‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Review: Chris Pratt Gives Iconic Gamer A Charming Toon-Up For The Big Screen

Pete Hammond
·4 min read
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Widely considered to be one of the greatest video game franchises ever, Super Mario Bros. is an iconic, generation-spanning success that has taken on many iterations to always keep up with the times. One area in which it failed miserably was the 1993 live-action film version that starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi, Brooklyn-based plumbers who go on a fantastical adventure. It was a critical and commercial flop, though it managed to find some bit of a cult following in the ensuing decades.

Movie-wise, though, The Super Mario Bros. Movie — the new animated cinematic collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination is a winner for families, the perfect format for the big screen, and one faithful enough not to turn off legions of fans, old and young alike. Animation is the right way to go, and directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, together with writer Matthew Fogel turn it into a charmer, if not on the level of such Illumination favorites as Minions, Sing, The Secret Life of Pets and Despicable Me. It is a star name that works just fine for 90 minutes, just enough to send kids out to play the real thing as soon as they get home. The smartest thing is how this screen version feels in many ways like playing the game, with the cleverest bits putting the characters through long and winding situations gamers will recognize.

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A Japanese anime version of Super Mario in 1987 was perhaps the first, or at least one of the first, movie adaptations of a video game, however modest that hourlong effort was. This time all the bells and whistles are there with a star voice cast that includes Chris Pratt as Mario and the irrepressible Charlie Day as younger brother Luigi, two New York Lower Borough-based plumbers from an Italian family that perhaps doesn’t appreciate their talents as much as they should. Stumbling into a crisis situation that requires a quick fix on bursting water pipes in the street, they instead are swept throughout the labyrinth of those pipes and spilled out into another world, much like when Alice went down the rabbit hole.

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While Mario finds himself landing in the colorful and friendly Mushroom Kingdom, brother Luigi is in for something completely terrifying as he has been swept into the Dark Lands, where ruling King of Koopas, fearsome giant turtle Bowser (Jack Black), enlists him, by threat of death, in his quest to marry Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) in order to capture her Mushroom Kingdom and rule the world. Fortunately, Mario is on the case and helped by the cheerful resident Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), who befriends him and introduces him to the princess. They team up to stop Bowser in his tracks and rescue Luigi. Joining them eventually is Donkey Kong (of course), voiced amusingly by Seth Rogen, an enthusiastic and skilled citizen of the Jungle Kingdom and Kong Army run by his weary father Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen). In a battle to the death, Mario has to prove his worth to all before they will team for the ultimate battle that is a staple of this sort of entertainment these days.

All of this is immensely likable and loaded with laughs, if not raging wit. Having the likes of Black and Rogen in the voice cast definitely ups the ante of some stabs at subversive humor, and all seem to be enjoying this stint, which definitely is set up for sequels as Mario and Luigi are about to start a new act in their long careers. The CGI animation goes big for bright colors juxtaposed with the ominous Dark Lands, and the film is helped immensely by a zippy and lilting musical score from Brian Tyler. As proof of the filmmakers’ attempts to be true to their source, there is even room for Charles Martinet, original voice of Mario and Luigi video games for the past three decades.

Producers are Illumination’s Chris Meledandri and Mario creator and Nintendo’s Representative Director and Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto. Universal releases it Wednesday in theaters.

Title: The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Studio: Universal/Illumination
Release date: April 5, 2023
Directors: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
Screenwriter: Matthew Fogel
Cast: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen
Rating: PG
Running time: 1hr 32 min

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