Certificate: PG (mild violence, threat).
Running Time: 92 mins.
UK Distributor: Universal
WHO’S IN THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE?
Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalo, Kevin Michael Richardson, Charles Martinet, Khary Payton, Eric Bauza
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (directors), Matthew Fogel (writer), Christopher Meledandri and Shigeru Miyamoto (producers), Brian Tyler (composer), Eric Osmond (editor)
WHAT IS THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE ABOUT?
Mario (Pratt) ventures to the Mushroom Kingdom to save his brother Luigi (Day)…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE?
From his humble beginnings in adventures on video arcade machines or on the NES, to going 3D for the first time on the N64, to the numerous spin-off games that you can now leisurely play on the Switch, Mario has become a monumental part of our entertainment culture over the last forty years. Instantly recognisable with his red-and-blue suit, flamboyant moustache and inexplicable Italian accent, Mario’s legacy as one of the most beloved video game characters of all time is absolute, because the games that he features in are almost never bogged down by plot (in fact, some of them don’t have a plot at all), nor are they bound to any real sense of logic. Instead, they are simple, playful, and above all fun – if a Mario property isn’t at least one of those three things, then it won’t have fulfilled its purpose.
That is why I am pleased to say that The Super Mario Bros. Movie – the first animated feature to depict Mario’s adventures, and the second overall film after the much-maligned 1993 live-action flop – is all three of those things, and then some. An energetic, hyperactive and straightforward love letter to the Mario lore, this is a goldmine for long-term fans of the franchise, and a light-hearted adventure that families will go nuts over.
The film introduces brothers Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) as Brooklyn-based plumbers struggling to get their business up and running. They soon discover an enlarged pipe deep in the sewers that transports them to another dimension, where they are unfortunately separated; Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, where he meets its ruler Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and the many mushroom-headed civilians, including Toad (Keegan-Michael Key); while Luigi is thrust into a much more sinister kingdom ruled by Bowser (Jack Black), the monstrous reptilian foe who has his eyes set on making Peach his wife. To save Luigi from Bowser’s grasp, Mario sets out with Peach and Toad on an adventure to team with a neighbouring tribe of apes, including their fierce fighter Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen), and stop Bowser before he takes over the Mushroom Kingdom.
The way I see it, there is one true way to critique The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and that’s to determine how it honours those three main attributes for any Mario property; its simplicity, its playfulness, and its overall sense of fun. That’s how I judge any and all Mario games, and it’s going to be how I go about explaining why this movie is ultimately successful at what it does.
First of all, let’s discuss its simplicity, and how it seems to be really diving a lot of other critics. Many seem to be complaining that the plot of this movie is as thin as an 8-bit pixel, and while that may technically be true, the same thing can also be said about practically every Mario game ever. Very few of them, if any at all, are driven by the story, and when they do it can almost always be summed up in five words: plumber saves princess from monster (admittedly, I am skipping over a few details, but that really is the gist of it). Other than that, it’s all about making your way through the creative and eye-popping worlds, which this movie replicates with some gorgeous animation that remains faithful to the classic video game designs while also expanding certain aspects that feel meticulously crafted.
This also applies the characters, who again were never majorly fleshed out in the games, but were also simply defined and likeable enough to make the player want to see them succeed (especially when they’re playing as them). It’s the same here, as you do get enough of Mario and Luigi’s personalities to enjoy spending time with them, while you’re equally won over by supporting characters like Peach, Donkey Kong, and even Bowser who has some genuinely funny moments in addition to being surprisingly intimidating. They may not be three-dimensional characters from a conceptual perspective, but you do like them, enough to want to play around in this imaginative world with them.
This leads into how playful the film is with the Mario legacy, squeezing countless references to games, music cues, television shows, and more into the background, foreground, and behind practically every corner. You can spot familiar creatures like Goombas and Piranha Plants wandering about, slightly more obscure characters such as Diddy Kong and Foreman Spike make brief appearances, aspects like Rainbow Road from the Mario Kart series serve as the backdrop for some vivid and lively sequences, and Brian Tyler’s score is filled with epic orchestral versions of numerous sound effects and themes from the games.
It’s clear that the filmmakers, from the directors to the writers to the animators, are greatly versed in all things Mario, and they show it relentlessly through these non-stop Easter eggs which occasionally threaten to become an overload of call-backs, stuffed within the fast-paced ninety-minute runtime. Nonetheless, it’s enough to make anyone’s inner Mario fan yelp with glee, while also entertaining nearly anyone who isn’t quite as well-versed in the games.
But the most important attribute is whether or not it’s actually any fun, and if there’s one thing that The Super Mario Bros. Movie gets absolutely right, it’s the fact that it’s fun. From the start, all the way to the very end, the film revels in being as joyful, optimistic, and adventurous as it possibly can, allowing the viewer glimpses of this stunningly rendered world while also finding ways to make the overall experience fill you with enough adrenalin to get you through the rest of the day.
Even when the film doesn’t completely work (some of the soundtrack choices are a little random, like a-ha’s “Take On Me” during a trek around Donkey Kong’s kingdom), there’s still this great sense of energy that one gets from playing the games, making it one of the rare video game adaptations that allows you to enjoy watching it as much as you would actually playing it.
As far as I’m concerned, The Super Mario Bros. Movie meets all three of those essential criteria for any Mario-related project. It’s simple without getting too caught up in itself, it’s playful in how it honours the Mario legacy with references clearly done by people who actually like the franchise, and most of all it offers a genuinely fun experience for everyone, from the gorgeous visuals to the likeable characters to the grand potential for a brand-new Nintendo cinematic universe, which unlike past franchise kick-starters like The Mummy and SCOOB!, both of which blew up before lift-off, feels the closest since Marvel to feel like it could expand to multiple films while still feeling like a perfectly good standalone.
Ultimately, I’m just relieved that Mario finally has a film version he can be proud of, one that embodies everything he’s stood for over the last four decades: simplicity, playfulness, and above all a lovable sense of fun.
SO, TO SUM UP…
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a hugely enjoyable love letter to the legacy of the iconic video game franchise, which embodies the simplicity, playfulness and lovable sense of fun that the games have made so memorable over the years.
