The Italian plumber Mario, a character once dubbed more recognizable than Mickey Mouse with roughly 300 video game appearances to date, has returned to the big screen in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” Its precursor, 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” offered a mostly charming adventure through the Mushroom Kingdom, but it felt a little soulless. From generic needle drops to absurdly fast pacing and more video game references than true storytelling, the film felt like it was made in a boardroom.
The new film looks beyond the Mushroom Kingdom to a vast universe that ironically ends up feeling even more confined than its predecessor. Deprived of any true charm, the film is a cardboard cutout of a movie: From the front, it seems real, but the second you look past the image, you realize it’s just a floppy piece of paper lacking any heart.
Loosely based on the 2007 Wii classic Super Mario Galaxy, the film sprawls across a multitude of planets and species. It’s filled to the brim with Easter eggs spanning the Mario franchise’s 45-year history, launching the viewer into a whirlwind of references right from the opening Illumination logo. In it, the filmmakers rapidly throw things at the wall and hope they stick. A wide majority of the film’s jokes rely on knowledge of the Mario games, whether it’s cameos from infamous side characters, 8-bit graphics or past logos in the background.
The goal of this formula is to appease two sides of the audience. On one end, you have a fast-paced, shallow adventure film that kids can enjoy. On the other hand, the film is chock-full of references for adults who grew up playing these games and will feel both nostalgic and validated in their knowledge. By including something for everybody, the studio looked to double its potential audience as well as its profit. Creating the cinematic equivalent of fast food, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is a quick-hitting, easily processed thing that does not give you any true nourishment.
Even technically, the film falls short of its 2023 predecessor, which, if nothing else, was visually incredible. The first film was colorful and well done, something that felt lost in the sequel. Most viewers may forgive the lack of a memorable story so long as the action is fun and looks great, but unfortunately, the visuals of this film were headache-inducing. There are moments of beauty earlier on, like fireworks hitting the night sky or when the characters find themselves in a flashy, colorful casino. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between. Specifically, in the film’s climax, a character transforms into a computer-generated mess that does not gel at all with the animated space, making you wonder if the film you are watching is even finished.
The total of nine characters at play detract from any clear goal, making the plot incredibly flat and meaningless. This shows up the most with the inclusion of Yoshi, played very cutely by Donald Glover. So much anticipation is built up for his introduction, but his character falls flat as soon as he is revealed, when he does nothing but make funny noises. This is how most of the characters feel: just there because they are iconic, not because they have anything significant to add to the story, making their inclusion feel unnatural in an attempt to cater to older audiences. There are too many pieces on the chessboard, and by the film’s end, none of them have moved. The lack of a moral makes everything feel creatively bankrupt.
Brand movies are not going to go away anytime soon. This film smashed the box office in its opening weekend, as did last year’s “A Minecraft Movie,” a film just as void of depth. This, if nothing else, is a growing trend in Hollywood, but that doesn’t mean this type of film has to be bad.
“Barbie” and “The Lego Movie” are great examples of taking an audience’s knowledge of a brand and building on it with a central vision focused on universal feelings that can resonate across generations. While they both play on nostalgia, the films simultaneously create compelling stories. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” feels empty by comparison, and even stellar performances like Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr. and Jack Black as a shrunk-down Bowser are not enough to save this film from the gaping black hole in its center.
Daily Arts Contributor Sam Brown can be reached at sbrownie@umich.edu.
