Dinohattanites are a strikingly Human-like species evolved from dinosaurs trapped in a parallel dimension known as Dinohattan, who attempted to merge the dimensions together again to acquire Earth's resources. While outwardly mammalian, their internal physiology appears to still have some reptilian traits.
Biology[]
Dinohattanites are outwardly identical to Humans, even sharing a similar skeletal structure and variety of skin tones, although they evolved from various dinosaur species, such as Tyrannosaurus rexes, rather than simians. However, some Dinohattanites are known to have scaly skin for unknown reasons, possibly recessive phenotypes or mutations. In addition, Dinohattanites give birth through eggs, which hatch into Human-like babies who then grow in a similar manner to Humans, meaning that breasts on females likely serve little to no purpose, unless infants require more nutrition after hatching.
While Dinohattanites are capable of merging their dimension and Earth's dimension together again by physically inserting the missing meteorite shard into the larger rock, the sheer energy released from the merging would vaporize their skin and muscular tissue. However, those descended from the Portal Guardians, who had always lived near the site and constantly took in the highest doses of energy from the meteor, are able to survive the energy discharge. Any other differences in physiology are unknown, but it is likely that they are cold-blooded.
Culture and society[]
The dystopian streets of Dinohattan
Dinohattanites once made up a religious organization known as the Portal Guardians, establishing a monarchy and reaching a fairly developed society, while keeping an opening to Earth. However, the Guardians fell out of power as their planet kept deteriorating, and the military took power through a coup orchestrated by General Koopa. The people had lost confidence in the monarchy, and although Koopa supposedly created a democracy and held the title of president, the Dinohattanite government was corrupt, with Koopa effectively acting as a dictator who orchestrated false elections.
Dinohattan was filled with crime and corruption, as well as deteriorating due to Koopa's neglect. Policemen, clad in black, spiked uniforms, served a corrupt and chaotic system. Within police stations, policemen were known to get into physical violent altercations with criminals, and then have any suspect cleansed of possible fungal growths or pollutants by a specially designated team. Arrested individuals were imprisoned in cages stacked atop one another in a manner similar to chicken coops. The police force is also known to be used for military purposes, such as training Goombas. Anyone on the streets was a potential criminal, even seemingly innocent old women. Due to the dangers, it was unsafe for any civilian to travel without a weapon, and rude behavior became common. Resistance or dissent against Koopa's regime was swiftly punished with imprisonment or conversion to a Goomba.
Civilians and police alike are known to drive recklessly at high speeds, resulting in frequent crashes, although their society appears to have become very used to it. Clothing often appeared fairly bizarre, mismatched, and somewhat futuristic, often appearing tattered or with an odd assortment of elements, such as hard hats and pilot goggles. Military uniforms, while resembling those commonly seen on Earth, have spikes on their epaulettes. The overall aesthetic of Dinohattan and its society was inspired by the Human city of Manhattan, but only resulted in a dystopian cyberpunk-esque parody of the city. Trash collection and dumping is handled by designated workers who wear full-body black hazard suits, known as Snifits. Dinohattanites are also known to take baths in mud, and oddly keep non-sapient non-humanoid dinosaurs as pets, appearing to see themselves as vastly superior to their ancestors, even eating some species of Earth-like reptiles. Their military, once being presumably made up of Dinohattanites, was made up of Goombas during Koopa's reign, and organized to invade Earth to take all of Earth's resources. Bob-ombs are known to strike fear into their population, likely due to their sheer firepower, causing them run at the mere sight of one.
Reebok logo on Bob-ombs
For reasons unknown, Earth brands such as Reebok and the Union Jack flag are present on the feet of Bob-ombs, possibly seen in expeditions to Earth and copied in Dinohattan. Other parallels to Manhattan and Humans in general are known to exist in their culture, although molded to fit their physiology and history, such as a film known as "I was a Teenage Mammal," as such a premise would be frightening in their society. While knowledge of the dimensional split and of mammals, some of which survived for some time in their dimension, exists in their society, they appear to see mammals as alien or inferior. While ordering a pizza, Koopa asked the pizzeria to "hold the mammal," implying that some mammals are still around in their dimension and are used as food. Currency, at least under Koopa's rule, took the form of gold coins known as Koopa Coins or Koopons.
Technology[]
A Dinohattanite police car lands on a Dinohattanite civilian car
Dinohattanites are known to have achieved technology more advanced than their Human counterparts, mostly resembling 90s Human technology commonly seen in Manhattan with a dystopian aesthetic, such as cars with iron bars over their windows, armor plates, mechanical plows, extra headlights, and a cluttered dashboard configuration. All vehicles bear constantly-sparking turbine-like engines that stick out of their hoods and appear to be powered by some sort of wireless electrical grid, possibly made from the very energy coming from the meteorite impact site, which they tap into using special antennae. While brakes appear to exist on cars, and seem to only work while the car has power, cars can also be stopped by cables running across designated spots low to the ground rather than brakes, as seen with police cars returning to the station. Further technological advancements include mechanical jump-boots known as Thwomp Stompers and fireball-shooting guns, with Thwomp Stompers being reloaded with bullet-like cartridges sporting painted-on shark-like faces, known as Bullet Bills.
Gun-shaped cameras
Certain technologies function the same way as their Human-made counterparts, but have radically different designs, such as rifle-like cameras that print black-and-white images and oversized tasers. One of their more notable technological feats is their de-evolution technology, which take the form of both large devices built into a special chair and handheld guns, which can de-evolve Dinohattanites into Goombas or dinosaurs, or de-evolve Humans into chimp-like creatures. In addition, the technology can convert victims into fungus, such as the King, or effectively execute victims by converting them into primordial slime. The technology can be "reversed" and grant a target enhanced cognitive abilities, but does not seem to alter any other part of their physiology. Another notable piece of technology are the bob-ombs, tiny mechanical bombs capable of walking towards a target when winded-up, even on vertical and upside-down surfaces, and which hold an incredible amount of firepower despite their small size.
History[]
Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck Earth. The impact was so powerful that it created a parallel dimension, where many dinosaurs and other prehistoric species were trapped in. On their new homeworld, the prehistoric mammals that were transported by the impact eventually mostly died off, with the dinosaurs becoming intelligent, possibly fueled by the energy of the meteorite impact site, eventually evolving into Human-like forms. These new sapients created the Portal Guardian cult, a religious organization devoted to keeping the impact site, home to a link between their world and Earth, secure, also forming a monarchy to develop their society.
However, despite their advancements in technology and society, their homeworld deteriorated as its resources were exhausted, slowly crumbling into an arid, inhospitable desert. As the population was forced into the capital city around the mid-20th century, by Earth's time, the people lost faith in the monarchy, allowing General Koopa, the commander of their military, to gain more power. He wanted to invade Earth for its resources, desiring the meteorite-based key the Guardians kept to merge the dimensions. Koopa used his position to secretly research and develop de-evolution technology, and in the 1970s, used it to launch a coup that placed himself in power, exterminating the Portal Guardians and de-evolving the King into a giant, sapient fungus. Koopa chased the Queen to Manhattan, where the portal to Earth now led, and took inspiration from the Human city. The Queen left the meteor shard and her child, still developing in an egg, at the doorstep of a church, where the nuns took her in. The Queen was caught by Koopa as she tried to return to the parallel dimension, but she caused a cave-in by knocking over a support beam, trapping Koopa in the parallel dimension and dying in the collapse.
Koopa, despite being unable to get the meteorite shard, became obsessed with replicating Manhattan in his world, remodeling the capital city after it, including creating a palace resembling the World Trade Center, but only created a dystopian semi-cyberpunk image of the city, naming it Dinohattan. Its inhabitants, now known as Dinohattanites, continued to be subjected to a crumbling society as crime and corruption increased in the city. Koopa then took on the title of president, although it is unknown if he was truly elected into office or merely used the title, as he continued ruling as a dictator, staying in power through false elections. The King, despite being a fungus, managed to resist Koopa's reign by spreading his body across the city, creating a thick web of fungus that hindered any attempts to repair deteriorating infrastructure, also obstructing his attempts to expand, creating more dissent against Koopa's regime. However, Koopa retaliated by swiftly imprisoning any who dissented, often converting them into Goombas with his de-evolution technology, as the Goombas made stupid but loyal soldiers.
Meanwhile, the Queen's child, named Daisy, was raised as a Human, developing an odd affection for reptiles, especially dinosaurs, becoming an archeologist while always holding onto the meteor shard. She became the head of a crew unearthing dinosaur bones, including an unidentified half-buried humanoid fossil, which was actually the remains of her mother. Also unknown to her, the site was the very tunnel that linked Earth and Dinohattan. Daisy soon meets Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, two Human plumbers, and falls in love with Luigi. However, the digging, along with the work of a construction and plumbing mogul named Anthony Scapelli, started to reopen the portal. Koopa, seeing an opportunity to retrieve the meteor shard and merge the dimensions, ordered his dimwitted cousins Iggy and Spike to enter Manhattan and abduct Daisy, knowing that she must have the shard. Due to their bumbling, they kidnap the wrong girl several times, but eventually track down Daisy after mistakenly kidnapping Daniella, Mario's girlfriend. Daisy takes Luigi to the excavation site at night, showing him the fossils, taking special interest in the remains of her mother.
However, before Daisy and Luigi can kiss, they are interrupted by Scapelli's goons, who sabotage the underground pipes to make the site flood. Daisy and Luigi get to Mario, who readily agrees to help them. While the plumbers fix the pipes, Iggy and Spike sneak in, knocking out Mario and Luigi while kidnapping Daisy. Daisy manages to resist enough to be able to call out to the brothers from the portal, which appears to be a solid stone wall to them. She even manages to get part of her torso out before being pulled through, but not before Luigi took the meteor shard from her necklace in an attempt to pull her back.
Mario and Luigi watch Daisy get shoved into a cab by Iggy and Spike
While Mario and Luigi chased her through the portal, Iggy and Spike pulled Daisy through the streets of Dinohattan, getting to a cab to return to Koopa's tower. Mario and Luigi attempted to call a police officer to help them rescue her, but the officer shoved them away, ordering them to move along. As Mario and Luigi moved through the crowd of Dinohattanites, they came to realize that they were not on Earth anymore, especially upon seeing some more reptilian citizens, and were silently stalked by a Goomba.
After securing Daisy in Koopa's tower, Iggy and Spike report back to Koopa himself, who had been lamenting his dimension's deteriorating state, telling his lover, Lena, about his plan to merge the dimensions and take Earth's resources. While Iggy and Spike report that they have finally captured the real Daisy, they also note that the shard has been taken by the Mario brothers, prompting Koopa to order an arrest warrant for any and all plumbers. Daisy, still in their custody, is taken to a cell by some Goombas, finding Daniella and other Human girls who Iggy and Spike previously mistook for her. The Mario brothers soon run into an elderly Dinohattanite woman who asks if they're new in town, telling them that it isn't safe to travel without a weapon. When Luigi admits that they are unarmed, she pulls a large taser on them and attempts to rob them of Koopa Coins, although they had none. Seeing that they had no coins, the woman takes the shard, but a large, dark-skinned Dinohattanite named Big Bertha comes up behind her, taking the rock for herself and throwing the old woman into the street below, where she lands in a car and electrocutes its occupants. Mario attempts to ask for the shard back, but Big Bertha utilized her Thwomp-Stompers to jump to the other side of the street, leaving the Mario brothers unable to follow. A nearby street musician and dissident of Koopa's regime, named Toad, decided to cheer up the Mario brothers by playing an anti-Koopa song on his guitar, only to be promptly arrested by policemen that pull up next to him. The Marios attempt to defend him, but are also arrested when an officer notices their tools and identifies them as plumbers. The Marios and Toad are driven at high speeds to the chaotic police station, where they are cleansed of any fungal growths before being chained up against a wall for their mugshot, taken with gun-shaped cameras that frighten the brothers.
After being locked in cages, the Marios listen to Toad, who managed to keep a harmonica, singing about the brothers being from an alternate dimension, learning about the dimensional split. Koopa, informed that the plumbers had been captured, arrives at the police station to get the shard from them, pretending to be their lawyer and going by the name of Larry Lazard. Initially reluctant to shake their hands due to being a germaphobe, Koopa asks for the shard, but since the Marios don't understand what he was talking about, he attacks Luigi and reveals himself as Koopa, ordering the brothers to be de-evolved alongside Toad. Toad, still shouting about his dissent, is de-evolved into a Goomba, and given his harmonica back for an unknown reason. Before the Marios can be de-evolved, they shove an unsuspecting Koopa into the chair and take his men by surprise, subduing them and setting the device to de-evolve Koopa before escaping. However, Luigi set the device to the wrong setting, which only partially de-evolved Koopa, allowing him to retain his Human-like visage, although his eyes and tongue became more reptilian. As the Marios escape, Luigi notices the King's fungus attempting to give them a Bob-omb, but is unable to take it before they make their way to the garage and steal a police car, escaping to the street as an alert is put out for them. Mario manages to make the pursuing officers crash and explode, but drives down an unfinished tunnel to the Koopahari Desert outside the city.
While their car shuts down and they plummet down a cliff at the other end of the tunnel, they are saved by the King, and Koopa has Iggy and Spike evolved to be somewhat more intelligent before sending them after the Marios. After sending them out, Koopa had Daisy cleaned up and brought to him, revealing her true origins and noble heritage as princess of Dinohattan, but scares her off after some of his reptilian features show as a result of his de-evolution, his interest in her irritating Lena. Back in the desert, the Marios see Iggy and Spike accidentally drive off a cliff, managing to tie them up and get information out of them, mainly Koopa's plan to use Daisy and the shard to merge the dimensions again. Agreeing to exchange Daisy for the shard, the Marios work with Iggy and Spike to get back to Dinohattan, hijacking a garbage truck and going to the Boom Boom Bar, where Big Bertha, who still had the shard, worked as a bouncer, as she was identified by Iggy and Spike based off of her description.
At the bar, Mario, dressed in a suit from Spike's ex-wife, attempts to seduce Big Bertha while Iggy and Spike begin to voice dissent against Koopa, toasting to his downfall. Although Mario's initial seduction attempt only gets him a punch in the face from Big Bertha, he eventually managed to dance with her, and manages to swipe the shard, just as Lena and a squad of Goombas arrive, tipped off to the Marios' presence. While Lena manages to get the necklace, Big Bertha, now in love with Mario, gives him and Luigi Thwomp-Stompers, which the brothers use to escape while Iggy and Spike are arrested for dissent. As they escape, Luigi noticed the King trying to give them a Bob-omb again, this time taking it and giving it to Mario. As Koopa enters the chamber with the King's main fungal mass to gloat over his imminent victory in merging the dimensions, Mario and Luigi get to his tower and infiltrate it, blocking all the valves of its badly-maintained pipes before donning red and green mechanic uniforms respectively. While going up an elevator, they are forced to hide behind oblivious Goombas, and manage to make the Goombas dance to the elevator music, giving the brothers the chance to escape.
Meanwhile, Lena kept possession of the meteorite shard, handing over Iggy and Spike to be executed for dissent, deciding to use the shard on her own after Koopa seemed to be more focused on his plan and on Daisy than her. Lena soon approached Daisy and attempted to kill her, but was stopped by Yoshi, a non-sapient dinosaur kept as a pet by Koopa that had met and bonded with Daisy before she was first brought before Koopa, allowing Daisy to escape. She runs into Iggy and Spike as Goombas were hauling them to be executed in a Devo-chamber, also running into the Goomba Toad. The other Goombas draw their fireball guns on Daisy, but miss their shots and hit Toad. Daisy manages to put out Toad with a fire extinguisher, and escapes with Iggy and Spike, who claimed they were her loyal supporters since the before the coup, serving under the King. They take her to Devo Chamber 4 so she can meet what's left of her father. Yoshi soon enters the chamber and directs Daisy to an intercom, which she uses to contact the Marios, who had narrowly escaped falling to their deaths trying to cross a pit in the building, saved by the King. The Marios make their way over to her, unaware that Koopa was watching them, and Luigi picks a small mushroom from the greater mass of the King, convinced that the King was trying to communicate with them.
Mario and Luigi meet the devolved King
Lena, moving to merge the dimensions immediately, orders the police chief to ready the Goombas for invading Earth, pretending that the order came from Koopa. Koopa soon finds out about the order, and realizes that Lena must have the shard, ordering her arrest. Lena attempted to escape to the meteorite chamber immediately, but was caught by the police chief, who confiscates the shard. Meanwhile, the Marios meet up with Daisy in Devo Chamber 4, where Daisy introduces them to her father's devolved remains. While Luigi confirms his theory that the fungal mass had been helping them all along, Mario remained disgusted by the sapient fungus. Daisy then informs Mario that Daniella and the other Human girls were being held in the Goomba barracks, prompting Mario to head off to rescue them. While Mario enters the barracks and fights the Goombas present in it, Daisy and Luigi attempt to escape the tower, but run right into Koopa and another group of Goombas.
The police chief then arrives and hands the shard over to Koopa. With possession of the shard, he has Lena released and decides to immediately invade Earth, while Mario manages to subdue the Goombas in the barracks and escape with the girls through a large frozen pipe, utilizing a mattress as a sled to outrun backup Goombas. Koopa and the Goombas with him exit the tower, taking Lena, Luigi, and Daisy with them, but as soon as they exit, Mario and the girls fly out of the pipe's exit right at them, their mattress bowling over the Goomba guards and allowing Luigi and Daisy to get free. However, Koopa is unfazed, holding them at gunpoint and declaring that he had already won, although several calls through his communicator, such as an underling announcing that a pizza he had previously ordered had arrived, distract him, giving Luigi the opportunity to grab a Bullet Bill and give to Mario, who loads it into his Thwomp-Stomper, firing the boot directly at Koopa, throwing Koopa into an empty vat suspended above the street. Koopa fires his fireball gun at Mario as Mario uses the hanging fungus to swing over to the vat, fighting Koopa and forcing him to drop the shard.
The Bob-omb activates
While Lena manages to grab the falling shard, albeit falling onto electrical wiring in the process, Mario tricks Koopa into believing that he grabbed the shard, continuing to battle him as Luigi, Daisy, and the other girls chase Lena to the meteorite chamber. When they reach her, Lena was already inserting the key, and ignores Daisy's pleas to stop. Daniella and the other girls take the opportunity to escape through the open portal, as Lena fully inserts the shard, activating the dimensional merge but vaporizing her skin and muscle tissue in the process, killing her. Daisy, seeing the effects of the merge, realizes that only a Dinohattanite descended from a Portal Guardian can withstand such energies. She and Luigi immediately get to work trying to remove the shard with plumbing tools. Meanwhile, Mario pulls the Bob-omb on Koopa, causing the onlooking civilians to run off in fear. Mario winds up the Bob-omb, which seems to automatically lock on to now-frightened Koopa and starts walking towards him. To Mario's disappointment, the bomb falls through a crack in the catwalk they were standing on, but unknown to both him and Koopa, the Bob-omb continued walking where it fell, still targeting Koopa.
Koopa invades Earth
Koopa attempts to shoot Mario, but Dinohattan begins merging with Earth, causing them both to dissolve, Dinohattanite structures such as Koopa's tower also being transported over and merging with their Earth equivalents in Manhattan. Mario, Koopa, and a squad of Goombas armed with de-evolution guns appear in Manhattan as well, in the middle of a crowd of Humans, including Anthony Scapelli and Daniella. Koopa casts aside his malfunctioning fireball gun and takes a de-evolution gun from a Goomba, firing at Mario, who dodges, making the beam de-evolve Scapelli into an ape. Koopa turns the gun on Mario again, but Mario pulls the mushroom that Luigi picked off the King, which was previously given to him. The mushroom takes the blast and de-evolves into a larger form, and Mario uses the enlarged fungus to knock the gun from Koopa's hands, just as Daisy and Luigi remove the shard, causing the dimensions to revert to their original state, returning Mario, Koopa, the Goombas, and the Dinohattanite structures to Dinohattan.
While the dimensions were merging, the Bob-omb had continued walking on the lower levels it fell to, scaring off more Dinohattanites, starting to make its way back up to the catwalk by walking up a wall. Toad, now wanting to help Daisy despite still being a Goomba, manages to grab two de-evolution guns and gives them to Daisy and Luigi. Koopa orders the Goombas with him, also armed with de-evolution guns, to fire on Mario, but Toad makes them dance instead by playing his harmonica. Angered, Koopa knocks them down like dominos with one punch, as Daisy gives her gun to Luigi. Luigi uses a new pair of Thwomp-stompers tossed to him by Big Bertha to get himself over to Mario, giving the other gun to him. The brothers fire on Koopa, devolving him to a more saurian form, just as the Bob-omb gets under Koopa and detonates, blasting Koopa into the hanging vat. Koopa soon emerges from the vat, now de-evolved into a large, tyrannosaurus rex-like creature. Before he could escape the vat, the Marios blast him again, de-evolving Koopa into primordial ooze and effectively killing him.
Realizing that they have been liberated, the Dinohattanites cheer as the Marios jump back over to Daisy. In Devo Chamber 4, the King reverts to a Dinohattanite, presumably due to the tower's personnel reverting him with the de-evolution technology's reversed settings. Daisy accompanies the Marios back to the meteorite chamber, but finds that the portal has sealed. She uses the shard to open the gateway again, but decides to stay behind to get to rebuild Dinohattan alongside her father, now reinstated as the rightful monarch. However, some time later, an unknown event presumably poses a threat to Dinohattan, prompting Daisy to return to Earth and enlist the Mario brothers' help once more. At the same time, Iggy and Spike, who decided to live on Earth, negotiate with two Japanese businessmen to adapt their adventures into a video game.
Appearances[]
- Super Mario Bros. (film) (1993)
Notes[]
- Dinohattanites appear to be an adaptation of the various Koopa species, but unlike the game, Dinohattanites are presented as Human-like, not as anthropomorphic turtles. In addition, Daisy, Toad, and Big Bertha, portrayed in all other material as a Human, a Toad, and a Big Cheep Cheep respectively, are all adapted into Dinohattanites.
- In addition, the King, presumably an adaptation of the obscure Mushroom King, is adapted into a Dinohattanite, despite being originally a Human. However, while never named as such on-screen, it is possible that the adaptation of King Koopa, currently known as Bowser, was meant to be split among the King and President Koopa. The King was meant to be named "Bowser" in rewrites of the script during shooting and is identified as such in the novelization of the film, making his portrayal as a Dinohattanite fitting, although he is portrayed completely the opposite as in-game Bowser.