Details from IMDB:
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi are warped to the magical Mushroom Kingdom, and Mario must team up with Princess Peach, Toad, and Donkey Kong to save Luigi from the evil Bowser.
Initial Thoughts:
I’ve loved Nintendo since I was a kid, and while I’ll admit Mario Bros. was not my favourite game, it was up there. By the 3rd Super Mario World, they really made it a lot of fun. For me, however, my greatest love will always be Mario Kart for any Nintendo system, we’re sticking with a Switch, Switch 2 will happen, but anyway, I’m way off track (not that I don’t really care) but I decided it would be a good combo to watch this movie and then play Mario Kart this morning and I’m glad I did.
Main Points:
I had meant to watch this movie a long time ago (I completely forgot it came out 3 years ago!). I only decided to finally watch it when I realized it was leaving Netflix soon by chance. So that’s my super long intro 🙂 Seriously, I enjoyed this movie, and while I thought the beginning was a little slow/sad (and of course, there is a ton of deus ex machina), it’s an animated video game movie? I’m not expecting anything deep or profound; I just laughed and had fun with this movie. All of the voice cast was good, including Chris Pratt, with whom I have issues in real life, but as an actor, he is also good, as were Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day and Jack Black. I had forgotten that Seth Rogen had a voice in this movie, and he did a great job as Donkey Kong. I think he’s one of my favourite voice actors, as he’s just always some version of himself, which is the best choice for every voice role he takes.
Animation looks great. I loved the Mario Kart scenes. The music was fun, though I found it really odd that they had the originals for “Take On Me” and “Thunderstruck” but not for “Holding Out for A Hero.” I got excited about several of the action scenes and had some wondrous nostalgia moments, while also appreciating lots of fun nods to the games.
Final Thoughts:
My timing worked out really well: the second movie is coming out in April, which made me excited to see it, and if the showings work out, I’ll try to catch it in theatres. Stay to the end for a couple of fun post-credit scenes, though you most likely already know what one of them is about. It is nice to have a change of pace and watch a kids’ movie, really a better way to describe this is for someone who’s a kid at heart, and I still am, at least I can be sometimes. I give this a solid 7.5 out of 10 and would highly recommend it to any Nintendo/Mario Bros. fan. I can also say this is good for kids! Though I think ages 10+ for what could be considered a few mildly scary scenes and a little bit of violence. This is what video game movies (most of them) need to be: fun and animated. Fallout is a big exception, and it’s not a movie anyway.