Tag: Nintendo

THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE – Review

April brings those showers, which may bring May flowers, and bring big box office returns for the movie studios. That’s because one of Pixar’s biggest rivals, Illumination Animation, is joining them in getting a two-month head start on the race for the usual Summer cartoon feature crown. Before Ryan Gosling blasted into space, Pixar’s HOPPERS ruled the multiplex. Now this new flick isn’t another entry in Illumination’s almost unlimited franchise DESPICABLE ME, nor those MINIONS. The studio has acquired some notable IPs, mainly the literary library of Dr. Seuss. But its biggest “get” was the deal with Nintendo, which spawned a worldwide ticket-buying tsunami almost three years ago. And so it’s no huge surprise that those heroic pumbers and their pals have returned in THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE. Game on…

This one begins in a different world as Princess Rosalina (voice of Brie Larson) is getting the glowing star-like creatures called Lumas ready for bed (after a story, of course). But the “quiet time” is shattered by the arrival of a hulking robot/tank outside the castle. After a valiant effort, Rosalina is captured by the operator of the “war machine”, Bowser, Jr. (Benny Safdie). But one of the frightened Lumas manages to escape. Meanwhile, in the Mushroom Kingdom, those Brooklyn-born brother plumbers, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day), are “on call”, along with a new assistant, the green baby-dinosaur-like creature Yoshi (Donald Glover), who can swallow almost anything and discharge it through his body in an egg. Mario’s a bit preoccupied since the big birthday celebration for Princess Peach (Anja Taylor-Joy) is later that day (he wants to give her a parasol and …his heart). The party is crashed by the escaped Luma, who tells them of the attack by Bowser’s son. Peach decides to mount a rescue of her “long lost” sister (they separated when Peach was a toddler), but they’ll need to bring along an unlikely ally, the now imprisoned and minaturized Bowser, Sr. (Jack Black). But can he really be trusted? And can this motley crew, including the mushroom Toad (Keegan Michael-Key), find Rosalina before Bowser, Jr. drains her of her magic energy, despite the addition of a new ally, the swashbuckling space pilot Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) and his flying squad?

Well, as is said with many sequels and franchise installments, if you enjoyed the first one, you’ll probably like this one (I suppose you could also say that about fast food spots, really). I wish I could work up more enthusiasm (mine is easy to “curb”), but I haven’t been part of Mario’s world since dropping many, many quarters in various arcade devices right after college (you can probably guess the year). And this flick feels as though you’re standing over somebody’s shoulder who is very…uh… proficient with the joystick (I’m stifling a “heh. heh.”) But then the youngsters love to watch countless streaming videos of folks racking up the big “scores’ on the games. So, this will easily satisfy the legions of fans, but there’s little to hook those “uninitiated”. Mind you, from an animation aficionado’s viewpoint, the look of the movie is pretty spectacular, packed to the brim with colors and bursting effects that seem to break out of the big screen. The script is just so-so, with most of the best lines going to Black and Safdie as the “Bowser bunch”. The returning voices are on the same level as the 2023 original. The new additions aren’t given much of a chance to shine, as Larson is in her MCU mode, while Powell is a more energetic “space jockey (think a younger “harrier” Han Solo). There are a couple of “name” cameos (Luis Guzman and Issa Rae), but I was pleased about a few cartoon voice vets who scored big roles, namely Kevin Michael Richardson as the wizard-like Kamek. The same trio of directors also returns, stuffing the film to the brim (and spilling over a bit) with settings and side characters, some extremely sweet (my teeth) and cute, from the popular game series, so the wee ones will be engaged, while the near-nonstop bouncing and frenetic stunts might pummel the “civilians” into slumber. I can respect the craft, though it all feels like an effort to re-energize the “brand” while not trying to expand its scope. But why am I kvetching, since it should swiftly zip past the billion-dollar box office mark, with another epic already being planned? Still, it would be nice if it grabbed us in the “feels” like those “returning soon” toys and those HOPPERS. While those die-hard players will give it unlimited stars, I can only muster up…

2 Out of 4

THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE is now playing in theatres everywhere

THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE – Review

(from left) Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) in Nintendo and Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.

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

VIDEO GAMES: THE MOVIE – The Review

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It’s another one of those full disclosure moments for me as a reviewer. I am not a hardcore gamer. Do I enjoy video games? In general, yes. Do I get excited when new games get released? No, not really. Do I play video games more than 1-2 hours a week? Not even close. I spend too much time watching movies to be a true gamer. However, I do still have an appreciation for the pixelated pastime.

Being a child of the 80s, I grew up giving my NES and SNES a hardy workout. That’s Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES, for those who have been hiding under a rock for the last 30 years. I never owned an Atari, although I did secretly cherish my Commodore, the Radio Shack Atari knock-off system. Hey, I too could play Pitfall, amongst other classics, with that system!

While most of my minimal game time is spent nostalgically tapping the old NES controller buttons on my vintage games like Castlevania, I’m dually aware of the unmistakable parallel between cinema and digital gaming. Granted, its a stretch to make that connection with the old Atari games, but even then we had crossover examples like the infamous E.T. Atari game whose blockbuster failure is epic in itself.

The beauty of a film like VIDEO GAMES: THE MOVIE [from here out referred to as VGTM] is that it brings the people who know what the hell they’re taking about together to provide a comprehensive history of the digital gaming culture and tells the relatively young yet richly textured tale of the hobby’s meteoric rise in a way that is fun and interesting and doesn’t suck.

Written and directed by Jeremy Snead and co-produced by actor/filmmaker Zach Braff, VGTM has an energy and contemporary approach that is befitting of the subject matter. Where other documentaries on this general topic have focused on a specific niche of the trade, VGTM strives to tell the whole story as it currently stands, concisely but without dragging it out too long and becoming a failed Ken Burns-scale trainwreck. [No offense to Ken Burns, but no one can make a compelling documentary of great length like he does, so why even try?]

Snead begins the film by getting our techno adrenaline flowing, encouraging us to get excited about reliving our early days of geekdom planted in front of a TV screen punching buttons for hours as little blocky characters run and jump at our command. Only after he has us hooked, does he delve into the fascinating history of game development and ultimately the endless and ongoing evolution of gaming. Surprisingly, the 100-minute running time is successful at covering the entirety of the overall story without dwelling on any one area too long. Granted, there is much detail left on the virtual cutting room floor, but VGTM is not trying to be the Encyclopedia Britannica of video game documentaries.

VGTM has two target audiences in mind, so far as I can surmise. First, we have the hardcore gamers who inherently will appreciate the novelty of this film, much of which will likely not be anything they do not already store within they’re bags of plenty. My apologies, but that reference may or may not be properly placed, but I am a geek that spans multiple genres. Anyway, the second target audience would be those not yet familiar, or not yet educated, as to the history and making of the very entertainment they spend so much time taking for granted these days.

Allow me to illustrate. When I first acquired my retro console that plays both NES and SNES games, my two boys had no clue what they were watching me wire into my TV. At the innocent young ages of 9 and 6, they watched in wonder and then were mesmerized to discover the joy found in playing things such as Super Mario Bros and Excite Bike, to name just a couple. Instantly, I created two new retro enthusiasts, but they never actually lived the history. So, VGTM is a technological testament, a recorded history for future generations.

What power lies in this realization, that young people already accustomed to the advanced graphics and high-speed game play of systems like Sony’s Playstation and Xbox can still find amazement and wonder in playing the original Nintendo games? VGTM latches onto this sense of wonder, spanning genres across the globe, from the days of hanging out in arcades to hosting LAN parties with friends to stadium-filling gaming events on the scale of an NFL Superbowl. Do you remember THE WIZARD, starring Fred Savage? That kinda sh*t actually happened in real life! If you remember this, be careful. You’re showing your age.

Snead intertwines insightful and poignant interviews from industry juggernauts, early groundbreaking developers and current icons and celebrities who hold the video game in great regards in their own lives outside of their own stardom. VGTM includes interviews with the likes of Zach Braff, Wil Wheaton and Donald Faison, to name a few, and is narrated by Sean Astin. Many viewers may not recognize the early developers who appear in the film, but do not discount these moments as they reveal monumental pieces of the larger picture that need not be forgotten.

VIDEO GAMES: THE MOVIE is but a slice of the overwhelming pie, but this mere dip of our finger into the filling is packed with fun and flavor. From Pong to Pac Man, from Zelda to Call of Duty, there is an entire world outside our own that lives just within that glass box, but rarely have we seen beneath the surface into its heart. This film is the key to a greater appreciation of the art, craft and culture of digital gaming.

VIDEO GAMES: THE MOVIE is available Video On Demand on July 15th, 2014 and hits theaters on July 18th, 2014

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

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Web Flicks: The Legend of Neil.com

A good friend of mine made me aware of this online “web content”… aka Web Flicks, as I call them. I love the growing advent of webisodes and short films being developed and made specifically for the Internet. Way back in the day, one of the earliest sites to promote this was Atom.com, but now it’s become more of an independent pursuit with these online filmmakers creating their own websites and distributing their films themselves on their own sites.

‘The Legend of Neil‘ is very funny and those of us who remember playing Zelda [and perhaps still do] will appreciate this series even more. Co-creators Sandeep Parikh and Tony Janning have created six episodes so far and I’m eagerly awaiting the next batch. Check it out… and try not to laugh “too” hard.