"Super Mario Bros." is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. Little Super Mario sits alongside Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald as one of the modern world's most recognizable characters.

And yet, even with something as popular and straightforward as "Super Mario Bros.", the Hollywood movie industry adapted it into something hilariously bad.

(The "Super Mario Bros." movie version of a goomba is this terrifying creature.Lightmotive)

This is the norm for video game adaptations taken on by Hollywood, whether it's a TV show or a film — few expect their favorite game to get turned into a good movie or show.

The recently released "Castlevania" on Netflix, an animated show centered on the "Castlevania" video game series, is an incredible exception. It's smart, funny, and manages to turn a largely uninteresting game series (story-wise) into a compelling narrative.

We caught up with "Castlevania" showrunner Adi Shankar over the phone last week to ask how he and his team managed to pull off what so many others in Hollywood could not. Shankar said the reason so many video game adaptations are terrible is because of the approach taken by Hollywood: Rather than diving in on what makes the game's world interesting to the people who already love it, adaptations tend to broaden the scope too far in an attempt to draw in a larger audience.

"Let's say the game sold 5 million copies, right? [The studios] look at it as, 'Those are 5 million people who are gonna show up on opening weekend anyways. So let's get more people to show up,'" Shankar said. "But what they didn't get is no, no, no, no, no — that's like your marketing department. Those 5 million people? If you love something, you want everyone else to love it. You want to share that fandom with other people."

(Much of the "Castlevania" show is evocative of the game series' art and style — an homage rather than a direct adaptation.Netflix)

To Shankar, "Old Hollywood" is represented by that old approach: Take a property that people already love, and broaden it instead of appealing to its core. And it's "New Hollywood" that gave him the chance to make "Castlevania."

"I was done," Shankar said. He'd made a handful of successful but — by their very nature — unprofitable films on YouTube. He made what are essentially fan films that he dubbed his "Bootleg Universe": short films based on stuff like "Power Rangers" and "The Punisher." Since they're properties owned by major corporations, he was unable to profit from the films (lest he get sued).

"After that came out, 'Old Hollywood' was kind of like, 'What is this guy smoking? What is wrong with this dude?'," Shankar said. "But then I guess 'New Hollywood' — the internet crowd — embraced me as one of their own at that point. Maker Studios gave me a three-picture deal. And there's a bunch of stuff that happened behind the scenes that wasn't even public knowledge. I was in kind of a weird spot because I wanted to leave, and I was like I'll try out this whole 'Hollywood Career version 2.0' for me."