Directed by: Aaron Horvath & Michael Jelenic
Written by: Matthew Fogel
Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key
Rating: [3/5]
Under the current landscape of the Hollywood system where developing hits from pre-existing popular materials from a fear of taking risks, every studio scours what they have rights to in order to find something to produce. They search for anything that has even a glimmer of name recognition and if they’re lucky, a built-in audience. When you factor all of these elements together, it comes as a surprise that it took this long for them to make a movie based on the property in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It fits pretty much everything a studio would want and while it feels like a lazy cash grab, it does its job in providing baseline entertainment.
Two struggling plumber brothers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) find a water main leak and when they enter it they find themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom. As complete outsiders of this land they learn that the King of the Koopas, Bowser (Jack Black), wants to marry the ruler of the kingdom, Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). As the pair of brothers have their help enlisted they learn aplenty about this new world.
Arguably the most recognizable character in all of Nintendo’s catalog of games that carry immense popularity in pretty much every corner of the world, it made sense a movie about Mario would find its way to the big screen and it came as no surprise Illumination would be the studio to usher it to us. This film was predetermined to make $1 billion at the box office as its target audience not only captured the young kids the content sought to target but also the older generations who now had the opportunity to watch the video games they have played since their youth on the big screen as well. The perfect storm that could only get ruined by a horrid production and we did not get that here. As much of a Scrooge I would like to be about this film’s existence, the movie does fine in presenting a competent story.
Having Mario and Luigi live in Brooklyn and transport over to this kingdom brings a distinction of reality versus fantasy, where these two have never encountered these other beings. It makes their initial encounters with Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) and other Koopas a completely new experience for them. They somehow get sandwiched into the troubles transpiring in the land and have to step up in ways that will prove their bravery, which makes sense for the target audience of this film as a whole. However, the biggest question laid on how they would present Bowser’s pursuit of Peach and that went about as well one could imagine.
Instead of existing as this pure evil force trying to kidnap Peach for vague purposes, The Super Mario Bros. Movie presents this as him genuinely being in love with her and wanting to make her his queen. This gets blatantly laid out in the song he sings about Peach that has baked its way into our collective consciousness that would be annoying except for the fact that Jack Black sings it and does a splendid job as the king of the Koopas. He exists as a villain who can inflict a bunch of damage but also a bit of a hopeless romantic that makes him a bit charming to watch in all honesty. Again, having Jack Black voice the character certainly helps in driving that home.
When it comes to the animation, it certainly has the glean and style expected with most Illumination films where it does not necessarily stand out and the main challenge being how they could animate the different worlds those who have loved the games have grown accustomed to. Finding ways to have audience members point to the screen and understand the references, and I certainly had that experience with this one as they checked off the list of recognizable characters and settings.
Nothing spectacular by any means but pretty much getting the job done, The Super Mario Bros. Movie at the very least could be described as watchable. It hits all the proper notes and finds a way to take some fairly two-dimensional characters in the game and add a slight bit of depth to them to further justify moving them up to the big screen. Jack Black proved as best-in-show and I’m sure several more sequels will find their ways to the multiplexes and while diminishing returns will likely occur then, we at least got a very serviceable adaptation with this one.
Films with Josh 
