“A heartwarming and funny gamer’s movie that keeps you entertained with each princess saved!”
After watching The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, I can’t tell if this movie was made for me or for kids…probably both, but love the fact that it entertains us gaming nerds who have been playing Mario games for 40 years. Did I laugh and have fun watching movie…absolutely! I’m not saying it’s the greatest gaming movie ever. Sorry, nothing can beat my nostalgia for The Wizard! However, an animated movie that’s geared towards kids and with a lot of references that will make adults who have played the games laugh their butts off…that’s a good movie. Super Mario movies should be animated and they should feel like you’re playing the game…that’s my favorite part about this movie and the first one. Yes, the voice performances are great. Jack Black is always funny, but I literally got home and started playing a Mario Brothers game. Maybe the film is the greatest subliminal message ever when it comes to wanting to play the games., but it’s still highly entertaining and worth watching.
This particular film introduces us to a bigger universe. While the first one introduced us to the Mario Brothers and how they came to save the Mushroom Kingdom along with Princess Peach, this film introduces more characters like Princess Rosalina. She is the guardian of the cosmos. Now we get to dive into a bigger Mario Brothers universe and how these two princesses are connected. We also get introduced to Bowser Jr. The grand adventure within the film makes it feel like you’re playing the games, and puts you right in the middle of the action and that’s one of the bright spots of the film. Again, I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s very funny and heartwarming, but I don’t think the sequel lived up to the first film. This serves as a film that will expand the galaxy which is great because there should be more Mario Brothers movies. The jokes are great. The references are fantastic, and I even applaud the use of music from the actual video games.
However, my biggest criticism of the film is a substandard plot. It’s not terrible as it introduces more characters and more places, but just seems a little redundant especially with not having a grand villain like Bowser. I hate to say it, Bowser Jr is not that frightening. Now both him and dad working together does make the movie better. As a gamer I’m always complaining about stories that feel more like DLC to a previous game in a series…a small story that shouldn’t be its own standalone game. This movie very much feels like DLC to the last movie. It does its job introducing new characters in the Mario Brothers Universe, but feels more like a shorter story compared to a larger one that you would get with a bigger game. There certainly a lot of great stories you can tell within “nintendoverse” and for anybody who’s played the games, knows that there’s so many great characters that have yet to be introduced that will help create better stories…this feels more like an appetizer to that bigger world. Although, the film isn’t too long, it’s a very entertaining 90 minutes that’s worth the price of a movie ticket especially for kids. And for us grown-ups who have played the games, there’s enough laughs and fantastic references that makes the movie worth watching again. It may not be as good as the first movie, but pair it together and you have a great double feature that won’t bore you especially if you’re a parent who may have to watch this movie more than once. And if I can compliment the film one more time…what a great way to introduce Star Fox who is still one of my all-time favorite Nintendo characters. I can’t wait for the next film in the series.
