The Super Mario Bros Movie Review
The story of The Super Mario Bros. on their journey through the Mushroom Kingdom.
This haphazard romp through Nintendo’s popular franchises will likely appeal to children. However, kids, who are not typically the most discerning audience, often mistake familiarity for entertainment. The film takes advantage of this by lazily incorporating musical themes from beloved games, featuring minor characters, and paying homage to the Mario legacy.
During the screening I attended, these elements were met with excited recognition from the audience. Essentially, The Super Mario Bros Movie is a frenzied scavenger hunt of a film that merely satisfies its dedicated fanbase. Those who are not as enamoured with the moustached plumber may wonder where this unenthusiastic, noisy disaster originated, perhaps from one of Donkey Kong’s weaponized barrels.
The Super Mario Bros Movie Summary
With help from Princess Peach, Mario gets ready to square off against the all-powerful Bowser to stop his plans from conquering the world.
The recently released Super Mario Bros movie, highlighting its lack of originality and jokes. Although the early scenes set in Brooklyn are promising and the animation is impressive, the film loses its way once the brothers end up in the Mushroom Kingdom. The film lacks engaging stunts, emotional moments and memorable lines, and instead relies on long sequences lifted from the video games, which slow the pace of the movie to a standstill. The Super Mario Bros Movie has a first-draft laziness that’s rare in big-screen animation and offers nothing to engage any viewer who isn’t playing spot-the-allusion.
- Rating: PG (Action and Mild Violence)
- Genre: Kids & family, Comedy, Adventure, Animation
- Original Language: English
- Director: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
- Producer: Christopher Meledandri, Shigeru Miyamoto
- Writer: Matthew Fogel
- Release Date (Theaters): Apr 5, 2023 Wide
- Box Office (Gross USA): $490.9M
- Runtime: 1h 32m
- Distributor: Universal Pictures
- Production Co: Universal Pictures, Nintendo, Illumination Entertainment
- Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos, DTS, Dolby Digital
- Aspect Ratio: Digital 2.39:1
The Super Mario Bros Review
User Review 1
“First off this movie is for kids and fans of Nintendo and the Mario franchise. I still think an adult who isnt a fan could still enjoy it but this movie is so full of fan service that it will have you smiling the whole time. The voice acting I was sceptical but they all work and work well too. Jack Black is the star here. I love how they kept the story simple like all of the games. Truly felt like a video game on the screen. This movie felt like a beautifully animated amusement park ride. The audio in the movie was amazing too. The sounds and the score with reimagined iconic music was perfect. Some of the songs in the movie felt unnecessary but they worked. I think they should’ve bumped the run time to 105-120 min. 90 min felt too short as it goes by quick. I havent had this much wholesome fun at the movies in a long time. If youre a fan you HAVE to see it.“
User Review 2
“I am someone who is not swayed by “critics” or rotten tomato scores. I didn’t even really have any expectations going into this movie. As someone who grew up playing Super Mario Bros, Super Mario World etc., I was really just going to see this movie based on nostalgia and it does deliver on nostalgia. The visuals are stunning, and while everyone has their reservations about Chris Pratt the voice acting is perfect (except one for one elderly character). While many have said this movie moves quickly or “too fast”, I would say it has great pacing and never leaves you bored. While it is not a perfect film it leaves little to be desired. It is everything you want from an animated Super Mario Movie“
