It’s clear that everyone involved in the making of The Super Mario Bros. Movie really, really loves the source material. Or, maybe they’re just terrified at the prospect of rattling the hornet’s nest of Nintendo fandom. It’s probably a little from column A and a little from column B. Well, fans of the massively popular constellation of video games represented here can rejoice in the news that every minor detail is accounted for in Super Mario Bros.. The instantly recognizable sounds of entering a warp pipe or collecting a gold coin or bopping a question box – everywhere. Every character you’d want to see – save one, who is undoubtedly waiting in the wings for the sequel – all present. Deep cuts like Super Mario 3D World’s cat suit and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! opening credits song – you know ’em. Oh, and is that original Mario voice actor Charles Martinet playing a Donkey Kong-like arcade cabinet over there? Why, it sure is. It’s enough to make a true superfan squeal with delight. And, if the audience at my screening is any indication, squeal and cheer and hoot they will. A certain segment of movie goers around the world are going to lose their shit at least 27 times during the film’s (blessedly short) 92-minute runtime.
How about the rest of us? Well, the film, as directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (who developed Teen Titans Go! for Cartoon Network), zips by like a Mario Kart boosted by a dash mushroom. Its gorgeous visuals perfectly capture vast video game levels, with a sense of grandiosity and awe. The jokes aren’t half bad either (particularly a twisted but funny running gag featuring a nihilistic blue Luma). But once the film has raced by, the whole spectacle feels empty and safe: IP management at its most careful and bland.
Strip the film of its many iconic trappings, and what’s left is as generic an adventure story as they come. Brothers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are Brooklyn plumbers who get sucked into a fantasy land via a warp pipe. Luigi lands in a dark world ruled by the evil turtle monarch Bowser (Jack Black), who soon imprisons the green plumber. The other plops into the Mushroom Kingdom, where a human woman named Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) rules over a race of mushroom people called Toads (don’t ask). Peach commits to helping Mario rescue his brother. She teaches him classic Super Mario platforming techniques – all that jumping and stomping and growing large (following the consumption of a power up) that goes all the way back to the original game. They set off to recruit the help of Cranky Kong and his fellow apes. They team up with the affable, if narcissistic, son Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) and together they set off to battle Bowser.
It should be noted this is the second attempt to adapt Mario for the big screen. The first was 1993’s deeply weird, live-action commercial failure that borrowed more from Ghostbusters and Wizard of Oz than it did a video game. By no means a good movie, it was at least an interesting and admirable attempt to put a spin on a game that isn’t exactly beloved for its story. Thirty years later, the creators of the latest Super Mario Bros. movie have zero interest in repeating that mistake. This will likely be a huge hit. But no one will ever claim it’s doing anything within a koopa-shell’s throw of intriguing.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
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