April 5, 2026 · Watch the official trailer
Crafting a sequel is a tricky thing for filmmakers.
On one hand, it’s important to give the audience more of what they loved about the original and expand that world faithfully to keep moviegoers engaged and continuing to want more. On the other, it’s easy to fall into a studio-driven trap to make something quickly that drives world expansion to a level that requires multiple movies to explain everything that just happened.
This is especially true of animated films, which don’t require actors to commit their entire lives to roles or worry about becoming too old to play their beloved characters.
Nostalgia played a significant factor in how light-hearted and fun the 2023 animated comedy “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was to watch in theaters, taking classic Nintendo characters from the video game series and bringing them into modern cinema in a vibrant, fresh way.
Universal Studios capitalized on the commercial and critical success by instantly green-lighting a sequel, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which released in theaters April 1. “Galaxy” instantly jumps the shark within its first act, mistaking scale for progression and excess for evolution. In many ways, it plays less like story extension and more like a calculated attempt to capitalize on the franchise’s longevity, a glossy, overstretched celebration of Mario’s 40th anniversary that feels engineered to monetize nostalgia rather than build on it.
“Galaxy” greenlights the introduction of a second Princess, Rosalina, from the titular video game and then shelves her for most of the film, while Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad and the iconic Yoshi all galivant around trying to rescue her and each other from the son of the villainous Bowser. Rather than play within linear storylines, each sequence feels like a disjointed video game level that ultimately puts everyone on a collision course for a lackluster conclusion.
The result is stitched together moments that feel like cutscenes from a video game franchise. Multiple plotlines – each with the potential to anchor their own film – are tossed together with side quests becoming primary threads and character introductions doubling as exposition dumps.
The voice work should be strong throughout with the majority of the ensemble cast of the original returning and “Captain Marvel” actress Brie Larson joining as Rosalina, though the comedic timing just doesn’t land the same.
Most notably, “Galaxy” sidelines and shortchanges Jack Black’s sidesplittingly funny yet problematic villain Bowser – the highlight of the original with his Golden Globe nominated song “Peaches” – and with it, most of the humor and lighthearted fun.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” worked in large part because of the original storyline and humor that made sense surrounding all the Mario canon and nostalgia factor. This film leans so heavily into increasingly niche corners that it begins to feel less like an adaptation and more like a content dump. It’s as if the filmmakers skipped over multiple games’ worth of storytelling progression just to arrive at a version of the universe that feels bigger on paper.
Visually, Illumination Studios and their track record with films like the “Despicable Me” and its offshoot “Minions” animated franchise bring the world of Mario to life in unique and inventive ways despite how all over the place the storytelling is. There’s almost always something compelling to look at and engage with visually, especially for fans hunting for specific hidden Easter eggs or teasers.
In trying to expand the world, introduce new characters and fast-track its way through multiple eras of the franchise, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” loses sight of what made its predecessor work in the first place.
Bigger doesn’t translate to better here, just busier. For a film built so heavily on nostalgia, it’s a surprisingly hollow experience and one that cinephiles won’t need to make a trip to the theater for.
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