The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

So, I've been thinking.

With this movie being The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, where will they go from here? The Super Mario Land Movie and The Super Mario World Movie are certainly downgrades; maybe The Super Mario Odyssey Movie is next? But you probably want to know about this movie first. Let's a-go!

Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are now successful plumbers in the Mushroom Kingdom. During a job, the Marios find Yoshi (Donald Glover), a green dino with quite the story to tell (too bad they don't understand it). After that, they head back for Princess Peach's (Anna Taylor-Joy) birthday party, which is where the plot finds them.

The evil Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie) wants to break Bowser Sr. (Jack Black) out of his playset prison. He also wants to build a "Boomsday Cannon" to destroy disrespectful planets, for reasons, and he abducts Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) to power it up. One of Rosalina's adopted star kids, a Luma, asks one Princess to help another, and she accepts. Bowser Jr. gets back his old man, while the Marios & Yoshi join Peach & Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) on their mission to Jr.'s base planet. That's basically it, and it's a lot.

What else do we have? We have some sparks fly between Mario and Peach; it's not much, but they're great together. You'd almost think that Bowser will turn over a new leaf when he saves the Marios & Yoshi from prison (long story). But he snaps back to evil once Bowser Jr. gets him back; but, again, they're great together. We also get King Wart (Luis Guzman) from Super Mario Bros. 2 and his minions. They're not even here for a villain team-up. Worst of all, there's a major revelation between the Princesses which lands with little fanfare. It should have had a bit more time to breathe.

So, is there anything plot related that worked? The Marios have more screentime together, all of it fun; Luigi and Yoshi surprisingly make good pals. Yoshi's recap of his adventures since he hatched in the last film's stinger is a great gag. Some of its best battle scenes include Peach and Toad's battle in Wart's Casino planet, as well as the final battle with the Bowsers. Some of its most amusing cameos include some roboticized Minions, R.O.B. the Robot (Ed Skudder) and even the Pikmin. Standing above them, however, is Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) of Star Fox, whom Peach hires as a pilot. His cool personality, energetic origin scene, and flight prowess is enough to make one want a Star Fox movie. 

The different locales in this movie's Galaxy look great. Besides Wart's planet and The Mushroom Kingdom, we also get the Honeyhive Galaxy (three guesses to why it's called that); Tostarena (where the Marios meet Yoshi); the Gateway Galaxy (a universal hub); and Planet Bowser. Planet Bowser is home to my favorite gag, where Bowser Jr. watches Mario and Peach brave his death traps in 8-Bit form! As with the first movie, it makes great use of game power-ups, sound effects, and Koji Kondo's soundtrack into Brian Tyler's score. The plot may be too busy to make sense, but at least Illumination's technical goodness is still there.

All in all, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a harmless time. This is clearly made for younger filmgoers, particularly those who have kept up with newer Mario games. They'll have fun catching the references, while their savvy parents might have fun helping them with others. If they can understand the plot better than me, that's fine. I'll certainly give this another go once it hits home media, especially since my screening's projector gave out when the credits started. I'll be waiting.

GAME OVER (FOR NOW)