Illumination’s follow-up to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” pales in comparison to its predecessor in more ways than one.
Based on the iconic Nintendo character and series of the same name, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” sees the return of Mario and Luigi, two plumbers turned heroes. In this film, the brothers face a powerful pint-sized threat: Bowser Jr., the son of their notorious turtle-like foe Bowser. When the young tyrant kidnaps a mysterious princess named Rosalina, the brothers, along with the kind-hearted Princess Peach, must venture across the galaxy to save her.
To the film’s credit, the animation is stunning, absolutely fitting the colorful, fantastical world of its source material. The original game, a favorite among Mario fans, was atmospheric and whimsical, and the animation certainly holds up to that standard.
The film’s pacing is where it starts to fall flat. It sets up interesting themes and character dynamics, but does not follow through with them by the half-way point. Characters are introduced and quickly pushed aside to develop plot points and dynamics that were barely introduced to begin with. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” looks to distract its audience from its disjointedness by shoving multiple references to the Mario series as a whole into their faces.
Performance wise, Chris Pratt is far less emotionally invested as Mario than he was in the first film. He seems lost and disconnected from the character as well as the film. Charlie Day is also a bit less invested, but still provides a decent performance as Luigi. Benny Safdie provides a surprising performance as Bowser Jr., clearly stepping out of his comfort zone to provide a performance that die-hard fans will enjoy. The greatest surprise comes from Donald Glover as Yoshi, the lovable green dinosaur featured in multiple Mario games. As a die-hard Mario fan himself, it is clear Glover has a deep understanding and appreciation for the character, giving a spot-on performance. Glover joins Jack Black as members of the cast who are fully invested in their portrayals of these beloved characters.
One of the biggest disappointments “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” gives fans is its use, or lack thereof, of fan-favorite character Princess Rosalina. Brie Larson, another Mario superfan, does a decent job as the galaxy’s guardian, but she is in so little of the film, she barely feels like a character at all.
The most interesting choice the film makes is its decision to integrate other Nintendo characters into the film’s world. It makes a bit of sense since many Mario characters are heavily incorporated into the Super Smash Bros. series. The choice seems to be mainly to set up a possible Smash Bros. film in the future. It was announced a while before the film was released that Fox McCloud from Nintendo’s Star Fox series would make an appearance in the film. This heavily divided fans. The film seemed to push McCloud to the forefront while pushing Rosalina aside, in spite of how vital of a character she is to the source material.
The film’s predecessor may not have been perfect, but it resonated with fans a lot more, and had a cohesive sense of what it wanted to be. While it may be nice to look at, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” loses steam less than halfway through, and uses the flashy nature of its animation combined with references to distract audiences from the lack of unity at its core.
