VIDEO: Floweratouille Animatic PT 2+Deleted Scenes

In lieu of the release of Part 2 on Mashed, here's the second half of the Floweratouille animatic!

Look at that! We got 7 minutes of cartoon out already this year! As I've mentioned before, the Floweratouille story was actually written to be one piece, but it got split into two videos for production schedule reasons. THIS part, the second part, is where it really takes off if you ask me. PT1 was really just an extended teaser in a way.

Lots of gags I was really proud of here. I've been getting the hang of working at Mashed! This one took about two months to complete from start to finish. Contrast that with Clone Chaos, the first video I made, which legitimately, from the first discussions to release, took a little under a year. A lot of that has been me adjusting to the pipeline and the level of animation necessary to get things done swiftly, since I've rarely done hard deadline paid work before Mashed.

Even still, there were a lot of moments that got HEAVILY altered. The idea to have it be a Ratatouille situation where Luigi's literally getting puppeteered was not on the original premise; that was suggested to me later to make it a little more interesting. It was a good change overall!

One thing you probably noticed in this story, however, was that the body control element was really mostly just in Part 1. The moment the flower uproots from Luigi's head, it goes away completely. Evidence that it was a later addition, since I didn't write the ending with that in mind. I saw a lot of predictions like "The flower will turn Luigi into a zombie!" or even "It's gonna try to control Daisy!"

Both of those would have been pretty fun, honestly. The idea of it happening to Daisy really sparked my interest, maybe that could happen in a sequel 🤔. I am glad I was able to take things in a direction people didn't expect, though. I sort of wanted this to be a story that takes a few twists and turns.

Oh yeah! Deleted scenes. This part had a lot of heavily altered moments that I think would be perfect for storyboarding and releasing as special animatics on my own channel. Here's a big one:

DEARLY BELOVED TENNIS SCENE

Wipe transition to a TENNIS COURT, at dusk. MARIO, WARIO, and WALUIGI are giving their all in a 2v2 match, shown by each of them hitting the ball in flashy, dynamic comic panel-style shots. LUIGI, however, merely limps his wrist, missing the ball completely.

WARIO: FORTY-LOVE!!

WARIO+WALUIGI: WAHAHAHA!!!!

MARIO: What’s goin’ on bro? You’re whiffing it!

LUIGI: Ah, well, I… kinda canceled on Daisy to be here.

MARIO: What?!?!

WARIO: Oh, bro, you don’t bounce on a girl like that!

MARIO: Yeah, you gotta go back for her, Weegee!

WARIO+WALUIGI: Go! Go! Go!!!

LUIGI (panicked): Eeyah!! Okay!!

LUIGI whistles and YOSHI pulls up. He saddles on and rides away. MARIO is immediately pelted with a barrage of tennis balls, as WARIO and WALUIGI cackle maniacally.

This was actually... I think Ben's idea? Ben who is a Mashed producer. This was originally going to take the place of the Tennis scene we get in the final video. It got cut because it was a bit too long and complex. Bringing in Mario for a couple scenes made sense, but then we would have had to do designs for Wario and Waluigi and also cast them and also create a whole new tennis court set for this once scene. In the final video, the tennis trail is the same park BG as the beginning of Part 1.

It was also removed for the sake of character motivation, too, which is ultimately why I'm glad with what we did in the final version. It's a lot more effective to have Luigi initiate the decision to go see Daisy, and it more logically leads into him attacking the flower and taking charge.

This next scene was a HUGE alteration. This was from back before the Ratatouille connection was proposed, so there was more of a focus on dialogue rather than dancing. If left in, this would have immediately followed the ballroom dance scene.

Pan up to a giant clock on the wall as they dance. Fade to a few hours later. LUIGI and DAISY are now sitting at a table together, with wine, roses, and chocolates that LUIGI presumably bought with his newfound wealth. DAISY is casually munching on the sweets.

DAISY

Holy crap—(swallows chocolate) I just remembered! So, Peach was saying you and Mario used to work at, like, a bottling plant? I mean, what’s it been like, having all those jobs?

LUIGI (perking up)

Oh! Well, actually, it was—

FLOWER (speaking over Luigi)

Ehh, I’ve kinda put my blue-collar days behind me. And, honestly, I hate guys who spend the whole date talking about themselves.

DAISY

Well, yeah, but—

FLOWER

Let’s hear about you, your majesty. I wanna know how such a busy woman ended up with the spiciest body I’ve ever seen.

DAISY

Luigi! Oh my God.

FLOWER

Oh, I mean it. You think I’m joking?

DAISY

(laughing)

FLOWER

For such a sensational blossom to have gone unpicked all this time… I’d almost suspect you were just waiting for the proper… seedsman… to come collect you.

LUIGI

(sharp, trembling sigh. He’s barely holding it together.)

DAISY

Well, it is getting pretty late… And I could use some… “company” back at the castle.

FLOWER

Princess…

LUIGI puts a hand on DAISY’S FACE, as their lips draw closer. However, LUIGI suddenly pushes her away.

FLOWER

I mustn’t. To elope now would be hasty for noble creatures such as us. How does… tomorrow sound?

DAISY

(chuckles) Okay, if you must make me wait… tomorrow would be lovely.

DAISY walks away, waving back to LUIGI. He’s making a dopey, lovestruck face, surrounded by hearts, struggling to match his body language to the FLOWER’S speech.

FLOWER

Extravagant! Farewell, O Daisy divine!

As you can imagine, having to nix all that did hurt a little. But it was a necessary evil, I suppose. You always have to do that sort of thing when you're working on these. I like to imagine if we just had more time and budget then this would have made it in, as I think it only strengthens the story.

One of my original ideas with this is that the Flower gets extremely bold and sensual around Daisy. I wanted to create genuine sexual tension. I'm serious. That's how the "bugle lesson" joke came about, like you could just tell this dam was gonna break at any moment.

Oh yeah, the wine, roses, and chocolates were all things we'd show Flowigi buying with the stolen bank money. In part one the Flower even mentions the "confectionary, the barber, the florist." For now, it can just be implied. You can only imagine all the wonderful adventures they had with that stolen money.

And yes, the bottling company line is a deep cut reference to the Mario Bros. Game & Watch. I was pretty sad we had to cut that, because I would have called back to it later during the strangulation scene. Look:

LUIGI

I’m NOT a pushover.

FLOWER (still choking)

PROVE it then. DO IT! KILL MEe— (its voice trails off as its stem is crushed)

LUIGI tightens his grip.

LUIGI

I’m not a pushover, and I’m not a thief, or even a prince! And I happened to really enjoy my time at the bottling plant! It was an enriching WORK ENVIRONMENT!!

Haha, isn't that funny dialogue?!?! Yeah??? But yeah, we cut it out. Things were getting lengthy.

There are a few other minor moments that I might include in a "deleted scenes" video if I ever muster the effort. That might be a big if, since you know I'm always moving right onto the next project. But I do want to let these moments live in SOME form.

Let me know what you think of these deleted scenes! Do you like any of them more than what we got in the final cut? Or do you think it's the perfect length as is? I WANNA KNOW!!