The Super Mario Bros. Movie leapt into theaters this week, opening April 5 ahead of the long Easter weekend. With a star-studded cast led by Chris Pratt (Mario), Jack Black (Bowser), Anya Taylor-Joy (Princess Peach) and Charlie Day (Luigi) and incredibly impressive graphics, expectations were high for a fun summer kids’ flick.
And… it was fine.
I wish I had a more exciting reaction to the video game-centered flick, but it was fine!
Storywise, it was very Super Mario. Bowser is doing bad things and is on his way to the Mushroom Kingdom to either woo Princess Peach or destroy everything. Mario and Luigi – human brothers that are trying to get their new plumbing business off the ground in Brooklyn – end up down a weird green pipe that sends them to another world.
The duo gets split up, with Luigi finding nothing but trouble and Mario winding up in the Mushroom Kingdom with Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) and the princess. The latter group sets off to get help from Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen), Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) and the Kong army.
The graphics are stellar, and the music – both in the introduction of every Mario theme through the decades and the use of pop hits – was the highlight of the movie for me. I just thought it would have been funnier. Similar to other Illumination Studios projects like Despicable Me, Minions and Sing, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a fun, inoffensive family film.
PRESS START. The final #SuperMarioMovie trailer is here! Tickets on sale now: https://t.co/8P2JiqQgNO
❤️ this tweet to Power-Up with exclusive updates from The Super Mario Bros. Movie! pic.twitter.com/r8pAexzfMz
— The Super Mario Bros. Movie (@supermariomovie) March 9, 2023
But when your cast is made up of genuinely funny comedians, I just thought we’d get a couple more laugh-out-loud moments.
The scenes that imitate the side-to-side scroll versions of Mario games or the Mario Kart turn on Rainbow Road are undeniably fun. It runs laps around any other version of Super Mario-related television or movie content, and the crowd in my theater gave it a rousing round of applause at the end.
It’s a fast-paced, high-energy romp that possibly gets weighed down by Mario definitely sounding like Chris Pratt doing the character Mario. Overall, it’s a perfectly fine movie and really not much more than that.
