There are a few images from films that stick in my mind and cause me to wake up from a nightmare to live in a panic-induced fever dream. John Fifer’s Goomba is one of them; it’s one of the oddest character representations of all time, and while it might have been a bit of a laugh for Bob Hoskins and the gang on set, it’s something that Goomba has been dealing with for the past 30 years.
We caught up with Goomba on the set of Super Mario Party Jamboree to talk about how he’s finding the new game, his role in the minigames, and the series as a whole. Still, I couldn’t resist asking him about ‘that’ Goomba casting in the 90’s Super Mario Bros. movie, and he didn’t hold back with his views on it.
‘It’s a joke,’ he said, steadying himself against a small rock while taking a sip from a cup of tea through a straw, ‘I don’t know why they [directors Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel] got an actor to play me when they could have just asked me. He looks too creepy… those arms, they’re not right at all. It’s all wrong. How would I even put on a jacket?’ I asked whether he had been sent a letter about the role and just hadn’t managed to open it, but the comment seemingly went over his head, much like the flying coins I just watched him miss in his latest mini-game practice.
‘I met Fifer at the premiere,’ Goomba continued, ‘he was having a heated discussion with Toad at the time and almost stepped on me as he tried to get away. Not that I’m not used to that from working with Mario over the years, but he certainly didn’t make any friends in the Mushroom Kingdom that night!’
For those who haven’t seen the film before, Fifer plays Goomba Toad, a devolved version of Mojo Nixon’s Toad Character. ‘Devolved‘, says Goomba, shaking his head and scoffing, ‘like I’m some sort of lesser form of Toad. We unionised shortly after that to make sure such terrible script work couldn’t happen again – ‘The Guild Of Original Mario Bros. Actors’ Things are much better these days and we even get a backdated pension scheme, but that performance still haunts us to this day.’
It’s funny how after so many successes in the video game industry, one negative can still hang over your head (which in Goomba’s case is pretty dangerous considering his track record of being squashed). From being one of the regular enemies in the series to a beloved dice-wielding character in the Mario Party franchise, he’s one of Nintendo’s most iconic characters and loved by all, but I guess we’re all guilty of focusing on the frustrating parts of our careers more than the good moments. All I can say is that things look bright for Goomba’s future, and if open auditions ever happen for a movie about Fifer’s life, we all know who’s going to be first in the queue to snag the role.
