Released: 1st April
Seen: 20th July
In 2023, Mario and Luigi made their grand transition from the world of video games to the world of animated films. The Super Mario Bros. Movie came out to massive fanfare, becoming the second-highest-grossing film worldwide of 2023 (just behind Barbie) and it basically proved that you could take this 40-year-old game series and make a film out of it that wasn’t an instant joke. The delightful bright coloured world of the Mushroom Kingdom was so enjoyable and inviting that it really shouldn’t have shocked anyone that it would go on to make over a billion dollars and, once it made that billion, it shouldn’t have been a shock that a sequel would be announced. Now we have The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and while it might not be as delightful as the film that came before it, it’s still a lot of fun.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie continued the adventures of Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) in the Mushroom Kingdom. This big adventure starts when Bowser Jr (Benny Safdie) kidnaps Princess Peach’s sister Rosalina (Brie Larson) in order to use her lifeforce to power a special weapon he can use to take over the earth. Bowser Jr also wants to rescue his father, Bowser (Jack Black) who is kept in miniature form after his defeat in the last movie. Since this puts a lot of people in danger, naturally the two people who have to go stop him are Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), though Mario and Luigi will eventually tag along at some point and even bring their new friend Yoshi (Donald Glover) with them.
Much like the first movie, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is pretty much review proof in that it’s kind of doing everything you would expect/hope a film based on this property would do with enough basic competence that it’s going to appeal perfectly to its intended audience. Did you like the other animated Super Mario movie? Great, you’ll probably like this one too. There are some minor quality differences but in general it ticks enough of the boxes that you can pretty much guarantee that the audience are going to enjoy this about as much as they liked the last one. It’s just as bright and colourful as the last one, the designs for all the characters are just as adorable as the last one (with the notable exception of the dinosaur but that’s pretty much just directly lifted from its appearance in Super Mario Odyssey) and a lot of the jokes are just as on the nose as the last one. They found a formula that works, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Part of the formula that worked in the films favour the first time was how it cleverly slipped in references to other games in the franchise, little nods that keen eyed fans could point to like they were Captain America saying “I understood that reference”… and that’s where the big flaw of this movie is, because here the references aren’t subtle little nods so much as they are a flashing neon sign that screams “THIS IS A REFERENCE!”. Every few seconds another pointless obvious nod to either an obscure Mario entry (really great job reminding me of the crying baby Mario from Yoshi’s Island, really needed that) or some random piece of Nintendo nostalgia that didn’t matter at all to the plot (Pikmin? Pikmin in a Mario movie?). Some of these were funny, the Rob the Robot bit was cute and I enjoyed the addition of Starfox (Glen Powell) as much as anyone but some of these moments felt less like clever nods and more like a vain attempt to keep smashing the nostalgia button in the back of my head and after a while, it gets annoying.
It’s particularly annoying when it feels like the referential moments come at the expense of the story. It’s a simple story of Peach and Toad trying to save Rosalina while Mario and Luigi eventually tag along (very weird they keep breaking them all up by the way, just have all 4 characters team up from the start!) but that story keeps being shortchanged so we can have these random references thrown in our face instead of dealing with, say, Peach’s backstory of being abandoned by Rosalina or more Bowser/Bowser Jr time. No, we can’t have that because we have to watch Baby Mario and Baby Luigi piss off a dinosaur for several minutes and that kind of kills some of the momentum. Sure, the film is very good at making these references; you can tell the filmmakers did their homework but there’s undoubtedly going to be another four of these freaking films so maybe spread the nostalgia moments out so they don’t overwhelm everything here.
When things are actually focused on the story and the characters being the charming creations we know and love, it can actually be quite fun. Seeing Peach being the biggest badass of them all is just glorious fun, seeing her kick the asses of some mob bosses is amusing no matter what. Toad is as funny as ever, used a lot less than I’d like, but still funny. Even Bowser has an interesting arc, or at least most of one. It lets him be more than just the obvious villain for most of the film, he actually has a few interesting character beats that elevate him beyond just a one-note villain (and, in the biggest surprise, they don’t make Jack Black sing a random song for no reason in this film which is the first time that’s happened in a LONG time). Oddly, the two characters with the least to really do are Mario and Luigi, it’s almost like the film forgets about them for a while before manufacturing a reason to have them quickly catch up with Peach and Toad.
Most of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie just kind of goes along the expected route for one of these films where people go on a quest and, despite the occasional reference jokes overtaking the actual plot, it does a good enough job most of the time. The big action scenes are quite fun, there’s some very colourful imagery, a couple of genuinely funny jokes and some badass moments. Really it’s all going well up until the end which feels like they ran out of steam. Instead of going out on an emotional high or a particularly funny joke, it just kind of fumbles around until someone remembers that the film has to stop and they roll the credits. Maybe I’m just an old cynic but the ending should make me have some kind of emotional reaction, not go “oh, is that it?”
Look, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie isn’t bad, but it’s nowhere near as good as the first movie. It’s a film that does just enough to get by and focuses too much on pandering to its target audience instead of telling a good story. It’s still clearly made with a lot of love from the people behind it who want to show off their enjoyment of this property but much like a conversation with someone who wants to tell you every single minute detail about their hobby, it gets exhausting after a while. It’s fine enough, but boy I hope they actually focus a little better next time so we don’t have to start looking for references to Mario’s Time Machine.
Movie Meister Reviews 