The Super Mario Bros. Movie Review

For the last year or so my 3 year old daughter has been absolutely obsessed with Mario, so when we found out a new movie was in the works, it was a no brainer this was likely going to be her first cinema experience. However, being old enough to remember the first Super Mario Bros. movie with the late great Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo, I like many others, had my reservations. Although, the fact this was going to be animated rather than a live action film, did fuel my hope of a good movie. So, we booked our tickets and showed up the cinema yesterday filled with hope and excitement and I can honestly say I was not disappointed.

I knew my daughter was going to be happy regardless of any plot or story purely for the fact it was Mario, but right from the very first scenes I knew we were going to be in for a treat.

Before the movie was released, I was apprehensive about the voice cast, particularly Mario and Luigi, as the voice acting for these characters has been well established and shared the same confusion as others as to why Charles Martinet was not cast as the voice of Mario (I mean he is Mario after all and also voices Luigi) however, when you see the movie you will understand why this was a smart decision. Throughout the entire games series, Mario does not actually talk that much, instead says the same key catchphrases so to try and have a full length animated feature movie, the characters needed to be able to hold full conversations, something I personally don't feel Martinet would have would have been the best choice for. The movie does make reference to these famous catchphrases in a playful way that, for me, were a perfect fit. Eagle eyed (or eared) fans will notice the voice of Martinet elsewhere in the movie if they pay enough attention though. All in all, the voice cast holds up extremely well, especially Jack Black as Bowser. He did not need to go that hard, but then it's Jack Black, can we really expect anything less from the legend himself after all this time?

Chris Pratt and Charlie Day's casting as the famous duo received a lot of backlash when announced, but again after the watching the movie, they did a brilliant job and captured the spirit of both characters.

In terms of plot, the movie faced a real challenge trying to make a linear story that still held up against the games so instead of having the usual game view (Peach gets captured and Mario saves her while retrieving a bunch of coins, stars and whatever else) they focused on an origin of sorts for the brothers and gave Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) her own backstory and showed her to be able to hold her own against the villainous Bowser and his minions.

For me though, the best part of the movie was all the references to previous games and the music. Every time I heard one of the iconic Mario tunes it instantly transported me back to being a kid and spending hours playing the games and to share that with my daughter was just an amazing experience. It's also chock full of Easter Eggs.

The only thing that disappointed me about the movie was there were some key Mario characters missing. I assume this is intentional and that they are being purposefully kept for potential sequels or spin off's, but it did seem a bit strange that one in particular was "missing" from the movie, especially based on how famous this particular character was.

All in all, the movie was pretty impressive and definitely surpassed my expectations. I left the cinema feeling happy and nostalgic so it ticked all the right boxes for me and I cannot wait to see what is potentially planned for the future. Based on it's opening performance, it would seem Nintendo and Illumination may just have unlocked a very lucrative movie franchise.

I would give this film a very strong 9 out of 10.

On a side note, if you didn't know already, be sure to stay to the very end of the credits ;)