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Besides Mickey Mouse, Nintendo’s Mario is likely the most well-known fictional person in the world. Even people who don’t know what a Nintendo Switch is or who Yoshi is likely have at least seen a picture of Mario at some point in their lives. He’s everywhere, officially or otherwise. Which is why the 90s live-action Mario film starring Bob Hoskins was such a massive failure: it was so disliked, it made Nintendo avoid another Mario movie for almost three decades.
That’s why, in 2023, after over thirty-five years of the Super Mario brothers, we have our first animated film courtesy of a partnership between Illumination and Nintendo. And partnership is absolutely the right word, as Nintendo has clearly been as heavily involved with the making of this film as Illumination, leading any film-savvy audience member to believe that this is Nintendo’s true vision of how they want to see their plumbing icon brought to the big screen.
The result of that true vision and partnership? Well, it’s certainly not a super star, that’s for certain. The film follows Mario and Luigi, voiced by Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Parks and Recreation”) and Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The LEGO Movie”), as they’re sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom and separated. Mario teams up with Princess Peach, voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit,” “The Menu”), and the adventurous Toad, voiced by Kegan Michael-Key (“Keanu,” “Schmigadoon!”), to find Luigi and rescue him from the evil Bowser, voiced by Jack Black (“School of Rock,” “Kung Fu Panda”), with their quest also involving Donkey Kong, voiced by Seth Rogen (“Pineapple Express,” “Kung Fu Panda”).
From the first moments of the film, it’s clear that a lot of love and attention went into representing the Mushroom Kingdom and the Mario world on the big screen. Illumination, a studio known for cranking out lower budget and quickly made animated films, have pulled out all the stops on this, their highest budgeted film. Each different land crackles with personality and bright colors. Flowers give off a neon glow, and each power-up is a delightful display of animated frenzy. It’s possibly the most gorgeous animated movie made in years, and absolutely deserves to be a crown visual jewel in Illumination’s crown.
On the flipside though, it also contains what might be one of the most generic plots in any animated film in recent years, even for Illumination. Writer Matthew Fogel (“The LEGO Movie: The Second Part,” “Minions: The Rise of Gru”) surely had a lot of notes and restrictions from Nintendo, but at the same time, what’s here is a plot that feels like nothing really happens. There’s no momentum, just a bunch of scenes put next to each other. At no point does it feel like Mario and his friends are going on an actual journey, just that they’re going from point a to b because the plot dictates it so. Bowser certainly gets the most to work with, but that’s more so because his goals and characterization are the least generic in the film.
That’s not to say the film isn’t enjoyable. It manages to hit the right amount of nostalgia and easter eggs to avoid feeling completely overblown. Most of the best gags are smartly hidden in the background, as opposed to jumping out with big neon arrows pointing at them. It means that they’re there for people who know to look, and if you don’t know, you won’t be left behind for not recognizing them. Musically, the film also achieves the same balance, as Brian Tyler’s () score is predictably chocked full of classic Mario tunes from Koji Kondo (), blending them all together in a delightful musical smoothie. It helps that Kondo’s music is already legendarily good, but the film’s bizarre and overutilized licensed tracks help the Mario music seem that much better as they stick out like multiple, head-scratching sore thumbs.
The film’s humor, meanwhile, runs the gamut from crowd-pleasing to bizarrely cynical. It’s certainly an odd mix, but it’s got enough that works to chuckle at for ninety minutes without complaint. Oddly enough, that runtime is one of the film’s weakest aspects, mostly because it means things rocket along at a blistering pace. Virtually none of the scenes are allowed to linger or breathe, simply moving from one moment to the next. It’s not hard to imagine a world where this movie is maybe ten minutes longer and is all the better for it.
Despite much hoopla surrounding the casting, the voice acting is across the board pretty fine. Pratt isn’t exactly the most natural voice for Mario, but he’s fine and gets the job done. Taylor-Joy doesn’t sound anything like Peach in the games but keeps her energy up and it helps her deliver a fun performance. Day is underutilized but fits Luigi as a character perfectly, and anytime he’s onscreen the film is made better. Michael-Key is also fine, but the film is predictably carried by Black’s Bowser. As someone with years of voice-acting experience, he brings the energy and skills required to make his portrayal of the Koopa King really shine, and he’s the highlight of the entire film. Rogen, while not as good as Black, also takes advantage of his years of voice-acting, giving his DK a lot of energy to help bolster his performance.
It's easy to see someone writing an 800-plus-word review for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and roll your eyes. “Really?” you ask me. “It’s a Mario movie. What did you expect?” Well, to compare it to another light-hearted, overly silly movie, a few years back the directors of the movie, Aaron Horvath (“Teen Titans GO! To the Movies,” “Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas”) and Michael Jelenic (“Teen Titans GO! To the Movies,” “Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas”) made a movie called “Teen Titans GO! To the Movies” that managed to be extremely silly, lighthearted, and also legitimately good.
For a more outrageous example that also uses a decades old classic merchandising icon, a few years back an animated movie was released that seemed like it would be hot garbage that someone managed to not only be visually gorgeous, but emotionally engaging and extremely funny. But even beyond that, it got to the core of what the property it was based on means, not just to the fans, but at the very core of its being. That movie was “The LEGO Movie” and while it might be unfair to compare the two, its hard to argue that their origins were far more similar than one might want to initially admit. So why couldn’t this have been the case for this?
So, were expectations too high for the first animated version of the world’s favorite plumber? Who’s to say? As it stands, for all of its faults, the film excels in one specific aspect: it rekindles the age of the Saturday morning cartoon. It captures that spirit of sitting and staring up at a screen, with colors flashing across laughing to yourself at the silly jokes and turning your brain off for ninety-minutes. It’s certainly not great, but it’s a fun distraction that should entertain and put a smile on many, many viewers faces. And maybe that’s all it needed to do. 3.5/5
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