'The Super Mario Bros Movie' Gets Stuck In A Pipe of Nostalgia

Say what you will about the 1993 Super Mario Bros Movie, but it at least tried to do something different. The 2023 Illumination Studios Super Mario Bros Movie presents no shred of originality. However, that's supposed to be the idea. The 1993 box office bomb had nothing to do with the game besides sharing Mario and Luigi's names. Audiences hated that the movie was the complete opposite of the game. Instead of bright, colorful worlds, the film depicts a dystopian metropolis featuring mutated dinosaurs. 

The Super Mario Bros Movie 2023 goes in the opposite direction feeding as much nostalgia as possible with a minimal focus on story or character. Nostalgia is an alluring drug. Its short-term effects feel nice, but it quickly wears off, and the user feels empty. For appealing to toddlers, Mario Bros will suffice, but Mom and Dad may expect more. Now that we have what some would consider a proper Mario film, we can see the dull results.

The story starts in an interesting place with Mario and Luigi trying to appease their disappointed parents. The brothers run a local plumbing company in Brooklyn. One that isn't churning enough money. Things soon change for the two when they're transported to the mushroom kingdom during a routine plumbing job.

Entering the kingdom, Luigi is captured by Bowser, a gigantic hybrid between a turtle and a dinosaur. Bowser has plans to wed Princess Peach against her will. No matter how attracted Bowser is to Peach, Peach would never marry the monster of the mushroom world. To save Luigi and Peach, Mario must learn the mechanics of the mushroom kingdom to become a hero and rescue everyone. 

Not familiar with the other world, Princess Peach mentors Mario in defeating Bowser. Unlike the Super Mario games, Peach isn't a damsel in distress waiting to be saved from the castle. In the movie, Princess Peach is a steadfast warrior who can handle herself. However, her skills aren't enough to stop Bowser from conquering her peaceful kingdom. It's up to Mario to learn how to become a hero to save the day. When leaving Brooklyn and entering the mushroom kingdom the film becomes a repetitive series of callbacks attached to a flimsy narrative. 

The usage of nostalgia would only be partial criticism if the film had more than fan service. The filmmakers can make a toy advertisement of a film that still has a message to it. What better example is there than The Lego Movie, a film centered around the joys of play conceptualized through a child's imagination. To go a step further, The Lego Batman Movie is about Batman overcoming the loss of his parents and embrace a new family. Super Mario Bros is trying to say something about acceptance through our parents, but it gets lost in favor of recreating levels from the game.  

The story sounds appropriate for a Mario film on paper, but in execution, it's a drag to watch. TSMBM is so much the antithesis of the original film that the movie doesn't know where to concentrate its overlying themes. What is the theme of the film? Is it that anyone can be a hero? Or is it to never give up on your dreams? The film could benefit from more concentration on the brother's relationship with their parents. Unfortunately, the parents get ditched for ninety percent of the film in favor of constant replications from the game. 

As a Mario fan, I was admittedly tickled by the callbacks. But the more I think about the movie, the less I care to remember it. Kids will like it, but kids like anything shiny. There's enough colorful contrast to charm anyone with a set of eyeballs. The Super Mario Bros Movie is a beautiful movie to look at. The Mushroom Kingdom is a feast for the eyes. To help bring the characters to life is a lively cast.

Many of the casting choices are quite clever. Jack Black incorporates some of his Tenacious D talents into Bowser. The voice is digitized to make Black sound more menacing, yet you can still tell it's JB from the energy (and singing) he puts into the performance. .Anya-Taylor Joy provides a flawless American accent for Peach, really showing that she's giving the role all her effort. Accent aside, Joy does a fine job voicing a confident female character.

Charlie Day is a unique choice for Luigi. The only solo Luigi game that exists is Luigi's Mansion which characterizes Luigi as a person with high anxiety. Anyone familiar with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will know that Charlie Day is a fidgety, nervous character. Day has a quiver in his voice which fits the role of Luigi like a white glove. 

So how does Mario sound? Chris Pratt is an odd choice to play Mario. After hearing Charles Martinet voice Mario for years, embracing Chris Pratt's take on the character is difficult to adjust to. There's a slight Brooklyn accent Pratt attaches to the role, which sounds phoned in. Hollywood relies on star power, so casting Chris Pratt is a business decision that the studio heads probably made, which doesn't work out for the film. 

Charles Martinet has always voiced Mario and Luigi. Having him voice the brothers would not only appease fans, but it would also save money. It's difficult to imagine Martinet's asking price exceeding a major Hollywood star's. Mr. Martinet is in the movie but in a brief role as Mario and Luigi's father. Martinet playing a small role is like watching Tom Holland meet Nathan Fillon in Uncharted. Why have the irony be two Nathan Drakes meeting each other when Nathan Fillon could play the role of Drake by himself?  

The Super Mario Bros Movie is a film decades in the making. After so many years to correct itself from the 1993 original, one would assume time would be taken to carefully craft the story. Instead, the narrative is rushed, like a speed runner barreling through the game. Is Super Mario Bros adaptable? It depends. If given the correct writer and minimal studio interference, it could be. 

Screenwriter Matthew Fogel may have had some demands from Nintendo and studio executives to implement constant references to the game. Then again, Fogel is credited for writing Minions: The Rise of Gru, so it could be him nerding out on the page. Families might enjoy the film since it's cheap entertainment. Mario Bros appeals to the lowest common denominator, pandering to a massive audience. Given the circumstances of the 1993 Super Mario movie disaster Nintendo understandably didn't want to take any creative risks. Thus we're given a movie with lots of exterior beauty yet little soul underneath. 

Super Mario Bros is more fun to play than it is to watch. When I saw Mario get sucked around in multiple pipes or leap into the air, I wished to play it on a small Switch screen with a controller in my hand instead of seeing the action on the big screen. The movie does a grand job selling video games, but it comes at the expense of making a forgettable movie that's not worth spending the coin seeing.