REVIEW: ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Is An Extremely Messy Celebration

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has lofty expectations thrust upon it. Grossing over a billion dollars worldwide at the box office, The Super Mario Bros. Movie bolstered a prolific era of video game adaptations, including The Last of Us television series and the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. Adapting one of the most popular games of the series while adapting elements from countless others, the animated sequel will certainly be a massive financial success. For the passionate Nintendo fan, there’s, of course, lots to love here. Otherwise, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a bit of a mess, prioritizing lavish visuals, set pieces, and a critical mass of references over telling a coherent story. 

The problems begin right at the very start. You see, the last Super Mario Bros. Movie ended with a tease for Yoshi (voiced by Donald Glover), the lovable dinosaur sidekick of plumbers turned heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario (Chris Pratt), and Luigi (Charlie Day). The Super Mario Galaxy Movie rushes through what could’ve been an entire movie’s worth of material- Mario and Luigi befriending Yoshi- within the first ten minutes.

There’s no tension, no “getting to know each other” part of the movie. Yoshi joins the crew with no friction. Although it may seem strange to harp on this one aspect, it’s the Rosetta stone to the lack of care put into Matthew Fogel‘s script. 

There’s way too much going on in the overstuffed The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is over-stuffed to a fault. Say what you will about the first film, its story was clear, concise, had a beginning, middle, and end, and was easy for a younger audience to follow. The main plot threads of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie range from Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie for some reason!) trying to take over the galaxy to the mysterious powers of space princess Rosalina (Brie Larson).

Let’s not forget Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) searching for her past, Bowser’s (Jack Black) redemption, and the introduction of Fox McCloud (Glen Powell), all thrown in there. And those are just the major plot threads!

The number of dropped subplots in Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic‘s film is outright comical. Moreover, adaptively, the film has little resemblance to the video game Super Mario Galaxy that it’s ostensibly based on.

If anything, the adaptation drums up excitement for the 40th anniversary of Nintendo’s flagship character.

There is a sparse amount of traversing space to go to various unique galaxies, and only a few are even referred to by name. The essence of major elements like Rosalina and the Lumas is warped in an unsatisfying manner, with a major change to Rosalina’s backstory that will rightfully be seen as sacrilege by devotees of the game. 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is less concerned with being a coherent narrative, adaptation, or even a diverting children’s movie than with being a conduit for references to the extensive history of one of gaming’s greatest figures. On that end, it can be highly entertaining.

As someone with a lot of love for Mario and most of Nintendo’s flagship franchises, seeing Horvath and Jelenic borrow from the likes of Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Sunshine, and even a dedicated section covering Super Mario Bros. 2, I couldn’t help but get excited. With film arriving just in time for the 40th anniversary of Mario, any fan would. 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie isn’t a disaster but it is a major missed opportunity. 

It helps that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie looks absolutely stunning. Illumination outdid themselves here. The amount of color, texture, detail, and personality on display delivers wall-to-wall eye candy. The staging of the set pieces accurately captures the fun of playing video games, while the fluidity of the various fight and platforming sequences is so hypnotic that it’s easy to miss some of what’s going on. In the visuals department, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie takes what worked about the first film and runs with it. 

It’s crushing, then, that a lot of the film feels like a backslide. The voice actors, particularly Chris Pratt and Brie Larson, sound incredibly bored. The humor is the lowest common denominator, even for a younger audience. At the same time, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has enough good in it that it avoids feeling like a disaster.

Rather, a disappointment, or perhaps a missed opportunity. At every turn, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie goes bigger. With that expanded scope, the visual heights Illumination can reach are out of this world. Unfortunately, so is the narrative. 

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie releases on April 1 in theaters everywhere.