By George & Josh Bate
The Super Mario Bros. Movie became the highest-grossing movie based on a video game of all time when it was released in 2023. The Illumination and Nintendo collaboration triumphed in its faithful recreation of the vibrant and colorful animation of the iconic video games and was packed with fun Easter eggs and fan-service, although its excessive use of ill-fitting pop songs and lack of personality to distinguish it from generic animated movies meant that it failed to capture the remarkable creativity and magic of its source material. Three years later, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie arrives and, with a disjointed story and pacing, disappointingly stumbles far more than its flawed predecessor.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie once again follows Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) after they thwarted Bowser’s (Jack Black) plot to marry Princess Peach and take over Mushroom Kingdom. The brothers and Princess Peach (Anya Taylor Joy) now face a new threat in the form of Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), who has kidnapped Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) and threatens to take over the galaxy.
Like its predecessor, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie finds its greatest triumph in its stunning visuals that faithfully recreate the aesthetics of the Nintendo video games. Vibrant, colorful, and textured, the animation once again brings iconic Nintendo characters and worlds to the big screen with remarkable success and awe. There are shots and even entire sequences of the film that feel like they’ve taken straight from a Nintendo game, such is the filmmaking team’s dedication to replicating the visual language of their source material.
This behind-the-scenes dedication and attention to detail continues to evidence itself as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie incorporates tons of fun Easter eggs and references. Unlike the recent Five Nights At Freddy’s movies, which similarly feature a myriad of references to the source material, the new Illumination and Nintendo collaboration manages to tip the hat to die hard Nintendo fans, while never alienating those less familiar with Mario and company. From surprising character appearances to specific musical cues to entire relocations from the video games recreated with meticulous detail, the film has no shortage of fan service for Nintendo-heads to feast on.
It’s disappointing, however, that the attention to detail to translate the visual language of the games to the big screen is not applied to storytelling. The Super Mario Bros. Movie featured a fairly straightforward and rather hollow narrative that largely remained engaging for the 90-minute duration of the film. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie not only fails to reach this admittedly low hurdle – it falls desperately short.
The film begins by introducing Princess Rosalina as a potential major character before almost entirely shelving for the vast majority of the film. Bowser Jr.’s grand villainous plan is convoluted to say the least, while an ill-conceived redemption arc for Bowser woefully misfires and makes poor use of the talented Jack Black. Then there’s Yoshi, the beloved dinosaur-like creature that was teased in the post-credits scene of the previous film. Despite a strong introduction and an uncannily accurate voice performance from Donald Glover, Yoshi quickly fades into the background of an overstuffed story and is given surprisingly little to do so, so much so that one often forgets that Yoshi is even in the movie.
Overstuffed with too many moving parts, the film stumbles with an unfocused and unwieldy story. It speaks to how messy and hollow the narrative of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is that the story of the game, which itself is not particularly complex, comes together far more cohesively and wholesomely than the movie. While the previous film featured a semblance of character arcs for Mario and Luigi, the sequel doesn’t even attempt to give our protagonists inner challenges to work through or conclusions to come to. The lack of substantial character work trickles down from the Brooklyn plumbers to every other player in the story, with the possible exception of Bowser, although the King of Koopas is afforded a dismally uninteresting and misguided character arc.
Messy storytelling is made all the worse by a startling lack of flow or rhythm. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie unfolds at such a strange and disjointed pace. Some scenes begin and conclude in the blink of an eye, while others seem to last an eternity. Major characters enter, exit, and then reenter the story with no rhyme or reason. Entire sequences feel like they could be removed with no discernible impact on the story or its characters. And, as a result, there are numerous times while watching the film that we were left discombobulated, struggling to understand what is driving anyone’s behavior and, more crudely, what the hell is going on.
Without a cohesive story and fluid pacing, the engrossing animation can only carry the film so far. Eventually, interest wanes as it becomes clear the once-dazzling visuals are backed by an emotionally hollow and creatively devoid narrative that fails to even remotely capture the singular magic of the iconic Nintendo games.
VERDICT: 4/10
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie bolsters stunning animation that faithfully recreates the visual language of the iconic Nintendo games and will delight fans with its myriad of surprises, Easter eggs, and fan service. Beyond aesthetic triumphs, however, the new collaboration between Illumination and Nintendo resoundingly fails to capture the indescribably magical feeling of playing a Mario game. A convoluted and emotionally hollow story, filled to the brim with too many moving parts and marred by disjointed pacing, renders the sequel uninteresting and uninspired. Newly introduced characters Yoshi and Rosalina are perplexingly underused and fade into obscurity after strong introductions, while Mario and Luigi aren’t afforded even a semblance of character arcs. The film is so messily cobbled together that it eventually becomes discombobulating and disorienting, difficult to grasp characters’ motives and, stated more crudely, what the hell is even going on. With two theatrically released films in three years, Illumination and Nintendo have proven their collaboration can yield aesthetically dazzling movies that look and sound like the beloved games. But what’s distinctly lacking is even a touch of the inventiveness, charm, and uniqueness that makes games like Super Mario Galaxy so groundbreaking.