The Super Mario Bros. Movie Review
A masterpiece of limited proportions
It might just be the undying Nintendo fan in me, but leaving the theatre after seeing The Super Mario Bros. Movie, I can’t help but feeling as though I’ve gotten everything I could have ever wanted from a movie devoted to the beloved plumbers, and then some. But the truth is, I hadn’t even realized that I needed a Super Mario Bros. movie.
With the onslaught of bad adaptations of the last few years, I was leery when I initially heard word of it. As teaser trailers began to release, though, I began to see glimmers of what could be a long-overdue, actualized movie centered around The Mushroom Kingdom and the famed mustachioed brothers in overalls.
What seemed to be taking form in those early teasers was a fully formed realization of the fictional video game world in which I’d spent so much of my childhood. As its release date approached, I’ll admit that I felt the kid still alive within me beginning to tap his feet with excitement. To sit down in that theatre with my popcorn at my side and 3D glasses on, I struggled to contain myself a bit more than a 27 year old should.
While the movie wasn’t a masterpiece when compared with the likes of Forest Gump, Inception or Shawshank Redemption, there are enormous amounts to be said for the movies that understand their scope, and excel within it. In the same way that Cocaine Bear didn’t exactly aim to pull on our heart strings, The Super Mario Bros. movie wasn’t shooting to dazzle us with its unexpected plot points. If it had, it wouldn’t have been a Mario Bros. movie.
Beyond Super Mario Galaxy’s brief foray into something that could almost be called philosophical, there’s little within the Mario franchise that falls outside of the cyclical game structure that they established back in the 1980s. For this game to attempt anything groundbreaking on a writing level would have been an undeniable mistake.
For what could be expected of a movie about misfit plumbers stomping goombas on the road to defeat Bowser, though, it delivered on all fronts. From the impressive visuals, to the easter egg-laden story told, to the unnecessary but more than welcome inclusion of the Mario Kart universe, it could have hardly pleased this Nintendo fan more. To see the red, green and terrible flying blue shells that plagued my childhood put to such effective cinematic use was a gift I didn’t know I needed.
It had enough callbacks to the events within the ever-growing catalogue of Mario games to make the most hardened Nintendo fans blush. Even the cynical players of the most violent games might catch themselves cracking a smile at the lovable adventure of the video game protagonist that started it all.
What little issue people might find with this movie is limited largely to its voice acting. But for a film based entirely off of characters who’ve rarely spoken more than an “It’s-a-me, Mario!” a “Waah!” or apelike grunt at a time, I think they did about as well with the voice-casting as one could have possibly hoped. For a movie so cartoonish and unserious in nature, the all-star selection of voices recruited might seem almost comical.
From a gleeful Jack Black that nearly carried the movie as Bowser, to Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Charlie Day as Luigi and Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, it delivered far more than anyone could have asked.
One of the largest complaints people have of the film is Chris Pratt’s casting as the lead plumber in red, but his inclusion isn’t nearly jarring enough to destroy any of what the film aims to provide. At worst, it’s a little unexpected.
For a more authentic-sounding Mario to have delivered much more than the opening scene with his notorious Italian accent, though, would have surely felt gratuitous. Audiences could hardly handle 90 full minutes of “yippee’s” and “Wahoo’s” and “It’s a me, Mario’s!” without jumping into Bowser’s fiery pit. So there’s certainly something to be said for the decision to Americanize the iconically Italian, mushroom-eating superstar.
From its humorous portrayals of the characters that have spent decades almost completely voiceless, to its depiction of a careening race down the Rainbow Road that’s made its way into each Mario Kart game, to its raucous exploration of the cartoony Kingdom Nintendo’s spent nearly 40 years depicting, the film could have delivered no more within its limited scope.
For anyone whose childhood involved dodging koopas and pounding through question mark blocks for power-ups, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is unlikely to disappoint. As someone whose earliest years were spent partially glued to Game Boys in feverish dashes toward goal flags, the movie stands almost as a grand reward for a childhood centered largely around these colorful virtual kingdoms — a spectacular celebration so many years in the making.