There are few video game characters out there as iconic as Mario. Naturally, the 2023 film adaptation (not the old live action one) was a massive financial success, opening at nearly $150 million domestically and grossing nearly $1.4 billion worldwide. A sequel was inevitable, and with its opening weekend now in the rearview we can already call The Super Mario Galaxy Movie another financial success. But does the box office return mean the film itself is worth the hype? That's a different story.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie follows the events of the previous film and sees Mario and Luigi living happily in the Mushroom Kingdom. With Bowser captive in Princess Peach's castle, his son Bowser Jr. kidnaps Peach's long lost sister Rosalina in an attempt to free his father and conquer the universe. Thus, Mario and Luigi, along with a new friend Yoshi, must travel the galaxy to help Peach to defeat Bowser Jr. and stop his nefarious schemes.
I thought the first movie was okay, nothing special but I had a good time with it. For some reason though I was quite excited for this, hoping that the team behind it had found their footing and could deliver something truly good. Sadly this misses more often than it hits, and like the first film it shows clear potential that just isn't reached.
I know the intended audience for this is kids, but that doesn't mean it can't still be good. Narratively this just offers nothing. The story is as bare bones as possible and moves with the speed of a bullet train. Not a single moment is given any time to breathe leaving the end result something that left me feeling nothing. The emphasis is less on storytelling and more on dropping easter eggs and baiting us with nostalgia. I've got no problem with throwing in nuggets for fans, but I often find that studios are failing to realize that the ultimate form of fan service is a finished product that does justice to the source material. Yeah, seeing a bunch of characters you love is great, but those characters should be working in service of the story rather than making you say "look it's that thing!" and then moving along immediately.
Visually the film is pretty great, and I love the way these characters were animated. Sadly that just points towards the potential on display, as no matter how good things look I simply couldn't make myself care about anything going on. There are also a few moments that are just overwhelming visually, namely a casino scene that speeds by with way too much going on at once. I know attention spans are waning, but maybe as a society we should work to be giving kids entertainment that can actually entertain them in a meaningful way rather than flashing bright lights and hoping it distracts them from their phones for a few hours.
Like with the first film, the voice cast is pretty solid. Chris Pratt is better this time around as Mario, and Charlie Day gets more time to shine as Luigi. Anya Taylor Joy is fantastic as Peach, and Brie Larson does a great job complimenting her as Rosalina. He's basically doing a one word Groot-type role, but I also couldn't help but love Donald Glover as Yoshi. Like the impressive visuals though, good voice work can only do so much when there's hardly any story to grasp onto.
This is a case where I still have hope for the franchise despite not caring for this entry. There's simply too much potential on display, surely one of these has to wind up being truly good. This one has its moments, but just falls flat. 2.5/5
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