nathan Van Cleef is named after actor Lee Van Cleef, who famously appeared in many western films, including classics like "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

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Trivia: As of 2021, this is the only film featuring Brandon Merrill, who plays Chon Wang's Native American wife. She's actually more renowned for being a successful, award-winning rodeo champion.

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Trivia: Chris Rock is reportedly a big fan of the "Saw" film series, and came up with the basic story for the film, which he pitched to Lionsgate. Lionsgate loved his new take on the series, and not only let Rock star in the film, but also made him an executive producer on the project.

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Trivia: Michael Keaton and Arnold Schwarzenegger were reportedly both considered for the role of Koopa, but both turned it down.

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Revealing mistake: In the beginning of the film, watch closely when Sindel says the infamous line "Too bad YOU... will die!" When Sindel says the words "will die," two of her teeth suddenly turn gray and become blurred. (One tooth on top and one on the bottom.) The best I can figure is that it was some sort-of slip up with the special effects rendering, since the background has a CGI sky replacement effect. It can be hard to notice at first, but if you know where to look, it's pretty obvious.

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Trivia: Directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel were reportedly widely despised by the cast and crew, who found them arrogant, difficult and unpleasant. Morton reportedly once even poured scalding hot coffee on an extra, burning them, because he wanted their costume to look dirtier. It came to a head one day when co-star Dennis Hopper had enough of their attitude and spent over three hours screaming at Morton and Jankel, berating them over and over and refusing to shoot his scene.

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Trivia: Among the actors considered for the role of Mario were Danny DeVito and Tom Hanks. DeVito was reportedly interested but wouldn't commit as no script had been written yet. And Hanks was also interested, but was considered a risk at the time due to several high-profile flops, so he was taken off the project.

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Trivia: The "fungus" that the king coughs up when he turns back into a human is actually just Rice Crispy cereal he was holding in his hand.

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Trivia: Harold Ramis, a fan of the video-games, was originally interested in writing and directing, but a deal was never reached.

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Trivia: The film went notoriously over schedule and over budget. For example, Dennis Hopper was only supposed to be on-set for five weeks... but due to production troubles, he ended up being on-set over fourteen weeks.

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Trivia: Stars Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper were reportedly all furious while making the movie, as the script was constantly being changed (to the point it bore no resemblance to the one they signed up for) and the two directors were reportedly extremely difficult to work with. Hoskins and Leguizamo reportedly combated their fury by often getting very, very drunk during filming.

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Trivia: The final film of prolific actor Bob Hoskins, who retired from acting shortly after completing the film due to being diagnosed with Parkinson's. Hoskins had more than one hundred film and television credits to his name. He sadly passed away in 2014.

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Trivia: Barry Morrow, the writer of "Rain Man," wrote a draft for the film that went unused. It was noted that his draft strayed very far from the source material, and was reportedly a low-key drama about the relationship between the two brothers that was described as being very much like his script for "Rain Man." When producers asked him to write a more adventurous script like the video-games, he refused, and was booted from the project.

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Trivia: Due to the film's notorious reception among fans and audiences, Nintendo refused to make another live-action Hollywood film until the release of "Detective Pikachu" 26 years later.

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