The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The magical Mushroom Kingdom finds itself facing the wrath of Bowser, King of the Koopas, who’s determined to annihilate the Kingdom and claim the beautiful Princess Peach for his bride.  Only one thing stands in his way, well two things: a pair of Italian Brothers from Earth who have been dragged separately to the Mushroom Kingdom via a warp pipe.  Now it’s up to Mario and Luigi to reunite and bring the fight to Bowser.  These two have always wanted to be heroes, well that’s what the universe really needs right now.

While Video Game Movies have seen quite the resurgent renaissance since 2019’s Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (aka when they started getting good), there’s no ignoring the beginning of the crappy reputation of Movies based on Video Games thanks to 1993s Super Mario Bros.  It was a movie at odds with itself, with no clear idea of what it wanted or should have been.  It was dark, edgy, tonally all over the place and had little to do with the source material.  It was so bad that Nintendo didn’t even bother letting Hollywood have a crack at their other properties until Detective Pikachu.  Well the Mario Bros have been given a second chance at long last and my God, this is how it should have been done in the first place.  No live action schenanigans.  No would be Blade Runner settings.  No dark and depressing atmosphere.  No The Super Mario Bros Movie is exactly as advertised: a 90min straight forward adventure romp that might be light on story and character development.  However, if all you want is to feel like you’ve popped your copy of Super Mario Bros into your Nintendo Entertainment System and just sent the little Plumber running and jumping over Koopas and Goombas, you’ve come to the right place.
 
The movie benefits greatly from the animation talents of the bringers of Minions at Illumination.  It’s bursting with all the color you’ve come to expect from the kid friendly Nintendo flagship and settings, characters and creatures are all accurately recreated to perfection.  Clearly the people working on this aren’t just Mario fans but classic gaming fans at heart.  The action sequences show off this love in particular with a mix of classic side scrolling and modern day 3D presentations spread across multiple locales.  There’s just so much love for the classic Mario era from the original NES Trilogy to the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 days when all you wanted to do was just pick up a controller and go (and the frustrations for dealing with someone’s torturous Mario Maker level design). Likewise, composer Bryan Tyler is having an absolute blast creating orchestrated mixes of all the classic Mario tunes from the original game to Super Mario World and Mario 64.  Eagle eyed fans will probably be able to spot more Easter Eggs than I did that expand beyond the Mario games themselves to other Nintendo franchises such as Star Fox and Punch Out.  Visually, this movie is a labor of love and it shows in every gorgeous frame.
 
The Voice Casting has gotten some understandable flack but comes out looking pretty good.  Chris Pratt has been the butt of the end of many jokes for his unusual casting choice as our lead Plumber (especially when Charles Martinet, who’s been the longtime Video Game voice of Mario has a cameo).  But he isn’t bad at all in the role of the brave and determined Plumber woefully out of his depth but still wanting to do what’s best for Peach’s Kingdom while also tracking down his lost brother.  Charlie Day likewise instills plenty of humor in the constantly terrified Luigi but like his brother, his hearts in the right place.  I really liked Anya Taylor Joy’s Peach, no longer a spectator and constant damsel in distress. Peach ends up kicking her own amount of serious ass in the movie and looking damn good while doing so.  Also her flirtations with Mario are pretty cute too.  Jack Black, however, steals the show as Bowser.  The Tenacious D Artist and Comedian perfectly balances the menace and hilarious vulnerablility of the King of the Koopas.  One moment he’s the powerful force of nature we all know he can be and the next he singing serenades for his long time crush, Princess Peach, it’s freaking great.  Other great talents include Keegan Michael Key, Seth Rogan and Fred Armisen as Adventurer Chef Toad, the loveable Donkey Kong and the cantankerous King Cranky Kong, all of whom do fantastic work too.
 
The Mario Bros Movie might be as straightforward as it gets but that sometimes works to its detriments.  For one, though they share the title, Mario and Luigi spend more than half the movie separated once they enter the warp pipe.  Poor Luigi is the damsel in need of rescuing while Mario gets all the action.  It’s not just fair to him but also to the brothers themselves.  In the few short scenes they have together (including an adorable Baby Mario flashback), we see that Mario and Luigi have an unshakeable bond and faith in one another and when theyre together, they are Super as the title says.  The Earth sequences also made me frown a little.  One particular scene sees Mario and Luigi botching a simple job because of a pissed off dog that feels like something meant for Illimunations Minions or Despicable Me series when all we really want is to get to Mario and Luigi running across the Mushroom Kingdom together.  And while the love for Mario action is abundant, the film doesn’t exactly dedicate much time to a been there, done that story or properly deepening the characters.  On the one hand, this is ok because it’s a Mario movie, we just need to be entertained and the movie is that.  On the other, when Sonic the Hedgehog is doing fantastic character work with it’s titular Hedgehog and especially Knuckles in Sonic 2, Mario is lagging behind his eternal frenemy and rival. 
 
At the end of the day though, gripes I have aside, this is a freaking fun flick.  When the action gets going, I flashback to being three or four and turning on my NES for the first time and taking Mario out for a spin.  The characters may lack depth but they all feel like their game counterparts.  The story isn’t game changing but its also so fun you can kind of look past it.  This is a simple and enjoyable Mario adventure for Mario fans of all ages and generations.  When compared to the failure of the 93 movie, this is a masterwork.  Sometimes, simple is all you need to have some fun.  And if all of the Easter Eggs and one post credits scene are any indication, I cant wait for Mario’s next big screen adventure.  Wahoo!!!!
 
8/10