‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Review – A Buffet Of Nostalgia

Synopsis: While working underground to fix a water main, Brooklyn plumbers Mario (CHRIS PRATT, Jurassic World and The LEGO Movie franchises) and brother Luigi (CHARLIE DAY, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Horrible Bosses) are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world. But when the brothers are separated, Mario embarks on an epic quest to find Luigi. With the assistance of a Mushroom Kingdom resident Toad (KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY, Key & Peele, The Lion King) and some training from the strong-willed ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom Princess Peach (ANYA TAYLOR-JOY, The Queen’s Gambit, The Menu), Mario taps into his own power.

You have to choose your own path, don’t let others decide your future. Whenever you deviate from what’s expected you’ll often receive discouraging looks and remarks because most people are too afraid to do what they truly love. They’re haters. Instead of being motivated by your decision to live for yourself, they opt to play it safe because that’s how we’ve been conditioned. They’d see the floating Question Block and say that it’s too high or too dangerous. They’d see Yoshi and tell you that he’s dirty and bites when in actuality, they have no clue about any of it. Don’t live with the regret of never trying. You never know if you can fly until you try (metaphorically speaking).

“Nothing can hurt us as long as we’re together.”

Grab your white gloves, overalls, initialed hat, grow a mustache, and brush on your fake Italian accent because we have some world-saving to do. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a buffet of nostalgia. From the throwback soundtrack, and video game-influenced score, to all of the characters, creatures, and worlds that you know and love, the movie is almost all dessert with little to no actual dinner. Unfortunately, like a buffet of that sort, it may taste good but you won’t feel that great afterward.

This nostalgic high, brought to us by Illumination and Nintendo, begins in epic fashion as fire melts ice in a world undiscovered by humans and sets the scene for a boss-level showdown in the near future. While a dark and gloomy reign of terror begins to spread from kingdom to kingdom, in our realm, two plumbers are ready to save their city of Brooklyn one fix at a time. When a water main puts the city at risk, the Italian brothers, one clad in red and the other in green, stumble upon a system of pipes that put them on a collision course with a giant power-hungry and somewhat romantic fire-breathing turtle with an enormous army. To their dismay, as they enter a mysterious new world the two get separated and Luigi being a rather timid and easily frightened person, doesn’t do well on his own. Now, it’s up to Mario to save his brother but he’s going to need help traversing the foreign lands he’s found himself in, however, those that he seeks help from will need his help as well.

“You just don’t know when to quit.”

For about the first 30 to 40 minutes of the movie, you’re filled with nothing but excitement as you find little easter eggs and rejoice in seeing your childhood pop on screen with amazing animation. The worlds that you played in for hours through a console are now alive before your very eyes. All of the various pipes and floating bricks and platforms have practical and functional uses, power-up mushrooms are actually ingested, and there are fields of power flowers as if they were dandelions. The only issue is, we never find out the why, what, and how any of this exists.

Mario nor Luigi ask any questions about the magical places they end up, other than where they are. The lack of curiosity is confusing. With so much source material to choose from, the film doesn’t do a great job of world-building as it merely glazes over many familiar places as well as faces. Nevertheless, there are some really fun sequences that are pure dopamine hits, a few decent laughs, and positive themes that make The Super Mario Bros. Movie a great experience for a family outing. Kids will love it for sure, but those of us who have been enjoying the gaming franchise for decades may find it missing that power-star-star-power. I will say, to be fair, I believe that this film is setting up a number of future films. Therefore, they may have wanted to get all the nostalgia out of the way to then be able to focus more on complex storytelling and worldbuilding in the future. But if this were to be the only one to be made, it would be incredibly disappointing. Despite what sounds negative, I had a decent time with the action-packed adventure, I just found it to be lacking. Its rewatchability is medium. Make sure you stay for the post-credits scene.

Pacing & Pop

Like performing a perfect drift boost on the last lap during a Mushroom Cup race, the pacing of this movie is very fast. Quickly moving past familiar things and skipping all questions, the film decides that there are two tasks at hand and they will be the only things that will be focused on and explored. What popped for me was seeing the only video game franchise that I consistently played from adolescence to adulthood come to life on the big screen.

Characters & Chemistry

Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Kevin Michael Richardson, Sebastian Maniscalco

This is an all-star cast of voice actors. I know there was tons of concern when Chris Pratt was announced as the voice of Mario, but I assure you, he did a fine job. There were a few slips where he sounds like himself, but for the majority of the film, all I hear is the mushroom-powered plumber. Charlie Day did great as Luigi, however, his lines were limited but I assume we’ll hear more in the future. Jack Black is definitely one of the biggest highlights of the film as Bowser. He’s menacing and lively and you almost don’t know that it’s him until he may or may not have broke out into a ballad that may or may not go viral. Keegan-Michael Key always crushes it and as Toad, he will be one of your favorites. Anya Taylor-Joy was the perfect choice to voice Princess Peach and she is by no means a damsel in distress. And let me not forget the cute yet disturbing Lumalee voiced by Juliet Jelenic. She is definitely the character the adults and angsty teens will find hilarious. Lastly, from now on when I see Donkey Kong, I will never not think of Seth Rogen laughing and that makes me happy.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie releases in theaters on April 5, 2023. Remain safe and eat your mushrooms.

Rated: PG

Runtime: 1h 32m

Directors: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic Writer: Matthew Fogel

Producers: Chris Meledandri p.g.a., Shigeru Miyamoto