It took 30 years, but in 2023, Nintendo brought the Super Mario Bros. back to the big screen in full glory with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Teaming up with Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, the film became a super smash hit, one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, and proved to be an incredibly fun and faithful (if not flawed) cinematic level in the history of Nintendo. Now, with the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. approaching, the question becomes, can the momentum continue with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie?
The answer is a resounding yes! While still flawed (thanks to the scattered and episodic approach Illumination Entertainment has with its storytelling – more on this later), The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a major power-up from its predecessor. So even if we likely won’t be seeing this one at the Oscars next year, it will absolutely put a smile on the faces of any and all fans of these characters, old and young.
This time around, the story brings some of the more recent elements of the game franchise’s iconography into the fold, starting with Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) and Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie). When the latter kidnaps Rosalina, in order to use her to power a galactic weapon of mass destruction, it’s up to the Mario Bros, Princess Peach, Toad, and their new pal Yoshi to save her. Along the way, secrets are revealed, new alliances formed, and new worlds are discovered.
Despite The Super Mario Bros. Movie not being perfect, it was still a really fun time at the movies, particularly for those who have loved Mario their whole lives or played and loved at least some generation of the games. It incorporated elements fans loved from video games, from the original NES classics to Mario Kart, into a cinematic adventure that felt fast-paced and breezy. Admittedly, it relied heavily on Easter eggs and nostalgia to derive its sense of enjoyment, but for Mario fans, what’s wrong with that? We want Mario, and we got Mario.
While The Super Mario Galaxy Movie still relies on the Nintendo affection to power it, there’s much about it that feels like a massive upgrade from the first film. For starters, the animation is a lot bolder. There’s a sequence involving star bits flying across the night sky of The Mushroom Kingdom that felt about as gorgeous as anything we’ve seen in a Pixar film. The team at Illumination also does a terrific job experimenting with mixed mediums. Bowser Jr.’s paintbrush, for instance, is a clever element that allows different styles and imagery to blend with the typically cartoonish visuals of Illumination. The result feels much more dynamic and visually arresting than the first film’s more straightforward approach.
The world-building in this one is also much stronger. It was a surprise when the sequel’s title was revealed as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, given that it seemed the film franchise was skipping several generations of Mario game inspirations. However, it was the right direction to go, as it allowed this sequel to explore many other worlds inspired by every iteration of the Mario games, each with distinct looks, characters, and gorgeous colors. In a single movie, we got to explore desert worlds, a casino planet that ran in all directions, a bee-planet, and a prehistoric planet. The film chose to move the story beyond just The Mushroom Kingdom and Brooklyn, and it’s so much more interesting visually and stylistically because of it. Yes, this might be more of a testament to the creativity of the games, but being able to elegantly include so many planets and worlds in a 90-minute movie merits at least some commendation.
In fact, the world-building is, on the whole, a microcosm of the greatest thing The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has going for it: it’s a pure love letter not only to all things Super Mario but also a gorgeous celebration of the past, present, and future of Nintendo. The world-building here allows Shigeru Miyamoto and his team to wear their hearts so fully and openly on their sleeves and to inject the affection, passion, and love they have for these characters into the film. It becomes a tribute to the incredible works of his teams and the love the fans have for that work. The world-building and the central plotline allow the movie to seamlessly inject so many terrific easter eggs from Nintendo’s storied legacy, in a way that feels far more elegant than what they attempted in the first film.
For instance, the inclusion of Donkey Kong and the kart racing in the predecessor still feels forced and shoehorned into the film to this day. It felt like executives were throwing notes, forcing filmmakers to find a way to include Mario Karts and A-Ha’s “Take On Me” in the movie. Did it make fans smile? Sure. But was there a narrative purpose for any of it? Absolutely not. This is where, thankfully, Galaxy significantly improves things. Characters like Yoshi and others may feel like a shoehorned way to insert Nintendo nostalgia into the film (and, in a way, they are). However, Galaxy actually makes good use of every Easter egg or cameo appearance it throws at audiences. As such, none of it feels nearly as superfluous or gratuitous as what we saw in the first film, which gives us fans a real reason to smile other than the “member berry” factor.
Where Galaxy stumbles, however, is in a similar area where Bros. stumbled: cohesive storytelling. This brings me back to my huge gripe with Illumination and Chris Meledandri’s way of storytelling. Their episodic, vignette-based approach to storytelling is just awful. Whether it’s with the Minions franchise or even The Grinch, a story cannot simply consist of random scenes of “and then this happens, now this happens, and this happens next,” strung together by a loose overarching story. We’ve seen them do this so many times, with films like Migration and The Secret Life of Pets. And, sadly, it was really and blatantly apparent in the first Mario Bros. movie.
Here with Galaxy, it’s a bit better. There are reasons why certain characters appear and why characters are forced to make the choices they make. However, there are moments that still make the movie feel like a random string of events. Yoshi’s introduction just segues into his inclusion on Team Mario, with literally no questions asked. Mario and Luigi turn into babies at one point to honour the legacy of Yoshi’s Island. All this is well and good fuel for crafting a love letter to Nintendo, yes. However, if Illumination evolves beyond these short bursts of “quick problem/quick solution” scenes and adopts a much stricter focus on a central story that develops organically through a single sequence of events rather than multiple, they would become much more well-regarded in the animation world.
For instance, the movie is so focused on sending Team Mario to Location A or Location B just to throw in amazing Easter eggs, that it doesn’t bother to ask the question, “Shouldn’t Mario and Luigi just stay on Bowser Jr.’s ship so that it can take them straight to Rosalina? Especially considering that’s where Peach is headed, too?” It’s plot holes like these that, unfortunately, point out the fallacies in the Illumination approach to skit-driven storytelling. The assumption that kids won’t care about plot holes as long as they pay to see Mario needs to change at their animation studio.
On the plus side, sending Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad all over the galaxy allows the movie to introduce terrific additions to the voice cast and new characters to love. Donald Glover’s Yoshi, for instance, is the absolute new darling favorite of the movie. Glover can emulate all of Yoshi’s sounds in a completely unrecognizable way, which will make fans of the games extremely happy. Like in the games, Yoshi is incredibly useful in the film, proving his worth as a skilled fighter, a staunch defender of what’s morally right, and a loyal pal to Mario and Luigi. He’s a welcome presence in the film and an absolute, adorable scene stealer.
There’s also one other major addition to the film that I absolutely adored, but don’t want to spoil. The motivations and explanations for this character are sufficient. The character itself is so much fun and proves to be a useful addition to the team. It’s most definitely a ploy for the folks at Nintendo to begin work on a spin-off movie of sorts, but after seeing this character in Galaxy, I would definitely have zero complaints.
The action and the set pieces in this film are also so much fun! There’s a fight sequence between Peach and a group of Ninjis on a planet where all directions are possible, and it was just fast, badass, and made me care more deeply about her character and well-being. There’s also a really fun 3-on-1 match between Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Bowser Jr. that ended up being really well shot and designed, and a rousing space-battle sequence that feels like something out of a Star Wars film. It’s tricky to make animated films feel like John Wick-style action movies, but the animators at Illumination managed to pull it off.
They also manage to take the 2D elements of the video games and immerse us in them like never before, which is astonishing. One such example comes when Peach and Mario are storming the castle of Bowser Jr. Rather than just committing to showing things from their point of view as they dodge flames and falling debris, the movie humorously and cleverly cuts between Bowser Jr. playing a traditional 2D platformer featuring Mario and Peach (which he’s using to trigger traps), and showing us what it would look like if you were actually immersed in the situation. It blends comedy, gaming nostalgia, and the situation’s thrills perfectly.
On a technical level, as well, the score and sound design for the film are both top-notch. Bryan Tyler is able to scour the history of the Mario games to cobble together a thrilling score that rousing tribute to every generation of the Mario legacy. And the sound design for the film pays full tribute to the amazing, nostalgic, and familiar effects we grew up listening to, which helped us advance our heroes from one level to the next.
Overall, while not without its flaws, the Super Mario Galaxy levels up on the first film in every way! It is an absolute love letter to 40 years of Mario, and a glorious celebration of all things Nintendo, past, present, and future. The animation and action sequences are visually dynamic and incredibly stunning. The new characters absolutely work, with scene-stealing moments from Yoshi and other legendary characters. If you love your Nintendo and absolutely appreciate everything Miyamoto-san and his team have given us over the past 40+ years, then trust me; The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will leave you smiling from ear to ear!
Rating: 8/10