April 17, 2023 · Watch the trailer
Solid animated films always draw at the box office, but it’s unlikely that Illumination – the studio behind “Despicable Me” and “Minions” – saw their first partnership with video game maker Nintendo starting off so strong.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” debuted over the long Easter weekend to nearly $400 million globally thanks to a lack of competition in the family-friendly market, some slick marketing and exceptionally impressive visuals that take the classic 1980s video game franchise and modernize it without losing the signature charm of the original characters.
The film serves as an origin story for the titular brothers Mario and Luigi, who find themselves separated after being sucked into an alternate world through a mysterious green pipe. Mario must team with a young Princess Peach and her Mushroom Kingdom to do battle against Bowser and the Koopas who have captured Luigi.
While the story is relatively straightforward by family friendly film standards, animated features like “Super Mario Bros.” must rely on a talented ensemble voice cast to carry the narrative and maintain audience engagement. For the most part, the right choices were made with one sizable exception.
Chris Pratt’s awkward half-Italian, half-goofball blend of an accent with his own cadence makes for a very stilted, uneven Mario that doesn’t quite fit tonally with the rest of the cast. It’s as if Pratt isn’t sure when to lean into the more stereotypical Italian roots of the character and when to bring out his own voice, but it’s clear that the talented comedian isn’t exactly a perfect fit for the lead.
Conversely, Jack Black deepens his vocals slightly with just a bit of a menace to make the ideal foil in Bowser, who often steals scenes with his misguided, brash portrayal of the villain as an anti-hero in love. Quite often, it’s Bowser who’s the most entertaining character in the entire movie while Mario feels much stiffer despite the desire to have audiences love Mario and hate Bowser.
The rest of the ensemble cast does a solid job from Anya Taylor-Joy’s terrific blend of serious and silly as Princess Peach to Keegan-Michael Key’s fun-loving Toad to Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong, which is basically just a less sophomoric take on Rogen’s persona but works within the context of the character.
One of the most impressive things about “Super Mario Bros.” is just how perfectly the film lifts elements from the various Mario video games and blends them together in a largely cohesive fashion. The score borrows, samples and remixes classic themes from the early days of Nintendo both for character introductions and to engage in the numerous action sequences, while there’s also hidden gems floating throughout the movie to encourage repeat viewings.
Visually, the animators masterfully capture the game’s side-scroller adventure days in an early scene where Mario helps Luigi make his way through construction in New York City and the links to the Mario Kart era games in several racing sequences are equally impressive.
It’s a film that looks far better than any Nintendo game would play and really shows off the depth of talent in Illumination’s animation team to depart from their usual style and lean into the classic Nintendo look.
“Peaches,” the unnecessarily catchy song sung by Black’s Bowser midway through the film is the sort of irreverent fun that could make an appealing Best Original Song candidate at next year’s Academy Awards that could draw a wider audience but isn’t likely to have a great shot at winning.
Similarly, “Super Mario Bros.” isn’t the frontrunner for Best Animated Feature with a sequel to the Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse” coming later this year, although it feels like a lock to be nominated.
Visually engaging with a decent plot and enough easter eggs for hardcore fans of the Nintendo series, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has solid entertainment for audiences of all ages, but isn’t something that audiences should rush out to see when it will likely be played ad nauseum during at home streaming all summer long.
Leave a Reply