The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Universal PicturesThirty years ago, an attempt at adapting Super Mario Bros. for the screen, starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, was released, and it was a total critical and commercial failure. Plans for future Nintendo adaptations were scrapped until, in 2018, Shigeru Miyamoto was convinced to collaborate directly with Illumination Entertainment for a Mario movie. When it was announced, excitement filled the air until…Chris Pratt was cast as Mario. What a way to kill your movie before it was released.
Surprisingly, Pratt wasn’t bad as Mario, and the film explains why he and Luigi (Charlie Day) lack an Italian accent. He shares great chemistry with Day’s Luigi as they try to make a mark as unique Brooklyn plumbers. After a drain incident threatens Brooklyn, the duo finds a warp pipe. It accidentally transports the two brothers to the Mushroom Kingdom, where Bowser (Jack Black) prepares to invade the Kingdom and marry Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). However, Luigi gets kidnapped by Bowser, and it’ll be up to Mario, Peach, and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) to defeat Bowser and save all the kingdoms.
Non-Mario fans have heavily criticized the film for being a soulless piece of content that only serves to market more IPs for Illumination to potentially make more films and television series of the character. In contrast, fans of the game have praised the film as being a love letter to what makes Mario such an icon of the video game world. As a die-hard fan of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario 3D Land, and 3D World alongside Odyssey, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is 92 minutes of pure magic and beautifully showcases why people love the small, but mighty, red-capped hero who goes against all odds to protect Princess Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom.
Anyone who goes into The Super Mario Bros. Movie for a multi-layered story will be immediately disappointed, which seems weird because none of the Mario games have a complex story. Bowser kidnaps Peach. Mario saves Peach and defeats Bowser. The end. In this case, Bowser kidnaps Luigi, and Mario and Peach team up to defeat Bowser. It’s a better framing device than the Mario games and doesn’t reduce Peach to a tired damsel in distress. Reinterpreting Peach as Mario’s mentor to navigate the world gives the character agency and a chance for Mario to sympathize with her in a far more poignant way than in the games. Yes, there’s the classic “Mariiiioooo!” line Taylor-Joy delivers when Mario is getting hammered by Donkey Kong, but Peach is a far richer character than the games want the players to believe. Giving her that chance to be a fully-realized and interesting protagonist for Mario seemed like a good first step for the movie to expand on elements that made the games so great.
As someone who has complained time and again about endless easter eggs and cameos being the rule for Star Wars IP nowadays, it would seem hypocritical to celebrate the easter eggs in a Mario movie, and yet. The film is a literal love letter to the fans, with every frame of the movie full of small nods to every game: there are the obvious ones that celebrate recent Mario games, but also some lesser-known easter eggs that will fill an inner kid’s mind with so much joy. Any avid fan of Mario will leave the theater with a smile on their face. It’s almost impossible not to smile at the Rainbow Road scene, where a blue shell hunts Mario, Donkey Kong, and Peach, or when Mario hits on a power box and transforms into his Tanooki suit for the first time.
Brian Tyler intricately builds in Koji Kondo’s legendary compositions through the score and always inserts them at a character’s pivotal moment. No spoilers, but when the Gusty Gardens Galaxy theme starts to play near the end of the film, the whole crowd when crazy. The same with the “Superstar” theme that is known and loved by gamers all over the world. Tyler finds incredible ways to integrate the legacy themes to support the characters, bring the audience back to their inner child, and give massive amounts of emotional weight to the action scenes, which are all spectacular to watch on an IMAX screen.
The complaints of the plot are unwarranted. The Mario games are simple, but the perfect imagery, intricate set-piece, and rousing score make the video games what they are. Mario is not supposed to be a sophisticated film. The plot is second fiddle: the action sequences, the intricacies of how the characters defeat the bad guys, and the music make The Super Mario Bros. Movie a terrific video game adaptation. It helps that everyone seems to have a great time, and directors Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath smartly decided to move away from Peach’s “damsel in distress” arc.
This film is specifically for people who have continuously played and explored the Super Mario Bros. games. It’s made for the community of fans who have made Mario the phenomenon it is today. Non-fans may not find any value in it, but the ones who, for days and nights on end, tried to get all the power moons in Super Mario Odyssey, tried (and failed) multiple times at beating New Super Luigi U, ascended when they discovered the Gusty Green Galaxy for the first time or remembered when they got a Nintendo DS with New Super Mario Bros. DS included in it. Those days in school when students exchanged cheat codes to beat Mario Bros. DS were the good ol’ days. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is made for all of them, and no single person has ever experienced these that will leave the theater feeling disappointed. If anything, they will leave the theater immediately wanting more.