The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) [Spoiler-Free]

In the grand scheme of do-overs, no movie franchise deserved one quite as much as Super Mario. The 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie failed so miserably both critically and commercially that Nintendo’s interest in adapting their IP library to the big screen soured for nearly three decades. We all wanted that Super Mario movie, but when we got it, we weren’t sure what the hell we even got. Nintendo didn’t even know what they were looking at when they saw it. As a result, we never got that Legend Of Zelda movie. We never got that Metroid movie. 

If Mario succeeded, Nintendo may have made more. Instead, they avoided movie adaptations until 2019’s Detective Pikachu (which is an absolute delight, by the way). 

But even before the success of Detective Pikachu, talks of trying Super Mario again were in the works. A few years of rumors and speculation occurred, and then in 2018, we received the good news: Nintendo was teaming up with the animators at Illumination to give Mario another chance—this time, with Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario’s creator himself, producing. Combining the support of Nintendo’s greatest innovator with the magic of Illumination studios, things were looking good for Super Mario. 

In the movie, Mario and his little brother Luigi recently set out to start their own Brooklyn-based small plumbing business but are constantly reminded that it’s not easy being the little guy. To prove their worth, they head deep into the New York sewers to try and solve a major plumbing problem. There, they stumble upon a pipe that warps them into other worlds against their will. They get separated along the way.

Mario, who finds himself in the Mushroom Kingdom, must seek the help of its inhabitants to find his little brother, and return to Brooklyn. The evil Bowser, king of the Koopas, stand in their way as he is currently waging a war to take over the world. With the help of Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom, they set off on a quest to thwart Bowser, to set things right for the kingdom, and to reunite the two plumbers who are seemingly way in over their heads.

Visually, this movie is absolutely stunning. Illumination is often overshadowed by Pixar. However, I feel they really upped it a notch this time. When this movie pans over the landscape or zooms in on a field of mushrooms, the level of detail is astounding. Even in the trailers, I did not expect to see such well-crafted animation. I consider this some of the best I’ve seen to-date. It is, in my opinion, Pixar-level design. And that’s the gold standard as far as I am concerned.

Another visual element I love is the subtle vertigo I felt while watching it. Anyone who grew up playing Super Mario video games knows that feeling of leaping across giant chasms and hoping for the best. It is difficult to truly describe that feeling, but any good Super Mario game will give you that feeling from time to time. You feel your stomach knot up, the hairs on the back of your neck stand tall. And when you make it onto a floating platform, the adrenaline surges, and you want to do it again. It’s what has kept me a Super Mario fan for nearly four decades. This movie gives you that exact same feeling – there are scenes when the heroes are jumping and flying through the air, hoping to stick that landing. There may not be a controller in your hands, but you still feel that same excitement as you watch the characters traverse certain parts of this world. They captured that element from the games perfectly, and it works so well here. 

As soon as the first scene starts, The Super Mario Bros. Movie immediately rewards long-time Nintendo fans with all kinds of easter eggs from Nintendo’s long history – and not simply Super Mario’s history. Both Duck Hunt and Punch-Out!! get nods. Every few moments, the background music shifts into familiar melodies lifted from various video game scores. I found this fan-service gratifying, but after a while it felt excessive. I began to feel as though they were apologizing to those who remember the first time watching 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros. movie, which couldn’t have been any further from the source material if it tried. The new movie takes the opposite approach and never stops drawing from the video games. 

Since the moment it was announced that Chris Pratt landed the lead role as the voice of Super Mario, the internet collectively groaned. Some felt that this was an injustice to Charles Martinet, who supplies the voice of both Mario and Luigi in the video games and has since the 1990s. Others simply took issue with Chris Pratt himself. He’s not the most well-liked person. Others feel the vocal choices he made didn’t fit the character. I am not here to weigh in on the issues surrounding Pratt as a person. My self-appointed job here is to rate the movie and its performances. And with that in mind, I think he did a fine job as Mario. By fine, I mean he didn’t wow me, nor did his performance offend. He understood the assignment, and provided a passable Super Mario that was sure to appease even the masses. 

But we need to talk about the rest of this cast. Mama Mia, they really went all-out with this cast!

Anya Taylor-Joy, who just seems to be everywhere these days, brought a formidable presence to Princess Peach and needs to be acknowledged for it. I love the decision to not make this Peach a damsel in need of rescue. It’s a played-out trope in general, and it often seems to be Peach’s role in many of the video games. Not this Peach. This Peach was a fighter, a tactician, a strategist, and an all-around badass. Anya Taylor-Joy provided a performance as strong as the character she voices, and it works so well. 

Charlie Day brought his usual fun brand of panic to Luigi which is perfect for Nintendo’s hero with nerves of…well, jelly. Keegan-Michael Key is an amusing Toad. Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong was fun, as long as you enjoy apes who act and talk exactly like Seth Rogen.

But the unquestionable standout here is Jack Black as Bowser. Even with such a storied career as he has, I don’t think anyone was ready for how much he really went for it with this role. It’s hard to really say whether Jack Black became Bowser, or if Bowser has just always been Jack Black. It’s uncanny how well this works. Bowser was a rollercoaster of emotions in this movie. He was hellbent on destructive domination one moment, and the next he’s insecure about whether the Princess likes Mario more than him. When Jack Black wants you to, he makes you forget you aren’t hearing an actual turtle monster speaking. But then there are times when he wants to make you laugh and smile the way only Jack Black can do. And in those moments, you are fully aware of who you’re listening to, and those are often the best moments of the film. He even treats the audience to a musical performance worthy of a Tenacious D record. If we get a sequel, Jack Black’s Bowser is the part I will look forward to the most. 

The one thing for the adults to keep in mind is to go into this movie with the right expectations. Nintendo is a family-oriented brand. That has been their guiding principle for a very long time. They aren’t interested in being edgy. In fact, Nintendo’s lack of edge was the basis for Sega’s Sonic The Hedgehog marketing campaign in the early 1990s. Sonic was the bad boy to Super Mario’s saccharine appeal. Nintendo continued that time-tested family-oriented approach with this movie. Today’s adults were the original Super Mario fans, and the filmmakers did a good job at providing things for them to enjoy. But at the end of the day, this movie isn’t for them – it’s for their kids. The humor and dialogue throughout the film reflect that. I feel like there has been an inherent expectation with kids animated movies over the last decade or so where the humor should be geared towards the parents/adults too. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is aimed squarely at kids, not adults. I think it’s important to emphasize this so that adults don’t walk away from this movie complaining that it wasn’t very good simply because most of the jokes were written for ten-year-olds. This movie IS for ten-year-olds. Keep this expectation in mind, and you’ll still find that it’s quite funny.

I hope this movie finds the success that eluded Super Mario on screen thirty years ago. I hope that success leads to sequels and to more Nintendo properties being developed into animated features. Nintendo has a lot of stories left to adapt. If The Super Mario Bros. Movie is meant to be the kickoff to a whole Nintendo animated film franchise, then it’s fitting that it all starts with Mario leading the way. I personally loved it, and if Nintendo can develop more movies half as good as this, count me in!