Despite some less-than-stellar reviews, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has opened to $34 million and has shown absolutely no signs of slowing down its box-office conquest. Nintendo’s budding franchise is already a massive success, and based on developments within the sequel, it’s obvious the plumber brothers will be returning to screens sooner rather than later (possibly with some new companions from across the Nintendo multiverse).
Although it’s primarily based on 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, the recent sequel takes inspiration from multiple games, including Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Sunshine. The result is a film that feels less like a direct adaptation of a beloved game and more like a patchwork of various inspirations and references, which is occasionally entertaining but doesn’t match the cohesive experience of playing the game the movie is named after. Nowhere are the failings of this approach more apparent than in the film’s treatment of Princess Rosalina, a character who receives a drastic change from her presence in the game, mostly for the worse.
