The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
When I saw the trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie I had no idea
that they had made it. I can't imagine how I missed any reference to it but I
did. Anyway, I tentatively started watching it and it really brightened up my
day. It looked like it contained everything I could want and expect from a
Mario movie. It had Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach,
Bowser, Karts, Rainbow Road and a plethora of visual
references that I could not keep up with! I was in. This being Mario, how
would it all be set up? What was the heroic mission he will be
undertaking with his friends? And how was Bowser going to steal the show?
Super Mario Bros. and its associated characters has been part of popular
culture since the 1980s! (There is a great chapter in
Mat Alt's book
Pure Invention on Mario.) I remember playing it on the 8-bit
Nintendo Entertainment System and being frustrated by a platformer that
required precise timing on jumps and actions (but when it worked ... oh so
satisfying!). The cast of characters from the Nintendo stable are now
everywhere and just as much a part of the everyday as Disney characters are.
As such there is a tendency to project a bit of ourselves onto them and a
desire for the companies who own the characters to keep them consistent with
how they see them (more on that later).
In this movie Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) have just set up their own plumbing business to the ridicule of their
ex-employer and slight disappointment of their father. They do however have a
great TV advert (and they even have their own website). As all new ventures tend to have a slow start Mario, whilst watching the
news, sees that there is major water leak flooding Brooklyn and sees an
opportunity to prove the nay-sayers wrong. As you can imagine things do not go
according to plan and the pair end up finding and being pulled into a Warp
Pipe under the Brooklyn neighbourhood.
Our brothers now are separated with Luigi ending up in the Dark Lands -
Bowser's territory - and Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom. With Toad (who was
much less annoying than I was expecting with a voice provided by
Keegan-Michael Key) Mario heads for the castle of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) where we find out that the Mushroom Kingdom is under threat - Bowser is on
his way and he has a Super Star power-up that he captured from the Snow
Kingdom after defeating the Penguin King.
Princess Peach decides that the only way to defeat Bowser is to join forces
with the Kongs and that with strength and heart they would be unstoppable. As
she is about to make preparations for her journey Mario bursts in and after a
training montage of trial and failure (reminiscent of how we had to play those
early Mario Bros. games) they both set off on their shared purpose - Peach to
save her kingdom and Mario to save Luigi...
Having read some of the reviews after watching the movie there were comments
about how it was not that creative or innovative. I can totally see where
they are coming from. It is not a movie like Across the Spider-verse where Spider-man has been reimagined time and again for new audiences
across different media (sometimes to great success) so can take a risk. The
last Mario movie was awful and not really what the fans of the game wanted
to see, even if it was more 'creative'. If the Super Mario Bros. Movie
from 2023 is the start of a new chapter for Mario and other Nintendo
characters then I hope to see some interesting and new takes on them .. but
with these beloved characters (and others including the Disney cast) it
would be a challenge and risk to take them 'off-brand' and do something
really unique with them. For this movie (the first?) it packaged up visual
and aural nostalgia in such a fun way that I couldn't help but enjoy it. I'm
also glad I watched it at home because the number of times I pointed and
exclaimed a reference would have annoyed people in the theatre!
Although Super Mario Bros. may have had some unkind reviews as of 4 June
2023 it has grossed $1.3B and was the
second biggest animated move in history
being beaten only by Frozen II. So it has been doing something
right.
And those right things can be laid at the directors (Aaron Horvath
and Michael Jelenic), Illumination Studios Paris and the
film they created with Shigeru Miyamotyo from Nintendo. With the
Mario world being so established there is not a lot of fun visual work they
can do and there is a wide cast of characters they can use to fill in the
world, so visually Illumination Studio Paris didn't have much to work with.
Where they could play was with the animation and in some ways how they told
the story. Early on as Luigi and Mario go to a job the dash through Brooklyn
becomes the classic 2D side-scrolling platformer. The character animation
and motion is also first rate and seems to align with what is on display - a
graceful fluid camera when Peach is in training vs. the slightly static and
lumbering Mario as he tries time and again to train and then when he does it
is free and wild.
Every frame is packed with colour and countless references to the Mario and
associated Nintendo titles and it is fun trying to spot them all. For fans
of Mario Kart there is a great sequence towards the end of Act 2! But once
you have spotted everything there is less to keep you coming back for
another watch - it is unlikely to reward multiple viewings for a deeper
hidden meaning. It is however full of colour and motion and fun and it would
the kind of movie to watch when you need a fun pick me up.
Some of my favourite references included Kid Icarus (which I never
completed!), the Kart selection montage the gaming arcades and one great
musical number (below).
It would be a crime to underplay how important the sound and music in this
movie are. It is a brilliant balance of modern orchestral movie and games
scores with those aural cues from the Mario Bros. franchise from coin
blocks, to fire balls and the oh-so familiar 8-bit level music.
Brian Tyler and Koji Kondo bring it all together in a way that
really hits home how important the sound and music in a game (and movie) is
but unless it is really bad or missing we do not notice it. Unexpectedly
Bowser has his musical numbers which were a lot of fun -
Jack Black really letting Tenacious D out to play. And probably my
favourite part of the movie involves Bowser, Kamek a piano and one of those
classic Super Mario Bros. level music - a great blend of visuals, music and
comedy.
Again I missed the chatter about the voice cast because I just didn't know
the movie was coming out and I have no complaints. Chris Pratt does a decent
job of portraying Mario, I liked how Peach was given a bit of fire and drive
by Anya Taylor-Joy but Jack Black as Bowser really stole it for me - just
the right amount of unpredictability, comedy villain and genuine heart.
FORMAT: MOVIE AVAILABLE ON:Cinema/Digital FROM: Universal RATING:
PG [US] PG [UK] RUNNING TIME : 92 mins
IN A NUTSHELL: Bright, colourful, fun and nostalgic
The Super Mario Bros. Movie entertains.
★★★☆☆
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