History
The story of Super Hornio Brothers is a sad one that begins and ends with a crime.
The year is 1993. The movie Super Mario Bros. had just been released in theaters, and Ron Jeremy was sitting in a courtroom witnessing one of the most famous criminal cases of the late 20th century: the Menendez brothers trial. During the trial, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times told Ron Jeremy that he looked like an escaped Mario brother. Ron agreed, and everybody laughed. Little did they know that this comment would soon become the basis for one of the most infamous chapters in Nintendo’s history. While Ron himself knew nothing about the Super Mario Bros. game franchise, his friend Buck Adams did.
Buck Adams was a very prolific pornographic actor (with around 500 movies under his belt) and a prolific director. At the time, however, Buck was in a rough spot. He was known, as he himself admitted, as an asshole. He had psychotic episodes during award shows, made a death threat to a cameraman, and was constantly drunk. His wife left him, his girlfriend left him, and he was no longer on speaking terms with his daughter. After Lethal Passion, one of the last movies he directed, failed to receive the praise and awards he had envisioned, he decided to quit the adult industry… for a while. Buck took time for himself and began drinking more responsibly. He gave directing another shot with the movie Uninhibited. This film changed him.
“I didn’t have to brag or get into people’s faces anymore to prove myself. That movie changed me. I became a whole new person.”
— Buck Adams
Buck started talking with his ex-wife and daughter again. Life was finally back on track. After the success of Uninhibited, Buck was ready to push the limits even further with Super Hornio Brothers. He pitched the idea to Sin City, an American independent adult film studio, which agreed to fund the project. Buck hired Marc Cushman, a prolific writer of adult films, who produced a 37-page script. The script was not based on the 1993 live-action movie; instead, it more closely resembled The Super Mario Bros. S
uper Show!, which featured Lou Albano as Mario — an actor with whom Ron Jeremy shared a strong physical resemblance.
When Sin City received the script, they decided to pull out of the project. It is not entirely clear why, but many speculate that the length and ambition of the 37-page script showed how large an endeavor the film would be. It called for crazy costumes, 3D animation, and unusual locations that seemed impossible to film on the available budget. With Sin City out of the picture, Buck had to find new financing. Despite the ambitious nature of the project, Buck had extensive connections in the industry and the legendary Ron Jeremy already on board. Using his Rolodex, he managed to secure another backer: Midnight Video, with whom he had previously worked on Midnight Angel and The Midnight Hour. Midnight Video gave Buck $20,000 to produce the movie — not a large sum even by 1993 standards. To reduce costs, the team had to cut one day of filming. At the same time, Buck decided to add six unscripted sex scenes so that the material could be turned into two full-length movies.
On the set
Buck was very meticulous, making sure the angles and lighting were just right. Learning a 37-page script in a single day proved challenging even for the more experienced actors on set.
“There was so much script to learn that Ron and T.T. were getting a little too performance-driven at times instead of lightening up. I wanted them to fuck up so we could have some levity and make it cartoonish.”
— Buck Adams
In the final edits, Buck preferred the outtakes whenever possible to achieve that tone. He was proud of both parts of the movie. He noted that Part 1 was a bit wordy but still good, while Part 2 was his favorite:
“Part two has the bells and whistles and the way-out visuals. Nobody’s ever done anything this bizarre in adult video.”
— Buck Adams
Ron Jeremy could not comment on the resemblance to Super Mario because he was not familiar with the franchise. He did note, however, that the film had very good sex scenes, and that, in the end, that is what really matters when making an adult movie. Ron even wanted to get into character by watching the Super Mario Bros. movie that had just been released, but it was so poorly received that it had already left theaters. This gave the team hope that the adult version might fare better in distribution.
Release
Both movies were released simultaneously in 1993. The marketing described them as “The wildest sexual extravaganza ever. A computer game gone crazy with the naughtiest cast of wild sex-crazed nymphs and love-starved studs in cinema history — Hold on to your joystick!” Shortly afterward, both films disappeared from store shelves. A CD-ROM version (containing none of the dialogue) was also advertised in various magazines until 1996, but it is unknown whether it was ever officially licensed or released.
Preservation
In 2008, a user named doorknobjohnny on the Something Awful forums posted asking if anyone had a copy of Super Hornio Brothers for sale or trade. Although nobody had a copy at the time, many users tried to locate one. A user named b0bx13 even contacted Ron Jeremy directly and received a reply from his agent stating that even he did not know how to obtain it.
Later that year, Zack Parsons, an editor at Something Awful, issued a challenge on the forum to find the movie. The call generated significant attention. Soon after, a user called Supreme Allah posted an image of a CD-ROM version of the film.
In 2009, Zack Parsons announced that someone had finally posted a full DVD copy of Super Hornio Brothers 2. It took another three years for a copy of the first movie to surface. In 2011, film researcher Ian Helm discovered a used VHS copy of Super Hornio Brothers for sale in Aurora, Colorado, from a vendor dealing in collections from defunct video rental stores. The tape remained in archival storage in its original packaging and in playable condition. In 2014 the film was digitized by Atomicthumbs, but it turned out to be Super Hornio Brothers II. Meanwhile, a user named Samuel L. ACKSYN posted that the original film was already available online.
Enter Nintendo
You may wonder why the previous section is included if both movies eventually appeared online anonymously. The answer lies in what happened while the search was ongoing. Many people contacted Ron Jeremy about the films, so he published a blog post on his website explaining the situation.
The issue began when Ron wanted to put his catalogue online. He approached a company called Hot Movies, which specialized in the distribution of adult films and maintained a “classics” section. During these discussions he was informed that Nintendo had purchased the rights to both Super Hornio Brothers movies and had halted distribution indefinitely. Nintendo has never publicly confirmed this claim, nor has it denied it.
It is unknown exactly how the movies came to Nintendo’s attention. Nintendo has always been extremely protective of its intellectual property and, at the time, maintained very strict policies regarding adult content in order to preserve a family-friendly image. It is therefore unsurprising that the company would want the films removed. Parody and satire are protected to a certain extent under fair-use doctrine, but Nintendo could have taken the matter to court and buried Midnight Video under legal fees until the company was forced to stop distribution. Such a public legal battle, however, would have drawn unwanted attention to the very films Nintendo wanted to disappear. Nintendo also wanted to discourage other producers from creating similar parodies of its intellectual property in the expectation that Nintendo would simply buy the rights. In the end, Midnight Video had no desire to go to court either, and an agreement was reached: Nintendo bought the distribution rights from Midnight Video and withdrew all copies from circulation.
This deal was kept quiet for many years. Because the movies had never been particularly popular, few people noticed when they vanished from shelves.
While this does not make Super Hornio Brothers 1 & 2 official Mario movies, it does make them some of the rarest “Nintendo”-related memorabilia in existence. With Nintendo having become somewhat more open about adult content on its platforms in recent years, could the company one day acknowledge ownership of Super Hornio Brothers? It seems unlikely, especially given that Ron Jeremy has been accused of sexual assault by more than 20 women. On January 17, 2023, a judge found Jeremy mentally unfit to stand trial due to “incurable neurocognitive decline,” and he was committed to a state mental health facility in California.
To end on a lighter note: in 2009 news broke that Todd Ludlow, Ron Jeremy’s attorney, was suing Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto for $69 million. The suit claimed that Miyamoto, under Nintendo’s supervision, had used Jeremy’s image as the sole model for the character Mario. Ludlow stated: “We intend to prove that the accused used our client’s image and persona as the basis for creating one of the most legendary characters in video game history… The obvious similarities are the round, overweight stomach and dark mustache… The timeline matches perfectly. Donkey Kong was released in 1981, two years after Ron Jeremy’s first adult video.”
At first the lawsuit was thought to be a publicity stunt by Ron Jeremy. In a later statement, however, Jeremy clarified that he had nothing to do with the press release and that it was clearly a prank.
Cast
Actor:
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| Ron Jeremy (as Squeegie Hornio) |
T.T. Boy (as Ornio Hornio) |
Chelsea Lynx |
Buck Adams (as King Pooper) |
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| Don Fernando (as Bob) |
Krysti Lynn (as Spider Woman) |
Natasia (as Bon Dori – Queen of Bondage) |
Rikki Ray (as Egg) |
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| Richard Reynolds (Credited as Rick Blaine) (playing Virusman) |
Kitty Yung (as Ileeza – Mistress of Evil) |
Diane O’Daine (as Evil Eliza) |
Other:
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| Buck Adams Director |
Marc Cushman |
Source:
– (NSFW) Super Hornio Bros: XXX-mas is Ruined – The thread from 2006
– Super Hornio Brothers! The Real Super Mario Movie- Tales From the Internet is an excellent video on the subject, especially on the subject of The Something Aweful
– Ron Jeremy Says Video Games Are Rotting Kids’ Brains – Interview of Ron Jeremy by Mike Pearl
– Celebrity Gamer: Ron Jeremy – Interview by Electronic Gaming Monthly in issue 173, December 2003
– Buck Adams Helms The Super Hornio Bros. for Midnight Video – Interview of Buck Adams by Gene Ross in AVN – Oct 1993