I’m an unapologetic fan of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. I don’t care what anyone says. I know it’s not exactly a poster child for storytelling. However, as a Nintendo fanboy, I had a blast, and that’s all I could have ever asked for. Where the movie might lack in plot or focus, it more than makes up for it by gleefully celebrating the proud history of the Mario games and Nintendo. And in honor of it breaking records at the box office this Easter weekend, we’re going to break down our favorite Yoshi Easter Eggs from the new film.
The coolest thing about The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is that it’s a feast for the eyes for anyone on the lookout for Nintendo world-building. If you have ever played any iteration of the Mario games, from the NES to the Switch generation (or all of the above), Super Smash Bros., or really any of Nintendo’s classic franchises, there’s so much you will connect to. These specific moments and Easter eggs were the ones that had me completely geeking out throughout the movie!
1. A Smashing Credit Sequence
For bothmovies, Nintendo teamed up with Illumination Entertainment (for better and worse) to bring their beloved characters to the screen. While in the first film, the Illumination Entertainment logo at the beginning of the movie was a tribute to Mario Kart, this time around, the Minions get their hands on a Donkey Kong mallet. The Donkey Kong mallet theme plays as one of the Minions uncontrollably starts smashing his colleagues flat in classic slapstick fashion.
The giant Nintendo mallet has been an iconic symbol for the company since that original Donkey Kong game, but reemerged in popularity thanks to Super Smash Bros. Those who have played any iteration of the franchise know that once you grab the mallet, you’re virtually unstoppable, and any opponents in your way will be almost automatically smashed off-screen for a cheap victory. Here’s hoping these Minions get smashed off the screen permanently (Unfortunately, there’s a third Minions movie coming this Summer, so this is probably wishful thinking).
2. Donkey Kong Creates Monkey Business in Brooklyn
At the end of The Super Mario Bros. Movie back in 2023, there was a post-credits stinger that featured Yoshi’s egg being left behind in Brooklyn, about to hatch. We get some really minor payoff to this, as Yoshi reveals to the audience in a flashback that he spent several days playing tourist in Brooklyn before being chased into another warp pipe to the Sand Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey. While in Brooklyn, everyone’s favorite green dinosaur witnessed a ruckus at a construction site. It turns out, in a loving homage to his roots, Donkey Kong was causing havoc with a few construction workers, lifting up beams and tearing them down. While we only get a glimpse of this, which is surprising given his larger role in the previous movie, it’s a welcome appearance from a Nintendo icon doing what he does best.
3. Star Bits Aplenty
In one of the most stunning visual moments in the movie, Peach and Mario stand atop her castle for her “birthday” celebration, as Mario gives her a familiar, iconic umbrella. However, the will-they-won’t-they tension is cut short by the gorgeous and shimmering presence of multicolored streaks flying across the sky. Those who have played the original Super Mario Galaxy game will recognize these glittering multicolored cosmic particles as star bits. In the original Wii game, players could collect star bits and use them to blast opponents on-screen with the Wii Remote. Seeing them incorporate that into a gorgeous scene was satisfying for me, especially given how much I loved the original game.
4. Taking Care of the Mushroom Kingdom
As Peach goes off to help the Lumas save Princess Rosalina, she tasks Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi with protecting and caring for her kingdom. In a fun sequence that calls back to Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, we see Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi bouncing from location to location on a 2D map with blinking buttons representing levels. We get a glimpse of each of the different levels – including one where Luigi dons a frog suit from Super Mario Bros. 3 to fight off a Cheep Cheep – and after conquering a mini task, we see a flag with an “M” symbol on it, signifying the completion of one task and the trio moving on to the next. As someone who grew up playing both games, especially Super Mario World on SNES, it was such a satisfying sequence to see a familiar map screen used in the movie to showcase various vignettes. It truly made the movie feel more like I was playing a Mario game.
5. R.O.B Still Sucks
After the video game crash of 1983, Nintendo needed a way to entice US consumers to buy the NES system. Given that the official launch of Super Mario Bros. was still two years away, Nintendo released an interactive bit of hardware called the R.O.B (Robotic Operating Buddy) as an accessory to the NES console. It was compatible with two games called Gyromite and Stack-Up. And the gimmick worked for a bit, saving Nintendo from going under thanks to R.O.B. ‘s temporary popularity. Thankfully, Mario would take them the rest of the way only a few years later. That being said, consumers would find R.O.B to be a pretty useless accessory. It was a slow, clumsy controller, good only for the aforementioned two games.
R.O.B would eventually make a comeback as a character in games like Mario Kart DS, and, of course, Super Smash Bros. However, he makes a cameo appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie as a help desk accessory that Peach and Toad ask directions from. As in real life, the character is so incredibly slow and infuriating and just useful enough not to be branded as trash, since he leads the travelling duo to the flight deck, where more fun Easter eggs were discovered.
6. The Pikmin Have Landed
As they arrive on the flight deck, the audience is given a glimpse of a familiar ship that fans of the Pikmin franchise will recognize as Captain Olimar’s ship, the S.S. Dolphin. The camera pans back to reveal the ship, of course, to be incredibly tiny. And as the door opens, we’re greeted by a group of the eponymous plant-creatures. Unfortunately, their captain is nowhere to be found (presumably they’ll be saving Olimar for a future movie, I imagine). They do not have a significant role in the movie, but seeing them in the film is still a fun treat for Nintendo fans.
7. Fox’s Crew
Despite the marketing campaign spoiling it, the presence of Fox McCloud, voiced perfectly by Glen Powell, was one of the biggest highlights of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Fox proves himself to be quite useful throughout the film, which gives him a lot of fun stuff to do in the battle against Bowser and Bowser Jr. In describing how he somehow made it into the Mario side of the Nintendo-verse, Fox gives a lightning-fast backstory in anime-style, which showcases how his Arwing’s warp drive was damaged, and he was blasted into Mario’s dimension/galaxy. The backstory features fun cameos from Fox’s crew, including brief glimpses of Poppy, Falco, and, of course, Slippy, whom Fox blames for his misfortunes. Here’s hoping we get to see the crew in their own movie!
8. Ruined Dragon and Mr. Game and Watch
The climactic battle between Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi against Bowser Jr. and Dry Bowser is as epic as they come. Thanks to Bowser Jr.’s paintbrush, however, Nintendo fans are treated to two incredibly cool cameos from iconic characters. Bowser Jr. produces the horrifying Ruined Dragon, who first appeared in Super Mario Odyssey. The dragon’s look and texture resemble those of the game, which, in and of itself, is a stark contrast to the cartoonish look of the Mario games and movies.
Luigi, on the other hand, with his limited artistic abilities, conjures a fan favorite character – Mr. Game and Watch! When fighting against Dry Bowser, the movie decidedly takes a Smash Bros.-esque approach, showcasing a 2D side-by-side battle between the two, in which Game and Watch does his signature parachute move, and, of course, his mallet smash. The animation also resembles the crude movements seen in both the Smash Bros. games and the original Game & Watch games.
9. Super Mario World Tributes
The final moments of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie for me made me happy. I was initially worried that, in a movie featuring Yoshi but titled after a newer-generation game, we would likely not get many references to Super Mario World. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. In an adorable montage sequence in which the characters rebuild Peach’s castle, the movie shifts to a 16-bit art style similar to what we saw on the SNES back in the early ’90s. It’s reminiscent of the exact look the Super Mario World game had.
Once the movie picks up again, in regular computer animation, Mario gets a power-up: the feather from Super Mario World! This was always my favorite power-up as a kid, because it gave Mario a cape that he could use to fly up to the highest heights of a game screen, and continuously bounce through the air by turning his cape into a parachute. I honestly did not expect the movie to do this, given how old the Super Mario World game is. However, the fact that they did it and ended the movie this way made my geek heart soar as high as Mario in a yellow cape!
10. Princess Daisy
The final, and biggest tease for the future of the film franchise, came in the form of the post-credits scene for the movie. Like they teased Yoshi in The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s tag scene, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie teases another iconic character as a way of capping off the movie. The scene takes us back to the Gateway Galaxy, where Peach and Toad met Fox. We see the pesky Ukkiki monkey once again running amok, stealing from guests.
As he runs across the terminal, he’s thankfully smacked in the face and stopped by an unseen figure. As the camera turns to show who stopped him, we see Princess Daisy walk into the light. Hilariously, earlier in the movie, Luigi asks Mario to ask Peach if she has an attractive sister. While that’s technically Rosalina in the movie, Luigi’s comments (in so many ways) foreshadowed Daisy’s emergence in the film’s final scenes. After all, in most of the game lore, Daisy and Luigi are typically romantically linked, the same way Mario and Peach are.
These are just a fraction of the incredible Easter eggs to be found all across The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. There are countless others as well to be spotted, but for what it’s worth, these were my personal favorites.
What Easter eggs were you able to spot, and which were your favorites? Comment below to share!