A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (2023).
Seldom has the divide between critical appraisal and box office success seemed so wide. Some sample reviews of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” include:
- “Game over for this lazy animated mess” – 1* – Wendy Ide, The Guardian.
- “Like being frogmarched round Toys R Us” – 1* – Robbie Collin, The Telegraph.
- “Lazy and for fans only” – 2* – Nicholas Barber, BBC Culture.
- “A disappointment to rival the first” (film) – 2* – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.
- “Chris Pratt dislays all the vigour of a contractual obligation” – 2* – Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent.
- “Fantastically charmless and machine-tooled, without a sliver of feeling or storytelling verve” – 2* – Kevin Maher, The Times.
Yet, at the time of writing, less than one week after opening, the film has made an astonishing $427 million globally. Given that it made $378 million of this in its opening weekend, that puts it at the very top of the table for animated opening weekends – – OF ALL TIME! It also has a very creditable IMDB audience rating of 7.4.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
But more importantly….
Bob the Movie Man’s Grandkid’s Rating:
Plot Summary:
Mario (Voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are stuggling plumbers from a large American/Italian family in New York. While trying to save Brooklyn from a terrible flood, they get sucked into a parallel land where the terrible Bowser (Jack Black) is trying to conquer the neighbouring kingdoms and win the hand in marriage of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy).
Certification:
UK: PG; US: PG. (From the BBFC: “Mild violence, threat”).
Talent:
Starring: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Seth Rogen.
Directed by: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc & Fabien Polack.
Written by: Matthew Fogel.
Twitter Handle: #supermariomovie.
Power up! Donkey Kong (Seth Rogan) and Mario (Chris Pratt) team up against Bowser (Jack Black). (Source: Universal Pictures)
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” Review:
Positives:
- The grandkids loved it! It’s brash, colourful, action-packed and leans heavily into the games universe that most will at least be partially familiar with (in our case, it was primarily the Mario-cart references). For real Mario PhD students, there are obviously a wealth of Easter Eggs woven into the movie for them to enjoy. (Sadly – or perhaps not, because I’m not that sad – many of them went right over my head).
Negatives:
- Against a wave of popular acclamation, and in the words of the Borg, “resistance is futile”. But I do agree with the other critic’s sentiments that the film is exceedingly ‘corporate’ and a bit charmless.
- While the animation is perfectly up to snuff, it didn’t really move the bar on innovation for me in some of the clever ways that, for example, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” did recently.
- The movie felt quite clunky and episodic to me in the way in which it moved from scene to scene. It didn’t flow well. I bet the four directors (FOUR!!!!) each had ato create a different section (e.g. Mario’s journey, Luigi’s journey, etc) and then they got bolted together later. It feels like that.
“Monkeys”
Yes, there are monkeys in this. One immediately prior to the end credits features (apparantly) “Lumalee” – the depressive blue star thing voiced by Juliet Jelenic. Then there is a mid-credit monkey again featuring Jack Black. And finally, there is a post-credits monkey introducing another Mario character and clearly setting up for the inevitable sequel. (You’d clearly not want to bet against it being called “Super Mario Bros. Movie 2”!).
Summary Thoughts on “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”
Taking the kids to a movie over the holidays is a bit like Russian Roulette. At its worst it is having to grit your teeth for (hopefully) only 90 minutes. At its best, it is a raucous delight where the kids have a whale of a time and the film is interlaced with double entendres and in-jokes that only the parents (or in my case, grandparents) will get. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” falls smack in the middle of that for me. It was a survivable experience that managed not to grate too badly on me.
However, it still felt like being in a tumble dryer filled with sherbet for 92 minutes. But – hey – there are worse ways to go.
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Trailer for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnGl01FkMMo .
