Yes, this is the real review!
There are times where being a reviewer is hard. This mostly comes from reviewing something based off an IP that you grew up loving that is clearly meant to revoke the nostalgia in you and remind you why you loved that property in the first place but doesn’t really have anything else to offer besides that. In the case of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, this is an example of a movie that basically walks a fine line between the fanboy mindset and the cynical mindset.
The fanboy mindset tells me that this might just be the most faithful video game adaption (with the exception of Arcane and The Last of Us) to date with breathtaking animation, amusing worth building, fun action setpieces, an outstanding original score, plenty of easter eggs, callbacks, and references from the games, fan favorite characters that get at least one or two moments to shine, and a voice cast which despite being celebrities, surprisingly fit quite well in their roles. Then comes the cynical mindset which can go on about the movie’s by-the-numbers storytelling, forced gags, awkwardly insert tracks, sticking to certain genre cliches to a T, and probably doesn’t work for those who aren’t fond of the source material it’s based on.
While I can totally see someone leaning one way or the other, by the end of the day, you have to remember what you are getting yourself into and what kind of movie you are watching. If you are someone that goes into a Mario movie in hopes to have storytelling, character development, and depth on par with the likes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, then you really didn’t know what you are getting into and will likely be disappointed. However, if you are someone that goes into a Mario movie for the eye popping visuals, fun set pieces, iconic tracks getting remastered, seeing some of your favorite characters using your favorite power-ups, and just enjoy finding the easter eggs in something you like, then you will likely have a good time. For me, I leaned into the latter and because of that, I quite enjoyed myself.
Is it a great movie overall? No! Does it contain some elements that I’ve grown tiresome with Illumination Animation? Definitely! But, is it a Mario movie that feels like it was made by fans for fans? Absolutely!
Plot Synopsis: Based off the extremely successful video game franchise from Nintendo, we have an origin story for the brothers and Italian American plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day). During accomplishing a job for their struggling plumbing business, Mario and Luigi are split up as they find themselves teleported to the alternate world known as the Mushroom Kingdom. It’s soon discover that the two find themselves entangled in a battle between Mushroom Kingdom, led by their princess named Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and the Koopas, led by the evil, menacing Bowser (Jack Black).
As Luigi find himself captive by Bowser himself, Mario is right outside the Mushroom Kingdom where he runs into Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) who takes him to Princess Peach herself. Peach, who has had plenty of experience in combat and adventuring, plans to stop Bowser by forging an alliance with the Jungle Kingdom led by King Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) and his son Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen). Once the princess meets Mario, she agrees to have him tag along to help save his brother, Luigi but must first teach Mario how to actually be the Mario we all know and love and be his guide across the Mushroom Kingdom.
We then see Mario, Peach, and Toad go on an adventure together to stop Bowser and save Luigi before Bowser himself is able to carry out his deadly plan to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom and force the princess to be his bride.
Let’s first get this out of the way since this has been a common criticism of the movie. Yes, the plot is very thin and straight forward with as much meaning as the scene in the original game where Toad says, “Sorry, Mario! Your princess is in another castle!” (which this movie references in the best way). Just like the games, it mostly exists just for characters to get from Point A to Point B and show off the amazing and colorful worlds that Mario and crew have to fight their way towards. There’s not much themes of the movie other than, the power of brotherhood and being an underdog can be cool sometimes, and most of the plots beats and character arcs are ones you can see coming from a mile away. However, isn’t that Mario at his core?
I’m not one to excuse lazy writing but in this case, it feels more like proper writing. Mario isn’t really known as a character with much depth and his stories tend to be lighthearted, straight forward fairytale-like plots where he needs to stop Bowser and save someone or something in the process. Is that much? No. Is it Mario! Absolutely yes! The story itself isn’t anything we never seen before but again, who really goes into a Mario movie for the story?
I imagine the elements that fans go into a Mario movie for is to see their favorite Italian plumber and his allies go on adventures together, performing platforming sections, unlock special power abilities, explore the ins-and-outs of the world, listen to some good tunes, ride a go-kart or two, and be amazed by the amazing visuals. If that’s what you are going into a Mario movie for, then you should be more than satisfied as the movie delivers all of that exactly as you want.
The animation as you would expect for any big animated movie nowadays is STUNNING! The worlds and characters themselves look incredibly gorgeous and feel like they were ripped straight from the games. So much so, there are times to where it feels like these could be cutscenes ripped directly from a Mario game in 2023 and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The way that each characters goes from different locations scattered throughout is an absolute treat for the eyes. If it wasn’t for the scenes in Brooklyn with the hilariously out-of-place looking dogs that looks it was ripped from The Secret Life of Pets, I wouldn’t even have guessed this was from Illumination Animation as well.
And as I’ve stated in the beginning, I don’t think I have seen a more faithful adaption in movie form than with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The movie is filled with callbacks and references to the games that it’s able to perfectly translated onto the big screen. Think about at least one noteworthy thing from your favorite Mario games and there’s a good chance it’s in this movie. We get the classic power-ups such as red mushrooms, blue mushrooms, red flowers, blue flowers, and even the tanooki suit! We get the castle that is taking directly from Super Mario 64! We get a Peach’s training course which is taking directly from Super Mario Maker! We get a rainbow road track that’s taking directly from Mario Kart Wii and 8! And we even get a cameo with *Spoiler!* from *Spoiler*!
While I’m sure plenty will claim that is too much fan service, but I honestly don’t know how the movie could have worked without it. I imagine most fans of the games will want the movie to remind them of the games. After all these years of folks complaining about how video game movies are nothing like the games, are we really now gonna complain when video game movies are actually similar to the games? I’m not a hypocrite so I wouldn’t do that.
When it comes to the voice cast, while it’s certainly full of recognizable celebrities, they do fit their roles quite well. First off, YES, Chris Pratt is just fine as Mario! Despite all of the controversy surrounding his casting (admittedly from me as well), especially with the fact that he’s not Italian or has an accent, he’s able to hold his own just fine as the Italian Plumber without ever become obnoxious or hard to listen to. It does take a moment or two to get use to his voice but once I did, I didn’t hear Star Lord or Emmet trying to play Mario, I just heard Mario. And for those wondering, yes the accent thing is immediately addressed in the movie.
Everyone else is just fine as well. Charlie Day is likable as Luigi and has great chemistry with Pratt, even if he doesn’t have nearly as much screen time as I would have liked. Anya Taylor-Joy brings enough charm and personality to this stronger version of Peach that felt like a mix of between her character in 3D World and Super Smash Bros. Keegan-Michael Key brings plenty of laughs as Toad and has probably some of the funnier moments in the movie. Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong sounds exactly what you would expect Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong to sound like. Charles Martinet, the original voice of Mario and Luigi, is able to shine on his own with the cameos he’s given to voice. Lastly, Jack Black as Bowser is absolute perfection as you knew he would be and that’s all that needs to be said about that!
In terms of the music, this is where I start to get into the negatives with this movie. When it comes to the original tracks and remixes by Brian Tyler and Koji Kondo, they are stellar. I can imagine those two had the time of their lives being able to take these iconic tracks that has help shaped the identity of Mario and make it something of their own. So much so, that this might be one of the few times where I actually want to buy the soundtrack of the movie because of how good it sounds. It’s the tracks from other things that are inserted in here that took me out of it.
While the songs they chose aren’t bad in their own rights, they don’t feel like they have a place in a Mario movie. Say what you will about the Sonic The Hedgehog movies having well-known songs but it made more sense there since it was live-action and meant to be taking place in the real world with real humans. For Mario, even when it technically takes place in a real world of Brooklyn, is not a world which well-known songs should be added in, just original tracks and songs from it’s own thing. That’s part of where the Illumination animation influence of the movie bothered me.
I’m gonna go on record of saying that I am normally not a fan of the movies by Illumination Animation. They often tend to make the most average, run-of-the-mill, kids movies imaginable that try to be as safe and disposable as possible just because it’s for kids. While I enjoyed the original Despicable Me just fine, I’ve had a hard time of connecting to any other movie that they’ve made since then. So the fact that I enjoyed The Super Mario Bros Movie should not be seen as a compliment on their part. If anything, it feels more like I enjoyed the movie in spite of Illumination and not because of them.
Much like other Illumination movies, there are times to where the movie is too gagged heavy, moves too fast, and doesn’t give you a lot of moments to breathe and get yourself sucked into the Mario worlds as we know it. It’s not as bad as in their other movies mostly because there’s just too many eye-popping scenes involving the Mario characters doing something we liked from the games, it’s never given a chance to bring the whole thing down. I give credit to Nintendo on that part as they clearly made sure that this doesn’t get screwed up.
The biggest negative of the movie has to do with the treatment of Luigi himself. While I’m glad they were able to keep the innocent and fraidy-cat personality that Luigi has always had, he gets quite sidelined throughout the good majority of the movie because he exists just to be a captured victim for Bowser. I get that the filmmakers didn’t want to make Peach the damsel in distress this time around and probably thought that Luigi getting kidnapped by Bowser would make Mario more motivated to stop the monster for their first ever encounter but it certainly doesn’t do the character or even movie any favors. There’s almost a good half-hour of the movie where the character vanishes completely and you almost completely forget he’s actually in it. I can almost forgive that because he is giving at least one awesome scene in the climax, but it certainly makes the title of The Super Mario Bros. Movie a tad misleading since it’s mostly just Mario with the focus and not Luigi. If anything, this movie would have been better off not having any damsel in distress except for toads or adorable looking creatures and just had Luigi join alongside Mario, Peach, and Toad to save the day.
I’ll admit, if I was not a fan of Mario or had no attachment to the character, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed this movie as much and just see it as another “meh” kids movie from Illumination. But, because I am a fan, I was quite satisfied. If anyone that has been a fan of Mario at some point in their life, I can’t imagine they won’t have some sort of satisfaction with The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
I understand we live in a time where movies with “fan service” are getting quite tiresome and “critic/fanboy proof” but this is one of the rare occasions to where it’s just find for it to be complete fan service and nothing more to justify it’s existence. Because it’s clear that the cast and crew were having a lot of fun making this movie and I had a lot of fun watching it.
If you want a recent animated movie with more effort put to storytelling and character development, go watch Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (which you REALLY should) or wait for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse to come out in June. If you want a Mario movie that feels like the most faithful adaption of the games possible, go watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Other comments:
- Yes, this is the real review and how I actually felt about the movie!
- Yes, there are two post-credit scenes!
- Ironic how a movie that has been described as an “Easter egg” movie is being released the same time as Easter weekend! Just all too fitting!
- There’s one scene in the movie with Bowser singing a song for Peach that is a perfect reminder that Jack Black has a lovely singing voice.
- I can’t be the only one that thought of Elsa from Frozen when Peach got her ice power-up! You knew darn well that Illumination purposely ripped that off because they just couldn’t help themselves. It was still cool tho.
- If you are expecting a lot of Yoshi or even any form of Yoshi, prepare for disappointment! And no that “tease” does NOT help either!
- There’s at least one scene in the climax that was about as goosebumps heavy as the scene in Sonic 2 where Sonic turns into his Super form! It’s just something the child in me as been waiting for my whole life to see!
- I might do a list of my Top 10 Favorite Mario Games this weekend because why not?
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