Directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, and Pierre Leduc — Screenplay by Matthew Fogel.
In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, brothers and New York City plumbers, Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (voiced by Charlie Day), accidentally travel through an underground pipe that takes them to another world, but on their way there, they are separated with Luigi being sent to the Dark Lands where he is soon imprisoned by the evil Bowser (voiced by Jack Black), while Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom. While trying to reunite with his brother, Mario meets Toad (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) and Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy), and they go out on an adventure together. At the same time, Bowser prepares his proposal to Princess Peach, and he is not ready to take no for an answer.
Let’s be clear about something here — The Super Mario Bros. Movie wasn’t a risk. Maybe, if you’re Nintendo, it felt like one given their tricky experience with the unique live-action adaptation from the 1990s, but it really wasn’t a risk. As long as the animators colored inside of the lines, this was always going to be a billion-dollar hit. And, frankly, that is exactly what they did. Illumination’s animated feature adaptation is safe and maybe a little bit bland. It bets on the fact that the world will welcome a decent adaptation with open arms based on the nostalgia and love that its fans have for the games.
And, well, aren’t we all fans of the Super Mario Bros. games at this point? I mean, so many of us have — to a certain extent — grown up with this franchise. Some were there from the very beginning, some joined in with Super Mario 64, and maybe you were blown away by 3D World, Galaxy, Sunshine, or Odyssey so much so that you’re excited to show your sons, daughters, nieces, or nephews Super Mario Wonder. Regardless of when you first encountered the global sensation that is Nintendo’s beloved mustachioed plumber, I would think that you probably feel like you know the franchise well enough to be able to see every single thing that this film is going to do coming.
Frankly, this film often feels like it is working under a checklist of references and easter eggs, and since the basic premise of most Mario games is that the red-hatted gentleman tries to stop Bowser after he has kidnapped Princess Peach, you know where this film is eventually headed, even though this film is at first about saving a kidnapped Luigi. To be fair, it should be said that this film does make an active attempt to create more of an active role for Peach, who is certainly capable of fighting back and taking a leadership position. But that is about the only real choice here that doesn’t feel entirely by the book. That is unless you count the incredibly distracting additional music from artists like AC/DC, The Beastie Boys, and A-ha. While I like their tracks, they have no place in a Mario movie.
Much has been said about the voice cast of the film, and I will say that while they do take some getting used to, I warmed up to most of them with Charlie Day’s Luigi and Jack Black’s Bowser working especially well for me. It should also be said that Illumination has crafted a gorgeously animated movie that is colorful and full of life and energy. While they’re either riffing on existing worlds in the games or creating them wholesale, they do a good job of nailing the exact — or at the very least an approximate — look that is completely satisfying to watch. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is safe, straightforward, maybe a little bit bland, relatively unoriginal, and it is an empty-calorie movie. But like with some empty-calorie meals or snacks, they can still be really enjoyable even if they don’t bring a lot of greatness to the table. Hopefully, the eventual sequel will build on this and actually have something to say.
6.5 out of 10
– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 