Riot’s Reviews: The Super Mario Bros Movie
It’s hard to imagine characters with a more storied history than The Super Mario Bros. Even a casual glance through Mario’s wiki page exemplifies just how many iterations and video game titles he has been involved with since his inception in 1981. Being a late 80’s and early 90’s child myself, Mario and Luigi have been a big part of my life and to date still own my number one spot for “best video game of all time,” Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Since the moment The Super Mario Bros Movie was announced, it was almost immediately steeped in controversy. It makes sense to an extent, considering how closely ingrained the content is in people’s childhood memories, especially for my generation. Early teasers were met with a mixed bag of responses, so would this new reimagining of the Mario Bros legend hold up to scrutiny? That’s a big WAHOO from me!
An early synopsis of the movie is certainly not necessary this time around, especially considering the entire start of the story was included in the film’s teaser trailer. One of the biggest complaints listed online is that there isn’t much offered by way of the plot and I would certainly attest that is true. Normally, I would identify this as a bad thing, so why not this time? Simply put, the creators accomplished what they absolutely should have, they kept it as simple as their original content. The majority of Super Mario titles have one goal in mind: save Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) from Bowser (Jack Black). So what possible reason would there be to defer from this obviously winning formula? To the writer’s (Matthew Fogel) credit, I found the small expansions to the character’s stories all to be interesting ones. They highlighted the tight-knit relationship between Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day), they hilariously expanded on Bowser’s love-sick obsession with Peach, and they kept alive the decades-long rivalry with Donkey Kong (Seth Rogan). And while I thought they didn’t necessarily need to make Peach completely flawless, it was perfectly fine making her and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) not be complete victims of circumstance.
The film’s biggest selling point is unmistakably its special effects. Illumination Entertainment, like they have many times before, made an absolutely stunning movie (I’m particularly fond of the Sing films). It was a near-perfect blend of an animated film and what really felt like a video game. One could slowly and methodically comb their way through the movie and still end up missing some of the nearly endless references to the games. Each scene is made a treat because you’re constantly looking for an enemy character or scene from the numerous games you’ve played over the years. All of the throwbacks were there visually and audibly as well. The soundtrack is incredible and serves to transport the audience through each of the levels/worlds that enraptured us as children. Also, highly contrary to what people assumed ahead of the movie’s release, its second biggest strength lies in its voice acting. I will admit that there are a few moments where Pratt and Day slip and don’t necessarily live up to expectations. That being said, the negative press involving Pratt’s casting is undoubtedly proven biased/false by the final product; he was far better than I expected. Even Rogan, who I thought was going to be a terrible choice for Donkey Kong, put on such a convincing performance that I’m forced to admit I was dreadfully wrong. The Super Mario Bros Movie, while in some ways tailored for Millennials and Gen Xers, is really a wonderful kids film. Having seen it in a theater filled with children, this was exemplified most when Jack Black’s singing had them rolling with laughter. It was wonderful to see yet another generation still head over heels for a video game character that was so central to my childhood.
As a final, more controversial note, someone needs to tell John Leguizamo to kindly stop running his mouth. So, I’ll take a crack at it. John, your Super Mario Bros movie was trash. If you were really honest with yourself, you’d realize your opinion on diversity means less than nothing and makes no sense to boot. The millions of dollars worth of tickets sold so far for this new film should let you know the truth of this. Claim to be an “advocate” all you want, it’s obvious your opinions are nothing more than misplaced anger at not being recast for a role you were barely suited for in the first place. John, it doesn’t matter if you go see it, everyone else will be busy enjoying this film regardless.
Riot’s Rating: 9/10: The Super Mario Bros movie is truly fun for the whole family, especially if you have a bunch of gamers in the house.
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