Thirty years on, Nintendo finally delivered a crowd-pleasing Super Mario Bros. movie. As a big Nintendo fan, I still can’t quite believe it exists – even seeing a photo of Shigeru Miyamoto brushing shoulders with Chris Pratt on the Hollywood red carpet this week felt like a bizarre one. Galaxies collide – yet in this day and age of Sonic the Hedgehog movie sequels and Mushroom Kingdom theme parks, it’s also weird that it’s taking this long. Next, we’ll bring Mario and his pals to the big screen in a bright and breezy 90 minutes of a full-action, condensed adventure – just like most Mario games! — though there are some tantalizing hints about character development lurking between the constant cameos and constant laughs.
Aside from those cameos, it’s nearly impossible to spoil the story of a Super Mario Bros. movie. Mario is a regular guy from New York, a good-doing plumber with a big pasta-eating family and his younger brother Luigi who he always takes care of. The movie takes longer than expected to set up Mario’s Brooklyn setting (along with a couple of nice voice cameos from original Mario voice actor Charles Martinette), but never dares to sit around for too long. Over several plumbing and platforming sequences, the film finds time to deftly acknowledge Mario’s new Chris Pratt accent (which falls on the ear quickly) and to wave the plumber’s hands in pristine white gloves. practicality. Soon, however, the two brothers end up magically sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom, separating them and setting them on two very different paths.
The rest of the movie, as you’d expect, introduces familiar faces like Princess Peach (a stern-sounding Anya Taylor-Joy), the benevolent protector of the Minion-like toad, and there’s plenty of agency here as well. Complete her own mission: save her kingdom from the invading Bowser. Joining them are Toad himself (the warm and lovely Keegan Michael-Key) and the swaggering Donkey Kong (literally Seth Rogen). Luigi (Charlie Day) has a minor role, but gets his moment to shine in the end. So far, though, the film’s real star is the typically ebullient Jack Black’s Bowser, who has plenty of screen time and a family-friendly Tenacious D-esque musical that perfectly sums up his love of power. And the ridiculously threatening ambition of expecting Peach to somehow become his bride.
A sort of love triangle between Mario, Peach, and Bowser is the basis for the film’s few real character moments, as Mario and Peach become more acquainted and have the opportunity to reflect on their personal backgrounds together. It’s somewhat frustrating, however, that any real relationship building is often interrupted by the film’s need to quickly cut into jokes for a younger audience, or feel like it’s trying to preserve a story thread for an inevitable sequel. Of course, a Mario game has never depended on his family life, and there are only the vaguest hints of Peach’s own family–except for one amusing tease, which is all we’ve got here. Yes, it would feel too weird for a Mario movie to suddenly offer some kind of canon-altering revelation, or a wall-breaking “we’ve always been Mario”-esque akin to The Lego Movie. But for most of the movie, the characters do talk and interact in a different way than most Mario games, and it’s a shame that very little of substance is actually said.
Still, the Super Mario Bros. movie was ultimately a success. What moments we have with Mario and Luigi, who are both brothers and part of their initially stern family, ultimately serve up a predictable, if equally exciting ending, and an entertaining third act , which largely hasn’t seen trailers and sneak peeks yet. Thanks to the technological wizardry of Despicable Me creator Illumination, Mushroom Kingdom has truly never looked better, or sounded better thanks to legendary composer Koji Kondo’s gorgeous orchestral re-enactment of 30 years of Mario video game history. While the plot may be thin, the laughs are fairly consistent, and there are several brilliant twists in secondary characters, such as Bowser’s masochistic sidekick, Kamek, and the boyish Lumalee’s outbursts of dark humor.
If you’ve played any Mario games in the past 30 years (especially Mario Kart), you’ll feel the familiar warm glow from the movies’ never-ending nods, references, and Easter eggs to Nintendo lore — But crucially, no prior knowledge is necessary to understand what’s happening on the screen. For the most part, I was surprised how much of it was transferred as-is, including some intelligent side-scrolling action sequences and explosive journeys down rainbow paths, as well as some of the more difficult-to-translate elements of Mario gameplay, such as Power ups, which are basically accurate to their in-game selves.
It’s been over five years since Nintendo announced an initial partnership with Universal to recreate elements of the Mario franchise in its theme parks around the world. While I haven’t been to Universal Studios Japan or Hollywood yet, watching a Super Mario Bros. movie felt a bit like I was there for an hour or so. It’s no coincidence that some parts of the movie’s Mushroom Kingdom look identical to the ones you can travel and wander around in real life right now, the film’s second act takes place primarily in Kong’s Kingdom, and the next one is about to open Theme park area Japan in 2024. Yes, I left the movie ready to leave the gray streets of London and jump back into the Mushroom Kingdom myself in the form of a video game. The Super Mario Bros. movie was a giant advertisement for the Nintendo mascot and the company’s games, and a safe first step for subsequent sequels and spinoffs.
We’ve come a long way from Bowser’s brief cameo in Wreck-It Ralph, when Nintendo famously provided notes for Disney animators to show Bowser the correct way to hold a teacup. Illuminating this world’s version, made with Miyamoto’s own hands, certainly allows for more freedom—though, perhaps unusually for Miyamoto, he steadfastly refuses to knock over the coffee table itself. Perhaps Nintendo’s caution is understandable, considering the last time Mario appeared on movie screens. Thirty years later, the film emerges as part of the Mario era, though the Nintendo mascot is as entertaining as ever.
