There is arguably no video game character more iconic than Mario. The lovable, affable Italian plumber first appeared in 1981’s Donkey Kong arcade game, with 1985’s Super Mario Bros for the NES marking his first outing as a featured namesake character. And Nintendo never looked back. If you grew up in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, or 2010s, I guarantee you’re familiar with the character. We all have a different connection to the character. I think back to playing Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64 and the Gamecube Mario Party series (Mario Kart and Mario Party still even get dusted off and played from time to time today).
With Mario’s massive, global popularity, it’s quite surprising there haven’t been more movies. In 1986, a Japanese anime movie came out, Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach. And then of course came 1993 and the infamous live action Super Mario Bros. I’ve never seen the anime and we don’t need to get into the live action debacle. Whatever the reason being for those being the only two movies (the live action abomination probably had something to do with it), the series was ripe for new one. And a new animated adventure was definitely the way to go. As we’ve seen with the Disney live action remakes, some animated subjects simply don’t translate well to live action. So The Super Mario Bros Movie is at least off to a good start. But how does it hold up from there?
The plot doesn’t get it there. While working a job, plumbing brothers Mario and Luigi are transported to an alternate world. They get separated along the way, however, with Luigi ending up in a region conquered by Bowser, while Mario finds himself in the Mushroom Kingdom. He teams up with Princess Peach, who is determined to do whatever it takes to protect her kingdom from being next on Bowser’s hit list. Bowser is on a mission to take over the world, because of…reasons. This is the part where Super Mario kept losing me.
It starts off with Bowser systematically conquering the various regions of this world, seemingly just because. Then we get some additional motivation later on (it wouldn’t be a huge spoiler, but it’s been avoided in the trailers so far, so I’ll leave it alone here). But that motivation is played for laughs, while also being played up as the main driving force behind Bowser’s quest for domination.
I’m not asking a Mario movie primarily aimed at kids to have some in-depth, intricate plot with complicated character motivations. But with the best kids movies these days also finding ways to appeal just as much to the adults in the audience, we’ve come to expect more.
With such loose plotting, Super Mario has to find other strengths to rely on, and it does so with mixed results. For starters, on the positive side, the animation is top notch. It looks beautiful and the feel and vibe from the Mario games are infused so well with the different action shots and sequences. The voice acting is always such a big part of how successful an animated movie can be. And it’s mostly okay.
No one is actively bad. But only Jack Black as Bowser is truly great. Charlie Day’s Luigi could have been great toot, but he’s not given a whole lot to do. Toad, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key is probably the surprise favorite character. Anya Taylor-Joy is fine, probably even above average as Princess Peach. That brings us to Chris Pratt as the titular Mario. This casting decision was ridiculed online. And while Pratt is far from terrible, he isn’t anything special here. He doesn’t drag the character down, but he doesn’t do anything to elevate him either. It’s not exactly what you want from your lead character.
Being a PG movie, Super Mario keeps most of its humor skewed towards its younger audience. Aside from one small character (who I won’t spoil anything about) who is the only legitimately hysterical part of the movie, there aren’t a ton of laughs for the adults. There are funny parts, sure, but I’m writing this only a couple hours after I saw the movie and I’m not sure how many jokes I could remember even so soon after seeing the movie.
By all accounts, this movie is going to be a massive hit with kids. And if that was the studio’s main objective, then they nailed it. But just like with the larger plot issue, why can’t there be room for both? The movie will definitely trade in on nostalgia with most of the older audience, but that was a given no matter what. That’s the free space on the Bingo card. Give us even just a little something more.
There are two particular things that Super Mario does well. The first is the world building. We get to see a few different regions of the Mario world, and each is given its own unique design and feel. The creative team clearly had tons of fun crafting this world, in particular the Mushroom and Jungle Kingdoms. However, even this only goes so far. There seems to have been too much of a focus spent on setting up these individual scenes and not enough effort connecting everything together.
This ties right back into the issues with the larger plot. As the story moves from one location to the next, they feel very loosely connected to each other. Even though you know there’s one cohesive story being told, it doesn’t often feel that way. Each section works fairly well as its own slice of the movie. But when you combine it all together, it feels a little rough and disconnected. It just sort of skips from one scene to the next, before culminating in a final showdown simply because it has to.
Okay, finally, the one thing I have exactly zero complaints about. In any movie like this, you can bet all the money in the world there are going to be countless references, Easter eggs, and other winks at the source material. That’s all well and good, it’s expected, it makes sense. The question over how effective it ultimately is comes down to how these moments are used. Are they woven naturally into the fabric of the story? Or are they clunkily shoved in, as if to say, “Hey, look at this! Remember this?! Isn’t it cool!”
Thankfully Super Mario nailed this part. Whether it’s a creative sequence of the classic side scrolling, the layout of the world perfectly resembling the maps of the original games, the inevitable inclusion of Mario Kart, and many others, every decision in this respect was done with such care. Nothing felt forced into the movie as a reference for the sake of having a reference. It all logically made sense. And perhaps most importantly, it was done in a fun way. It still managed to get the “Hey, look at that. I remember that, that’s so cool!” reaction, but it did so naturally.
There are hints of a much better movie here and there in Super Mario. The video game feel, fun references, and gorgeous animation will at least keep you engaged, if not the entire time, most of the time. Add in the overall silliness and goofy characters, and kids are going to be hooked. But there’s not quite enough here to make it a bona fide hit across the full audience spectrum. The barely-there plot and too-loosely connected story sequences prevent the movie from feeling like a truly singular story. It’s very much a “fine” movie. That’s not the worst complaint. Most movies are probably only “fine.” But for such an important pop culture figure, who means so much to so many, I would have hoped for – and expected – a little bit more.
Score: 67/100
