Directors: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Writer: Matthew Fogel
Stars: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black
Synopsis: The story of The Super Mario Bros. on their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom.
While Pac-Man might have been the first official video game character in 1980, the first version of Mario wasn’t far behind. Initially named ‘Jumpman,’ and a carpenter instead of a plumber, he made his first appearance in 1981 in the arcade game Donkey Kong. It wasn’t until the 1983 release of Mario Bros. that Mario, and his new brother Luigi, would step into the spotlight as the main characters in their own game. From then on, the character of Mario exploded culturally spawning variations including Super Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Party, and countless others. While Nintendo’s most profitable and well-known character has made many appearances in game form, when it comes to the big screen, he has been relatively absent. That is until now with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the first Hollywood adaptation of this character since the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie kicks off in the world known best by the Mario Games with Bowser (Jack Black) invading the Snow Kingdom, home of the Penguins, searching for a legendary Star. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, Mario (Chris Pratt) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) have recently quit their jobs to pursue their dream of starting the Super Mario Bros. Plumbing service to help out their neighborhood and save Brooklyn one leaky faucet at a time. Mario and Luigi head underground to solve the problem when a water line bursts and the streets flood. However, when their attempt to help goes wrong they wind up in a pipe system deeper underneath Brooklyn. One of the pipes isn’t like the others and eventually sucks in Mario and Luigi sending them to the universe of the games.
While traveling, Mario and Luigi get split up, with Mario landing in the Mushroom Kingdom and Luigi on the floating island inhabited by the evil Bowser. Upon entry, Mario stumbles into Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) who tells him that the best way for him to save his brother is by meeting with Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). They both travel to the castle to find Peach who is currently speaking to the Toad army about the best way to go about the Bowser invasion. After running into Mario and hearing his cry for help, Peach puts him through a series of tests before they venture off to the Jungle Kingdom to recruit the Kong Army, led by Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) and his son Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen). With the help of the Kongs, Peaches and Mario will be able to protect the Mushroom Kingdom, and save Luigi.
As more time passes it feels as though there is more of a longing for the past; a need to remember a time that has come and gone. This is especially covered in visual media such as television and film as a way to pop the nostalgia bubble and evoke a feeling of youthful innocence. Sometimes this kind of media can work in a way to hit the feels while still expanding on the already-developed story to bring about something that feels similar, but new – last year’s Top Gun: Maverick is a good example. However, for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, nostalgia isn’t just the basis of the story, it’s the entire story itself.
In what has to be the most easter-egg-heavy movie of the year, The Super Mario Bros. Movie plays out more like a speedrun than a traditional playthrough. Bouncing through different worlds and game styles, there is never a moment in the short 92-minute runtime in which, as an audience, you can stop to smell the roses, in this case the fire flowers, and instead it’s a jolt from one level to the next. Screenwriter Matthew Fogel spends too much of the film’s time attempting to get casual “oohs” and “ahhs” rather than creating a story with any real heart behind it. Once the sentimental feeling this film does elicit begins to fade away, what’s left is an odd tale of what one will do to protect the ones they love that, in this case, worked far better in the 8-bit world than on the big screen.
The lack of any real story might be the most disappointing factor when it comes to The Super Mario Bros. Movie because a lot of the other factors of the film actually work. Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic both have a strong vision of how they want this world to look and visually this film accurately depicts Mario in its later forms. The animation was sleek, and the different variations of the many Mario games and lands were exciting to see on screen. There were a lot of things this movie did well from a fun and entertainment aspect, but the lack of world-building caused it to feel like something that was visited rather than something lived in. The emotional connection to the characters wasn’t made through the actions on screen and instead is solely built on your connection to them going into the movie rather than during it.
As for the characters, most of them are voiced even better than initially advertised. Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach isn’t particularly great, but Keegan-Michael Key is hilarious as Toad, and Charlie Day is exactly the voice Luigi needs; Seth Rogen brings Donkey Kong to life in a great way, and Chris Pratt, while still massively miscast for the character, fits the role better than I initially had thought. However, it is Jack Black as the menacing Bowser who truly steals the show and voices this character with the perfect amount of gruffness displaying villainous tendencies that Black is able to articulate so well.
Even with good visuals, a clever score from Brian Tyler that incorporates the Mario themes in a great way, and nostalgia galore, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is too fast-paced and too underdeveloped as a film to truly be considered a good movie. There are fun moments throughout, but this adaptation of the games leans far too heavily into sentimentality and sacrifices the story for the sake of it. Maybe the quick pacing and lack of development were done in a way to set up sequels that would explore these characters more, but if Illumination and Nintendo truly want this film to spawn into a franchise, it’s going to need a power-up.
Grade: C-
