The Super Mario Bros. Movie
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Starring Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Charlie Day
Directed by Aaron Horvath & Michael Jelenic
Starring Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Charlie Day
Directed by Aaron Horvath & Michael Jelenic
The first live-action video game movie ever made was 1993's "Super Mario Bros." movie, and the result is that of cinematic nightmares. It was a huge bust, a jumbled, disjointed, and absolutely abysmal film featuring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo - with the legendary Dennis Hopper as Bowser? - as the iconic plumber duo the Mario Brothers who must rescue Peach from the diabolical lizard. The effects were horrible. The acting was atrocious. Everything about the film was so legendary that it's still talked about thirty years later, and effectively made Nintendo shut down any ideas of future Mario movies. Then Illumination came with an animated idea for a new Mario Bros. movie, and the result is something on the total opposite end of the spectrum - a lively, lavish, vividly animated tale that includes more Easter eggs than the Easter bunny provides, enticing the young with its colorful palette and enchanting the adults who grew up with the lovable red-suited mustachio hero.
Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are brothers and plumbers in Brooklyn, and are fiercely loyal to one another, as Mario has always come to the more cowardly Luigi's defense. While trying to fix a massive leak, they get sucked into a Warp Pipe and separated. Luigi ends up in the land of Bowser (Jack Black), who just stole the Super Star and is planning to attack the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario, meanwhile, lands in the Mushroom Kingdom and is aided by Toad (Keegan Michael-Key) to meet Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), who enlists Mario's help to defeat Bowser and save Luigi - but first they need help from the Kongs, including the son of its ruler, Donkey (Seth Rogen).
The Good:
Illumination (home of the Minions) has a stellar track record with providing the best animation this side of the Mouse, and "Super Mario" is no different. The color is lavish, luxurious, and luminous, eye-popping for the audience to enjoy that will keep the youngin's attention and leave you marveled at the extravagance of it all.
The nods to classic Nintendo properties are littered like secret levels, resulting in multiple viewings to find them all - and a film like this, you won't mind sitting through it again and again. The story is typical but fast-paced, and at a scant 92 minutes, you won't feel like you've wasted hours of your life.
The film brought back the kid in me, when I used to sit in my parents' bedroom on the floor at the foot of their bed staring up at the small television screen playing Mario for hours and hours, as well as more memories of future Mario outings, such as Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, which are both prominently featured in the film. The animation style stays true to the characters' roots, and it's easy to get lost in the nostalgia the film provides. From a stylized sequence of Mario and Luigi running through Brooklyn in a side-scrolling manner to Mario's trial that resembles a level, to the Rainbow Road and Smash Bros. style battle between Mario and Donkey Kong, the film is littered with classic references and moments that will bring out the kid in everyone.
Jack Black, Seth Rogen, and Anya Taylor-Joy absolutely kill it in the vocal department playing Bowserm Donkey Kong, and Peach. Bowser wants world domination, but also harbors not-so-secret feelings for the Princess, allowing Black to utilize his natural comedic chops as well as his charisma to give a more well-rounded look at Bowser than just an evil lizard who constantly kidnaps the Princess. Taylor-Joy's Peach is no damsel in distress, but instead leads the charge against Boswer and his minions with fearless abandon. Seth Rogen's Donkey Kong is the son of the ruler of the Kong Kingdom, and enjoys showboating for the fans, but deep down there's a sense of duty and honor that he has that allows him to aid Mario and Peach in their quest.
The Bad:
There was a lot of uproar about Chris Pratt voicing Mario instead of the original voice actor (who makes a cameo in the film), but I wasn't deterred from that, because the Mario in the video games hardly said anything except "Wahoo" and "Let's-a-go," and hearing that voice for a prolonged period of time might've been too grating. Still, Pratt's vocal performance here feels flat, hollow, and nothing like his other voice-over work in "The Lego Movie." It wasn't fun, memorable, or anything worth writing home about.
Likewise Charlie Day is a stellar comedian with a unique voice that delivers the laughs, but as Luigi his role is rather stunted as he spends the majority of the film captured by Bowser. Even though Luigi in the Mario games never gets his due justice (with the exception of Luigi's Mansion), Day and Luigi deserved better here than to just be on the outskirts of the film.
While the film did bring back classic feelings of nostalgia and was a rip-roaring good time, it almost felt like a sugar movie, in that you feel the excitement during, but afterward you crash and wonder what was so special about it in the first place. That's not to say it wasn't enjoyable, but it wasn't anything memorable either - and people have used the excuse "that's because it's a kid's movie," but there's been other kid's movies that have left a resonating impact, while "Mario Bros." is just a sugar-high enjoyment piece.
The Verdict:
Despite its minor flaws, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is a film that the young and old can enjoy in equal measure and for different reasons, re-invigorating the sense of nostalgia as well as giving the audiences something visually beautiful to look at, even if you won't remember most of it later down the line.
The Score: A
Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are brothers and plumbers in Brooklyn, and are fiercely loyal to one another, as Mario has always come to the more cowardly Luigi's defense. While trying to fix a massive leak, they get sucked into a Warp Pipe and separated. Luigi ends up in the land of Bowser (Jack Black), who just stole the Super Star and is planning to attack the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario, meanwhile, lands in the Mushroom Kingdom and is aided by Toad (Keegan Michael-Key) to meet Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), who enlists Mario's help to defeat Bowser and save Luigi - but first they need help from the Kongs, including the son of its ruler, Donkey (Seth Rogen).
The Good:
Illumination (home of the Minions) has a stellar track record with providing the best animation this side of the Mouse, and "Super Mario" is no different. The color is lavish, luxurious, and luminous, eye-popping for the audience to enjoy that will keep the youngin's attention and leave you marveled at the extravagance of it all.
The nods to classic Nintendo properties are littered like secret levels, resulting in multiple viewings to find them all - and a film like this, you won't mind sitting through it again and again. The story is typical but fast-paced, and at a scant 92 minutes, you won't feel like you've wasted hours of your life.
The film brought back the kid in me, when I used to sit in my parents' bedroom on the floor at the foot of their bed staring up at the small television screen playing Mario for hours and hours, as well as more memories of future Mario outings, such as Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, which are both prominently featured in the film. The animation style stays true to the characters' roots, and it's easy to get lost in the nostalgia the film provides. From a stylized sequence of Mario and Luigi running through Brooklyn in a side-scrolling manner to Mario's trial that resembles a level, to the Rainbow Road and Smash Bros. style battle between Mario and Donkey Kong, the film is littered with classic references and moments that will bring out the kid in everyone.
Jack Black, Seth Rogen, and Anya Taylor-Joy absolutely kill it in the vocal department playing Bowserm Donkey Kong, and Peach. Bowser wants world domination, but also harbors not-so-secret feelings for the Princess, allowing Black to utilize his natural comedic chops as well as his charisma to give a more well-rounded look at Bowser than just an evil lizard who constantly kidnaps the Princess. Taylor-Joy's Peach is no damsel in distress, but instead leads the charge against Boswer and his minions with fearless abandon. Seth Rogen's Donkey Kong is the son of the ruler of the Kong Kingdom, and enjoys showboating for the fans, but deep down there's a sense of duty and honor that he has that allows him to aid Mario and Peach in their quest.
The Bad:
There was a lot of uproar about Chris Pratt voicing Mario instead of the original voice actor (who makes a cameo in the film), but I wasn't deterred from that, because the Mario in the video games hardly said anything except "Wahoo" and "Let's-a-go," and hearing that voice for a prolonged period of time might've been too grating. Still, Pratt's vocal performance here feels flat, hollow, and nothing like his other voice-over work in "The Lego Movie." It wasn't fun, memorable, or anything worth writing home about.
Likewise Charlie Day is a stellar comedian with a unique voice that delivers the laughs, but as Luigi his role is rather stunted as he spends the majority of the film captured by Bowser. Even though Luigi in the Mario games never gets his due justice (with the exception of Luigi's Mansion), Day and Luigi deserved better here than to just be on the outskirts of the film.
While the film did bring back classic feelings of nostalgia and was a rip-roaring good time, it almost felt like a sugar movie, in that you feel the excitement during, but afterward you crash and wonder what was so special about it in the first place. That's not to say it wasn't enjoyable, but it wasn't anything memorable either - and people have used the excuse "that's because it's a kid's movie," but there's been other kid's movies that have left a resonating impact, while "Mario Bros." is just a sugar-high enjoyment piece.
The Verdict:
Despite its minor flaws, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is a film that the young and old can enjoy in equal measure and for different reasons, re-invigorating the sense of nostalgia as well as giving the audiences something visually beautiful to look at, even if you won't remember most of it later down the line.
The Score: A
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