Video game-related projects are having a moment.
The year’s first buzz-worthy TV show was HBO’s excellent first season of the drama series “The Last of Us,” based on the Sony PlayStation hit.
Last week brought us the Apple TV+ film “Tetris,” not an adaptation of the enduring puzzle game — thankfully — but instead a dramatization of the wild race decades ago to secure rights to the Soviet Union-controlled property.
And now comes “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” a shiny-and-colorful computer-animated adventure based on the world of Nintendo’s “Super Mario” games.
Fast-paced and entertaining, if also lacking any real emotional substance, it works best as an homage to the games, starting with 1981’s “Donkey Kong,” moving through all the “Super Mario Bros.” titles that came after it on various Nintendo consoles and racing into the era of all the “Mario Kart” fun.
After introducing us to the big-and-bad Bowser (Jack Black, “Kung Fu Panda”) — a turtle and king of the Koopas, who efficiently turns a snow-covered kingdom into the lava-filled Dark Lands — “Mario” shifts to Brooklyn, New York, where brothers Mario (Chris Pratt, “The Lego Movie”) and Luigi (Charlie Day, “Horrible Bosses”) have just debuted the commercial for their new plumbing business. (They really ham up the Italian accents in the ad, a la “It’s-a me, Mario,” clearly as a way to acknowledge this part of the franchise’s past.)
Soon, they’re off to a job, directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic creating a sequence inspired by side-scrolling games such as the early “Mario” entries. It’s well done.
After Mario and Luigi are sucked into a pipe and set to the magical realm now endangered by Bowser, the myriad nods to the games continue as things become three-dimensional.
The brothers are separated, with the not-as-brave-as-his-brother Luigi finding himself in the Dark Lands and Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom. (Hey, this is no pleasure cruise for him, either; like any sensible person, Mario finds mushrooms disgusting.)
With the help of new buddy Toad (Keegan-Michael Key, “The Lion King”), Mario gains an audience with the benevolent Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy, “The Queen’s Gambit”), who fears her peaceful land soon will be invaded by Bowser and his forces. The two team up to rescue Luigi and stop Bowser, Peach putting Mario through a bit of training and teaching him about power-ups that can help him be a magically enhanced version of himself before they venture forward.
The adventure that follows also brings into the zany fold the titular figure from “Donkey Kong” (Seth Rogen, “The Lion King”), a big gorilla who doesn’t exactly hit it off with Mario.
Horvath and Michael, a tandem best known for the “Teen Titans Go!” animated series, work from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel, whose credits include last year’s solid “Minions: The Rise of Gru.” Like that movie and the entire “Despicable Me” franchise, “Mario” is made by animation studio Illumination, this time in collaboration with Nintendo.
As with the “Despicable Me," “Minions" and Illumination’s “The Secret Life of Pets” flicks, “Mario” is interested in showing you a good time and not in giving you a case of the feels. Unlike with, say, the best efforts from Disney-owned Pixar Animation studios, “Mario” isn’t likely to have you reaching for a tissue.
And as the directors suggest, there is a message about the value of perseverance — Mario is NOT a quitter — but it’s little more than a bit of seasoning.
While Pratt’s reasonably entertaining Mario is the star of the show — and has some enjoyable interactions with Rogen’s Kong — the filmmakers get a lot of comedic mileage from Black’s Bowser, especially after his true motivations are revealed. Part of that is making use of Black’s musical abilities in one particularly nice scene.
And then there’s the delightful Toad — delightful in no small part to Key — and the other cute citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom, one of whom suggests they’re too adorable to die. They’re certainly this movie’s answer to the little, yellow Minions, if not quite THAT interesting.
By no means a classic, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” should help rid the movie-going world of any lasting bad taste from 1993’s live-action “Super Mario Bros.,” a commercial and critical failure.
And, sure, it can feel like one big meta-heavy commercial — Mario even plans an NES game early on in the affair — but that was to be expected.
Ultimately, “The Super Mario Brothers Movie” boasts enough smile-inducing moments, expected and otherwise, that both young viewers and those old enough to have a history with the games can expect a pretty good time.
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‘THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE’
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Rated: PG (for action and mild violence)
Running time: 1:32
How to watch: In theaters Wednesday
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