My family enjoys going to the movies as most families do. Currently we are limited to family friendly affairs as my son is only seven. Unfortunately, even though I saw several “R” rated movies by the time I was ten, I try to do right for my child. Anyway, so animated kid movies tend to be seen most frequently. I was just entering college when the last Super Mario Bros movie came out in 1993 and while I won’t go into any real details, it was probably one of the most disappointing films I have ever been to. It took thirty long years for a proper Super Mario Bros movie to happen, and thankfully it finally has. Let’s take a look.
We have arrived in Snow Kingdom. The land is ruled by King Penguin (voiced by Khary Payton)with his army of brave penguins to guard the kingdom. Unfortunately, Bowser’s ship has come to overtake this once great kingdom and make it his own. An army of Koopas descend upon the ice and stand at the ready. Kamek (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson), a sorcerer comes out next before our eyes setting on the one and only Bowser (voiced by Jack Black), king of the Koopas.
King Penguin sets his army into motion and they attack. With snowballs. He says that was just a taste of what his army can do. Bowser laughs. The kingdom erupts into fire in mere seconds. The Snow Kingdom is no more under the control of the penguins, it is now under Bowser’s control and one can only wonder what kingdom the foul reptile will conquer next.
The following scene, we are introduced to a commercial for the Super Mario Bros, Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (voiced by Charlie Day). They are plumbers who are trying to further their business and help out Brooklyn with any leak, drip and plumbing service that they can. Unfortunately, their former boss, Spike (voiced by Sebastian Maniscalco) doesn’t take kindly to seeing the commercial and has a scuffle with the Bros at the diner they all happen to be at. It ends with no obvious broken bones, and the Bros are called out to a job. But they don’t have a working truck. Cue the zany on foot montage to get to the desired location.
Meanwhile, at the job, Mario and Luigi are trying to fix a leak but a nasty dog keeps interfering. As much as they try, the leak keeps getting worse but eventually they are able to overcome the odds…sort of. Later that night, the two brothers have dinner with their extended family and listen to the continuous doubts of whether this line of work is really suitable for the long term. Mario is particularly defiant and knows that they can succeed. Later in his room, he suddenly sees on the television the break he has been waiting for, there is a giant leak in downtown Brooklyn and nobody can seem to fix it. Looks like this one is up to the Mario Bros!
The two brothers get to the scene. Mario decides to take a detour and goes straight to a nearby manhole. They reach the sewer and find a tunnel that they aren’t sure where exactly it leads to. Suddenly Luigi gets sucked in and within seconds of that discovery, Mario gets sucked in as well. They are transported instantly to a far away land. However, despite their attempts to stay together, they become separated with Luigi being transported to the Dark Lands while Mario lands firmly in Mushroom Kingdom. He is greeted by Toad (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) and together they must save his brother.
One of the things I really liked at the beginning of this is that the film did everything they could to make even the smallest Mario Bros fan feel immediately at home. This isn’t some radical new story or a brave bold spin on some familiar characters. There are two plumbers, they try to fix a leak and end up in Mushroom Kingdom. That does exactly what we expect and doesn’t deviate.
This film also goes overboard on references. Look high and low, there are references to pretty much anything along the lines of Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong and other classic Nintendo references. Everything from the original Mario Bros (shown as the original title, Jump Man) to Kid Icarus to even Punch Out references are on display here. It’s a huge heaping dose of nostalgia and for a kid who grew up in the 80’s, the very thing I was hoping for but never got in the 90’s.
The voice acting is actually rather good as it was getting a lot of negative feedback, primarily focused around the interpretation of Mario by Chris Pratt. However, while Charles Martinet (who actually did a few roles in the film including Mario’s dad) was not the lead here, I never felt taken out of the film. It was excellent and I probably enjoyed all of the voices with the exception of Donkey Kong (voiced by Seth Rogen).
However, as wonderful as this film actually is, there is one sort of problem I had with it. Bowser. Now, Jack Black does a great job with voicing the character. No issues there, seriously. But they write Bowser as almost a lounge act, complete with singing numbers and a piano. I mean, I will admit that the song Peaches should probably get an Emmy nomination and I don’t mind him being head over heels about Peach herself (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) but it just comes out odd. I think I would have liked him to be a little meaner, perhaps a little more cutthroat. Similar to the opening scene, that’s what I usually envision Bowser to be. This version of Bowser is growing on me I will admit but its certainly jarring when you see him seated at a piano for the first time.
Above all, the movie is fun. This film had a lot of critics going after it for every ridiculous thing from “Not accessible to newcomers” to “Not promoting diversity”. Hey John Leguizamo, just because you played the worst god awful version of Luigi known to man, doesn’t mean you get to play the race card. But hey, I enjoyed him in the Ice Age movies, so it’s all good, I guess. Furthermore, this film did amazingly in its first week opening with $146 million domestically. As of the time of this post, it has already reached $420 million worldwide. It’s doing great, and everyone, especially those with a Nintendo childhood should go see it…twice. So, even though I am a critic (just not a paid one), maybe we collectively got it wrong this time. With that, I fully recommend this film, wonderful for the kiddos, and the Gen X and younger adults too. Enjoy.
NOTE: BTW, if you made it this far, be sure to know there are TWO post credit scenes. One mid-credit scene and one post credit scene. Foolishly, I let my family talk me into leaving after the first. After reading about the second, it is very important if you want to see a rather familiar face in the Mario World. I wasn’t happy that I missed it. Take care.
| Overall: |  (8.5 / 10) |
