By Alex Moore
Where was I 30 years ago? Well, at some point, I was sitting in a theater with my mother, watching a new movie, based on a beloved video game franchise. At the time, it was only 10 years old (eight if you start with its U.S. release) and had a mere four titles within its mainstream timeline (seven if you include the original Japanese sequel and the GameBoy entries). What I remember is vague and for good reason: the movie was awful, even to an inexperienced, 10-year old boy. Dare I say, the sound of my Mom’s snoring was even more compelling than the film, itself, but I digress…
When word got out that a new variation of the same movie was being released, I was curious, but not overly enthused. That is not a direct knock on the film, but merely a learned reaction I have grown to have about films, in general. Just like the birth of the recent “Sonic the Hedgehog” films, this project was to be produced, at least partially, by the video game company that originated the titular stars. In this case, it is Nintendo, rather than Sega. However, the overall approach is decidedly different. While Sega (and Paramount Pictures) chose to drop Sonic into the real world and mix him into the lives of everyday people in American suburbia, Nintendo (and Universal Pictures) chose to make Mario and his brother, Luigi, the central figures in a parallel, CGI-created Brooklyn borough, with Bowser crashing the party, so to speak. Which way is better? Leave it to me to tell you about that…
Atop the list of acclaimed voice actors is Chris Pratt (“Thor: Love and Thunder”) as Mario. If you forget that he was even the voice of the main character for this movie, you might never know the difference, which I think is fine, in this case. Second down the list is Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Menu”) as Princess Peach. Like many other modern princesses on the big screen, today, she is strong enough that she does not need to be saved, but the cues are more subtle, in this case, compared to, say, the live-action remake of “Aladdin.” Last, but not least, though he often gets the shaft (almost as an inside joke these days), is Charlie Day (“I Want You Back”) as Luigi. As you might have guessed, he plays second fiddle to Mario and has a much more limited role, but there is always the possibility of a bigger share of the pie in a sequel, right? Only time will tell!
As I have gotten older, I have discovered that the villains in most of the cartoons I grew up with, whether it be on film or television, tend to have the best parts or simply give the best performances. I am confident in saying that this movie is no different. Jack Black (“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”) voices the main antagonist of Bowser and does so good of a job, you really only recognize his actual voice while he is singing. Yes, he sings, and it is quite humorous. Keegan-Michael Key (“Wendell & Wild”) as the voice of Toad, though there are dozens of other “toads” in the Mushroom Kingdom, is, in my opinion, the greatest character in this movie. Possibly, it is because I favored Toad in all the “MarioKart” games, but I happen to think that for a limited character role, he could have easily stolen the show. This brings us to the elusive Seth Rogen (“The Fabelmans”) as Donkey Kong. He and Mario butt heads, literally, but eventually form a truce to combat Bowser. Are you at all surprised? Not that it matters, in my view. As I have said often enough, predictability in film is no predictor of that movie’s success. Moving on…
I already covered, previously, that Bowser sort of drops into the story, without any real context, and begins to do Bowser things. Yes, I was reminded of the issues I had with the “Sonic” films, but as the tale shifted to the Mario Brothers, my perspective slowly began to change on this particular movie. I could see that we were going to be teleported to a parallel world with an abundance of large mushrooms and funny creatures. Many more, smaller details, appeared without great context, but for some reason, I was not bothered by them. Is it possible that this film prepared me more for the expectations of the remainder of the story arc? Maybe so, but allow me to explain the difference of approach, here, versus the former franchise mentioned…
Nintendo dedicated their entire universe to this movie. Well, a great deal of it, anyway. When I watched “Sonic the Hedgehog,” there was no attempt to include…oh, wait a minute! What else could Sega have included? When we think of Nintendo, there is more than just Mario, right? Yes, there is, also, Donkey Kong and Zelda and Metroid, etcetera. By default, Nintendo simply had more in its corner to utilize. There really was not much Sega could do about that, I am sorry to say. Nintendo is still here and Sega is not. The 16-bit years of glory are 30 years behind us.
I think, over time, we have taken for granted all that Nintendo has brought to the table. We have had these things for so many years, we no longer see how special they really are, still! If anything, this film reminded me of that and it was charming and fun; more fun than what I got out of “Sonic.” In hindsight, as much as I love the Sega Genesis and all its unique, though flawed peripherals, the brand does not hold a candle, compared to the entire scope of Nintendo.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was nostalgic, but also relevant. I know it might sound silly to talk so candidly and seriously about video games, but to my generation, it is still a serious hobby and interest for so many of us and I, for one, do not want it to go away any time soon. If you have no real relationship to gaming, this movie will probably seem too whimsical to keep you involved, mentally or emotionally. However, even with that, I thought it was slightly better than either of the “Sonic” films because it felt like a totally original story and not like some composite mixture of several, thrown-out scripts or short stories. As a fan of Nintendo, even though I only replay the oldies at this stage, it was even better than slightly good; it was simply good. If I could give this movie a half-point score, I would, but since I cannot, I have rounded up, not down, cause I believe it deserved that. My only, additional thought is that some franchise characters and stories would still translate better on the big screen, let us not get too fr ahead of ourselves. Be patient for the bigger and even better possibilities and back that up by paying to see this production. It was fun!
By Marcus Blake
Should there be another Super Mario Bros movie considering the last one was so bad, why not! But if Hollywood has learned anything, making a movie off a classic video game sometimes works better as an animated film and that’s one of the reasons this latest Super Mario Brothers movie is pretty good. Its definitely worth watching. It brought back all my nostalgia for the classic Super Mario Brothers games while giving a different spin on the story about two average Brothers just trying to make their way as plumbers but end up having to save their hometown of Brooklyn New York from the classic villain Bowser and help rescue a princess. We tend to think animated movies are meant for kids, and for the most part they are, but when you make an animated film over a classic video game and you have to make it appealing to middle-aged parents, aunts, and uncles who played the game on the original NES. Everything I loved about the games was in this movie. I wasn’t expecting much but walked out of the theater ready to watch it again with my niece and nephew.
It’s a good-looking movie and definitely looks like some of the newer 3D versions of a Super Mario game you would find on the Nintendo Switch. However, the best part of this movie is it looks like the classic games, you will recognize different levels and worlds from the original game Super Mario Bros 3 and even Mario Kart. After all, it wouldn’t be a true Super Mario Bros movie if you didn’t have Rainbow Road. Chris Pratt voices Mario and Anya Taylor-Joy voices Princess Peaches did a fine job, but the best performance comes from Jack Black who voiced Bowser, especially with him singing songs to the princess he wants to marry. And I also admit that I will never play a Donkey Kong game ever again without hearing Seth Rogen’s voice, he did a great job. When you get a wonderful voice cast you can maximize great performances then you’re going to have a good movie on your hands. There’s a lot of nostalgia in this movie and a lot of great laughs that will keep you entertained.
The story isn’t very engaging. It’s a simple story just like in the games and that may be hard to translate into a movie. Bowser wants to take over the world. And in this movie, he wants to marry Peaches. Mario is out to save his brother after being sucked into a parallel universe that contains the locations from the game. But perhaps the story doesn’t need to be that intricate with many layers. The movie is based on a very light-hearted game and really as long as this movie makes us laugh then it’s done its job when it comes to entertaining audiences. They certainly could have done more with Luigi’s character and of course, we could have had more scenes with Mario and Luigi’s family, but this isn’t a movie based on a game with a serious tone. Overall, it’s a fun movie with a good voice cast that will bring you lots of laughs. But the biggest thing this game does is bring back all Nostalgia for the Super Mario Brothers games. You’ll be entertained by the movie, but it’ll make you want to play the games and remember the pure Ecstasy of playing Super Mario game from your childhood. But like all video game adaptations, the best stories are the ones we play. You may enjoy the movie, but you’ll have a better time playing a Super Mario Bros game and this latest movie is certainly not as bad as the one that came out 30 years ago.
