I know, I’m really
late to the (Mario) Party 😉 with this review, but I’m sure there
are still some people out there who have not seen this movie yet and I’m here
to tell them why they should!!
Before
jumping straight into this movie review, I just wanted to take a moment to look
back at where this character began. It’s incredible to think of how this little
Italian plumber is still so popular after so many decades and I think we should
all take a moment to appreciate just how far he’s come.
*Scroll
down to skip to the Movie Review, where me and fellow writer Meghan have recapped
the movie and given it our overall fun ratings!
P.S. We’ve tried to keep spoilers to an absolute minimum but apologies if there are a couple of small ones! 😊
The History of the Super Mario Bros
Creators
Super Mario
was created by videogame designer Shigeru Miyamoto back in 1981! Miyamoto also created other well-known
characters, such as Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and Star Fox.
Mario was
initially created to be the protagonist of Donkey Kong, but the little man with
the blue dungarees and red hat was such a hit, that Miyamoto went on to develop
several sequels to the original Donkey Kong game and then eventually created
his brother Luigi to form the ‘Mario Bros’ in 1983!
Nintendo were then extremely smart and
released Super Mario Bros for FREE on every NES home gaming console sold. This helped
drive up its popularity and the rest is history! According to the internet,
there are around 300 different Mario games, which absolutely blows my mind! I
think I’ve probably played around 10!?
Fast forward
to today, and Super Mario is so popular you can visit a real-life replica of
the Super Mario Universe - Super Nintendo World, at Universal Japan and
Universal Studios Hollywood, with further plans to build in Singapore &
Orlando.
With this movie grossing over $1.164BN profit, I wonder what we can expect to see from them next…Whatever it is, I can’t wait!
Super
Mario Games
I LOVE playing
video games, have done since I was a child and one of my favourite games was
Super Mario 64 on the N64. This was the first Mario game I ever played, and I
was/still am obsessed with the story and all the cute different worlds you get
to explore. Rescuing all the baby Penguins was my favourite part in the whole
game, even though it was frustrating as hell when they would keep waddling off!
Nowadays I’m
still playing Mario games on the regular. My partner and I have been playing
Super Mario Odessey together, where one of you can play as Mario and one as Cappy!
This game is pretty fun, but the main downside is that it’s hard to follow both
characters on the screen if you both go off to explore different areas.
Mario Kart
and Mario Party are regular favourites of ours too, and quite often get turned
on when we have friends over.
What’s your favourite Super Mario Game!? Please let us know in the comments below!
Super Mario Movie Review & Overall Rating
Story/plot
Sammy
The story
starts in New York City, where Mario & his brother Luigi have just started
their new plumbing business. They are having a little trouble making a name for
themselves in the Big Apple, until they see on the news that the city is in
panic as dangerous flood water is pouring onto the streets. Mario sees this as
an opportunity to show the world what they are capable of, so he grabs Luigi
and they set off to save the city!
This
unfortunately doesn’t go to plan, and the two end up falling into the city’s
underground sewers and eventually into a secret room, where they end up getting
sucked into a green portal. The brothers get split up, with both ending up in
very different scenarios.
Mario lands
in the Mushroom Kingdom, where he meets the iconic Princess Peach, Toad, and
the rest of the city’s citizens. Luigi unfortunately ends up in a much darker world,
where he is chased by Skeletal Koopa’s and then captured by Shy Guys and taken
to Bowser to be interrogated. Luigi is thrown into jail with a bunch of other
characters, where they will be sacrificed in honour of Princess Peach (psychotic,
right?).
The rest of the story follows our heroes’ journey through multiple Mario lands, to stop Bowser on his path of destruction and save Luigi and the Mushroom Kingdom!
Meghan
I
was pleasantly surprised that this movie really is, at its core, a story about
two brothers. I liked how they kept elements of the Mario franchise - like
Bowser kidnapping Peach and wanting to marry her - down to his white suit even!
They refreshed the franchise by skipping a romance between Peach and Mario, and
us only seeing a ‘romance’ as perceived by Bowser and his jealousy. I
thoroughly enjoyed that Mario entered the Mushroom Kingdom and had to learn how
to exist in this video-game-esque world, solely to rescue his brother.
There were also enough easter eggs in the movie that new and old fans alike were delighted about - one of my favs was early on, where a vendor recommended blowing on an item to make it work, a call-back to 90’s kids like me who blew on game cartridges before popping it into the NES.
Cast/Characters
Sammy
I’ll be
honest, I wasn’t sure about the casting of Chris Pratt to play Mario at first.
I wondered if he was going to put on this bad accent and for it to come across
as weird and insulting. But after watching the movie I can see why he was
selected to play Mario. He’s such a charismatic and naturally comedic person, I
think he played the part well.
Luigi
probably has to be one of the perfect castings. Charlie Day is a really
talented actor and has such a unique voice, I loved him as the Spaceship guy in
the Lego movie and you can recognise his voice anywhere.
Anna
Taylor-Joy was a great Peach. I hadn’t seen her in anything before, but I know
she had great reviews from her role in The Queen’s Gambit and she has a sweet
voice for Peach whilst still making her a strong female lead. Keegan-Michael
Key played Peach’s right-hand man – Toad, who also had some really funny lines,
and he nailed the role.
Seth Rogen
playing DK was a fun surprise for me as I had completely forgotten that he was cast in the movie! His laughter
stood out straight away and the first scene where his character was
introduced was so funny!
Jack Black
as Bowser is pure perfection - how can you not love this man?! His dramatic
piano solos in this movie were brilliant and catchy AF. There’s a reason ‘Peaches’ got into the top 100 Billboard charts!!! Hahaha
Lastly, I
can’t finish this review without mentioning my favourite character in the whole
movie – Little Blue Flame! Voiced by the original Lumalee - Juliet Jelenic - this
adorable glowing flame has the most hilariously, dark one liners and was by far
the stand out character for me.
“There is no
escape; the only hope is the sweet relief of death.” – Little Blue Flame.
Meghan
I will admit, I was not excited
for Chris Pratt to be voicing Mario. Like many of us, the traditional,
over-the-top Mario voice by Charles Martinet was the one I knew and loved. That
being said, Charles did get a cameo in the movie, and admittedly, a whole movie
with the over-the-top voice would have been grating.
Chris Pratt did an okay job - I
don’t think his voice acting was anything special. However, his co-stars
knocked it out of the park. We all knew Jack Black was going to be amazing as
Bowser, and with the popularity of the song ‘Peaches’, it goes to show how much
Jack brings to the table as a performer. I thought Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach was
particularly well done and brought a really nuanced performance to the
character. Keegan-Michael Key as Toad was absolutely perfect, as well as
Charlie Day as Luigi. I was surprised at how well Seth Rogen worked for Donkey
Kong as well.
Overall, I think my favourite
character is a split between Peach and Donkey Kong, and of course, Lumalee
(voiced by Juliet Jelenic), who was flat-out hilarious. Peach, I liked because
unlike in the video games, Peach had a lot of control over her own destiny. She
wasn’t a passive character to be saved; instead, she led Mario throughout the
movie as the one going out and saving her own Kingdom by seeking help from the
Kongs, and then tricking Bowser at the end with an ice flower.
I found the rivalry between Mario and Donkey Kong - which of course, hails back to the very first, ultra classic game - extremely funny. I liked DK’s character growth in a short period as well, since he’s only in about half the movie.
Animation
and Music
Sammy
The
animation for this movie was spectacular. The bright colours popped on the big
screen and all our beloved characters were so freaking cute. The magical
Nintendo world we know, and love honestly looked too cute to handle!
The
Animation and visual effects departments really deserve a tonne of credit for
this movie, as visually it is absolute treat for the eyes and makes you feel
good right down to your soul.
But what
would animation and visual effects be without music?
Brian Tyler did a phenomenal job of producing
the music throughout this movie. The music we know from the games came from
Japanese composer Koji Kondo. Brian did an amazing job incorporating multiple
tunes from the Super Mario games and you will find yourself grinning from ear
to ear when you start to hear tunes you may have forgotten about, such as the
part in the movie where Bowser is playing his Piano to his Chief Koopa,
discussing their evil master plan!
On top of having a wonderful production team for music and visuals, this movie is extremely lucky to have someone like Jack Black playing Bowser. Jack is such a powerhouse singer and I loved that he got a couple of dramatic solos in the movie.
Meghan
I thought the animation was really
well done. Mario as a game franchise doesn’t really bank on hyper-realism and
has always stuck to a ‘cartoony’ look to their characters. Taking cartoony
characters and making them more realistic can have jarring effects - like the
backlash we saw on Detective Pikachu as well as Sonic the Hedgehog. The
backlash on Sonic was so bad, that they ended up re-designing Sonic.
I thought they did a really good
job taking simple characters and translating them to a more realistic-looking
setting. The world seemed very saturated with colour - everything was bright
and vibrant.
The music was also on point - much of the music was based on actual music from gameplay and easily recognizable themes. Mario game music is repetitive - as is a lot of video game music - so picking up on these themes are easter eggs in themselves.
Rainbow
Road
I feel like
Rainbow Road deserves its own little mention in this blog post. We’ve all felt
the undeniable frustration and anxiety of playing the Rainbow Road course on
Mario Kart, be it against the computer or with friends, this course is pure
chaos!
I am so happy they added an entire scene to Rainbow Road. It was so wild, filled with adrenaline and was just so fun to watch on the big screen. The excitement, the stress...you could feel all this through the screen as you remember those many harrowing times you had to race on Rainbow Road 😉
Overall
satisfaction & fun rating
Sammy
Overall,
this movie deserves the success it’s had and more. With its adorable animation
and sweet, fill good story line, the story flowed nicely, and it was just pure
fun to watch. Kids will love it and adults will feel that nostalgia and be
taken back to their own childhoods.
Purely for its fun factor, I rate this movie a 10/10, I honestly couldn’t fault it. I would have loved to have seen more characters show up, but I can understand them holding off releasing all the big guns too early! I hope we will be lucky enough to get plenty more Mario/Nintendo Movies in the future.
Meghan
I went to this movie with very
low expectations. In fact, I really only went because my kids were invited to
go see it with their cousins.
I’m very glad I went. The movie
is very entertaining, and not only did my kids love it and paid attention the
entire movie, but I also thoroughly enjoyed a fresh take on the Mario Brothers’
story, that was still faithful to the 1985 classic game which created a multi-million-dollar,
international franchise but felt updated for audiences almost 40 years later.
.webp)
While the plot was predictable,
the movie was still super fun, and I’m very pleased to give it a solid 10/10
fun rating.
Note: There are TWO post credit scenes…so be sure to stick around right till the end 😉
Sammy.
Writer
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