Last week, Illumination Animation released the first official trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the brand new movie adaption of the extremely popular video game series from Nintendo. It’s expected to contain a voice cast of incredibly well-known actors such as Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Charlie Day, and Seth Rogen and even have a role of some sort for the long known Mario voice in Charlie Martinet. Despite the controversy surrounding Chris Pratt as Mario, the overall reception to the initial trailer seems to be fairly positive, with most praising the stellar animation and Jack Black as Bowser. While the debate whether Starlord can work well as his own version of Mario is one worth discussing, I think another debate that is worth bringing up is whether or not a Mario movie can actually work.
And I’m not just speaking of the sense that this is from Illumination, an animation studio that despite it’s financial success, aren’t really know for crafting genuine kids movie that rivals the best of Pixar or even Dreamworks outside of (maybe) the original Despicable Me. I’m also not speaking of the sense that this is yet another video game movie adaption, even if they have gotten a bit better as of late with the likes of Tomb Raider, Rampage, Detective Pikachu and the two Sonic the Hedgehog movies. Even taking all of those things into account, it’s going to be interesting to see how exactly a Mario movie can work as it’s own thing since it’s a franchise that isn’t really well known for it’s complex plots, superb character development, or stellar voice work.
Mario has been a franchise that been known for being very simplistic and straight forward with it’s storytelling but also incredibly imaginative and creative when it comes to the actual gameplay, level design, lore, world building, and music. While there definitely has been a handful of media with Mario that tried to go deeper with it’s story, characters, and script such as the hilariously awful 90s live-action movie and that 90s cartoon that no one remembers, none of them has really stood out as anything that proves that Mario can work on any one of those mediums. Even with the games tried to go deeper outside of the gameplay, it resulted in quite mixed results with the black hole of the franchise that is known as Super Mario Sunshine.
Say what you while about Sonic the Hedgehog but at least that is a franchise that is constantly driven by more than just it’s gameplay. There have been multiple stories involving cartoons, comics, and the actual games themselves that is given a huge amount of focus on along with the voice work, dialogue, and character work. It’s understandable to see how Sonic is able to carry his own movie since he’s already proven to be able to carry other forms of media with his own lore, characters, and world building with his tv shows, comic books, and now his movies. That something that Mario hasn’t really been known for.
Whenever someone talks about the plot of a Mario game, it’s usually follow the exact same beats in every single game. Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach and Mario has to save her from him! Throw in a handful of side characters such as Luigi, Toad, Yoshi, Daisy, Rosalina, Wario, Waluigi, Bowser Jr.etc.., and at least seven different world for Mario to go through and you basically got the traditional formula to an absolute T. Things are added every now and thing but they really don’t go much further than that.
Mario never really undergoes an arc or and kind of character development, there’s never really any moments of emotion or hard hit drama, there’s no shocking twist or story turns, and it tends to be very minimum in terms of dialogue exchanges and voice work. Sure, every once in a while there’s a genuine surprise, like say Peach’s independent turn at the end of Super Mario Odyssey, but it’s usually just the animation and visuals that do all the talking with not much else walking. However, that is something that will have to change with this upcoming Mario movie.
While no doubt Illumination is going to take the safe route with the Mario movie making it the most straight forward kid friendly/family movie possible, they will have to add elements that the Mario series isn’t really accustom too. They will have to put more focus on the story/plot then before, more on the character arcs/development then before, more on the dialogue and voice work than before, and more on the drama/emotional beats then before. While there will still be plenty of room for visual storytelling/gags that the games are known for, those elements are a requirement if Mario is going to function in any way, shape, or form as a motion picture.
In the end, I guess all we can do is wait and see. The movie no doubt will be a big hit at the box office strictly based off the Mario and Illumination Animation name alone. In terms of overall quality, that certainly remains to be seen whether it can hold up with the more recent video game movies.
Regardless, it will definitely be interesting to see how exactly Mario can hold his own movie since it’s the kind of medium that the character isn’t really familiar with. Whether the movie is good or bad, it’s an experiment that is certainly worth testing out as it could determine how the Super Mario brand can progress and evolve for the near future.
Mushroom Kingdom, here we come!
The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be released in theaters on April 7th, 2023.
Other comments:
- For anyone wondering, this is NOT a response to that one Polygon article of how a celebrity voicing Mario is impossible to make work and that Mario has never been an actual character. I haven’t read it and already had this piece in mind even before the trailer came out.
- This better have plenty of Yoshi in it.
- I’m quite curious to see how Seth Rogen will sound as Donkey Kong.
- Isn’t it weird how Super Mario Odyssey will be turning five years old this month?! Why must time always move so fast?!
- Speaking of which, when are we gonna get info on the next main Mario game? We still haven’t got one since Odyssey. An Odyssey 2 perhaps?!
- That’s all I got!
- Also, don’t forget that Chris Pratt is also voicing Garfield the Cat as well? I can honestly seem him fitting that role more than Mario tbh.
- Okay, that’s really it! Have a good day everybody!
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