[4.7/10] The Super Mario Bros. Movie may be the least adventurous film I’ve ever seen. It isn’t bad, per se. But it is utterly generic and painfully, mind-numbingly safe. It exists to arrange a bevy of familiar Mario elements into something vaguely resembling a story, spackle in some off-the-shelf heroics, and then hope to bathe the audience in enough fanservice that no one will realize this whole endeavor is creatively bankrupt.
Well, it worked. At the halfway mark, it’s the most financially successful film of 2023, and has set all manner of box office records. So damn us all, I guess.
It’s a shame because that sort of performance doesn’t just mean we’re destined to get sequels and spin-offs of this until the heat death of the universe. (See also: Mario’s Illumination stablemates, the Minions.) But it also means we’ll see a flood of more films like this one: unimaginative, deep as a thimble, and content to ply the viewer with little more than what they already know and like.
I want to be charitable here. Like the vast majority of red-blooded young men of the last forty years, I grew up on Mario in all his forms: from 8-bit sprites to HD juggernauts to colorful typing instructors. Generously, you could excuse The Super Mario Bros. movie as a film for very young children, full of color and light and spectacle to keep their attention, without anything meant to challenge them or go above their heads. As a shiny diversion that is all frosting and no cake, the movie is fine -- perfectly suitable to entertain a moppet for ninety minutes or so.
The problem is that kids’ movies, even ones fit for very young children, don’t have to be this devoid of genuine creativity. The classic eras of Disney, the high points of Pixar, and the best outings from Dreamworks all matched stunning artistic achievement with unassuming depth, creating profound works that were nonetheless accessible to younger audiences. The Super Mario Bros. movie has none of the same ambition; instead resigning itself to moving recognizable cartoon action figures around a series of familiar playsets for an hour and a half and then calling it a day.
The best and worst part of the movie is its sheer volume of pandering fanservice. Almost every recognizable element of the Mario universe -- the main characters, the allies, the baddies, the setting, the power-ups, the songs, the races, the platforming, the moves, the musical stings, the catchphrases -- is packed into the film’s runtime. There is next to nothing original here. Just an assemblage of recognizable pieces awkwardly strung together at a quick enough pace so the audience doesn’t have to go more than thirty seconds without being able to say, “Hey, I remember that thing!”
It is the polar opposite of the much-maligned live action Mario film from 1993. (Despite borrowing the earlier movie’s “Two Italian plumbers from Brooklyn get inadvertently transported to the world of the games” premise.) Whereas that film departed from the source material in ways that were both bold and utterly baffling, its modern day counterpart is a cinematic glass of warm milk served in the same glass fans have been drinking from since 1981. Instead of moving away from the look, feel, or components of the video games even in a little bit, The Super Mario Bros. Movie plays it embarrassingly safe, reassuring fans that everything they like and recognize from the various Nintendo Entertainment Systems is here and faithfully recreated, no matter how uninspired the ultimate rendering may be.
Some of that might be forgivable is the parts of the movie that are, well, a movie weren’t so excruciatingly generic. Mario himself is a standard-issue hero guy. Peach is a stock action girl. Donkey Kong is the usual semi-friendly rival. The shopworn “save the world” plot is buttressed by nothing but a heap of feeble fetch quests. The celebrity voice-casting is almost uniformly uninspired. Their performances range from tonally miscalibrated and god-awful. And every character is paper thin. There is no story beat too hackneyed, no joke too tepid, no needle drop too played out,, and no moment too shallow to warrant anything but immediate conclusion in this bland, big screen ricecake.
The movie is not without some charms. Jack Black elevates the material, as usual, bringing a Dr. Evil-esque mix of bluster and harmlessness in his role as Bowser. His dynamic with his poor underling is stock but amusing. The nihilistic Luma is the movie’s most peculiar inclusion, but also its funniest. The writers and animators do find some mildly clever excuses to shoehorn Mario’s platforming prowess from the games into the film. And visually, there’s a bit of panache in Mario and DK’s speedy pursuit, a confrontation with a giant-sized Bullet Bill, and the final superstar showdown between the Mario Bros. and Bowser.
Aside from those uptempo moments there, The Super Mario Bros. movie is, at best, nothing to write home about from a visual standpoint. The film’s stylists want to retain the cartoony look of the original characters, but have them move and emote in realistic ways, which lends the film an odd uncanniness the whole way through. The character and world designs are almost exclusively gussied up versions of the ones from the games. And the attempt to blend real world textures with an exaggerated world comes off mismatched.
The writing is no better. If you squint, you can make out the faintest of arcs in Mario and DK impressing their dads, Luigi discovering his courage, and the titular siblings finding strength in working together. But the plot progression and character beats are as threadbare as anything else in the movie. By and large, the narrative here is a mere skeleton to hang Mario references onto, which I guess means it serves its purpose.
That’s the best you can say for The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It is a gentle, unchallenging, spectacle-and-nostalgia delivery mechanism more than it’s an actual film. In an era when fans have revolted when franchises dare to take chances, to depart from expectations, to offer genuine surprises and have the temerity to move things forward; this movie is composed of nothing but simple, easily-digestible pablum that asks absolutely nothing of its audience and barely asks anything more from its creators.
In that, it succeeded. Rather than give myself over to existential rhapsodies like the film’s Luma, I don’t want to gaze up at Lakitu and declare that the sky is falling. One need only look at the runaway success of Across the Spider-Verse to have hope that there’s still room for gorgeous, inventive, and above all ambitious animated films at the multiplex. But The Super Mario Bros. movie is still a sad reminder that, with the right name and iconography in tow, a movie doesn’t have to be creative, or even good, to enjoy beaucoup success at the cinema.
7.5/10
I honestly went into this with cautious expectations, also because I am not a Mario fan - I don’t think the games are awful, but they never hooked me either. But surprisingly this ended up being pretty enjoyable.
To address the flaws, the plot is a bit weird. And I can forgive most of it because it’s generally a goofy movie centered in a world which is full of video-game-like antics and mechanics, but sometimes it gets a bit too weird. For example the ending, where the whole town all of sudden starts to congratulate Mario even though the whole town is ruined and they probably didn’t even get enough time to process why a giant turtle rock has crashed half of the city. And that may sound nitpicky but it threw me out of the immersion a little bit. The movie also needs some time to get going, and I think I started to enjoy myself more when Peach appeared and we got some fun character dynamics.
The character cast in general is mostly pretty charming. Peach kicked ass, Donkey Kong is fun, and Mario also grew on me over the course of the movie. Others like Luigi are kinda bland but they serve their role in the plot pretty well. The comedy also was fun enough, it didn’t make me laugh but I enjoyed the antics and it kept me invested in the narrative. Highlights probably would be Bowser’s song (I did NOT expect him doing that) or the gloomy blue star. The scene after the “end” was funny.
So yeah, overall, this movie is good. It made me like the characters, it was pretty fun throughout, and the polish overall was good as well. Nothing special, but luckily not boring either, and I can see why Mario fans can enjoy this movie even more than I do.
I'm probably not part of the target audience for this movie. My last Nintendo console was the Game Boy Color, so I wouldn't call myself a big fan of the series. Nevertheless, I definitely had some fun with "The Super Mario Bros. Movie". There is no time for boredom because the pacing is extremely fast. Furthermore, the animation style is consistently of high quality, and the voice actors are terrific. There is no complete failure in the cast; the performances range from solid (Chris Pratt, Seth Rogen) to good (Anya Taylor-Joy, Keegan-Michael Key) to perfectly cast (Jack Black, Charlie Day).
On the negative side, however, the film doesn't offer a single surprise. Illumination plays it safe with every decision; risks are completely avoided. Thus, the result is a film that is exactly what one could have expected in advance. The story is thin, the ambition low. Unlike many other animated films, there is only one layer to "Super Mario", and that is that the film must definitely work for even the youngest children. As an adult who isn't swept away by fan service (which there really is plenty of), you're on your own a bit.
Overall, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is thoroughly entertaining. However, I doubt I'll ever watch the film again. For my tastes, the story could have been a little more creative.
Just got back from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, 'twas a FUNtastic family film, lots of neat Easter eggs for life-long fans of the old-school (like myself)! :spades: Having Jack Black cast as Bowser is probably one of the best things about this because character-wise they match so well (along the rock music which made me think of his band Tenacious D and School of Rock). Charles Martinet voiced a couple of side characters as well; sharp listeners will know whom :wink:. I always thought that if they could make an original animated film like Wreck-It Ralph, imagine if there would be a new Mario movie in similar fashion; well finally this would be it. This time, Illumination with Nintendo's involvement, it's done just right. I grew up with the games, the Super Show animated series (along with Captain N and Legend of Zelda), as well as the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. movie, so having the Mario Rap at the beginning couldn't have been more perfect. This 2023 reboot is more in line with the 1986 Japanese animated film, Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach but done in modern 3D-CG style. The pacing is a bit on the quick side, but I think it works well to keep the audience, especially the younger ones, more attentive, as there's always something happening, with a couple of resting points here and there. The music cues were on point, and I think original games' composer Koji Kondo must be proud to hear each of the classic melodies orchestrated as each character and areas are introduced on screen. There are some licensed classic 80s pop/rock songs thrown in too for general fun (The Beastie Boys, A-HA, Bonnie Tyler). Story-wise, it's as simple as one would expect where the hero(es) fights the villain, resulting in a satisfying ending much like recent video game related films such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. NES era references can be spotted like Kid Icarus, Punch-Out!!, Wrecking Crew, Pauline (from Donkey Kong), Duck Hunt, Ice Climbers, as well as the Arwing from (Star Fox), Luigi's ringtone is the GameCube intro, DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64, Super Mario Bros. 3/World/64/Sunshine/Galaxy/Odyssey, and of course the Mario Kart series. There were even some older Nintendo references in there like the Nintendo Playing Cards Spade logo on one of the buildings, "Help Me, Jump Man", and a "Disk-kun" on one of the shops which is a reference to the Famicom Disk System. There's also a mid-credits and a little something at the end of the credits, so stick around for those. :egg::star:
Which features of the Mario franchise do we want? Definitely #1 must have the plot of the live action Mario Brothers movie, that these are two human plumbers in New York who get sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom. That's the most beloved part of Mario lore. It never ever appears in any of the games, but must be central to the story.
Okay, also they need to recruit Mario to defeat Bowser. Why? He can run and jump and use power-ups. Now, Princess Peach is already in the Mushroom Kingdom and is royalty and can use power-ups, and, since she was a child, has been smarter and better than Mario and Luigi at running and jumping and everything. She'll continually make fun of how small and incapable Mario is. If the roles were reversed and he made fun of her, it'd be a travesty, more than problematic, but since she's making fun of him, it's hilarious! Why didn't she defeat Bowser years ago since she's so amazing? Because it's called the Mario Brothers movie, silly!
Right, and let's see... Donkey Kong and the other Kongs. Of all the Mario games, Donkey Kong is only in exactly one. Also, the creator of Mario has stated publicly that he doesn't like Donkey Kong Country games or lore, so they're definitely gonna be core to the story. See, the humans have to try to recruit all the Kongs to their side. Kongs won't actually do anything useful, but we'll dedicate at least a quarter of the movie to this pointless side quest.
Remember the pod racing in Star Wars? Or Motorball in Alita? Remember how they made you feel invested in the action, like you were there? We're doing Mario Kart the opposite way. There will be so much going on, karts, characters, objects flying everywhere that you won't be able to keep track of or feel stakes about anything. We'll just throw one 3 second scene at the audience after another so even though none are compelling, the fans won't have time to care. You know, TikTok style.
As for Bowser, his character, motivation, everything will be pretty much perfect. If you know Bowser, this is the Bowser you want to see. And we'll spare no expense on animation and set dressing. This movie will look incredible. Colors, compositions, layouts, characters, props, everything will look better than you dreamed they could.
That's it! A movie so pretty and fast paced, nobody will notice it isn't very "Mario" or particularly good.
Gosh i thoroughly enjoyed this one, it was a fun ride all the way to the end. I love how they threw in mario kart and made it work. I mean I've played many mario games, im not a major fan but it was just so well done it made me felt like i haven't watched one good movie that made me feel this way for a longggg time. I would definitely watch it again.
The few things that i thought was bad was:
1. the fact that Mario's dad thought he was a joke all this time and when he became the hero then the dad was like 'he's my son'. Feels like he was just chiming in for the fame, that one didn't sit too well with me.
I'd definitely like to see some Luigi's haunted mansion being featured next time too. There's so many things they can do for the next movie, I'm excited!
Full Review: www.jake-s-entertainment-reviews.com/movies-and-televison/shrek-2-200kjkk
Let me make it clear and say that "The Super Mario Bros Movie" is far from a perfect movie. Its not a movie meant to challenge you or leave you something deeper to think about by the time you stop watching the film. It's a film that is meant for audiences to have as much fun as possible while reminding fans of Super Mario why they fell in love with the video games in the first place. This is not a game changer for Illumination, but it is the most fun I’ve had with an Illumination film since Despicable Me 2. Given their track record before this movie came out surly is saying a lot cause most of their films beforehand haven’t been awful, they just have been disappointing. The story is still pretty basic, but the likable characters matched by their talented cast and beautiful animation with the occasional expertly orchestrated music track make this movie a dream come true for Mario fans just like myself. I frankly didn’t care that this film was just “Mario references the movie,” This is honestly what video game adaptations strive to be and Nintendo made a right enough call to give Illumination a shot to bring Super Mario to life.
(Final Grade: B)
A half star more because I begrudgingly concede it gets the job done with kids- the cousin I watched it with enjoyed it well enough- but beyond that it’s so vapid and shallow. Does it look ‘good’? Technically, sure. But the house style of Illumination is artistic competence and technological shininess. There’s no room for artistry and passion in it, not helped by Nintendo’s own Mario style being pretty edgeless these days. The same extends to the story and characters. Mario wins one fight, thanks to a power up that does the fighting for him, and now he’s the hero over Peach, who’s hyper competent to subvert old cliches and serve new ones but nonetheless Mario must save the day instead. Pratt basically plays Emmett again but at least in the Lego Movie there was some reason it had to be him, or at least they thought it had to be. Here the only reason is he’s Mario, and without that Martinet charm.
Day is fine, better than Pratt. Jack Black and KMR make the rest of the cast look bad with the energy they bring, especially with KMR’s decades of experience. They’re the best part, with Bowser getting to be both amusing and intimidating, the piano scene being a standout.
The rest of the music outside of Peaches are obnoxious needle drops or, like the rest of the movie, full of references to the source material that never allows this movie to exist on its own. The blue mushroom! The cat one! Karts! It’s exhausting. It’s nothing outside of tingling the part of your brain that knows the game. But kids like it, I guess, so. One and a half stars.
In an appropriately timely role-swap, Mario and Princess Peach team up to save Luigi from the clutches of evil, with assists from Toad, Donkey Kong and a whole army of bit players. It’s all in the name of fan service, no two ways about it, and in that respect the long-awaited Mario movie is a smash hit. When it’s punching blocks, donning furry costumes and leaping great expanses, this is everything a Nintendo fanboy could ever ask for. The world bursts with color, life and excitement; a perfect mesh of the game’s shiny-happy cartoon aesthetic and Illumination’s similarly joyful, plucky brand of stylized CG. A match made in heaven that effectively captures and expands the spirit (and high-risk thrills) of the game’s world without making any creative sacrifices. Honestly, in this age of constant, needless reinvention, it’s comforting to see an adaptation stay so true to its roots.
As for the story? Well... that also remains true. There isn’t all that much hidden depth here; someone important has been kidnapped and the heroes race past all manner of Easter egg and window dressing on the road to rescue. Once the novelty dries out, when visual interest usually gives way to plot or character moments, the film struggles to find a hook. It’s about forty minutes of sugar buzz, extended to fill ninety minutes of screen time. Fun while it lasts, and probably more than enough to please younger audiences, but parents should be prepared to do a bit of watch-glancing on the home stretch.
"Let's-a go."
Let's be up front, the story is a bit bland and so by the numbers and it is very much aimed to entertain the kids and have the parents or grown ups be drowned in nostalgia and for me that works.
I grew up with the Mario games, all the Donkey Kong games. So I got soo much out of those references. From F-Zero to Kid Icarus to Duck Hunt, the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64, Dixie and Kiddy Kong along side Diddy, All the little sound bites. We even got the damn Super Mario Brothers Super Show intro song! Which was epic! Bowser wearing his Mario Odyssey suits, Pauline being the major of New York City, Lumalee, the true star of the show! The tune Bowser plays on his piano, all of the Yoshis! Charles Martinet!!! Sliding down the flagpole at the end of a level. Some classic stages making appearances! I'm down for more nostalgia down the line in a sequel that probably will come our way someday.
Jack Black was by far the most fun in his role as Bowser followed by Keegan-Michael Key as Toad. All in all I didn't got annoyed by anyone so that was alright and made the nostalgia more fun.
So you can watch this with your kids and I bet they have fun or just drown yourself in your Mario/Donkey Kong fandom and enjoy all the nostalgia!
This may be the first time I've ever said this, but: The critics were right. This was an aggressively mediocre movie entirely carried by colorful visuals and "I get that reference" moments lathered on so thick that it seems a lot of people didn't care they were covering for a complete lack of interesting plot. Video game movies should offer Easter eggs for fans of the franchise but still easily stand on their own for the general audience, and this movie utterly failed in that regard.
The plot is very basic and quickly rushed through. It introduces our heroes Mario and Peach, introduces the villain Bowser, and then gives us just one "side quest" to get us from point A to point B which is simply to acquire Donkey Kong's help which requires little more than beating him in a fight. There's also a kart racing sequence along the way but that's the only other notable part.
Even my kids didn't really like it and I don't blame them, not when they've seen much better movies like The Incredibles or The Lego Movie, both of which have similar plot structures but pack easily 3-5x as much story into the same runtime. More isn't always better but this movie certainly couldn't have hurt to have several more side quests in which more kingdoms were recruited. I'm sure they're saving their limited IP to make as many of these soulless cash-grab movies as possible now though in the upcoming decade now that they've hit big box office numbers.
TL;DR There's simply nothing inherently funny about a character screaming "blue shell!" unless you've played Mario Kart. There's nothing funny about Mario saying "it's a meee!" over and over unless you know it's his catchphrase. There were some genuinely funny moments in the movie but they were few in number and drowned out by referential humor.
Sugar rush pumped on nostalgia!
As someone who's never owned a Nintendo and only played Mario maybe twice in his life I felt left out a lot watching this. I was in a packed theater and everyone was laughing at the supposed inside jokes and Easter eggs. All I could see was a mildly entertaining movie written for little kids and their nostalgic parents. I laughed a few times when it was comedy not intended as nostalgia. The characters are very simplistic and have no layers (just like the story) but I guess for most people it's the characters skin suit that's nostalgically appealing. Donkey Kong and the suicidal blue star were my favorite characters. I will say the Donkey Kong fight was the peak for me, it was pretty good. The constant 80s music needle drops was a really cheap way to play on the nostalgia, of course people are going to cheer if you play their favorite song - I just think that was a really cheap way to do it when you're already doing great in the visual nostalgia department, why add the obvious music? Beautiful animation obviously and kids were going insane in the theater so that's a win I guess. I have no idea what the voice acting sounded like sinse my local cinema doesn't have the movie in english. So yeah, nostalgia nostalgia and more nostalgia so I believe the enjoyment will come from that. Take away the nostalgia and what's left is a regular mildly entertaining animation blockbuster.
Review by JordyVIP 8BlockedParent2023-04-06T14:29:06Z— updated 2023-04-10T20:16:43Z
If last year's Top Gun Maverick gave everyone the slightest bit of hope in regards to films that click with the general audience and blow up at the box office, this is the kind of film that'll make any self-respecting film fan lose all hope. Here's the deal: kids will pretty much like this by default, adults who are looking for validation of their childhood obsession will like it, and people who show up to see an actual movie won't. It's pretty much the blandest, calculated, do-nothing film they could've made out of this material. The animation is devoid of style and looks like it was originally rendered for a Dreamworks project back in 2008, the voice acting is mostly ass, it triggers the nostalgia & reference button way too often, the story & characters are watered down to a point where they're almost non-existent, it's not funny and its boomer rock soundtrack choices make absolutely no sense. It's irredeemable trash, like every product that rolls of the Illumination Entertainment conveyor belt. Nevertheless, I'm willing to bet that due to the large fanbase of the IP, this will be one of those films where in the short term some of the discourse will insist that "some people/critics don't know how to have fun" or "it's made for the fans" (only for those same people to deny ever liking it in the long haul, of course). Here’s hoping Illumination doesn’t listen to those voices in the same way that DC did after the release of Suicide Squad. This is not a foundation to build a franchise on.
2.5/10