It’s been a good while since I saw a dedicated children’s movie, so when “The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ debuted last weekend, I made a point to catch it before schools let out for the Easter holiday.
On one hand, there were plenty of funny moments with slapstick cartoon violence and a great adaptation of Nintendo and Mario Bros. classic gaming references.
On the other, the best casting choice to ever be made was for Koopa King Bowser – voiced by Jack Black.
Needless to say, this film pleasantly surprised me and was far better than I expected, even though the storyline was pretty weak and I’m still a fan of the 1993 live-action “Mario” film.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a computer-animated adventure film based on Nintendo’s Mario video game franchise.
Produced by Illumination, Universal Pictures, and Nintendo, and distributed by Universal, it was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel.
The ensemble voice cast includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Scott Menville, Kevin Richardson, and Fred Armisen.
The film features an origin story for the brothers Mario and Luigi, Italian-American plumbers who are transported to an alternate world and become entangled in a battle between the Mushroom Kingdom, led by Princess Peach, and the Koopas, led by Bowser.
It clocks in at 92 minutes long and is rated PG for action and mild violence.
Italian-American brothers Mario (Pratt) and Luigi (Day) have recently started a plumbing business in Brooklyn.
Their father disapproves of Mario’s decision to leave his steady job under his antagonistic ex-employer Spike.
After seeing a significant manhole leak on the news, Mario and Luigi go underground to fix it, but are sucked into a Warp Pipe and separated.
Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, ruled by Princess Peach (Joy), while Luigi lands in the Dark Lands, ruled by the evil Koopa King Bowser (Black).
Bowser seeks to marry Peach and will destroy the Mushroom Kingdom using a Super Star if she refuses.
He then imprisons Luigi to blackmail Mario, whom he sees as competition for Peach’s love.
In the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario meets Toad (Key), who takes him to Peach.
Peach plans to ally with the primate Kongs to help repel Bowser and agrees to take Mario and Toad along.
They only leave after Mario spends the better part of a day learning how to navigate Peach’s obstacle course and get a grasp of some special items that are found in the kingdom - like the growth mushroom and fire flowers.
In the Jungle Kingdom, King Cranky Kong (Armisen) agrees to help on the condition that Mario defeats his son, Donkey Kong (Rogen) in a fight.
Despite Donkey Kong’s strength, Mario defeats him using a Cat Suit special item.
Mario, Peach, Toad, and the Kongs use custom karts to drive back to the Mushroom Kingdom, but Bowser’s army ambushes them on Rainbow Road.
The underlying obsession and “love” Bowser has for Peach is a weird angle to the main storyline but easy enough to ignore by the end of the film.
Besides, my inner child cared more about watching characters I grew up with finally on the big screen and working together to beat the bad guy!
Overall, the flick capitalizes on childhood videogame nostalgia while trying to entertain kids of all ages and it worked well enough for me.
