Nintendo and Illumination, the animation company behind Despicable Me, enjoyed fantastic financial returns from their first joint venture together – The Super Mario Bros. Movie – back in 2023.
It’s a surprise to no-one, then, that three years on from the original film’s release, we’ve a sequel on our hands. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has teed itself up nicely as a movie adaptation of the extremely popular Mario Galaxy games that hold a special place in the hearts of many who encountered them on the Wii nearly twenty years ago.
‘I can do the work of a hundred men, and at least ten thousand bees!’
Nintendo superfan and Avengers alum Brie Larson joins the cast as the ethereal Princess Rosalina, whose icy magic helps her rule her own little corner of space. Despite her prominence in the source material, the Princess plays a disappointingly small part in this ensemble, swiftly becoming a near-mute damsel in distress. When she’s kidnapped by a vengeful Bowser Jr, hoping to release his father from his prison, it’s up to Mario, Luigi and Peach to venture into the stars and save her. That misstep is palpably felt throughout the film; a shame not just for Galaxy fans but those looking forward to hearing Larson in action, too. She was an exciting bit of casting, not least because of the strength of her turns in something like Scott Pilgrim, but there’s next to nothing for her to do here.
As a result of her surprising absence, the most prominent new addition to the gang is Donald Glover (who you might know as his musical alter ego, Childish Gambino) as everyone’s favourite green dinosaur, Yoshi, whose appearance was teased at the very end of the first film. He’s always been a fan favourite character – I don’t know if I’ve ever had someone not pick him when playing Mario Kart with friends – but his inclusion is writ especially large in the marketing here, from Happy Meal toys to gigantic, egg-toting popcorn buckets just in time for Easter. As someone who was first handed a DS and a copy of Mario on his fifth birthday, said popcorn bucket was an immediate purchase for me, but as he sat in my lap during the film, the film’s number one purpose was brought straight to mind: profit.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie made over a billion dollars at the box office and this follow-up is sure to bring home a hefty amount, too, in spite of a growing number of negative reviews. In a lot of ways, a juggernaut franchise like this one is just about critic-proof: everyone wants to see how the next instalment shakes out in this ongoing adaptation of this thing that we all have some sort of history with. Like its predecessor, the film is packed with references from every branch of the Mario series and beyond, but the artifice of the whole undertaking felt much clearer here than it had previously.
The first film was something that Illumination had worked on for nearly a decade, and for all of its faults, there was a definite sense of care in terms of how each scene was brought to the big screen. In rewatching the original ahead of this new release, I was surprised by how often I had to pause and just marvel at how many little nods the filmmakers had put in there for the fans to find, and all sorts of aspects and elements from the wider franchise were incorporated into the plot in funny and endearing ways. There seems to be a lot less of that on offer here in the starry skies of Galaxy.
One of the main criticisms of the first instalment was that its story felt incredibly by-the-book, taking Mario on the typical hero’s journey that we’d all seen before. That never felt quite as severe to me as it did to a lot of naysayers – you’d be hard pressed to find a film that didn’t use those archetypes to some extent – but there was a definite sense that Nintendo and Illumination had, for better or worse, played things safe for Mario’s first animated outing. As a result, the film felt rather unremarkable outside of its franchise ties.
Three years on, Galaxy seems to want to avoid such criticisms rearing their heads again, resulting in a film that feels more ambitious – there are efforts to incorporate a lot more characters and threats into the 100-minute runtime and even an attempt at giving the series’ Big Bad, Bowser, some humility and growth – but far more scatterbrained.
The result is a film that feels more episodic than most, leading up to an ending that felt anticlimactic and underdeveloped. There are some lovely moments that put a smile on my face as a long-time Nintendo fan and elements at play that would’ve been shone had they been given the proper time to grow into something, but they’re constantly fighting to for screen time with long chases and supposedly comic interludes that seem to pander to a much younger audience without the weight or confidence of something like Hoppers or Magic Faraway Tree, the exact films that Mario and his friends will contend with when it comes time to pick something to take the kids to in the holidays.
While I would love to give this film a recommendation, both of those other offerings would make for a much more satisfying family day out to the cinema. It’s extremely telling that when the post credits for the original film teased a sequel, I felt a sense of excitement and anticipation for the next release, yet felt nothing of the sort on this go around. I just turned to my Yoshi and thought ‘Is that it then? Okay, let’s-a go…’
BBFC: Rated PG for mild violence, threat.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is in cinemas now.
