The Super Mario Bros Movie - Fantastic Fun for Fans · 11:04pm Apr 8th, 2023

Hello everyone,

I just got back from watching the Super Mario Bros Movie, which came out on April 5th, 2023.

A fun little origin story for the famous Italian plumber and Nintendo mascot we all know, the movie follows Mario as he traverses the Mushroom Kingdom to try and save his brother Luigi and his love interest Princess Peach from the tyranny of Bowser.

On it's own, the adventure is an absolute joy to watch, with a perfect rendition of the Hero's Journey as Mario takes on Bowser in a bid to save his brother. We get some really cool expansion on Mario's personality, where he gets portrayed as a true blue New Yorker; tough, loyal to his family, and never one to give up without a fight.

And while fans did express concerns over how well the likes of Chris Pratt and Jack Black could portray their characters, I feel that both managed to turn in really good performances. Chris Pratt really sells Mario's devotion to his brother, especially with his pairing with Charlie Day as the voice of Luigi.

And Jack Black turns in in a stellar and sometimes almost unrecognizable performance as Bowser. At times, he reminded me of how Wayne Knight managed to nail the role of Evil Emporer Zurg in the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command movie without making me think of his other role as Newman from Seinfeld. And Black additionally manages to combine hilarity and horror in his performance as Bowser, switching him from ruthless dictator to lovestruck for Peach almost on a dime. He makes Bowser such a fun and interesting villain to watch, and he even manages to make Bowser singing actually pretty cool to see - Jack Black's days in Tenacious D really pay off there.

Now this is all fine on it's own, but one final thing that really makes me think this movie is for fans of the games is the references. The movie is chalk full of references to almost every Super Mario game that was ever made. From the original Super Mario to Mario Kart to even Donkey Kong, there were so many moments where I would notice a reference to one of the original games and laugh at how they managed to implement it into the story.

Granted, the film wasn't perfect; mainstay characters such as Yoshi were left to mostly background characters and sequal teases, but this is to be expected when adapting such a huge universe like the Super Mario World.

And for what it is, it's a fun adventure story that truly seems to respect and love it's source material, and does it's best to pay homage to a wonderful video game series.

Well done, Illumination. You did good. 👍

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