The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
April 9, 2023 4:29 AM - Subscribe
While working underground to fix a water main, Brooklyn plumbers—and brothers—Mario and Luigi are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world. But when the brothers are separated, Mario embarks on an epic quest to find Luigi.
This was fine. Cute in some places, and the scene with Mario and Luigi working their way through a construction zone to get to their job was really fun.
posted by jeoc at 10:06 AM on April 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by jeoc at 10:06 AM on April 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm with the critics I'm afraid.
This was aggressively bland. Like it had been filtered through twenty board rooms of executives to make sure there was nothing even remotely interesting left in it.
Jack Black tried his best to elevate it a bit. But it was an uphill fight.
That said I took a child to see it and they thought it was great. So, I guess it works for it's intended audience.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 11:29 AM on April 9, 2023
This was aggressively bland. Like it had been filtered through twenty board rooms of executives to make sure there was nothing even remotely interesting left in it.
Jack Black tried his best to elevate it a bit. But it was an uphill fight.
That said I took a child to see it and they thought it was great. So, I guess it works for it's intended audience.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 11:29 AM on April 9, 2023
This was aggressively bland.
We are talking about Nintendo here.....
posted by Pendragon at 1:35 PM on April 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
We are talking about Nintendo here.....
posted by Pendragon at 1:35 PM on April 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
We took our kids to see this today. They enjoyed it! I'll probably forget it exists tomorrow. I didn't feel bored or insulted. It understood the assignment perfectly and handed it in on time. You shouldn't expect, nor will you get, more.
posted by phooky at 1:49 PM on April 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by phooky at 1:49 PM on April 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
My five year old and I have been working through various Mario games. He was Mario for halloween. I'm still quite paranoid about coronavirus, but we may go see it in the theater. I think my kids will love it. (They love the Sonic movies and they Angry Birds one.)
The Guardian ran a review slagging the movie. I don't think the reviewer had any kid left in 'em. I personally don't care this is a corporate product, or has a plot. If my kid comes out of the theater going "whoo-hoo!" it'll have worked.
posted by Catblack at 2:10 PM on April 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Guardian ran a review slagging the movie. I don't think the reviewer had any kid left in 'em. I personally don't care this is a corporate product, or has a plot. If my kid comes out of the theater going "whoo-hoo!" it'll have worked.
posted by Catblack at 2:10 PM on April 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Critics seem determined to hate this one but it's really not bad.
“Oh, I’ll never be the darlings of the so-called city fathers who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and say, “What’s to be done about these Super Mario Brothers?””
I’m 42. No kids. I grew up on Mario. Saw the 1993 movie on opening night. My wife and I went with friends to see this new movie and it was delightful. We were smiling and laughing start to finish. Not everything needs to be high art. Sometimes it’s enough to be entertained and forget about the crap of daily life for 90 minutes to escape to the Mushroom Kingdom.
posted by Servo5678 at 2:13 PM on April 9, 2023 [8 favorites]
“Oh, I’ll never be the darlings of the so-called city fathers who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and say, “What’s to be done about these Super Mario Brothers?””
I’m 42. No kids. I grew up on Mario. Saw the 1993 movie on opening night. My wife and I went with friends to see this new movie and it was delightful. We were smiling and laughing start to finish. Not everything needs to be high art. Sometimes it’s enough to be entertained and forget about the crap of daily life for 90 minutes to escape to the Mushroom Kingdom.
posted by Servo5678 at 2:13 PM on April 9, 2023 [8 favorites]
Your eight-year-old will love it, you probably won't claw your eyes out, might even get a chuckle or two here or there, fit for purpose. Do truly great kids' movies have a broader appeal? Sure. But while it does feel like a wasted opportunity in the greater scheme of things (couldn't they at least have cast some voice actors?), a kids' movie that will just entertain kids is not the worst thing in the world.
posted by praemunire at 8:59 PM on April 9, 2023
posted by praemunire at 8:59 PM on April 9, 2023
Obviously I suffer from a lack of imagination, because I have no idea what more (or what else) anyone would want from this movie. The failure of a lot of (most?) video game adaptations is shoehorning in too much Story. This had singing Bowser, video game set pieces, lots of callbacks, and nihilist Lumalee. What else could you want?
Plus I think it actually did a great job conveying what a nightmare it would be to suddenly get sucked through a terrifying wormhole to the Mushroom Kingdom. It's not all fun and games! There are weird monsters you can't possibly imagine who are trying to straight up murder you! You're tiny!
posted by uncleozzy at 8:39 AM on April 10, 2023 [6 favorites]
Plus I think it actually did a great job conveying what a nightmare it would be to suddenly get sucked through a terrifying wormhole to the Mushroom Kingdom. It's not all fun and games! There are weird monsters you can't possibly imagine who are trying to straight up murder you! You're tiny!
posted by uncleozzy at 8:39 AM on April 10, 2023 [6 favorites]
Cotton candy is delightful - just a silly sweet magical thing that exists purely for fun. A brightly colored moment of giggles spun from sugar.
We (middle aged parents, tweener child) completely enjoyed it.
Peaches, Peaches, PeachesPeachesPeaches... PEA-CHEZZZZZZZZ!!!
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 9:08 AM on April 10, 2023 [4 favorites]
We (middle aged parents, tweener child) completely enjoyed it.
Peaches, Peaches, PeachesPeachesPeaches... PEA-CHEZZZZZZZZ!!!
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 9:08 AM on April 10, 2023 [4 favorites]
because I have no idea what more (or what else) anyone would want from this movie
Some form of character development (in child-appropriate form, of course) for anyone? Some expression of values (ditto)? Some sense of the world as a world rather than a set of video-game screens? Any effective humor beyond the admittedly silly fun of Jack Black's Bowser doing power ballads?
Like I said, this movie didn't need any of that to perform its job of entertaining small children on a Saturday afternoon, and you really can't begrudge it doing its job (in contrast to the D&D movie, this film was definitely sold as child-friendly rather than family-friendly). The critical response has been way overblown. But would it have been nice to have more? Sure. There's some genuinely weird shit in the Mario universe, as I've been reminded by having some Let's Plays in the background recently of the first couple Paper Marios; I wouldn't have minded seeing some of that.
posted by praemunire at 9:18 AM on April 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
Some form of character development (in child-appropriate form, of course) for anyone? Some expression of values (ditto)? Some sense of the world as a world rather than a set of video-game screens? Any effective humor beyond the admittedly silly fun of Jack Black's Bowser doing power ballads?
Like I said, this movie didn't need any of that to perform its job of entertaining small children on a Saturday afternoon, and you really can't begrudge it doing its job (in contrast to the D&D movie, this film was definitely sold as child-friendly rather than family-friendly). The critical response has been way overblown. But would it have been nice to have more? Sure. There's some genuinely weird shit in the Mario universe, as I've been reminded by having some Let's Plays in the background recently of the first couple Paper Marios; I wouldn't have minded seeing some of that.
posted by praemunire at 9:18 AM on April 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
nihilist Lumalee
...for me, this was the best part.
posted by praemunire at 9:19 AM on April 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
...for me, this was the best part.
posted by praemunire at 9:19 AM on April 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
So word on the street is that one of the songs on the soundtrack - "Drivin' Me Bananas" - was cut from the film and was supposed to score the scene where Mario, Peach, and Toad are given a kart ride to the Kong's palace (the film uses A-ha's "Take On Me" for this sequence instead). There's a clip of the scene matched up with this song and it fits perfectly. "Take On Me" makes the Kong empire seems amazing and wondrous, but the "DK Island Swing" / Donkey Kong Country title medley they didn't use makes it seem dangerous. I wish they'd kept the original medley instead of the pop song. I like "Take On Me" but it doesn't fit here.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:33 AM on April 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Servo5678 at 10:33 AM on April 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
My boys loved this film, so it did its job. I do think its pretty good, it managed to blend together the fairly nonsensical parts of mario into something approaching a standard adventure story.
But yeah it could have been stronger. There were a lot of beats to the story that felt pretty perfunctory and unarmed. For example.. what was Mario's arc? I think for the most part he is fundamentally unchanged throughout the story, other than being better at fighting. And thats actually ok: I think having a protagonist who stays the same can work, and it did work fine here, but the film seems to think it needs an arc. So it has the whole subplot of his Dad not approving of his choices, and maybe his impulsiveness and charging ahead. But none of that really pays off. Theres a moment where he is hiding in a diner and it feels so discordant... Mario at this point has been in an enormous number of fights where death was clearly on the line. There is just no reason for him to be scared at this particular moment, other than this being the point in the story where that sort of thing happens.
Another odd thing for me was the ending. Typically in an ending we get to see how all of our main characters are doing, but we dont see Toad or Peach or even Donkey Kong, just Mario and Luigi.
I did like Peach in this film, although her decision to bring Mario along felt a little unmotivated. I guess she was pleased to finally find another human. Its interesting that that they basically gave Luigi the role that Peach gets in every game: sit around and wait for Mario to rescue him. The film put him in a spot where he essentially has no agency, throwing him the shield moment later as a last minute hail mary to compete what is laughably the closest thing the film has to a character arc.
But yeah, a lot of words to say that basically this was a perfectly good time that my kids loved. I do think it could have been better.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 1:55 PM on April 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
But yeah it could have been stronger. There were a lot of beats to the story that felt pretty perfunctory and unarmed. For example.. what was Mario's arc? I think for the most part he is fundamentally unchanged throughout the story, other than being better at fighting. And thats actually ok: I think having a protagonist who stays the same can work, and it did work fine here, but the film seems to think it needs an arc. So it has the whole subplot of his Dad not approving of his choices, and maybe his impulsiveness and charging ahead. But none of that really pays off. Theres a moment where he is hiding in a diner and it feels so discordant... Mario at this point has been in an enormous number of fights where death was clearly on the line. There is just no reason for him to be scared at this particular moment, other than this being the point in the story where that sort of thing happens.
Another odd thing for me was the ending. Typically in an ending we get to see how all of our main characters are doing, but we dont see Toad or Peach or even Donkey Kong, just Mario and Luigi.
I did like Peach in this film, although her decision to bring Mario along felt a little unmotivated. I guess she was pleased to finally find another human. Its interesting that that they basically gave Luigi the role that Peach gets in every game: sit around and wait for Mario to rescue him. The film put him in a spot where he essentially has no agency, throwing him the shield moment later as a last minute hail mary to compete what is laughably the closest thing the film has to a character arc.
But yeah, a lot of words to say that basically this was a perfectly good time that my kids loved. I do think it could have been better.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 1:55 PM on April 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's not high art, but if that's what you want there's always the 1993 version.
I'm sorry, but why is everyone overlooking one of the greatest comments this site has ever produced? I mean, there's dry humour, and there's Saltine-baked-in-the-Mojave dry humour, and a week after that you get to jordemort.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 3:21 AM on April 11, 2023 [8 favorites]
I'm sorry, but why is everyone overlooking one of the greatest comments this site has ever produced? I mean, there's dry humour, and there's Saltine-baked-in-the-Mojave dry humour, and a week after that you get to jordemort.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 3:21 AM on April 11, 2023 [8 favorites]
I watched this on our holiday Monday... While I can see where some critics, and some fans, are coming from its really worth remembering going in that this is what it is - a children's movie with designs to be a film franchise. It certainly seems underwritten and most of the characters are only slightly sketched out but that's not to say it doesn't have some fun moments - the musical queues from the games, the endless references (sadly no Mario Golf but I got Mariokart), Jack Black's committed performance, nihilist Lumalee, decent cast who all seem to be on the same page, the movie is 90 minutes. Our group of mixed aged people including one young teen enjoyed it well enough.
So in short, I'd sooner watch this then most of the other Illumination films, especially anything with sassy anthropomorphic animals.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:07 AM on April 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
So in short, I'd sooner watch this then most of the other Illumination films, especially anything with sassy anthropomorphic animals.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:07 AM on April 11, 2023 [1 favorite]
2.5 good jokes
The "it's just a kids film" or "it's just dumb fun" angles really don't resonate - kids films and dumb fun films can be so much better than this! Things can feel like they happen for a reason other than shrug, insert a stock action movie quip cliche, ruah to the next set piece! Not everything is going to be the next lego movie but this punched way less weight than the last minions film imo.
There was enough there to see this could at least have been decent, it was visually rich, some character stuff was built then abandoned early on... it just felt like they stopped bothering about ten minutes in.
posted by ominous_paws at 1:27 PM on April 12, 2023
The "it's just a kids film" or "it's just dumb fun" angles really don't resonate - kids films and dumb fun films can be so much better than this! Things can feel like they happen for a reason other than shrug, insert a stock action movie quip cliche, ruah to the next set piece! Not everything is going to be the next lego movie but this punched way less weight than the last minions film imo.
There was enough there to see this could at least have been decent, it was visually rich, some character stuff was built then abandoned early on... it just felt like they stopped bothering about ten minutes in.
posted by ominous_paws at 1:27 PM on April 12, 2023
I saw this with my younger kid last night and it was enjoyable. There were tons of times in the movie where we'd look at eachother to signal "did you notice that?" It was also his first time at a 3D movie, the 3D wasn't anything special, so there was some added novelty from that as well. It wasn't a great movie and I don't know if he'd want to see it again, I wouldn't, but it was good enough for something that the both of us could enjoy.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:08 PM on April 17, 2023
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:08 PM on April 17, 2023
I am a huge fan of the Mario games, have played many though not all. I like the movie OK, they did a great job with the atmosphere of the music, and with the feeling of being sucked into a weird world, which must have been a trip seeing plumbers interacting with talking turtles. That said, I was glad it was only 90 minutes. The plot frequently didn't make sense, performances were fine but not compelling. I would not have gone if my teen didn't want to go, and would have been better off. Oh, well.
posted by wnissen at 9:52 AM on May 9, 2023
posted by wnissen at 9:52 AM on May 9, 2023
Nice bits:
* Charles Martinet, who's voiced Mario since 1991, played Mario and Luigi's father and Giuseppe
* peaches peaches peaches
* I've been to too many movies lately that were three hours long, overstuffed with plot points, so a 90 minute movie that didn't end on a cliffhanger or try to lay groundwork for the sequel was just a lovely change of pace
posted by Pronoiac at 1:01 PM on June 3, 2023
* Charles Martinet, who's voiced Mario since 1991, played Mario and Luigi's father and Giuseppe
* peaches peaches peaches
* I've been to too many movies lately that were three hours long, overstuffed with plot points, so a 90 minute movie that didn't end on a cliffhanger or try to lay groundwork for the sequel was just a lovely change of pace
posted by Pronoiac at 1:01 PM on June 3, 2023
Now that it's on Peacock, 8yo finally got to see it (she's never been into Mario specifically or video games generally but definitely heard about it from friends who are), and she enjoyed it enough, and it was a good tight hour and a half. Four stars on the "Movies that I don't mind being on in the background while I make dinner" scale.
posted by Etrigan at 3:11 PM on August 4, 2023
posted by Etrigan at 3:11 PM on August 4, 2023
I didn't think Pratt or Taylor-Joy were particularly any good at their roles and it seemed like bad casting. I had an okay time. However, I had seen some bad movies the last couple days, so maybe this was just a relief.
"Underwritten" is the exact word, as Ashwagandha said. (That's not all bad; if they'd tried to hit the fambly drama harder I would have hated it.) The way it's so minimal is almost interesting. Peach's immediate surrender and then right to the wedding! Really, the climax is going to be the invincibility star with the invincibility song, that's it?? Okay!
I saw Cocaine Bear a week or so ago and it feels similarly thin but amusing. Though,... I think the cocaine bear pushing itself forward on its back is going to stick in my brain longer than anything from this movie, probably.
posted by fleacircus at 6:31 PM on September 16, 2023
"Underwritten" is the exact word, as Ashwagandha said. (That's not all bad; if they'd tried to hit the fambly drama harder I would have hated it.) The way it's so minimal is almost interesting. Peach's immediate surrender and then right to the wedding! Really, the climax is going to be the invincibility star with the invincibility song, that's it?? Okay!
I saw Cocaine Bear a week or so ago and it feels similarly thin but amusing. Though,... I think the cocaine bear pushing itself forward on its back is going to stick in my brain longer than anything from this movie, probably.
posted by fleacircus at 6:31 PM on September 16, 2023
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posted by jordemort at 6:36 AM on April 9, 2023 [6 favorites]