The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the first time Nintendo's frontman has jumped onto the big screen since 1993's disastrous live-action outing. In this new version, directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic have delivered a fun, fast-paced but overly familiar adaptation that could have been a little bit more inventive along the way.
Mario games aren't exactly renowned for their plots, so if you've any experience with the games' primary objective—beat Bowser, save Princess Peach—you'll pretty much know what you're in for in The Super Mario Bros. Movie; the only major change this time around is that our damsel in distress is not Peach, but Luigi.
Our duo of plucky plumbers arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom after being sucked down a green warp pipe after attempting to save real-world Brooklyn from a burst water pipe, but get separated during the journey into this strange new world.
Big bad Bowser is off plotting how best to win Princess Peach's heart and captures Luigi for info on Mario's whereabouts so he can put a stop to his new rival. From then on, it's all familiar, family-friendly fare; Mario teams up with the Princess to prove his heroic credentials and save his brother from the King of the Koopas.
The plot certainly won't win any awards for complexity, but it sure does zoom along at a breakneck pace. Across the film's 92-minute runtime, we're barely given a moment to breathe between Mario's arrival in the kingdom and his final battle with Bowser. This helps the movie serve up plenty of action, but it would've been nice to spend a little bit more time with some of the supporting characters, especially as most of the voice performances are pretty solid.
Jack Black's turn as Bowser is the most magnetic presence on-screen. His version of the villain is a goofy, lovesick titan who yearns for Peach's hand in marriage to the point he ends up crooning out a power ballad about the Princess in one of the film's funniest moments. Charlie Day also embodies Mario's scaredy-cat brother with aplomb, which is a shame given how he's chained up and absent for a lot of the action.
By comparison, Chris Pratt's Mario is serviceable, but he remains the weakest of the lot and doesn't really do much to distinguish between himself and his character, even if his delivery isn't nearly as catastrophic as the internet's reaction would have had you expecting back when the Mario movie cast was first revealed.
Illumination's animators certainly made the most of Mario's history bringing The Super Mario Bros. Movie's world to life. The film's colorful and crisp and the Kingdoms we explore are packed full of Easter eggs and nostalgic nods both to Mario lore and Nintendo's wider history; I've no doubt you'll find deeper and deeper cuts lurking in the background of scenes on a second or third viewing.
That visual density is matched by composer Brian Tyler's charming interweaving of Koji Kondo's iconic Mario themes and sounds into the score. That being said, the obvious needle-drop moments to tracks like Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero" and The Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" (get it? They're plumbers... from Brooklyn!) had me rolling my eyes.
There are certainly some well-staged sequences peppered throughout; Mario's training montage and an early rush through Brooklyn ingeniously ape the side-scrolling platforming action of the games, and the Mario Kart/Mad Max mash-up that sees Mario, Peach and the Kong army taking on Bowser's forces on the open road is a thrilling end to the second act.
Ultimately, the biggest complaint is simply that, whilst fun, the movie is too safe; flipping the switch on Princess Peach, making Donkey Kong and co. expert Mario Kart engineers, and having Bowser's minions be genuinely bemused by their King's ultimate desire is about as daring as things get, and it would've been nice to see a little more willingness to poke fun or play around with elements in the Mario universe.
Ultimately, the film felt more like an exercise in laying some solid foundations for a new movie franchise and ensuring that the Mushroom Kingdom made its way to the silver screen in a recognizable way. In short, everything is competently put together, but it would've been great to have seen some more creativity from the team.
Plenty of signs point to a sequel—stick around for a post-credits scene teasing the arrival of one of Mario's best pals—and I'd wager The Super Mario Bros. Movie has introduced us to a world that definitely has the potential to build into a bigger and better second outing, even if the first could do with a power-up or two of its own.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is in theaters from Wednesday, April 5, 2023.
