Animated family movies are almost entirely critic proof. Kids want to see movies with bright colors with fun characters. Double if the characters are already beloved. The Super Mario Bros. Movie from 2023 is a great example. It was exuberant and lively and had gorgeous animation and decades of character, franchise, and Nintendo platform goodwill behind it. As a result, it made a shit-zillion dollars, so what did it matter that I thought it was pretty lackluster in the storytelling department? Here I am again for its hyped sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and yet again, it’s vibes and quips and video game references will delight Nintendo-philes without really having to tell a story.
One of the things I was most surprised and disappointed about regarding The Super Mario Bros. Movie was how unsavvy it was. I feel like Phil Lord and Chris Miller ruined me for licensed, nostalgia-laden animated movies. The LEGO Movie and the Spider-Verse were reverent and irreverent, and at the same time, had humor and heart to spare. While Illumination’s animation had never looked better, I felt that TSMBM lacked the writing to back it up. That remains true for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which manages to be slightly funnier but with an even messier and more scattered plot.
That plot, as though it really matters, begins when Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie) kidnaps Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson), the mega-powerful surrogate mother of the childlike star people, the Lumas. His plan is free his father, Bowser (Jack Black), still the shrunken captive of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) of the Mushroom Kingdom. Since the end of the first movie, Bowser has attempted to rehabilitate himself, with the help of Luigi (Charlie Day), though Mario (Chris Pratt) still doesn’t trust him. When a lone Luma reaches the Mushroom Kingdom to ask for aid in saving Rosalina, Peach and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) head to the rescue, while Mario, Luigi, and their new friend Yoshi (Donald Glover) fend off Bowser Jr.’s sudden attack.
Trying to recount the basic plot details of the above felt like trying to make sense of a dream you half-remember. It’s all just things happening because they happen. The closest thing The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has to actual story resonance involves Bowser and his son reconnecting, but it ultimately feels like anti-development by the end. Mario and Luigi have nothing, Peach and Rosalina have the barest minimum of plot threads, Yoshi is literally just there because Yoshi should be in a Mario movie.
Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario Bros., is famously protective of their I.P. and, as with the previous movie, one gets the distinct feeling that too much character development would somehow mess with established Nintendo rules. We get a bit of it, but not enough for it to make much of a difference. For example, Toad is initially wary of Yoshi joining the group. This has no payoff. For another, Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) is super cool and dashing. It seems for one fleeting moment like he and Mario will act as rivals for Peach’s affections. Spoilers, that doesn’t happen.
We get the beginnings of unsophisticated, but certainly time-tested plot beats, and over and over again, but The Super Mario Galaxy Movie just doesn’t deliver on them. Instead, we get a bombardment of vibrant action sequences evoking specific Nintendo games, complete with composer Brian Tyler utilizing familiar themes from those games. I played Super Mario Bros. 2, I played Star Fox, but simply seeing Wart and Mouser or an Arwing and a Slippy Toad reference doesn’t give more than a momentary jolt of dopamine.
And look, I watch and review movies for a living, so perhaps I’m inured to this kind of nostalgia-bait. But The LEGO Movie worked for me on every level, whereas The Super Mario Galaxy Movie works on effectively just one. The animation is gorgeous, and the textures and tactility of the Nintendo stuff really do come to life. I enjoyed the physical act of seeing those images and hearing that music. That’s not a movie.
But, as I said, my telling you all this is a threadbare half-story with flat characters and mildly amusing moments won’t stop anyone from seeing it, nor the box office from reflecting that in a major way. With the Easter holiday, I’m sure Nintendo and Universal will once again get a huge win. But if this is all we’re ever going to get from Nintendo’s cinematic offerings, I’ll opt not to play again.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.