The Super Mario Bros Movie

[Mal8rk]

Hey everyone

So the Super Mario Bros movie came out today, and so I made this post for people who have watched the movie to say what their honest opinions on the movie were

I personally thought the movie was good. Not great, but a fun time to watch with the family. It had a weak story, but it's Mario, what did ya expect? It's like throwing a rock on the ground and expecting it to do a flip. Some other thing like the pacing could've been done WAY better, but overall it was a good experience. I had a lot of fun watching the movie and seeing all the easter eggs thrown into it. The voices worked for the most part, with Chris Pratt as Mario and of course, Jack Black as Bowser being the most surprising. And the soundtrack was amazing, with ear-pleasing tunes referencing Mario games. It's not an amazing movie by any means, but it's one of the best animation movies of 2023 so far and the best Illumination movie in my opinion

[ShadowXeldron]

So I just watched this movie today and, honestly, it was just okay. Nothing too fancy. I would probably only recommend it to Mario fans, and I'm honestly going to say that the Sonic movie was better, even if it wasn't true to the source material. Then again, it did feature the DK rap...

As for what I think (this is spoiler territory):

Spoiler: show

• Firstly, the main characters:
• The characters were a bit thin, aside from maybe Luigi.
• I do think it's funny that Peach is literally one of the few people in the entire Mushroom Principality Kingdom that is actually useful. I also like that they added a bit of mystery to her backstory.
• I was expecting Toad to be really annoying, but he actually wasn't! The concept of the Toads being cowards that can't even govern their own country could also be explored in a bit more detail in the sequel (which, let's be honest, we all know is happening).
• I was expecting Bowser to be the film's highest point and while, yes, he is definitely quite good, I honestly found DK more enjoyable as the designated "ham" character. I do kind of see Bowser as a Peach-obsessed manchild anyway, but I think that he definitely floundered at the end of film. I definitely wish that we got to see more about his motiviation and backstory within the film universe (for example, why is he so madly in love with Peach?)
• Speaking of Donkey Kong, he's fine. It's always a treat hearing the DK rap, and it was also quite cool seeing DK be able to use powerups.
  
  Now for the other stuff:
• It's interesting that it's somewhat inspired by the old cartoons. Nintendo usually tries to pretend that those don't exist, so I'm glad that they got away with referencing it. Heres to an expansion to the lore surrounding the toasters that Roy keeps in the basement of his hotel.
• The references were more out of the way, which I think is a good thing. I was worried that they would have them be everywhere as if they were trying to say "hey, look, we're fans too!", but they're moreso something out of the way that you can notice and feel either proud that you got it or embarassed that you got it. They did, however, miss a huge opportunity to reference the advert for the Atari 2600 version of Mario Bros.
• I don't care if this is a huge nitpick, but the Nintendo intro used the modern palatte for the NES Mario and Luigi and that upset my nerd brain.
• Speaking of references, I like that it referenced a lot of NES games in addition to the Mario franchise.
• The animation was actually quite good! I don't really have much of a frame of reference for it though because this is the only movie I've seen this year.
• The voice acting was actually solid! Chris Pratt did a good job as Mario, and I'll also praise the rest of the voice work as well.
• Was the kart segment really necessary? I think they only put that there to promote MK8DX and, of course, to provide toy maunfacturers with something merchandisable.
• I approve of King Cranky.
• No Lumalee, the ever-consuming void doesn't make me want to play the saxaphone.
• I'm the kind of madman who watches the credits, and it meant I got my daily Yoshi fix.

---

Also...: show

I'll never be able to look at Paratroopas and Blue Shells the same way ever again.

I also bought the Mario Movie shower gel from Lush a while back. I bought two medium-sized bottles and it cost me £32. I'm never throwing those bottles out.

[Shodax]

I want to clarify something. Video games are not mandatory to have a well-made or complex story because what matters is playing.
But a movie has to have context, it does not matter that the story is simple and that movie has no context, everything happens because without logic or reason, they just happen, that works in a video game but it is not a movie.

[krakin]

I'm a huge fan of anything Super Mario, but I'm pretty weary of Illumination and their usually lackluster movies, so I went into this with the bar set low, expecting nothing more than- quoting from a review I read before hand- "basically a Nintendo advertisement for Super Mario." Well, you know how people say that low expectations are the key to happiness? Turns out they were right, because I was pleasantly surprised with all of the references to the games and the cartoons as well.

Movie spoilers ahead, read at your own risk: show

The plot itself is nothing too crazy, they went the Super Show route where Mario and Luigi run a plumbing business in the real world in Brooklyn and live with their family, and get transported to the Mushroom World via mysterious pipe. The Super Mario Bros. Plumbing TV ad uses the Plumber's Rap from the Super Show as well.
The Captain Toad theme plays when Mario wakes up and meets Toad, who tells him that Luigi landed in the Dark Lands and that Bowser is plotting to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom. Toad then leads Mario to Princess Peach's castle with a medley of many different platformer musical themes, meanwhile Luigi escapes a horde of Dry Bones through a forest of dead trees, and we get a nice musical reference to Luigi's Mansion.
I was sort of disappointed that we didn't get to see more of Luigi attempting to escape, he's just kind of stuck in imprisonment hell for the majority of the movie. The kart sequence on Kong Island seemed out of place to me, and so did the location of Rainbow Road. The karts felt like they were phoned in so they could make some toys based off of it. I think if they removed the Rainbow Road sequence completely and utilized the Animal Buddies, such as Rambi from Donkey Kong Country, the scene where the gang arrived and departed from the island would've made much more sense. There was a missed opportunity to use the cars, hovercrafts, and planes from Diddy Kong Racing too. Drivin' Me Bananas was scrapped in favor of Take On Me, but I'm not complaining.
I can definitely see how the plot and pacing were the most negatively received areas of the movie though. The characters didn't feel entirely fleshed out, although I believe that's because they're going to give the main characters their own movies. I'd rate this movie a 8 out of 10, mainly because of the shallow plot that moved along way too fast. Illumination and Nintendo probably decided to play it safe and only make the movie an hour and 25 minutes out of fear that people would get bored if it was too long. The eighth point is a grace point because of the phenomenal soundtrack and at least they acknowledged the cartoons.

[kirbyhasn]

I haven't seen it yet but i hope its not like the mario bros movie disaster

[Shodax]

Do you think an extended version comes out when they sell it for DVD and Bluray that gives more context?

[Mal8rk]

Do you think an extended version comes out when they sell it for DVD and Bluray that gives more context?

Do you mean something like a directors cut? If so, then I personally think that it would be nice for it to happen. There are scenes that could've been further developed and they could maybe include some cut out scenes from trailers (I'm looking at you cheep cheep scene). Although from my knowledge, Illumination isn't known for making directors cuts, although I could be wrong though