‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ which was produced by Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio most known for their ‘Despicable Me’ franchise, teamed up with the godfather of gaming himself Shigeru Miyamoto to bring us the second big screen attempt at a Super Mario Bros film with mixed results.
‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ lays the groundwork for an exciting future in a potential Nintendo Cinematic Universe. The voice cast is fantastic and the animation is polished and vibrant. A major kudos to the production designers and art department of this film. The easter eggs and attention to detail in terms of Nintendo lore is commendable and gives me hope for far better films in the future than this one.
What really holds ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ back from being truly great is its unfocused trope ridden script. I could’ve forgiven some of this if it had any edge in the script or ingenuity in terms of storytelling. There are a handful of truly inspired moments in terms of sequences, but it mostly a generic by the numbers narrative stretched thin. It’s a straight-to-DVD script with an all-star voice cast and blockbuster budget.
While I’m not as overcritical of video game adaptions as many films scholars, recent years have given us a boon of incredible ones including ‘Detective Pikachu,’ ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ and ‘The Last of Us.’ Considering all involved in ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ and that the bar has been significantly raised for modern video game adaptions, I expected better.
I may be assessing ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ too harshly, but asking for less milquetoast storytelling shouldn’t be too much to ask for a film of this caliber. That being said, ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ is by no means painful to watch and is generally enjoyable, especially if you’re a long time Super Mario fan since it is the references that carry the film. It is also important to note that kids will love it.
MY STAR RATING 2.75/5 STARS
Explore the Brown Deer Public Library's collection of new and classic Mario Bros games, including ones for the Nintendo Switch, available to check out.
Comments