“In an Insane World, it is the Sane who are called crazy.” – Lumalee
Year Released: Apr. 1st (LA)/ Apr. 5 (US) 2023
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was something I didn’t expect to see realized any time soon after the 1993 “Super Mario Bros.” film flopped. Nintendo’s fairly protective of their IPs, especially ones involving Mario and Zelda. The latter of which is actually scheduled to get their own live-action film in the coming years. Nintendo entrusted their 2023 Mario movie to Illumination, the same company behind “Minions”. Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic chose to spearhead the movie and worked closely with Nintendo’s own Shigeru Miyamoto. For those not in the know, he’s the main man behind the creation of the Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and Zelda series.
In Hollywood fashion, most of the video game voice actors were not chosen to reprise their roles for the film. We ended up with an all-star cast consisting of Chris Pratt (Mario), Charlie Day (Luigi), Anya-Taylor Joy (Princess Peach), Keegan-Michael Key (Toad) Jack Black (Bowser), Seth Rogen (Donkey Kong), Charles Martinet (Mario bros father/Arcade Gamer) to name a few. Fans had very mixed feelings about Chris Pratt’s casting, but concerns were lessened once the first full trailer came out. These concerns were almost all but erased once they saw the movie for themselves. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t perform exceptionally well with critics or casual fans. However, it was a major milestone for Nintendo and video game adaptations for movies.
I won’t lie, the plot wasn’t really a masterpiece, if anything, it could be called a basic one at that. The brothers are down on their luck, accidentally get sucked into a warp pipe, get separated, and Luigi becomes the damsel for 90% of the film after that. Mario rallies the help of Princess Peach and the kongs to get Mario’s brother back from Bowser. On Bowser’s end, he’s found the “Power Star” which would make him all powerful and wants to marry Peach, eventually against her will. With that, the main parties had their motives for heading off on an adventure. The real charm of the movie came from the voice casts’ performance and the various visual and musical nods for gaming fans to enjoy. It’s without a doubt, a movie I can watch over just to catch each easter egg for myself.
-By Jamarri Taylor