THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE – Review

As I mentioned in last week’s review of the big D&D flick (which topped the box office charts), the 2023 Spring season of game and toy based-movies has finally reached its biggest destination, or at least until Mattel’s “power couple” arrives. And much like last week’s trio of releases, it’s a nostalgic ‘deep dive”, going back over 40 years. Mind you this duo and their giant video game franchise hit the big screen 30 years, in live-action, and is now considered a loopy bit of campy fun. Ah, but there’s no more glued-on phony facial hair in this one because it’s all rendered in lush computer-generated animation by one of the more successful not-Pixar studios of the past couple of decades. But can they jump (and gobble and drive) from the minions to tackle THE SUPER MARIO BROS> MOVIE? And…start…

Before we get to meet the guys, we’re transported to a weird world of ice where an army of fierce fightin’ penguins meets their match in the Kupa turtle army led by the menacing, fire-breathing Bowser (voice of Jack Black). Meanwhile, back in the Big Apple, scrappy plumber bros Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) have opened up their own repair biz but don’t get any respect from former boss Spike ( Sebastian Maniscalco) or even their own family. And after a disastrous first gig, they’re thinking about throwing in the (very wet) towel. But then Mario sees that their neighborhood is being flooded by water rising through the sewer grates and manhole covers. It looks like the city crews can’t get a handle on it, so the boys join the fight. Unfortunately, the water sweeps them further down, below the streets, into a long-neglected sub, sub-area. That’s when a weird glowing pipe sucks in the brothers. Luigi lands in a dark scary land, near of graveyard and a nearby black castle with a lava moat. Mario drops into the Mushroom (his least favorite food) Kingdom where he meets the helpful Toad (Keegan_Michael Key), who tells him that the best way to find Luigi is to ask the land’s ruler, Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) for help. But she’s got her hands full with the news of the approaching Kupa army and Bowser (who wants to wed her). She believes that they must join forces with the Kong Kingdom and so the trio travels there. Their king, Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) will only help if Mario can defeat his son, the reigning “maze-fighting” champ Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) in the big arena. But even if he’s victorious over the hulking brute, will Mario reunite with Luigi, before Bowser claims this strange land and sets his sights on the world above?

The all-star cast sounds as though they’re having a blast voicing these iconic characters that were probably a big part of their childhood. Pratt (who does a bit of the Italian dialect in an early sequence) is properly heroic and confident as Mario, even as his training and a certain ape pummel him. Day is the shakey, in-need-of-protecting kid brother who finally finds his inner warrior thanks to the love of his big bro. Taylor-Joy is an approachable princess, kind of a big sister or sitter to the duo, who is far from the typical storybook “damsel in distress”. Key is full of squeaky-voiced charm as the ever-helpful Toad. Armisen brings a bit of off-kilter snark to the rascally Cranky Kong. Bowser is given a gravely-voiced gravitas by Black (I keep thinking of Mickey’s nemesis Pete), who makes him into a soulful lounge lizard at the piano for his anthem love ballads for “Peaches”. Sure, they’re terrific, but the stand out for me was the perfect casting of Rogen as an agitated aggressive grumpy gorilla, who boasts while he bashes, but is capable of “niceness”. Seth’s familiar chuckle just sounds right coming out of the mouth of the muscular barrel-tosser.

Oh, the aforementioned animation house is the French branch of Illumination. This isn’t their first licensed property (the Seuss stories), so they ably adapt the pixel people into full fluid moving cartoon stars (there was a Saturday morning cartoon in the late 80s). As this is a co-production with Nintendo, the classic character designs are closely followed, somehow making the story work between the more “realistic” Peach to the “bigfoot-style” brothers, the 30s take on the Kongs, and the funny fiendish Bowser and his reptile crew. The use of 80s pop-tunes seems to work within the tale’s action beats. Bits of the gameplay (coins, boxes, and ‘shrooms) are cleverly dropped in, along with some witty bits of slapstick and dialogue. Special kudos to the color stylists who created some eye-popping rainbow-hued backdrops and props. This isn’t a huge ground-breaking achievement in animation history, but it moves along at a good pace for both kids and their folks making this “family fare” that’s better than most world expect. Maybe I wouldn’t use that “s” word, but I’d say that smarty, stylish, and silly work for THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE. And Santa, how about a solo Donkey Kong spin-off flick, ‘puh-leeze’?!

3 out of 4

THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE is now playing in theatres everywhere