2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie would hardly qualify as a masterpiece, but it did further prove that you could make a quality bit of popcorn entertainment from a source of IP that has never really tried to maintain a coherent storyline across its many entries. The general gist of most Super Mario Bros. games has pretty much always been heading out on a quest to rescue someone, typically a princess, from Bowser and Co., resetting with every entry and sending the player out to do it again. That left screenwriter Matthew Fogel and the directing duo of Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic with both very little to work with and even fewer limits on where they could go, and they did a decent job of expanding the characters and their world into something interesting while cleverly incorporating very gamey moments to keep the feel true to its source. They didn’t have the strongest plot, but it was consistently exciting, unexpectedly funny, and enjoyably nostalgic with a sweet emotional center holding it all together. The team has reunited for this year’s inevitable sequel and somehow forgotten most of what made the first so effective.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie picks up with Bowser (Jack Black) still shrunken down to miniature size and living in a toy castle in Princess Peach’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) real one, under the watchful eye of Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day). The arrangement seems to be working relatively fine for everyone involved, but out in the galaxy Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie) has been plotting to free his father and kick the old man’s plans for universe-domination into motion. First, he kidnaps Princess Roaslina (Brie Larson) and then he heads to the Mushroom Kingdom to get his dad, pitting him against the titular Brothers and their new pals Yoshi (Donald Glover) and Fox McCloud (Glen Powell), along with a heavily sidelined Toad (Keegan-Michael Key). From there it’s a series of well-staged but weirdly inert action set pieces heading towards a somewhat foregone conclusion.
As with the prior film, everything in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie looks incredible, with some scenes striking a genuine sense of awe in the viewer. It’s a shame then that the talent on display winds up being in service of so little. So many characters are crammed into a fleet hour and forty minutes that it doesn’t leave room for any real growth in the returning crew or time to become familiarized with the new additions. In Yoshi’s case it’s somewhat excusable, as he can barely speak and was often more of a pet in the games, but Fox McCloud’s appearance, while initially at least a little exciting, ultimately amounts to nothing and could have been completely excised to little effect. The brief bits of effective humor aimed at older crowds are also almost completely gone, like the nihilistic blue star Lumalee (Juliet Jelenic) being relegated to a brief mid-credits scene.
Still, most children will likely enjoy this outing, the action is pretty non-stop from frame one and the increased focus on princesses is nice to see. The nostalgia factor is less effective this time around, but it still has its moments, especially whenever the notes of the main theme song swirl into the soundtrack. A nod to the Super Mario Maker series is particularly clever, and the inclusion of the T. Rex from Super Mario Odyssey leads to both the movie’s best bit of slapstick comedy and its most thrilling chase. Older fans of the original will likely be somewhat disappointed by this sequel, but anyone looking for a way to entertain the kids could do far worse. Hopefully the creative team behind the series will level up their game a bit before the pre-ordained third entry goes into production. ★★
rated pg for action, mild violence, and rude humor.
★★★★★ = Excellent | ★★★★ = Very Good | ★★★ = Good | ★★ = Fair | ★ = Poor
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