While most of my Mario in-game knowledge is limited to the late 1990s, I’m still always excited to see the Nintendo franchise’s characters appear on screen.
I mean, I’ve been playing video games since I could hold a controller, but the Mario franchise holds some of my earliest memories, too.
That being said, I wasn’t sure quite what to expect when I dropped in to catch “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” in our local theater last weekend.
But, it seems that I caught most of the jokes and gags in the trailer.
Overall, it serves as a way to further expose new generations to the Mario franchise and has enough fleeting funny moments that it managed to hold my complete attention.
Plus, the voice cast is rather stacked with actors that I enjoy, so that definitely helped me stay on track.
Galaxy is an animated adventure comedy film based on Nintendo’s Mario franchise.
The sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), it was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and written by Matthew Fogel.
Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black and Keegan-Michael Key reprise their roles, with Benny Safdie, Donald Glover, Glen Powell, Luis Guzman, Roxana Ortega, and Brie Larson joining the cast.
It is produced by Illumination and Nintendo.
The movie clocks in at 98 minutes long and is rated PG for action, mild violence and rude humor.
Princess Rosalina (Larson), who lives in her Comet Observatory and is adoptive mother of the Lumas, is kidnapped by Bowser Jr.
Bowser Jr. (Safdie) is revealed to be planning to drain her power to fuel a universe-destroying cannon in honor of his father, Bowser (Black) who was defeated by Mario (Pratt) and Luigi (Day).
Unfortunately, once Bowser was defeated, he was also shrunken by Princess Peach (Taylor-Joy) and confined to imprisonment in her castle.
Rosalina sends a Luma to the Mushroom Kingdom, where it enlists Peach and Toad (Key) for help after explaining what happened.
Mario and Luigi are called to inspect a disturbance in the desert town of Tosterena, where they meet and befriend the dinosaur Yoshi (Glover).
During a flashback sequence, it’s revealed that Yoshi actually hatched in Brooklyn and was pursued back to his home world after breaking a dinosaur skeleton in a museum.
In Peach and Toad’s absence, Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi protect the Mushroom Kingdom and attempt to rehabilitate Bowser.
Bowser Jr. uses his spaceship to lift Peach’s castle into space in an attempt to free his father, but a battle with the brothers and Yoshi causes his spaceship to drop the castle into the Honeyhive Galaxy.
Bowser goads Mario into attacking him, thus unshrinking him, but kindly offers to be arrested in exchange for the brothers and Yoshi to seek out Peach.
Shortly after that, he is abducted by his son, whom he had not seen in years.
In the Gateway Galaxy, Peach and Toad try to look for Rosalina after re-obtaining Toad’s backpack from the monkey thief Ukiki (Ortega) who works for Wart (Guzman), a toad-like casino owner from whom they extract Rosalina’s location.
Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi reunite with Peach and Toad, who have hired pilot Fox McCloud to transport the group.
From there, it’s a race to save Rosalina before Bowser Jr. siphons all of her magic away and kills her!
But, as with all children movies, there is a positive ending and even a few mid-credit clips to make sure you get your fill of Mario and friends.
