The Super Mario Galaxy Movie expands the world of Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day).
Somewhere far away, there is a place called the Comet Observatory, where Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) lives with her children, the Lumas. Every night, she tucks them in and tells them stories. Her favorite is the one about Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy).
One night, their routine is cut short by an intruder. A giant robot called Megaleg crashes into the Observatory, piloted by the scheming Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie) and his loyal sorcerer, Kamek (Kevin Michael Richardson). Princess Rosalina puts up a fight, but she is eventually captured. Her children got caught too except for a little yellow Luma.
Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, Luigi, Toad (Keegan Michael-Key), and Yoshi (Donald Glover), a dinosaur the brothers befriended in the desert, are preparing for Princess Peach’s birthday. The party is in full swing when streaks of light come raining down from the sky. It’s the yellow Luma. He quickly shares the news about what happened at the Observatory. Princess Peach does not hesitate. She grabs Toad and heads straight for the stars.
That leaves Mario and Luigi holding the keys to the kingdom. They immediately get to work, such as keeping the Toads safe and keeping a close eye on a shrunken Bowser (Jack Black), who has been banished to a tiny castle and is trying to manage his anger issues by painting.
Things seem to be going fine until a massive shadow falls over the Mushroom Kingdom. A giant ship beams the castle up into the sky. It’s Bowser Jr., and he’s here to free his father so the two of them can finally take over the universe together.
High above the clouds and with no backup in sight, Mario and Luigi realized that they had no choice but to fight back.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is pretty to look at. Every frame feels like Illumination’s animators poured their everything into it, filling the backgrounds with tiny details and thousands of Easter eggs that reward a second and third look. The textures, the lighting, the movements, they all scream love and labor.
Unfortunately, those are all the good things I can say about this film. Everything else is a miss.
First off, the film is not patient. The pacing is fast and relentless, stuffing us with side stories that feel completely detached from or unrelated to the main plot. Mario and Luigi turning into babies, Bowser’s sacrifice at the Honeyhive Galaxy, the Ukiki chase, the casino scene: these are moments you could delete entirely and the story would proceed as usual. I get that these are wink-and-nod moments for fans of the video games, and that’s cool. The problem is that the film never actually builds on any of it in any meaningful way. It starts, it gets its laughs, and it ends. Then the story moves on.
That same restlessness also rushes through the film’s important themes and messages. The Peach-Rosalina sisterhood is supposed to be the emotional heart of this movie, but the film barely lets us spend time with them to care about their relationship.
Then there’s Bowser’s arc. The film leads us to believe at the start that this is a different Bowser, a kind, compassionate, and rational one. Then the film abandons his development. It yanks the rug out from under us with no real explanation. To me, it’s a genuine head-scratcher.
The voice acting is okay, I guess. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day are fine as Mario and Luigi, though neither pushes beyond what they did in the first film. The energy is the same, the delivery is the same. Perhaps, the script simply did not give them much space to cover.
As for the new cast members, I don’t really know how to critique them, except for Benny Safdie, who is good as Bowser Jr. Brie Larson as Rosalina appeared on screen for maybe like ten minutes? She got some long lines during the first act, but not enough for me to really say that it’s good. Then there’s Donald Glover as Yoshi and he just says Yoshi throughout this film.
In my opinion, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is made for two kinds of people: kids who want fast, colorful, and energetic animated films, and Nintendo fans. For everyone else, the film offers so little. It looks incredible, but looking incredible only gets you so far.
1.5/5