The newest Mario film is for the fans

By Ryan Denkovic

One of my favorite games growing up was “Super Mario Galaxy.” I loved flying around to the different planets and exploring the world of the game. So naturally, I was pretty excited when Illumination and Nintendo announced that the sequel to the 2023 film, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” would be covering this version of the game. I have to admit, though, that I have mixed feelings about it after having seen it. On one hand, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the film as a fan of the games, but on the other hand, I found it lacking in some places.

This movie definitely does a lot right. The music, for instance, I was quite happy with. “Super Mario Galaxy” has one of the greatest original soundtracks in a video game, and it definitely shows in Brian Tyler’s score for the film. Another thing that this film does right is the visuals; this is the best that an Illumination film has ever looked. I have been noticing a trend over the past couple of years that I like to call the “Spider-Verse effect.” Ever since critics and audiences had positive feedback on the hyper-stylized animation of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” a lot of mainstream animation companies seem to be going for a similar look, which is noticeable in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” The animation was much better than the original, while still staying faithful to the style of the first and, more loosely, the games. There is, however, one section, when introducing the character Fox McCloud, where the animation switches from the regular 3-D style to 2-D, invoking the feeling of 90s-era anime, like “Neon Genesis: Evangelion.” This sequence has been stuck in my mind ever since and I hope that, if they decide to do a Star-Fox spinoff, they keep this beautiful art style.

Just like its predecessor, the voice acting was just alright, but it did have some standouts. Memorable performances from the first movie include Jack Black’s Bowser and Charlie Day’s Luigi, and they both retain that same quality in this new installment. This new film has some new additions, including Glen Powell as Fox McCloud, who stole nearly every scene he was in, and, most surprisingly, Donald Glover’s Yoshi, which was a masterclass in character voice-acting. He jokingly said during the press tour that he would be “surprised if [he] didn’t win an Oscar for this,” and I honestly agree. His voice was so unrecognizable that I would have believed it if you had told me that they used clips from the games. Both Powell and Glover were clearly passionate about the project and it makes the film all the better for it.

However, this film does still have its shortcomings, and that becomes most apparent in the writing. For the first half of the film, the pacing is excellent and I was engaged the entire time. However, the second half was a lot more sloppy. It definitely had sequences that were well done, but it felt very unbalanced and unengaging; at times, it can feel as though it is leaning too heavily into ‘nostalgia-bait.’ Another complaint I have about the writing is that it is really not a faithful adaptation of the game. Although, I feel like the game has a certain melancholic vibe that just cannot be replicated in a kids film. You can tell Illumination was not really trying to make a faithful adaptation of the game, but instead, to make a sequel to their box office hit while incorporating some elements from the Galaxy games.

All in all, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is good. It has its problems, but if you look at it as a whole, it is still a good kids film. Plus, it has enough references to keep someone who is into video games pointing at the screen and saying, “Hey! I understand that!” So overall, I would give “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” 3 stars out of 5.

Ryan Denkovic is a freshman English major