The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Review – Overstuffed Overalls
Major Spoilers Ahead
I thought a franchise was supposed to wait until the third installment before heading to outer space, but Mario and Luigi are back on the big screen again, skipping across the galaxy. After the goodwill the plumbers gathered from their last adventure, the bar may have been raised a little too much, setting everyone up for a failure, in a case of sequelitis. Super Mario Galaxy has so much of what fans like; it seems to know the audience, and yet with so much potential, fails to build its own planet.
That—that’s a reference to a weird part of the plot, some silly motivation for our villains. See, Bowser is still imprisoned, shrunk, thanks to a blue mushroom, but Bowser Jr., his son, has a plan. He’s following in his father’s footsteps, having kidnapped a princess already, Rosalina, which sends our heroes into action. The bad guys need her to power a weapon on their planet they’ve always wanted to construct, and no one will be safe unless they can return Rosalina to her kids, or stop Bowser–or something. It’s not necessarily more of the same, at least from a story point of view, but it feels like a minor escalation of what we’d seen previously with the same approach.
Hey, paisanos!
Let’s start with what truly works here: the visuals. Minus a few questionable face animations, this film looks spectacular. It is so colorful and energetic with an abundance of striking imagery to behold. It’s almost overwhelming at times. The tones are pleasing, in part due to excellent color-blending, and many worlds from the games are recreated in dynamic fashion. The music is fantastic here as well, brilliantly incorporating tunes and wonderful sound effects from the game franchise. I adored the medley played over the credits. There are fewer licensed tracks featured this time around, which makes the couple they do utilize stick out more, like when Hypnotize by Notorious B.I.G. hits.
The voice acting is also solid, featuring a cast that feels like they want to put in some quality work and use their whole voice for bold performances. Luigi (Charlie Day) remains the standout in these, and my best friend. Chris Pratt’s Mario is still a little bland, but even he seems to care somewhat. Brie Larson was brought in to portray Rosalina, and Donald Glover lends his voice to Yoshi, who isn’t saying much, while the only one to rub me the wrong way was Benny Safdie’s Bowser Jr. In fairness, I’m not a fan of his character in the games either (justice for the real Koopalings). However, I do get why some thought this was a good fit. This kid is, at least, effective in his villainy, though I think his inclusion is why they cut back on Bowser (Jack Black), who loses out on more plot because of shared screen time.
It’s hard not to see a ton of wasted potential here. Bowser has an arc, but it isn’t expanded upon, and things move too fast to spend much time thinking about it before a somewhat abrupt ending. Rosalina is kidnapped and taken out for a huge chunk of the movie after looking like a badass, which was kind of expected, but begs the question if we could have gotten a bit more time with this princess and her kids to help the story build. Same thing with Yoshi; it’s a great introduction, but then he’s thrown right into the group, to the point that Toad even questions the dinosaur’s sudden involvement, realizing he almost got replaced if Peach hadn’t brought him along with her. Several elements feel like they could have been their own movie, and that’s before we even get to the Star Fox (Glen Powell) of it all. Like many others, I wish I hadn’t known he was in this, but I understand the promotional synergy, and along with the appearance of Mr. Game and Watch later, we are inching toward that eventual Super Smash Bros. movie.
Super Mario Galaxy is stuffed to the mushroom cap with action, set pieces, cameos, and more, so I have to wonder why they didn’t try to fit just a little more story in here to make it all feel more purposeful. Everything comes off as rushed after a certain point, like the film itself has ADHD, and at only 98 minutes, that ending sneaks up on us. There are so many cameos, really fun ones, a ton of people I enjoyed seeing – give me more Wart (Luis Guzman) – but there are a ton and so much going on that no one feels substantial. It borders on overload. Knowing how short the movie is, it’s almost impressive to think about everything they got in there, but that also makes it obvious how much character growth was cut out of the script.
“That monkey just used his cuteness for crime!”
There is an attempt made for this theme of family between the sisters as well as Bowser and his kid, but they can’t come anywhere close to The Fast and the Furious without some more time. I enjoyed seeing Mario and Luigi’s relationships with Bowser when he wasn’t trying to kill them briefly explored, and the little bits of Mario’s attraction to Peach; how was there not more of this stuff? This film is obviously aimed at a younger audience, with the bonus of older gamers who stick around for all the references. I have to admit, there are a ton of them here, but they got me early on when a baby Luma said they were “Hooked on the brothers.” I had to watch an episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show later in celebration. The issue is, it seems like instead of telling a more comprehensive story, someone involved in the creation of this project was way more focused on making something exciting, featuring a bunch of little moments, just in the hopes that something would stick out and grab hold. Whether it’s the visuals, music, set pieces, or even the references, it all sounds like a winning combo on paper to keep kids coming back and maybe even attach it to what will become their brand of growing nostalgia. It feels too sped up to leave real impressions, yet it’s almost just right to feel good enough to watch again later.
After all of that, I do have to say if someone is just looking for a film to entertain them or the kids, this one is fine, and I even liked it more the second time around since I knew a little more of what to expect. It’s nowhere near as good as the original, but it’s hard to deny that there was clearly some effort put into it in most places. The story and pacing just weren’t as important this time around. Maybe that’s a mistake they can learn from before the next installment gets pushed out. And honestly, I’m just mostly upset that we skipped over movies based on Super Mario Bros. 3 and World. Galaxy was a rollercoaster, an enjoyable one, but maybe next time we can stay on the rails a bit more.
Grade: B-
