We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
Cody catches up with a childhood favorite.
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023)
Of the games that don’t involve kart racing, Super Mario 64 is the most recent Super Mario video game I’ve played – and to be honest, I didn’t make much progress with that 1996 release. I had better luck with Mario Kart 64, which happens to be the most recent kart game I’ve played... but I spent many hours of my childhood playing the original Mario games on Nintendo, as well as the games that were released for Super Nintendo. And I have returned to those original games and the SNES Mario Kart in the years since the 64 versions were released. As a child, I also watched the Mario Bros. cartoon, read Mario books, and saw the live-action 1993 film in the theatre. I even saw the 1989 movie The Wizard in the theatre because it promised to show a sneak peek at the Super Mario Bros. 3 game! So Mario and his supporting characters have been an important part of my life, even if I haven’t stayed current on their adventures. When I heard an animated movie was coming out, I was excited to see it, despite the fact that I don’t generally enjoy watching animation.
I was glad to find that The Super Mario Bros. Movie – which was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel – was still enjoyable for someone who is over 25 years behind on Mario games and doesn’t watch animation. It worked very well for me, and the two friends I watched it with, who are also far behind on the games and don’t watch animation, enjoyed it as well. There are elements from games that I’ve never played (for example, Cat Mario wasn’t something I ever encountered before), but there was also plenty of recognizable elements that pushed the nostalgia buttons. Some of the Easter eggs in this movie play directly to fans from my generation, like the inclusion of the theme song from the classic cartoon and a soundtrack full of old school hits like “No Sleep till Brooklyn”, “Holding Out for a Hero”, “Take on Me”, “Thunderstruck”, and “Mr. Blue Sky”. Songs we could have been listening to while playing Nintendo back in the day.
The story is something any Mario fan can follow. That evil giant turtle/Koopa Bowser has gotten his hands on a Super Star and intends to use it to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and take its ruler Princess Peach as his unwilling bride. Peach recruits the help of the army of the Jungle Kingdom, including Donkey Kong, in her kingdom’s fight against Bowser – and she also receives help from a Brooklyn plumber named Mario, who ends up in the Mushroom Kingdom after being sucked into a Warp Pipe deep in the sewer system. Mario’s brother Luigi was also sucked into that pipe, but he landed in the Dark Lands, where he was quickly captured by Bowser. Mario has to join the fight against the Koopa King so he can save his brother and get back to Brooklyn.
And there's even a kart race / chase sequence on Rainbow Road!
With a running time of 92 minutes, The Super Mario Bros. Movie moves along very quickly. I was left wishing there had been a bit more to it... but that’s what sequels are for, and this movie is definitely going to be getting sequels after earning more than $1 billion at the global box office. The voice cast, which includes Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, did good work in their roles. I was uncertain about Pratt when I heard he was going to be voicing Mario, but it actually worked out. And the MVP for me was Jack Black, providing the voice of Bowser. Especially when he starts singing the song he has composed for Peach.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a good time, so bring on The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2! But make it less weird than the Super Mario Bros. 2 game.
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