It’s-A-Mario

From the studio that created Sing, The Secret Life of Pets, and the Despicable Me series, Illumination brought the Super Mario Bros Movie to theaters nationwide on April 5th, 2023. The movie has a stacked cast, starring voice actors: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Keegan-Michael Key, Anya Taylor-Joy, Seth Rogan and Jack Black as Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong and Bowser, respectively. The movie generated an estimated $146.6 million in ticket sales at theaters in the United States and Canada within its first week of release.

Critics have said that the popularity of the movie is being over-stimulated and doesn’t deserve its praise. It has also received somewhat odder criticism of the visuals, supposedly saying it was overwhelming to watch the movie at certain points. In a review from Tribune News Service, a film critic named Katie Walsh had a negative response to actor Chris Pratt, who played the leading voice character, Mario. She claimed his vocal performance as “so unremarkable that it could have been anyone at all.” She goes on to say, “Fortunately, this loud hectic movie doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it wouldn’t have the material to last longer.” Even though there were positive fan responses to the movie, most critics had a different standpoint.

On April 7th, I was able to see the movie with my friends and here are my thoughts, with spoilers ahead. Overall, the movie is perfectly made for all age audiences who are already familiar with Super Mario. Throughout the movie, there were plenty of references to older games that fans of the Nintendo franchise would pick up on. Some references were paying homage to the original voice of Mario, Charles Martinet, and using his original “Mario voice.” Some other references are: Mario playing Kid Icarus (1987) and the Logo to the Bar in Brooklyn has the Duck Hunt duck on top. The plot is very simple and relatable to the original games, with Bowser ultimately trying to declare his love for Princess Peach by capturing her. One of my favorite scenes was definitely the Mario Kart sequence; Mario, Peach and Toad customize their cart and race down  Rainbow Road. The soundtrack for the movie is amazing, with all songs being familiar to those who have played all different types of Mario games. Jack Black’s song Peaches was hilarious, and has not only amazed me, but took the internet by storm. All of the voice actors played their roles very well and I do believe that Jack Black shined in this movie and I cannot wait for a sequel. The movie does have end credit shorts, similar to the Marvel franchise, so I would suggest staying until the end! 

But there are some negatives to the film. Overall, the movie did feel a bit rushed, but with this being primarily aimed for kids, it’s understandable that they would want to keep it short. I wish Luigi had a little more screen time in terms of the plot, rather than being captured within the first thirty minutes of the film, but he is the quintessential secondary character. I also wasn’t a huge fan when the story took the final battle to Brooklyn. Overall, there weren’t as many cons for me and I would rate the movie a solid 7.8/10.

The movie currently stands at a 7.4/10 on IMDB, and if you are a fan of the video game, this is definitely worth the watch.