It’s both fitting and odd that the best parts of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie are when the film lets us watch animators recreate the idea of playing a Super Mario game on the big screen. Credit where credit is due: it’s a creative touch to arrive at sequences that move the virtual camera in a way that suddenly reveals a side-scroller perspective. However, this also speaks once again to just how creatively limited these cinematic adaptations of a bulletproof franchise are. At least it’s colorful, and by default, Illumination’s best-looking movie to date. Still, despite ultimately moving in the right direction, the continued choice to play things so incredibly safe renders a universe full of imagination as one featuring stories and characters that still never rise above a bland level.
Story-wise, the stakes are set right away. Despite the novelty of Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) being setup as a badass warrior woman that can take on an army by herself, she’s still captured by Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie) and held as a damsel in distress for the duration of the movie. When Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) learns of this, she sets out with Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) to travel across galaxies to rescue her, leaving Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) in charge of the Mushroom Kingdom. Soon enough, however, their kingdom is attacked as well, and the plumbers must also go on the run to figure out what’s going on, along with a still-imprisoned Bowser (Jack Black). Oh, and the Mario brothers also found and befriended Yoshi (Donald Glover), who instantly becomes a part of the team as well.
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Speaking to that last point essentially nails down a core issue with these movies. Just seeing Yoshi is great. The green dinosaur with eyes so close together that they touch is a fun creation, and its introduction is a highlight of the film. That said, there’s nothing else to Yoshi, with any sense of backstory, feelings about suddenly being friends with two random plumbers, or anything else regarding this dino’s drive being left out entirely or saved for potential sequels (we see the planet that is Yoshi’s Island on a map a few times). Should this matter? A fair question, as these films are so lighthearted that it could be easy enough to go along with the sudden arrival of a fan-favorite character. The problem is that it extends to everything in this film.
While the first film could barely get through the standard “chosen one” arc for Mario, this film has even less for him to do. None of it is helped by Pratt’s basic voice work, which robs Mario of any real identity. His main drive is to tell Princess Peach that he’s “in like” with her, but between Pratt and an equally underdeveloped Peach that gives Taylor-Joy nothing to really do, they just feel like heroic placeholders. Peach even has the chance to be more important this time around, given her connection to Rosalina, yet very little amounts besides an excuse for magic-related action.
Bowser Jr.’s Clunker Castle
On the villain side, Bowser Jr. has what could be a fun chance to raise the stakes by way of being even more villainous than his father, and possibly even against Bowser, given their history. Instead, Jr. serves as more or less of an excuse to restore the film’s status quo, despite the film teasing the audience with a fun new direction for Bowser to go. Black’s voicework was easily the highlight of the previous film. This time around, outside of all the jokes found in the ads leading up to this film, Bowser feels a lot less fun here, and being robbed of a better storyline doesn’t help.
If all of this feels like I’m coming down too hard on what’s going to be branded as children’s entertainment, it’s because I see the potential here. Even the Mario games are never that deep, but at least they feel like there’s unlimited levels of imagination at work to bring those worlds to life. Here, I can see so much greatness in the animation direction, the score by Brian Tyler (with thankfully far fewer needle drops), and some key reference points that there must have been some cool ideas on the table, and yet this movie does very little to capitalize on them.
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The very recent reveal that Star Fox’s Fox McCloud (fittingly voiced by Glen Powell) would be joining the film was an interesting surprise, as it implies numerous possibilities. Are we being setup to see more Nintendo characters in the Super Mario universe? Is a Super Smash Bros. movie on the horizon? As it stands, this ends up feeling more like a setup for a spin-off that I’d welcome, were I not to be unconvinced that it would just result in more mediocrity, no matter how good-looking.
Yes, the visuals are still pretty wonderful. Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic have guided this film to success in replicating Super Mario in a manner that is quite astounding, given the full realization of what once stood as 8-bit characters on a very small screen. Seeing numerous set pieces that feel pulled out of various Mario games has a way of satisfying on a very shallow level. I will say that one inspired sequence felt as though it was referencing both the much-derided Super Mario Bros. 2 and the 90s Super Mario movie at the same time. Yes, this still amounts to pointing out the large number of Easter eggs to be found throughout this film, but the effort was put into planting them, and it’s hard not to feel it at least fits this kind of movie.
Honestly, I was pretty content with what was happening up to a point. Despite the generic storyline, I found this adventure more engaging than the previous film, with more hope for where it could be going. Alas, it’s really only by the movie’s final act that it lost me due to how rushed everything felt. Rather than do anything of value with the arcs seemingly set up, let alone how various character relationships could play out once reunited, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie instead chooses to keep everything action-focused without the benefit of doing anything all that satisfying beyond a generic “save the day” final moment.
After the first film made $1.3 billion, it was pretty clear Illumination knew what they had to work with and weren’t going to be too concerned with rocking the boat. That’s clearly what’s paved the way for the studio’s many past successes. I find that to be a shame. With all the effort going into designing a film that will please fans based purely on the accuracy of what they already get with their games from a visual standpoint, I could only hope there’d be a choice to color outside of the lines at least a little bit and dare challenge the acrobatic plumber with anything. Instead, while a mild improvement and nowhere near a Bob-omb, I’m still not getting much of Mario’s sunshine.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is now playing in theaters and IMAX.
