The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Given the film is about to be released, I think I better lay out my thoughts on what I like about the film before it releases, and thus might be swept by the inevitable comments on the film. Plus, the film releases here two weeks later compared to most of the world, so I won't be able to check it out as soon as many people here could. That means I can't be part of the conversation like most here could.

I need to point out that I initially thought the film would have been standard Mario plot turned into a feature-length film, with the Mario brothers saving the princess from Bowser and only using enemies and characters that we expect from the Super Mario games.

Without further ado, what I liked about the film as more were revealed are:
  • Nintendo and Illumination's collaboration is mutual. Illumination is not a favourite by fans, who may prefer a more reputable studio compared to Illumination, who is now infamous for their Minions. However, from interviews, it's clear that both Meledandri and Miyamoto have a good working relationship and they are very interested in working with one another. Since the relationship is great from the start, the film is already on the track to be much better than Super Mario Bros. (film), which has Bob Hoskins badmouthing this film for example. Plus, Meledandri is invited to be part of Nintendo's Board of Directors, which demonstrates a trust that is not easy for a Japan-centric company like Nintendo. A USGamer article (now offline) also makes a point on how Illumination is the best choice for Nintendo by virtue of both their (more fan-loved) competitors being unrealistic choices, and how Illumination manages budgets well. If Nintendo has faith in Illumination, I can see how this film would turn out great.
  • The reveal that Donkey Kong is involved. Seriously, that's the bare minimum for me to be interested in the film, because Mario's typically not touched much about Donkey Kong even though his first game is not a Super Mario game. Not only did they include DK, they also include a swathe of the Kong community (Kong-munity?) that includes Cranky Kong as a notable figure.
  • Foreman Spike is somehow involved too. Of all the less-used Mario characters, I don't think any of us expected Spike from Wrecking Crew to be involved. The only thing is that we never seen him until now unless spoilers showed him, but it's nice for obscure folks to be in the limelight. It's in part what makes Odyssey a big event: the grand return of Pauline (Rosalina with a guitar, found in concept art, is a worthwhile sacrifice to make since Pauline returns).
  • The communication for voice actors is sensible and justified. I am not particularly fond of voice actors being the lynchpin for a film's first reveal, but they managed to make it feel justified. Firstly, it reveals the characters involved, and that it won't involve the video game's cast. That way, we already know ahead of time that they won't get involved and that shock is gotten over with. The reveal that Charles Martinet will still be involved is also good to know, even though a lot would prefer him to still be Mario (though I understand why he might not be up for it).
  • The art style is both unique and true to its roots. The balance is not particularly easy to do since there is a need to make the characters true to their originals, but also be open to a wide range of expressions. Not to mention, the environment is gorgeous! I think Illumination struck a balance here, and it's going to be another Mario design to reference in years to come.
  • The story is about Luigi being captured and Mario rescuing him. In terms of how often and how big Luigi has to rescue Mario, he has a bigger round of achievements compared to the times Mario rescue Luigi. Luigi's got the three Luigi's Mansion games, Mario is Missing, the Super Luigi Bros. in NES Remix (also got a remix of Luigi rescuing Mario in DK), and the Mario & Luigi games have entire chapters of Luigi saving Mario. Mario's achievements in rescuing Luigi is inferior by comparison where the best that he's done is the Mario Tennis Aces story mode (the rest like Origami King's running gag or Super Mario Galaxy & 3D Land are not treated as grand rescues). To see Mario doing the brother-rescuing in a grander scale for once is very refreshing in my eyes.
  • The film is looking to be the most profitable film based on a video game. If there's one thing I am hoping for the Mario film besides hoping that it's great, it's that it would be the most profitable film based on a video game, not only animation-wise, but beating Warcraft for this title. Animated films typically have a larger hurdle to overcome to beat the live-action counterparts, which might be why a lot of films prefer this approach (including Detective Pikachu and the Sonic films, despite being more suited animation-wise), so I hope that the film being successful means that animated video game films are seen as viable to pursue.
  • References strewn from the history of Mario. No doubt, Mario fans love the many references among its 40+ years of history within the movie, and I am no different. Typical moviegoers may not appreciate it the same way, but this at least shows that at least one group of people is catered to. Much better than ending up pleasing no one at all. Having Mario music in higher production values really helps, where it's shaping up to be a better Mario film than the predecessors.

I do hope that eventually, Wario and Waluigi would show up (either in this film or a future film), but well, I think there's enough to like about the film. Until then, I have to wait far longer than anyone else here and I am sure all the film's secrets will be shared one way or another, so I hope that I am able to ward off any of the film's spoilers until it finally releases here.

Thank you for reading.
 
I probably should've mentioned this sooner, but the training course that Mario had to complete may be referencing Kid Icarus; in that game, you could go through multiple Game Overs just trying to complete the very first level.
 
Excellent list Winstein! I completely agree on the Luigi being kidnapped plotline, I know r/mario had a huge discussion where the OP found it demeaning against Luigi when honestly it is anything but. In the games when he gets kidnapped and that's the entire joke, from what we've seen of the movie however has the kidnapping treated as serious as it can be in the Marioverse and the humor comes from Luigi's mannerisms. Also brotherly focused plot! :3

winstein said:
Until then, I have to wait far longer than anyone else here and I am sure all the film's secrets will be shared one way or another, so I hope that I am able to ward off any of the film's spoilers until it finally releases here.
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I won't be able to watch the movie soon either mainly because of life stuff so you're not alone in avoiding spoilers LOLLOL
 
Spoiler-ish since it's tangential to a neat reference in the movie:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643446092791705600

Grant-ed, I can't confirm this for myself since I haven't seen the film's staff roll. But if true, that's a bummer...
 
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Just got back from seeing it! What a joy to watch, I saw it in 4DX and that's the first time I saw a movie like that, it was almost like a 4D theme park ride. Fucking brilliant.

Charles Martinet's roles were perfect. One of them literally has him doing his Mario voice. I love how Spike is integrated and how he played a role in the climax as well. There was also a certain cameo that a certain user on here is guaranteed to flip out over, but I won't tag them in case they haven't seen the film yet. Was not expecting the post-credits to tease Yoshi, since Yoshis were already seen in the trailers (and curiously I don't think I saw that shot in the film itself). I definitely will need to watch the movie a few more times especially after it releases digitally so I can pause and look for references, as there are a LOT. Didn't see anything that seemed to reference the RPGs though which was a bummer, I did sort of hope they'd get at least a sliver of the reference pie. Pauline was a news reporter here, didn't see her anywhere else sadly. Similarly, the lady from the plumbing commercial doesn't seem to appear anywhere else which was a tad disappointing. They could (very likely actually) be background extras in other scenes though, that will take some further looking.

I loved the focus on Bowser's crush on Peach, this means a SPM movie could still be on the table down the line. There was a bit too much shipteasing with Mario and Peach though not as much as I was afraid of. I still think as of now, their relationship status could be considered ambiguous. Love the backstory they gave Peach (minus the Not Toadsworth who put the crown on her head, and basically a Not Toadsworth everywhere Toadsworth would have made sense), this might be the first time they've ever acknowledged the question of why a human rules over Toads. But also, RIP Mushroom King

RIP King Bob-omb also, they introduce him only to kill him off in an explosion like two scenes later. In the games, that wouldn't be noteworthy but I somehow fail to imagine how "respawning" would make sense in a film setting. Also it looks like King Boo's movie-canon design is the inferior one sadly. Since there's talk of a Luigi's Mansion film, I hope he doesn't have the generic design there.

Those are my quick rushed together thoughts. Will probably have more to say as time goes on. Overall very satisfied with this movie and so happy a competent Mario film adaptation finally exists.
 
Fawfulthegreat64 said:
Charles Martinet's roles were perfect. One of them literally has him doing his Mario voice. I love how Spike is integrated and how he played a role in the climax as well. There was also a certain cameo that a certain user on here is guaranteed to flip out over, but I won't tag them in case they haven't seen the film yet. Was not expecting the post-credits to tease Yoshi, since Yoshis were already seen in the trailers (and curiously I don't think I saw that shot in the film itself). I definitely will need to watch the movie a few more times especially after it releases digitally so I can pause and look for references, as there are a LOT. Didn't see anything that seemed to reference the RPGs though which was a bummer, I did sort of hope they'd get at least a sliver of the reference pie. Pauline was a news reporter here, didn't see her anywhere else sadly. Similarly, the lady from the plumbing commercial doesn't seem to appear anywhere else which was a tad disappointing. They could (very likely actually) be background extras in other scenes though, that will take some further looking.

I loved the focus on Bowser's crush on Peach, this means a SPM movie could still be on the table down the line. There was a bit too much shipteasing with Mario and Peach though not as much as I was afraid of. I still think as of now, their relationship status could be considered ambiguous. Love the backstory they gave Peach (minus the Not Toadsworth who put the crown on her head, and basically a Not Toadsworth everywhere Toadsworth would have made sense), this might be the first time they've ever acknowledged the question of why a human rules over Toads. But also, RIP Mushroom King

RIP King Bob-omb also, they introduce him only to kill him off in an explosion like two scenes later. In the games, that wouldn't be noteworthy but I somehow fail to imagine how "respawning" would make sense in a film setting. Also it looks like King Boo's movie-canon design is the inferior one sadly. Since there's talk of a Luigi's Mansion film, I hope he doesn't have the generic design there.

Those are my quick rushed together thoughts. Will probably have more to say as time goes on. Overall very satisfied with this movie and so happy a competent Mario film adaptation finally exists.
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The Yoshi scene is there, it's just very brief and is an edited version to the trailer

Also yeah Toadworth is well and truly dead

I liked the part where the Snifit talks

Fire DK and Ice Peach are canon!

I think Cranky's voice could have been cast better. He sounds too young and too American to imagine him calling anyone a whippersnapper
 
I just came back from seeing the Mario movie, so here are my thoughts (very spoilery):
My favorite thing about the movie was definitely the sheer number of references. From music cues to power-ups, characters and other elements, they were all a joy to spot. There were so many I probably missed some! Here are some of the ones that stood out to me the most:
- Foreman Spike's design was surreal to see after knowing about his existence for so long.
- The part where Mario, Peach and Toad select their karts felt ripped right out of Mario Kart 8, and I love it. Peach even presses the A button!
- It was pretty funny to see how the Mini Mushroom was used, especially since it's generally considered a bad powerup amongst Mario players.
- I did not expect to see Baby Mario, Baby Luigi and Baby Peach.
- All of the music. Not only did they use so many tracks from the games, hearing them with an orchestral score was so cool to me, as someone who really likes orchestral covers. I could see myself listening to the OST on repeat.

Other comments:
- I liked how Luigi was involved in the movie, despite being a damsel in distress for a large part of it. I appreciate how they focused on Mario and Luigi's brotherly bond for a good while before he was kidnapped, and even in the climax, how both Mario and Luigi get the Super Star. I really love this characterization of Mario and Luigi's bond.
- I also liked seeing the real world integrated into the plot, especially Mario's family. I did not expect to see them at all, let alone have a role in the plot.
- I find it interesting how Mario's dad was paralleled against DK's dad.
- Seeing Peach's backstory as to how she became the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom was pretty cool. (I wonder if that means that in the movie's universe, all humans come from the real world? Could that be why Daisy, Wario, Waluigi and Rosalina didn't appear? ... Might be a stretch.)
- That post-credits scene gives me hope that Yoshi will be more involved in a sequel. Especially since the Yoshis only appeared in one brief scene, that somewhat disappointed me.
- I like how the universe of the Super Mario games was contextualized to make it feel more like a real world. Like how the platforming course is a practice course for Mario to train on, seeing the world map of all the kingdoms, and seeing how the real world connects to the Mushroom Kingdom.
- The Luma was interesting... Although it's kind of odd that was the only Luma in the whole movie. Not really what I would expect when I think of a Luma.
- The credits scene was pretty neat. I lived seeing each character's unique background when they listed the main voice actors.
- The songs were interesting. I did not expect to hear Take on Me or I Need a Hero in a Mario movie. Also Bowser's musical number was great.
- I kind of expected the penguins to have a bigger role? It felt like they were dropped halfway through, and once the cages were opened, they weren't really present. Like, what happened when everyone went to the real world.

Overall, I really liked the movie! My favorite part was definitely spotting all the references (I could be here all day listing them), and seeing how the game world was translated into a coherent movie story. Perhaps this is because I'm such a big Mario fan, but I was grinning throughout the majority of the movie's runtime.
 
Oh yeah, regarding Lumalee...
I feel like he was only there to say nihilistic one-liners and depress everybody around him. Really thought they'd address why he was there, why Bowser had him captured, and the world he comes from. But he's just there to say shit that bums everyone out, and then play a saxophone at the end. No further Galaxy connection than Lumalee just existing at all. Peach mentions galaxies but it's never really explored. You'd think including a Luma species character would be used for more than just one-liners.
 
Spoiler free review:

Great movie! I loved it! I give it a solid 6/10!

Wait.. 6/10 is a mediocre score, why 6/10 if it's a great film?

Because if not for too many missed opportunities, it could have been a 10/10 perfect film. There were fantastic moments in the film that would have landed so much better, had it made the most out of its potential.

The action, music and visuals came together wonderfully to convey a sense of epic glory when it needed to. Especially the final battle scene and ending, the best scenes of the movie by far! The problem is, all those epic feels are unearned when the story and character interactions were lacking for the first three quarters of the film. There just wasn't enough story to make the very-well-done-action feel earned.

Had the film been twice the length to really flesh out character interactions, had a deeper moral than just "believe in yourself", it could have been a really great story. Double the character interactions spent in Brooklyn. Double the character interactions in the Mushroom Kingdom. The pacing was far too fast. The story felt like a series of action scenes back to back with little else.

Another missed opportunity is the voices. I will die on the hill that Mario's cartoon Italian accent from the games would not be grating. People seem to forget that cartoon voices, in cartoon movies, are not seen as grating. The Goofy Movie is proof that cartoon voices can express serious emotion, the voice can be kept while talking with less energy during sad or heartfelt moments. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is very cartoony and cartoon Italian voices would fit perfectly.

To Pratt and Day's credit, they can do decent enough cartoon Italian voices for the brothers. If they talked that way for the whole movie, it would actually bring the characters from the games to life in this movie. It would be the Mario and Luigi we know and love, with much more depth, and make them that much more lovable during scenes of crisis.

Unfortunately Pratt and Day's voices through the bulk of the movie, while not terrible, are just okay and nothing special. These characters deserve more than just okay, especially when Pratt and Day have talent and are capable of delivering so much more.
 
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The Superstar Saga said:
Had the film been twice the length to really flesh out character interactions, had a deeper moral than just "believe in yourself", it could have been a really great story. Double the character interactions spent in Brooklyn. Double the character interactions in the Mushroom Kingdom. The pacing was far too fast. The story felt like a series of action scenes back to back with little else.
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3 hours for a Mario film sounds like an utterly terrible idea.
 
Not even full fledged Pixar movies are that long.
 
I plan to see this on Saturday with my girlfriend and one of my good friends who is also a longtime Mario series fan. We all love the series and have been looking forward to it while simultaneously being hesitant initially. Some of the negative reviews I've seen bum me out because they seem overly critical like "This is too dark!" and "There are too many references!" but I feel like most of that echoes the "jaded movie fan" trope more than being actual constructive criticism level at the film. My expectation is simple, the Mario games are fun, and I want the movie to be that same kind of fun. The previews and teases thus far look like the movie will be that level of fun so the question to me is whether or not that is true.
 
Mcmadness said:
3 hours for a Mario film sounds like an utterly terrible idea.
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If a story is engaging enough to hold its own, there's no reason why any series can't work for 3 hours. To clarify, by double length I meant roughly 2 hours.

For example, the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie was 2 hours even with a very simple story, and the length was just fine.
 
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The Superstar Saga said:
If a story is engaging enough to hold its own, there's no reason why any series can't work for 3 hours. To clarify, by double length I meant roughly 2 hours.

For example, the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie was 2 hours even with a very simple story, and the length was just fine.
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I remind you what the source material is and who the audience for this movie is. No kid has the attention span for a 3 hour long film.
 
Mcmadness said:
I remind you what the source material is and who the audience for this movie is. No kid has the attention span for a 3 hour long film.
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That's why some of the best kids movies appeal not only to kids with short attention spans, but to all ages.

Otherwise The Dark Knight movie with a 2.5 hour runtime or Spider Man: No Way Home with a 2.5 hour runtime would never exist.
 
Not exactly, but some of it is geared toward kids. Just like Star Trek.
 
As much as I love 3-hour movies with heavy exposition and decent pacing to accompany them, my bladder does not love them back. 2 hours is a bit more reasonable for me in regards to a cooperative bladder. 90-some-minute movies are at least a cakewalk for me. XD
 
The Superstar Saga said:
The Dark Knight's source material is a kids series.

The first Harry Potter movie, kids movie, 2.5 hours. The list goes on.
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DC comics (as in the actual comics) haven't been aimed at kids in like, 40 years and apart from a brief stint in the 60s Batman has largely been aimed at teens to adults.

Harry Potter is a family film and is considered to be for older children at least. The age of the kids watching this film will be younger than that.

Sorry but the comparison doesn't work.
 
The first Harry Potter was rated PG, the same age rating as the Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Young children were a massive demographic regardless, with Harry and Hermione dominating as the most popular Halloween costumes they wore when Trick or Treating in the 2000s. The same way Harry Potter was a family film for all ages, I think the Super Mario Bros. Movie could benefit from that too.

Star Wars, a series who's largest audience was kids buying toys, "All the money is in the action figures"- George Lucas, has films over 2 hours.
  • A New Hope— 2 hr 5 min (125 min)
  • The Empire Strikes Back— 2 hr 7 min (127 min)
  • Return of the Jedi— 2 hr 16 min (136 min)
  • The Phantom Menace— 2 hr 16 min (136 min)
  • Attack of the Clones— 2 hr 22 min (142 min)
  • Revenge of the Sith— 2 hr 20 min (140 min)
  • The Force Awakens— 2 hr 15 min (135 min)
  • The Last Jedi-- 2 hr 33 min (153 min)
  • The Rise of Skywalker— 2 hr 22 min (142 min)
The argument that kids series cannot have successful 2.5 hour long films, has been proven wrong by history. Even very recent history, with the Sonic The Hedgehog 2 movie being just over 2 hours.
 
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