Decades have passed, but with the release of the Super Mario Bros. movie, the video game movie finally came to a happy ending. It was 1993’s Super Mario Bros. that kicked off Hollywood’s routine flirtation with video game adaptations — the same film that in many ways represents the notoriety video game movies have enjoyed ever since. In short, it’s trash—albeit also full of the imagery that makes it a quiet cult classic. Now, Nintendo has teamed up with Illumination, the studio behind the Minions, to break the curse.
Through a number of measures, super mario bros movie was successful. In the eyes of others, it’s much worse – but rest assured, anyone who says this movie is “as bad as its ’90s cousin” or even comparable is talking rubbish with hyperbole. This movie is in a different area code. The question is, is it really as good as its current counterparts? The cinematic game-changing world of 2023 is very different from the ’90s; the competition is, in fact, pretty stiff.
The choice of lighting is instructive. I think it’s a studio that doesn’t really focus on art like some other studios — certainly not in the Scorsese sense, but compared to something like Pixar, even within a kids’ space. In these stakes, I even placed them south of Dreamworks Animation. But Illumination is pretty good at making films that appeal to audiences, especially young adults, in the right way. They’re never particularly substantial, but they work. Such was the case with the Super Mario Bros. movie.
It’s a masterful storyline that keeps the running time short for the little ones and plenty of gag time for the others. It’s a familiar setup from the 1993 version, in fact – Mario and Luigi are plumbers in New York, and after ten to fifteen minutes of their hard work each day, events unfold that see them sucked into a warp pipe and spit out into fantasy The world we know from games.
It’s worth noting that even though I’m a longtime fan of Mushroom Kingdom and its adjacent worlds, and am very familiar with all of the games, this early experience is actually my favorite part of the movie. There’s a fun little slapstick comedy about a bathroom repair gone wrong, and a fair amount of descriptions of Mario, Luigi, and some of their extended family (but, before you get excited, no other familiar faces).
It’s during this time that the references flow fast and thick (Icarus Kid! An Archer! Wrecking Crew! Blast Out!), and the performances and characters get a chance to shine. I think everyone here did a great job – even Chris Pratt, who got a lot of flack after the trailer but started the movie with a really good “classic” Mario voice and then dropped it The exaggerated flair is something more palatable for the protagonist of a 92-minute feature film. I thought Jack Black’s Bowser would be the highlight of my show – he’s great – but it was the quiet brotherly chemistry between Pratt’s Mario and Charlie Day’s Luigi that impressed me the most.
Once in the Mushroom Kingdom, the adventure begins – but not much really happens. Bowser is on a rampage, and Princess Peach must seek out and ally with the Kingdom of Kong – represented by Donkey, Kranky and an estimated 1 million Kong cameos – in order to survive. Mario and Luigi end up breaking up; Mario gets stuck with Peaches, Luigi and the bad guys. The plot from all of this builds to the end is a trail of breadcrumbs — and boy, are those breadcrumbs pretty small. This might work well for younger kids, but older viewers are more likely to want more meat on those bones.
But it’s an illuminating film that, while minimalist, is always entertaining. Surprisingly, compliance with the rules of the game isn’t common in film adaptations–power-ups are one thing, and if you get hit, you lose their bonus. Sometimes this runs the risk of backfiring–as a Mario player, I’m well aware of Climax, and even hyped by it, but I think elements of it might fly over some people’s heads.
The nostalgic hose is open on full fur though – and it’s hard to argue with its effectiveness. Every frame contains references to the Mario and DK series, some more obscure than others. The glue that holds this movie together is its soundtrack – I actually think it’s one of the best of the bunch.
Kojo Kondo’s work in the Mario series is iconic, and the soundtrack by Brian Tyler (The Expendables, Iron Man 3, The Fast and the Furious series) capitalizes on it. The soundtrack often starts with a recognizable Mario theme, then quickly zigzags into more original themes before returning to another classic theme. It’s wild, it’s wild…wow, it works.
Indeed, any film would change, possibly for the worse, if its soundtrack were removed or replaced by something more mundane – imagine James Bond or Indiana Jones without the John Barry or Williams themes . But it has to be said that the Mario score is clearly transformative on another level. Dare I say, without this piece of the puzzle, the movie would have been a lot more bland, more of a cynical paint-by-numbers cash-out. The soundtrack elevates the ensemble, and the entire movie feels like a perfect tribute to the Kondo legend.
To me, a score is a bit like a crack in the paper. Compared to Mario’s storied nemesis, what excites me about the Sonic movies (and the acclaimed Detective Pikachu) is that they use some of the franchise’s iconic imagery—often in fun and slightly surprising ways. There’s nothing surprising in Mario, and nothing interesting about how its biggest icon came to be. They just show up, you are asked to recognize them, and rejoice in the memory.
By the same token, Mario’s humor is surprisingly rote and one-dimensional — which surprised me, given Illumination’s comedic chops. In both cases, one has to admit that this is a kid’s movie, obviously, but Sonic and Pokemon do show that there’s another, more measured, effective approach.
But maybe the point is that when the Mario movies did try to escape that, it started to stall. Take Reaching the King’s Kingdom, for example. Despite the fast pace of the adventure, it was apparently decided that the time between action scenes was too long at this point – so we have a laborious segment where an unnamed Kong drives Crazy Taxi style in Kong-land, and A- Ha’s “Take on Me” was a blast. It actually feels like it fell out of another movie. There are a few moments like this where the action starts to tend to be generic and your brain starts to drift.
So the result is a film that may not be as funny or brave as some of its counterparts – but is very enjoyable in its own right. For my money, the crown still sits between the Sonics and Detective Pikachu — barely a cigarette paper separates them — but Mario is just behind, not far behind. Of course, the kids would absolutely love it – and that would lead to a huge business opportunity.
Oh, and – if you’re patient enough to stick around after the credits… you might want to do this? There are two stingers – one after the main credits and the second after the full volume. If you know your Mario, it’s worth checking out.
