The Super Mario Bros. Movie premiered earlier this week, and viewers were quick to take note of the movie’s star-studded soundtrack, which features licensed songs by AC/DC, Beastie Boys and Electric Light Orchestra. While the movie’s soundtrack was certainly impressive, some viewers noticed that one of the movie’s original tracks was cut at the last minute to make room for A-ha’s “Take On Me.”
The track, titled “Drivin’ Me Bananas,” was an interesting interpolation of both the Donkey Kong Country theme and the game’s “DK Island Swing,” as Twitter user @KRoolKountry pointed out. Twitter user @_Slunky then edited the track into the driving scene from the movie and the jazzy, energetic song appears to perfectly line up with the scene, fuelling speculation that it was made for this scene but cut at the last minute and replaced by A-ha’s song.
The decision to replace “Drivin’ Me Bananas” with “Take On Me” has been met with criticism by some viewers who feel that the movie relied too heavily on licensed tracks over its own soundtrack. Twitter user @hEnereyG called the movie’s reliance on licensed tracks “lazily derivative,” and said that there was “no reason” to replace the track with A-ha’s song when there was a better-fitting track already made.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been met with generally positive reviews, with IGN giving it an 8/10 and Universal estimating that the movie will make $141 million by the end of its opening weekend. While the movie has delighted viewers with its infectious energy and smart implementations of video game callbacks, some viewers have been left disappointed by the movie’s choice to replace one of its original tracks with a licensed song.