The “Super Mario” franchise is 40 years old this year, and the main event for this celebration is “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie”as confirmed by Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, in last September’s Nintendo Direct. Considering Nintendo has released other “Super Mario” products about the Galaxy games for the 40th anniversary, such as the Switch ports and Rosalina’s Storybook, there is a focus on Galaxy for the anniversary, with the movie being the main event.
On release, I watched the movie and wanted to give my thoughts on it. I will remain spoiler-free, but will go into vague spoilers that will make sense if you have seen the movie yourself.
Overall, I had a fun time watching the movie. The movie is more serious from the first with its opening scene. Bowser Jr. attempts to capture Rosalina, in which we see Rosalina’s abilities. She fends off Bowser Jr., but is captured once he starts targeting the Lumas. Bowser Jr.’s plans involve making use of her, and considering the glimpse of her powers, it is a threat.
Outside of that, it is just a fun adventure with the cast. We get to see Mario and Luigi together, along with Yoshi, who is integrated cleanly with the two. He immediately becomes a third member after they meet, which is how he is in the games.
Bowser Jr. is introduced at the beginning, and the filmmakers took several creative liberties with him. They derived a lot of what he has used in the games, especially his paintbrush abilities, and integrated them without breaking continuity from the original material. Not to mention his action scenes, which cleverly make use of his paintbrush as a morphing weapon. His relationship with Bowser is also endearing and aligns with how Bowser Jr. is shown in the games–a son wanting to impress his father. I appreciate his writing in this film.
Outside of Bowser Jr., there are a lot of references in the movie from different “Super Mario” titles, but some aspects of the movie pull from different elements of these titles and make them into their own thing. Like with Bowser Jr., he uses his paintbrush for attacks and alters his own appearance, which itself is from his appearance in “Super Mario Bros. Wonder.” He does not use his paintbrush there, but he can alter his own appearance in the games, such as his debut in “Sunshine” as Shadow Mario. Brilliant use of that brush’s abilities to depict his latest appearance.
The film wears its inspiration on its sleeve and makes for pleasant locations or scenes from the “Super Mario” series, and it’s enjoyable seeing how creative they get.
As much as I enjoyed it, I do have two gripes with this film. Firstly, it was mainly seeing the world of “Super Mario” being translated to the movie. The world is alive with locations and characters spanning across the “Super Mario” franchise, a lot referencing or pulled from titles over the decades. There is a plot but no real character development. You are just seeing the Mario Bros., Yoshi, Peach and Toad.
There are some good scenes, mainly with Bowser and his relationship with Mario and Bowser Jr. He wants his relationship with his son meanwhile, he does turn a bit of a new leaf with Mario for a bit. He has a bit of a moral dilemma since Mario and Bowser Jr. are adversaries, but it does not get much exploration in the film. Not to mention, there is no breathing room to slow down. The movie is in constant motion with no time to pause. It does not allow you to digest anything of what you are seeing.
Then, there is the revelation about something in the first film. It is not from the games directly. And while it does not affect the game’s lore directly, it could mislead people into thinking the revelation is true in the games. It has already led to some discourse online. Even then, this revelation is not explored that much in the movie, just really important for one scene. It is an odd but ultimately harmless creative decision.
The movie was a fun time in seeing how Illumination adapted elements of the games to the world of film. The action is great, and I appreciate the creative liberties they took to further elevate the world of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” However, it is not something I would find myself watching again. It is a movie showing the “Super Mario” series rather than telling it.
