Six years ago, rumors began to spread about a new film for the iconic “Super Mario Bros.” franchise, stating that the film would be under development by Illumination Entertainment.
With Chris Pratt playing the role of Mario, Jack Black as Bowser and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, few were fond of the choices presented for the movie. It wasn’t until the trailer officially dropped that more people began to get excited.
As time passed, the advertisements for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” skyrocketed with one of the best marketing techniques in the form of the “Super Mario Bros. Plumbing” commercial and website. Many people were hooked and excited; fans of the original series were noticing references to games old and new. Some began praising the animation as Illumination’s best-looking film.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is without a doubt one of the best video game adaptations made yet. This film is faithful to the original series through its references to older and newer material, has a good story, great character moments and arguably the best animation that Illumination has ever put out. Despite the cast being comprised of established actors, the voice acting is phenomenal. Surprisingly, Chris Pratt does a respectable job as Mario. However, the best performance in this film is Jack Black’s Bowser. Black brings so much life to the character that the performance can easily be compared to Bowser’s personality in the Mario RPG series. Even when Bowser starts singing, Black brings so much personality that the character feels perfect.
Charlie Day’s performance as Luigi is also great, perfectly reflecting Luigi’s cowardice in a way that makes his character shine. It is a shame we don’t get to see more of Luigi in the movie, outside of the first half and the final battle. Keegan Michael Key gives Toad more character, which is the best move Illumination Entertainment could’ve made. Anya Taylor Joy’s Princess Peach is fantastic and honestly diverges the most from her video game counterpart in terms of personality, but Joy makes it work in the best way possible. Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong is just okay; there isn’t much to say about him, sadly.
Visually, this movie is amazing. Illumination really went all out with the animation here. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is also filled to the brim with references from the series as well as other Nintendo properties. From locations to characters and enemies, Illumination Entertainment really put everything they could into its short runtime.
The plot of this movie is, unfortunately, paper thin. It’s not to say “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has a bad story, but there’s not much that really goes on in the film from a storyline perspective. It doesn’t have many turning points or explanations for certain aspects of the Mushroom Kingdom, for example. The movie attempts to develop the characters, but it ends up feeling rushed and it only pushes the movie forward.
Part of the reasoning behind this issue was the movie’s pacing. This movie is only an hour and a half long. It can be argued that the first “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie was around the same length as the Mario movie, but the difference is that the Sonic movie took its time to reach its end goal and developed Sonic’s character over the course of the film and into the sequel.
The issue with Mario and Luigi’s development is that, toward the finale, it doesn’t feel like they’ve grown into this role, especially Luigi, who is hardly in the film’s second act.
Is this film worth seeing despite the criticism? Absolutely. Regardless of what’s been said, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is still an incredibly fun and enjoyable film for fans and moviegoers. As far as video game movie adaptations are concerned, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is iconic for fans of the original series and a must-see. It’s the best we’ve gotten thus far.
