Welcome back to the blog readers. On its final theatrical day, I have finally seen the film that has taken the world by storm: The Super Mario Bros. Movie. I want to preface that while I was not the biggest Mario fan as a kid, I was and still am aware of all the characters, even playing Mario Party on the DS. Just talking about that brings back so many memories.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was directed by the duo of Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, from a script written by Matthew Fogel. The film features the voice of Chris Pratt as Mario along with Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen. In the film, Mario and Luigi, two Italian-American plumbers from Brooklyn, get teleported to an alternate world and get caught in a battle between the Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser and his Koopa forces.
I had been slightly interested in this film but my interest rose after highly positive word of mouth from people close to me. So I decided to give it a shot and see what I thought, especially because I am not the biggest fan of animated films, only seeing between 1 and 3 a year. So was this a win for Illumination and first-timers Nintendo? I am proud to say that this was a major win. This is such a charming film and I would recommend if you are looking for a good time and a fun viewing experience, although there are some flaws.
I want to take a minute and praise the animation for being faithful to the newer Mario games. Look at Mario from Super Mario Odyssey and you will see an exact match. Look at Bowser or Princess Peach. Look at Toad or Kamek, they look like they just came out of a video game. And the world looks absolutely vibrant and populated. It pretty much looks like we just came out of a level of the newest Mario game. Because of this, I would not be surprised if for this reason this film gets a Best Animated Feature Film nomination at the Oscars.
Time to address the elephant in the room. I was admittedly kind of nervous about the voice of Mario, but within 2 minutes, my hesitance turned into acceptance, as I realized this voice actually makes sense for the story that is trying to be told. Like I told you with my review of Somewhere in Queens, the voice cast in Brooklyn does a wonderful job of being relatable and real. Basically what I am trying to get at is that I really do like Chris Pratt's Mario voice. I don't think I could have gotten through an entire film with it being the traditional high-pitched stereotypical Italian accent.
The other voice I want to talk about is Jack Black as Bowser. I didn't know what wanted Bowser to sound like if he were to get a speaking role, but it is almost like Jack Black came along and said, "Here ya go, THIS is Bowser." And I agree with that statement: THIS is what Bowser should sound like. He brings the right amount of ferocity and levity to this voice and it was perfect. I really hope that Bowser comes back somehow in the inevitable sequel because this was awesome.
I did enjoy the rest of the voice cast as well. Charlie Day as Luigi was absolutely perfect casting, because his voice fits perfectly with the personality of the character. In his adventure in the Dark Lands, I literally kept thinking to myself that we are on the cusp of a Luigi's Haunted Mansion spinoff, and I hope that winds up being the next one. Anya Taylor-Joy is one of the best female actors on the planet and she nails it as the battle-tested Princess Peach. And it's kind of fitting too, because she sounds like a princess. I am thoroughly convinced Keegan-Michael Key had his voice pitched up to play Toad, and now I cannot see anyone else voicing this character. Seth Rogen voiced Donkey Kong and in typical Seth Rogen fashion, we got a Seth Rogen laugh. Leave it to Seth Rogen to have a Seth Rogen laugh in a film where Seth Rogen voices a character but you don't see Seth Rogen but you clearly know it is Seth Rogen. Too much? Too bad!
I also want to commend the music as well. Frequent James Gunn collaborator Brian Tyler composed the score and he wonderfully blends the original Mario themes by Koji Kondo with a more orchestral vibe, and it creates a modern feeling score that hits home in all the right places. When I heard there was going to be a Mario Bros. rap, I got very nervous because I thought this was going to ruin the film by being an unnecessary piece of filler. But the context in which it is used was lowkey brilliant and made it make sense. And the icing on the cake: "Peaches." A love song written by Jack Black and sung by his character Bowser, it is a fun and charming little tune that may be under-looked heading into awards season.
There is one more thing I want to talk positively about before I get into the negatives. That blue flaming star thing made me laugh the hardest I have this year so far. And I just found out that this character was played by Michael Jelenic's daughter Juliet and she was absolutely hilarious. Her nihilistic one-liners had me belly laughing harder than when M3GAN was singing "Titanium" to that little girl. If she sticks with this character and this profession, she may be around for a long, long time (see what I did there?). Her comedic timing is impeccable. Probably my favorite character of the year so far.
Now I want to get into the negatives of the film. The first big negative is that there is not a real connective story. It feels like a basic story with more care put into world-building than actual character development. And there are other subplots that really did not need to be there: Luigi's adventure, and the side-quest feel of it; and the side-quest feel of the main plot as well. It felt like get this to go here and once we're here, get this to go there. If there is to be a sequel, I hope that there is a more fleshed-out story than that of this film.
And the final negative that I want to discuss is the fact that this film is absolutely nostalgia-heavy. From the studio cards, this film is littered with callbacks to previous games and that kind of took me out of it to be honest with you. Even the prospect of the post-credits scene with the egg was laced with nostalgia, because if you don't get it, you won't. That is how most of the film felt. Luckily I got most of the nostalgia beats because I have played a couple of Mario games, but most fans will feel lost.
To conclude my thoughts, The Super Mario Bros. Movie may trade a fleshed-out story for a bunch of nostalgia beats, but we do get a fun time with wonderful voice acting and animation that (mostly) makes up for those flaws. Thank you all so much for reading this longer post, hope you all have a good one, and I will see you for my review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
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