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Trivia: Part of the genesis of the film was when director Tad Stones became fascinated with the character Iago. He was talking to a producer about the characters he wanted to include and mentioned Iago, and was told that Iago was trapped in a lamp. This made Stones think about how Iago might escape and what he'd do after he got out... which eventually morphed into the plot for the movie. In fact, the working title was originally "Iago Returns," before "The Return of Jafar" was settled on.

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Trivia: To date, this is the only film ever directed by Dean Cundey. Cundey, an award-winning cinematographer who has worked on classic films such as "Halloween," "Back to the Future" and "Jurassic Park," was personally approved by star Rick Moranis for the job. However, Cundey learned that he wasn't particularly fond of the directing process, and chose to go back to being a cinematographer after the film's completion.

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Trivia: The final live-action film to star Rick Moranis before he mostly retired from acting to take care of his kids after his wife's unfortunate passing. Moranis is however tentatively attached to appear in a legacy sequel titled "Shrunk," though the film has been stuck in development hell for some time.

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Trivia: The film was widely despised, including by its own star Halle Berry. She hated it so much, she actually showed up to accept her "Worst Actress" Razzie award in-person (while also jokingly holding her "Best Actress" Oscar for "Monster's Ball"), and referred to the film as a "piece of shit" and "god-awful" during her acceptance speech.

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Trivia: The filmmakers had a fairly small budget. So to save money in costuming, they bought awful, cheap shoes from a new footwear company. Because the shoes were so hideous and impractical, the filmmakers thought that the shoes would be perfect for the idiots of the future, and assumed that the company would go bankrupt soon after. The company was Crocs, and to everyone on the crew's surprise and disappointment, their shoes actually ended up becoming extremely popular... just like in the movie.

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Trivia: By chance, while he was in college, franchise creator Don Mancini had audited an acting class being taught by actor Brad Dourif, who he greatly admired. He was pleasantly surprised when he found out Dourif was cast as Chucky several years later after his screenplay was purchased and went into production. The two later became good friends.

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Trivia: Reportedly, Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg repeatedly tried to sabotage the film's production as he was worried it would overshadow their film "Aladdin," especially as both films featured Robin Williams as a prominent character. Williams was furious, as he felt the film's environmental message was important and that there was no reason he couldn't do both films. It's believed this may have been a factor in William's feud with Disney that lasted several years after "Aladdin" was released.

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Trivia: Robin Williams refused be in the movie after having a falling out with Disney. Williams agreed to work for very low pay on "Aladdin," on the condition that his voice and name not be exploited for publicity. However, Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg didn't keep to his word and did exploit Williams in some publicity material, causing Williams to feel betrayed. Williams eventually settled his differences with Disney and appeared in the third film, "Aladdin and the King of Thieves."

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Trivia: The movie was initially conceived of as a one-hour TV special/pilot to usher in the "Aladdin" animated series, but co-director Tad Stones convinced Disney that it should be lengthened slightly and released direct-to-video as a feature-film. Disney accepted his offer after being impressed by animation tests, which they felt were very high quality for the low-budget that the project was given.

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Trivia: Disney's first direct-to-video animated sequel. Releasing it direct-to-video was considered something of a gamble at the time, as producers worried it would cheapen the Disney brand. However, the gamble paid off - it sold incredibly well, and went on to become one of the best-selling VHS titles of all time, eventually making back over 50X its budget in profit. After its release, over 50 more direct-to-video animated Disney sequels were produced (if one counts both 2D and CGI movies).

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Trivia: When Mario tries to enter the castle, one of the guards makes a snarky comment that the "princess is in another castle." This is a reference to the original "Super Mario Bros." video game, in which Mario is repeatedly told that the princess is in another castle.

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Trivia: Due to the financial success of the previous two films, Disney originally intended for this to be a theatrical film. However, after their success with the direct-to-video animated sequels "The Return of Jafar" and "Aladdin and the King of Thieves," Disney decided to make this their first foray into a direct-to-video live-action sequel. Given it was gamble, this decision unfortunately resulted in the budget being lowered substantially in comparison to the previous two films.

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Trivia: An "Elektra" movie was almost made in the 90s by Oliver Stone of all people. He wanted to do a film titled "Elektra: Assassin" that would have followed Elektra battling The Hand, and he wanted professional volleyball player Gabrielle Reece to play the titular character. When the rights to Daredevil and Elektra were sold to Fox, Stone left the project due to the complications of working with different studios and producers.

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Trivia: The final film starring Bruce Willis to be released, coming out almost exactly one year after he announced his retirement due to Frontotemporal Dementia (initially diagnosed as Aphasia). Like many of his final films, it was created primarily for the VOD, streaming and home-video market, but was also given a token limited release in certain overseas markets.

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Trivia: The film broke several box office records in its 5-day Easter holiday opening, including becoming the highest-grossing video-game movie of all time domestically, beating Sonic the Hedgehog 2's $190 million within five days. It also had the highest opening weekend worldwide for an animated feature. A few days later, it became the highest-grossing video-game movie of all time worldwide. It subsequently became the first ever video-game movie to gross $1 billion globally after four weeks of release.

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Trivia: John Leguizamo, who starred in the original 1993 live-action film, criticized the film and attempted to get people to boycott it as he was upset at what he felt was a lack of Latin characters and actors in the movie. He also claimed that he was the "only one" who knew how to make the movie work. His comments have caused some confusion, as the film does contain several actors of Latin descent, and the titular brothers are Italian.

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Trivia: The Mario Bros. Plumbing commercial jingle is actually the theme song to the "Super Mario Bros. Super Show" from 1989.

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Trivia: Spike, the brutish jerk who serves as Mario's rival in the human world, is a character from the slightly obscure Mario arcade game "Wrecking Crew," which featured a villainous character called "Foreman Spike" who tried to stop Mario from completing the levels.

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Trivia: The pizza shop is called "Punch-Out Pizza" as a reference to the popular Nintendo game "Punch-Out!" Inside the pizza-shop is an arcade cabinet called "Jump-Man." "Jump-Man" was one of the early names used for Mario before they settled on the name "Mario."

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Trivia: Charles Martinet, who has voiced Mario in the games since the early 90's, has two cameos in the film. First is as an Italian man who talks to the Mario brothers at the pizza shop and whose voice is almost exactly like his Mario voice from the games. (He even lets out a classic "Woo-hoo!" just like Mario.) Second and much more subtly, he also voices Mario and Luigi's father, who appears at the beginning and ending of the film.

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