Easter Eggs or April Fools’? Our Super Mario Galaxy Movie Review

Witnessing a Mario movie on the big screen has been on my dream bucket list since I could first mash the A and B buttons on a Game Boy Color. The day finally came when I found my nine-or-ten-year-old-something self pumped to watch the Super Mario Bros. movie on our family room TV screen. Or was it? As it turned out, that was the infamous 1993 live action movie featuring Bob Hoskins, John Leguziamo, and that heavens-awful ugly King Koopa fungus guy (no offense, Dennis Hopper). Like a sleazy bait and switch signage tactic, my childhood hopes of seeing the epic fights between heroic plumbers and Koopa kings in my imagination were quickly dashed. Year after year, I held onto the pipedream that my favorite Nintendo characters would come to life in huge theaters, but to no avail. I shrugged my shoulders and moved on with my life. Maybe video games weren’t destined for the movies.

Well, now that it’s been over two decades, I’m happy to report that this millennial was wrong. Welcome to the golden age of epic video game movies.

This is going to be a spoiler-free review. There may be some vague mentions of certain events, but no major spoilers will be posted in this review.

Planets and Princesses and Power Ups, Oh My!

Funny enough, the last movie I watched in a theater was Sonic the Hedgehog. The COVID-19 pandemic slammed our world two months later, and I didn’t set foot in a theater again for six years. It’s only fitting then that the movie I would end my “theater famine” with would be Super Mario Galaxy. I nabbed a rental of the first Super Marios Bros. Movie by Nintendo and Illumination two nights before to prepare for the big day. Finally, I would watch a real Nintendo movie from Shigeru Miyamoto! Even though I’m now well into my adult years, I wasn’t going to miss this chance for anything.

Because I have the Nintendo Today! app on my iPhone, I was able to test out the exclusive free benefits you get if you check in through the app at a theater screening of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. The idea of it and the goodies are nice enough, but going through the process is a bit clunky. The directions tell you to touch the “Check In” button and then scan a movie poster from inside the theater with your phone camera, and only then at that time will you have access to download several exclusive digital wallpaper designs and special character digital frames you can attach by taking a selfie. Unfortunately, I did not know how to do any of this until I was actually sitting in the auditorium while the pre-show commercials were playing. It took almost all of that time for me to fumble through the app and download what I wanted on the fly during a time when the theater asks for its patrons to turn their phones down to silent. Things would have been even more awkward had I not already picked up a poster on my way to the auditorium. Parents, take note. You might need to help your kids wrangle the app to get what you want. Perhaps after the movie is a better time to fuss with it.

Aside from my real life Three Stooges pre-show skit, the frame is fun and the digital wallpapers are lovely with high quality resolutions. Be sure to download everything you want before leaving the theater though because the content won’t be available to re-download afterwards.

All right, enough rambling. Let’s get on with the show. Once the movie begins, you’ll know right away that like its predecessor, the art direction is the heartbeat of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Needless to say, it’s a sheer feast for the eyes of Nintendo fans. One can easily see why Nintendo hired Illumination to help with this job, and boy are they having a blast with it. In the first movie, there were parts where the obvious Illumination quirks and corny gags came out. But this time the two teams are much more cohesive. The worlds within the Galaxy movie are teeming with dusty deserts, lush rainforests, dreamy nebulas, seething lava pits, and all sorts of critters with soft fur and hair and scaly skin and sleek bug exoskeletons and robots in shiny metal that you will encounter as you venture across the planets with the Mario Brothers and friends.

Some of these characters you’ve already seen, but there are still others you will meet with great surprise and delight. Each one is clearly animated with great care and respect to Nintendo. Plenty of Easter Eggs are in the film too, making it totally re-watchable for fans. I love the sheer intimidating scale of Megaleg and the T-Rex from Super Mario Odyssey, as well as the dramatic perils that make one realize how dangerous video game worlds actually are once you process them on a huge cinema screen (did I mention there’s a lot of lava?).

Not only does this movie look like living breathing art, the fight scenes are gorgeous and smooth like butter. Bowser Jr.’s paint brush weapon is mesmerizing and threatening in itself. You get to see different power-ups from the games throughout the film that entertain and delight, too. Both kids and adults will appreciate the exciting (and believable) choreography as well as the graceful camera pans that miraculously swoop around the animated characters in 3D without giving anyone a migraine. To me, the 2D transitions are seamless and clever additions that don’t break the fourth wall by any means; they enhance the context of the scenes in such a way that only Mr. Miyamoto can achieve. Each fight is unique, and none of it is close to boring. All of the scenes will leave you wondering what’s going to happen next. I laughed, I gasped, and I sat at the edge of my seat. If this is how Nintendo boss fights get translated into film, then yes please, give me more helpings.

The Sounds of Success

The soundtrack and score in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie are outstanding! Almost all of the tracks are composed with a full orchestra and choir to create pure listening candy for the Mario fan from start to finish. It was like that in the previous movie, too, but this time there are far less licensed “canned radio” songs. The few that made it in the final cut seem to be there solely for comedic timing to key scenes and to move the plot along, which got a hearty amount of chuckles from me.

There were a handful of iconic Super Mario songs I recognized in the orchestra that made me grin from ear to ear and tap a beat from my chair. I’m sure there are more scores that I missed on my first viewing. What I did hear sounded sublime, and the volume didn’t seem to jerk around too dramatically either, which created a hearing experience just as pleasant as the visuals. Like the previous film, there could have been some extra dialogue here and there, but I felt that for what it is everyone’s speaking lines seem to be well balanced.

Some critics have stated that Mario seems awful quiet and Chris Pratt is more boring, but I felt that his performance was fine and about the same quality as the last time, certainly not bad enough to break the experience for me. Not surprisingly, Brie Larson is phenomenal as Rosalina, as well as Glenn Powell’s Fox McCloud, Donald Glover’s Yoshi, and the rest of the returning cast. Benny Safdie, who plays Bowser Jr., interprets him better than I expected with an interesting range of pitch and depth. The only performance I did not seem to care for was Wart’s, but considering I don’t know the character well enough that’s a tough one for me to judge.

The More Characters The Merrier

As a longtime Legend of Zelda fan myself, I could tell right away that Shigeru Miyamoto’s spontaneous creative style prevails in this movie. Like its predecesor, the plot is simple in Galaxy, but the tradeoff is plenty of focus on the characters, who are all true to the spirit of the Nintendo characters we love and have grown up with in the games. Some of these characters get less of the spotlight than others, which is unfortunate but inevitable with only an hour and a half long movie to cover them all. Nonetheless, the thrill of seeing any of them on the big screen is still very real.

Perhaps Mr. Miyamoto wanted to fit in as many characters as he could just in case another movie would not work out in the future, or maybe he did it simply for the heck of it. It technically doesn’t feel like a Super Smash Bros. movie, but it’s close, and rest assured, there are plenty of times I thought — “gee, maybe a Super Smash Bros. movie is possible.” Speaking of references, there are a surprising number of references from classic movies of old, too, from Star Wars to Star Trek and The Terminator. How original or entertaining you think they are is entirely up to your personal tastes, but at least for me it was a hoot seeing Nintendo characters pulling them off regardless.

The good news is that both Rosalina and Fox McCloud get a healthy dose of screen time, as well as Yoshi, Bowser Jr., and the rest of the main crew from the first film minus the Kongs save for a few seconds of our good ole boy DK. I personally found the character arcs of the royal Koopas to be oddly intriguing, as well as Rosalina’s, who delightfully captured my non-Mario-fan mom’s attention who watched the movie with me. I was pleased to discover that there seemed to be no glaring plot holes in the context of the film. A few major lore drops do hit you which might confuse fans of the Mario games. But I admit, I’m not a Mario lore junkie so I felt that the lore drops made sense and added substance to the franchise’s light storytelling to begin with.

Some may complain that there needs to be more space venturing scenes in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, but as someone who has never played a Mario Galaxy game before (I know, don’t judge me), I thought the balance between space odysseys and land-lubbing was just right. I personally cannot stand an overage of planet hopping. If anything, seeing this movie has sparked my curiosity to play the Galaxy games, which are now available on Nintendo Switch Online for the Switch 2 and was likely the marketing goal (and a good thing). And yes, there are plenty of barrel rolls.

I’ll be honest, if you’re looking for an Academy Award winning drama or an in-depth retelling of the Super Mario Galaxy games in this movie, you’re going to be disappointed. Both the first Super Mario Bros. Movie and the Super Mario Galaxy Movie seem to be building a series of their own, and that’s fine considering the Sonic movies are doing a similar thing. With that said, it’s best to try not to think too hard, and to simply enjoy The Super Mario Galaxy Movie as a nostalgic Nintendo romp. It’s a blast for fans and kids, and is interesting enough to entice newcomers to cut their teeth into the Galaxy games. The whimsical spirit of the Mario brothers continues in the Galaxy Movie as a beautiful love letter to the franchise’s 40th anniversary. I’m relieved to know I can finally chalk this off my bucket list, and that it’s definitely better then that bizarre fungus-filled first Mario movie ever was.

Verdict: 8 / 10 – Highly recommended