Whether they’re a parent that bought their child a Nintendo Entertainment System or someone with a Switch, most people know Mario.
After the success of the first new wave animated Mario movie by Illumination and Nintendo, they both decided to further the series with an installment sharing the title with the Wii’s 3D Mario game.
The movie released on Apr. 1, but was shown on Apr. 2 for Wayne, Neb.
“Right now, Mario, that’s a no-brainer. Two weeks, not a problem,” said Angela Nuss, the coordinator at the Majestic Theatre.
In preparation for this movie, I played through both Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 for the Wii, rewatched the first Super Mario Movie and dressed up as my favorite character, Birdo.
Honestly, none of those things are necessary to watch and enjoy this movie, but there were very few Mario Galaxy references compared to other games represented in the movie.
Compared to the last movie, which mainly represented the original Super Mario Bros and Super Mario 3D Land/World, Galaxy did have a broader representation of the games, such as Super Mario Bros 2 and 3, Super Mario World 1 and 2, Super Mario Sunshine and quite a bit of Super Mario Odyssey.
There was discourse about the fact the movie series jumped straight to Galaxy, skipping the other 3D Mario game, Super Mario Sunshine.
Various online personalities have said that it’s because it would be difficult to adapt FLUDD, which is Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device, the main tool in Sunshine, to make it interesting for a full movie length.
“I felt that this was a better representation of the games than the first movie,” movie watcher and Mario enjoyer, Kameron Randolph said. “I really enjoyed the inclusion of more characters from the series, as well showing other Nintendo characters and references to consoles. I also enjoyed the use of more of the OST [Original Soundtrack] versus the previous movie, feeling like the creators blew a large portion of the budget getting permission to use other music.”
As a Mario fan for most games and media, the movie was welcome in my books. Personally, I did grow up on Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, so seeing it get turned into a movie did provide me with (star) bits of nostalgia. The movie is made for children, so certain nuances and deeper meanings cannot be expected.
Overall, I did enjoy this movie. It was riddled with references ranging from the early 1970’s to modern day, but besides the story was okay. It made some big changes to the story of Mario as we know it, which took the movie into more linear directions. Rosalina, the main protagonist outside of Mario for the original Galaxy game, barely had any screen time, which was a bit disheartening. My all-time favorite part had to be the Super Mario Bros 2 section, where they had a casino and multiple enemies throughout the game.
Something that I do believe the original movie suffered from was celebrity casting. They cast people not based on their ability, but rather how much attention they would bring. The main contributors to this I believe are Chris Pratt and Jack Black, who voiced Mario and Bowser respectively. Just about every time they spoke, all I heard was the actual actors rather than the characters they played. Chris Pratt is not a bad actor, but he really only knows how to play one character with one voice. Jack Black has a similar situation, but he does have some more range. On the contrary, I do believe Anya Taylor-Joy and Keegan-Michael Key did well as Peach and Toad in both the original and sequel. All actors reprised their roles in the sequel, but a few memorable voice actors did join the cast as well.
I would say the most shocking voice actor that joined the cast was Donald Glover, A.K.A. Childish Gambino, as Yoshi. It was such an interesting take on the Yoshi voice, as he has very distinct whines and groans, but I did enjoy Glover’s rendition of it. Brie Larson voiced Rosalina, which she did a good job for, but barely had any screen time to show the character off. Benny Safdie voiced Bowser’s son, Bowser Jr. as the main antagonist of the film. All of the new voice actors did very well in their roles and I felt they enveloped the overall vibe of each character with their voice acting.
As I said, celebrity casting partially ruined the first movie for me, but the sequel definitely fixed the problem. Even Pratt and Black did better in their roles, sounding less like themselves and more like the characters they were supposed to be playing.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was not a bad movie, but it was not a great one either. It felt like they tried to dumb the plot of every Mario game down so much that it felt very fake overall and not like Mario. It was a fun watch, but I do not think I would ever really want to watch it again.
