The Super Mario Bros. Movie
This animated videogame adaption is about as basic as it gets. There’s nothing much to say about the plot or characterisations, but there are a handful of amusing moments, and the voice cast do what they can with the material – diehard fans of the games and younger viewers may find that’s enough.
Premise: When Brooklyn plumbers Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (voiced by Charlie Day) are accidentally transported to a magical world, they become caught up in Bowser’s (voiced by Jack Black) plan to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom, ruled by Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy).
Review:
Every now and then, a filmmaker makes a film based on a ‘brand’ that is so much better than you could have ever imagined that it would be (such as 2014’s The Lego Movie, or this year’s Barbie movie). But more often than not, a film based on a toy line just ends up being an excuse to string together a list of elements from the game, and sadly, that’s really all that The Super Mario Bros. Movie is.
It arguably gives The Super Mario Bros. Movie too much credit to call it a ‘videogame adaptation movie’, as most videogames that are adapted into films at least have a plot (e.g. Tomb Raider, Uncharted, the original Resident Evil films, and the recent reboot). The Mario games, on the other hand, have never been focused on their plots – as much as I love the games (and I do), the plots for the traditional platform adventures are entirely inconsequential, and the Mario Kart series does away with a plot altogether. So this film really had next to nothing to work with.
“…doesn’t have any particular chemistry between the characters…”
The first Sonic the Hedgehog film overcame the plot limitations in its videogame source material by focusing instead on (a) the ‘odd couple’ buddy comedy chemistry between Sonic and James Marsden’s live-action character, and (b) Jim Carrey’s delightfully over-the-top performance as the villain. (The Sonic the Hedgehog sequel was actually less enjoyable because it moved away from both of those highlights to place greater emphasis on new CGI characters). The Super Mario Bros. Movie, by comparison, doesn’t have any particular chemistry between the characters, and despite Jack Black’s best efforts, his villain Bowser just doesn’t have enough screentime or material to make an impact in the same way Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik did.
The rest of the voice cast are all perfectly acceptable: Chris Pratt and Charlie Day do what they can to establish a fraternal camaraderie, but it’s not helped by the fact they spend most of the movie separated. Anya Taylor-Joy does what she can to make sure that Princess Peach is far more than a damsel in distress, but despite establishing her as a capable leader, there’s nothing approaching a personality for her character. Keegan-Michael Key and Seth Rogen appear as Toad and Donkey Kong respectively, but neither get a chance to make a lasting impression.
“…little more than an exercise in ticking off all of the videogame elements that make an appearance…”
The end result is that by making a film about a videogame without any real plot, they’ve ended up with a movie without any real plot. The film is little more than an exercise in ticking off all of the videogame elements that make an appearance – Ice flowers? Check! Tanooki suit? Check! Rainbow Road? Check! Blue Mushroom? Check! Super Star? Check! Cat suit? Check! etc etc...
Look, the film has obviously appealed to plenty of people out there, given that (at the time of writing) it’s made over $1.3 billion, is the highest grossing film of 2023 (so far) and is the highest grossing videogame adaptation of all time – and it can’t have made all that money just from under-10s and diehard fans of the games... But if you’ve waited this long to see the film, you probably already have doubts about its quality – so hopefully this review will confirm that your doubts were not unfounded.
