Since 1993, Super Mario Bros movies end up failing both financially and through critical reception, along with the first movie being the start of this adaptation curse.
Now, as one of many major fans of the Super Mario Franchise, I was expecting a bit more from the The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
However, the film turns out to be oversaturated with Easter eggs from Mario and Donkey Games and allusions from older Illumination titles, degrading the story-driven narrative into a Paper Mario-thin quality. This, despite the character designs, animation, and nostalgic music from all the Nintendo soundtracks, put together. As well as Jack Black’s spot-on performance as Bowser. It also retracted my thought that it would finally break out of the game to movie adaptation curse. In fact, Shigeru Miyamoto, himself, has brought about major hype when it comes to Illumination Entertainment animating a movie based on the Super Mario Bros. However, it appear that the risk didn’t truly pay off.
A very good story is a real lynchpin to a very successful film that might open up to a successful cinematic universe – provided the directors stop taking shortcuts, such as reducing said film to 90 minutes in length.
It’s time to get this review started, and I will apologize in advance when it comes to spoilers to those who have yet to see it. As Mario would say, “Here we go!”
The movie opens up with Bowser’s kingdom invading the Penguin Kingdom with him and Kamek obtaining the Super Star as a means to invade the Mushroom Kingdom to have Princess Peach marry him.
Even though the film stayed faithful to the source material, I feel that Chris Pratt’s Performance as Mario will never be a replacement for Charles Martinet. Nintendo’s favorite mustachioed mascot feels more of a letdown who always messes up. A satirical portrayal of all the exploits from our red hat-wearing plumber reduced to Illumination’s punching bag from all of the hits Mario has to take.
Getting back to the movie, Mario and Luigi spent their life savings on a plumbing company commercial only to face ridicule from Foreman Spike – which his character design isn’t true to the source material.
At the same time, Pratt’s performance as Mario felt rather bland, as if the film was more a satire against Nintendo’s Favorite Mustachioed Mascot. They even made him dislike mushrooms, as well as making him make one too many mistakes to the point he thinks everyone keeps saying he can’t make something big of himself due to his height and such. Even Princess Peach says to all of her Toads that he’s not important. Ouch. Especially after Mario and Luigi get themselves separated after entering a warp pipe trying to fix a water main under the Brooklyn Sewers.
I did see some positive notes on the movie. For starters, Jack Black’s performance as Bowser was really spot-on. I felt that Bowser playing the piano and singing is more of an add-on to suit Black’s need for music. He really melds into Bowser’s character as if he truly played the Mario games himself, especially when it comes to the Koopa King’s obsession with marrying the Mushroom Kingdom’s princess, as well as his cruelty and brutality to all who oppose him.
Charlie Day also made a good performance as Luigi as he’s really getting into Luigi’s personality where he continues to rely on Mario as the heroic role model, yet cowardly when it comes to something scary and tends to run, especially from the Dry Bones.
Despite the story being rushed, simple, and easy to follow, it is rather enjoyable with the Music and a slew of Easter eggs from not just Nintendo, but Secret Life of Pets. As in the cat as well as the dog, Francis, in addition to a good deal of background characters being recycled from the said Illumination film.
I also like how they got every detail of the character design to stay true to the source material. On top of that, the music also brings in a very long trip down memory lane to some of the favorite games and consoles made by Nintendo. And yet, that doesn’t excuse the film’s creators for presenting a large deal of flaws.
I noticed a good deal of flaws that outweigh the positives from this movie, aside from the smash cuts, condensing everything into a 90-minute film, and the lack of a good plot, let alone good screenplay.
To start things off, there has been a lot of controversy with Chris Pratt voicing Mario, which a good deal of fans preferred Charles Martinet doing it instead.
I also noticed that Chris Pratt is better off as a live-action hero than someone who hasn’t studied the aspects of Nintendo’s mustachioed plumber, let alone played any of the Mario Video games, resulting in his performance being poorer than usual. And let’s not forget about the whole “Kong Kingdom” part of the whole Illumination Super Mario Bros. film. For example, Cranky Kong is not really the father of Donkey Kong III, but in actuality, the grandfather of Nintendo’s banana-loving, punching gorilla.
And what’s with the whole Mario Kart on DK’s turf, that’s really anachronistic on that one. And let’s not forget about Seth Rogen’s Performance as Donkey Kong, any diehard Donkey Kong Fan should know that more often, DK does more grunt sounds than talking. Not to mention Seth seemed to refuse to cast aside his signature laugh to truly embrace the role.
As for Princess Peach, I understand that the modern audience needs to have her move away from the Damsel in Distress trope, but the tomboy thing, especially with the obstacle course? Especially with singlehandedly fighting Bowser’s minions and associates that the actress should be better off with a different princess role. I would say it best to leave the tomboy action princess to another Nintendo Princess, Daisy.
The sound also felt rather off between the voice actor and the stock sounds found in modern Mario games. And to add insult to injury, when I observed the Credit Role, Grant Kirkhope was not credited for the DK Rap from the Donkey Kong 64 game and without a good reason behind that decision. Even with the Post Credit Scene hinting at a potential sequel to the next Mario Movie, I suspect that the review scores would be worsening even with the film proven to be a major financial success throughout the Easter weekend.
Overall, the film happened to be a thrilling rollercoaster ride filled with Nostalgia and Easter Eggs from as much from Mario and Donkey Kong games blended in with Illumination’s style of animation from Secret Life of Pets while catering to the little kids as their target audience instead of all of the Nintendo Fans.
However, a mixed to negative reception was created from the poor choices in casting (aside from Jack Black, Charlie Day and Keegan Michael Key), lack of a good story narrative, as well as a longer screenplay, among many other. Plus, I already noticed that Illumination’s on thin ice from the critics and these poor scores would result in worse quality in the film as Minions’ animated film appeared to be on its last legs. As a result, I’m giving this movie 6.4 out of 10 for good effort but not enough to make saving graces for Illumination. Any more slip-ups from Illumination, and Mamma Mia! It’s game over for the said studio behind Despicable Me!
Yongma Lee is a digital media/game maker who lives in Olympia.
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