Some film critics have certain actors or actresses they take issue with. Other critics may have a director or genre they avoid all together. Personally, I try my hardest to steer clear of any films by Illumination Studios. My beef with the animation company is not exactly a beef, per say, but whenever one of their films passes across my screen, I am livid. Illumination Studios is best known for Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing. Despite my The Matrix style dodging their movies like slow moving bullets, I could not pass up this time with the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Illumination Studios and The Nintendo Company paired up to create The Super Mario Bros. Movie. While I dislike Illumination, I love Nintendo and I love movies so this was an alright exception.
The Super Mario Bros Movie centers on two Brooklyn brothers, Mario and Luigi, who just started their own plumbing business. When a pipe bursts and floods the streets, the brothers are accidentally swept up into a world, unlike anything in Brooklyn. When the brothers are separated, it is up to Mario to get back to Luigi and stop the infamous Bowser.
The final product is a whirlwind of mixed results and choosing whether I enjoyed this or disliked it is a difficult task. Let’s get right into it by starting with everything I did not like. There will be some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution if you have not seen the movie yet.
From 50 CC to 200 CC on Rainbow Road (Bad)
After putting some distance between my viewing and writing this, the one thing that still sticks in my brain as the worst part of everything is the pace of the film. The whole film moved at a super fast pace, and while the 90 minute runtime was a perfect length, the results were uneven. Many scenes dragged on way longer than they needed to while others cut right to the chase when they needed growth.
A portion of the beginning takes place in Brooklyn and features the brothers’ family. I don’t care about their family at all. Peach takes Mario to the Kong Kingdom because he passed a training montage after days of trying. The latter scene took about five to seven minutes. The Brooklyn scene took about fifteen minutes.
Not only did the Brooklyn scene lead me to believe this movie would suck, but it also ruined a lot of what could have been more time stretching some scenes out.
Illumination Pains (Bad and Annoying)
Most of my problems with these films primarily stem from Illuminations’ involvement. Illumination was the right choice to animate the movie. However, everything about the script and characters reeks of the same formula from their other movies.
Strip away the Super Mario elements and it’s just another Despicable Me sequel. The formula is the same, and that made it hard for me to enjoy the movie when things were not excessively referential. Everything relating to any Nintendo or Super Mario game was thoroughly entertaining, for the most part. The story itself was bland but also messy.
Pacing aside, the dialogue, story, and references were all either way too much or not at all what should happen. Look, I know this movie was made by a studio that makes films for children. That is not lost on me. To me that is not a valid enough reason to not have a coherent or interesting story.
The Performances- A mixed bag
When the cast was announced, I initially made my own recasting preferences. At the time I was sound with the majority of the casting. Having seen the film I am comfortable in saying I would change those same choices as well as the some that I initially liked.
Chris Pratt was really boring as Mario. Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco was in this as Mario’s former employer Spike. About halfway through the film, I could not stop thinking about how Pratt’s voice just sounded like a bad impression of Maniscalco’s.
In all fairness, however, there wasn’t any voice that Pratt could have done that would have been good. His voice worked for Emmett in The Lego Movie, but there was no distinctive energy for Mario. He said the funny “Mamma Mia” phrase, said “Let’s-a-go” for some reason, and threw a couple of “Wahoos” in there. All classic Mario phrases, but without the pizzazz or joy.
Anya Taylor-Joy did not always work for me as Peach and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong felt like it could have been a bit more. We got the Rogen laugh, and that genuinely made my experience better. Rogen Kong was not bad, and neither was Princess Taylor-Joy, but I kind of expected a bit more. I am willing to chalk this up as another problem with the writing.
Charlie Day voicing Luigi was pretty good, but I wish there were more of him. Same thing With Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong. Keegan Michael-Key voicing Toad was continually a genuine delight and I want so much more of him.
Finally, how can we forget the King of all the Koopas and the best character in this movie; Jack Black as Bowser. Love ballads, desire for worldly power, corny pickup lines, and not much confidence in himself all make Bowser so fun.
Green Mushrooms (The Good):
Alright- I’ve been talking about stuff I didn’t like for so long I’m bumming myself out. The whole point of The Super Mario Bros. Movie was to have fun and pay homage to the video games. This movie did both of those.
As soon as Mario entered the Mushroom Kingdom, everything was so much fun. I could spend all day slamming on Illumination Studios, but man, do they know how to make an animated movie look good.
Smooth and cartoony movements help maintain the excitement of dodging and jumping through the levels. The character designs look pretty good. This could have been 90 minutes of bizarre looking characters and anthropomorphic animals, but not at all. Hair, fur, water, scales, etc- all of it looked good. Rainbow Road is not exactly a challenging setting to create, but it looked pretty.
Keeping the ‘Brothers’ in Super Mario Brothers
Possibly my favorite recurring bit that I wish had more time was Mario’s relationship with Luigi. This gave the creative team a great way to use Baby Mario and Baby Luigi. The commercial the brothers put together for their business, was not only a cool easter egg but also very sweet. My initial thought was Luigi would just get himself captured by Bowser and Mario has to clean the situation up. Luckily this wasn’t the case and both brothers had their own journeys of getting back to each other.
Mario continually said the phrase “When we are together nothing bad can happen,” and I loved this. It may be a little cheesy, but to me that is something I would want my siblings to tell me in a situation like that. Despite Mario being the protagonist of the story, it never felt like Mario is the only hope in this world. It didn’t even feel like he was the only one that could get Luigi back.
Final Race
While my hopes for this film were high and the final product was a bit mixed, I will say I had a good time. As a movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is okay at best. As a love letter to all things Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, etc.- it is pretty good. It’s far from perfect and would probably require some persuasion to get me to watch again, but I recommend The Super Mario Bros. Movie for those who either want to turn their brain off for 90 minutes or die-hard Nintendo fans. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 6/10.
