Film Review: "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" — A Galaxy of Characters, a Universe of Missed Opportunities
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was the second-highest-grossing film of 2023, beating out Marvel giants like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 at the box office (domestically and globally). While critics generally looked down on it, the generational appeal of Nintendo’s biggest stars not only made it an instant success but also kept family audiences coming back for more, an unprecedented success for a video game adaptation. Universal Studios and Illumination are hoping for another box office power-up with the sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t have the same level of repeatable fun.
When Rosalina (Brie Larson) is captured by Bowser Junior (Benny Safdie), one of her Luma (Virginia Dare Jelenic) travels to the Mushroom Kingdom to seek the help of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), who takes off with the little star and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key). When Baby Bowser shows up to free his father, Mario (Chris Pratt), Luigi (Charlie Day), their new friend Yoshi (Donald Glover), and mini Bowser (Jack Black) also get caught up in the adventure. For Mario and company, it’s a mission to help Peach save Rosalina. For Bowser, it’s a family reunion that will question his rehabilitation.
Picking up on a thread from the first film, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie answers the mystery of Peach’s origin story. However, it also overstuffs the story with pure fan service, seemingly out of fear of rejection for significantly altering character lore from the games. As a result, the story isn’t given space to breathe. There’s no emotional payoff, despite an obvious attempt to give Peach and Rosalina a similar level of bond as Mario and Luigi. The sequel is left feeling devoid of emotional resonance.
With over 40 years of video game material to reference, Galaxy overstuffs the film with new characters that serve little to no purpose. Yoshi, teased in the post-credit tag of the first film, is here purely for comic relief. It’s a wasted introduction for a character popular enough to have warranted a more meaningful plot, which is what fans of the first film were likely most anticipating.
Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) from Star Fox, who has never been in a Mario game (Super Smash Bros. excluded), confusingly appears for what amounts to a foxy Han Solo homage. He overstays his weird welcome, and is seemingly here only because the film’s creators are big fans. There are plenty of lesser-known characters and locales from the games shoehorned in at a rapid-fire pace, a constant distraction from the hollow execution of what should’ve been a meaningful sequel.
The film deserves some praise. The animation is well done, with the cosmic elements of Rosalina’s world being some of Illumination’s most beautiful efforts to date. Star Fox gets a fun anime-style flashback to explain his appearance, which is the only highlight of his inclusion in the film. And there are also some fun homages to the 8-bit origins of the characters and a sequence inspired by Paper Mario. Brian Tyler’s score continues to be fun, pulling in lots of memorable needle-drops from the games.
From the same creative team as The Super Mario Bros. Movie (directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, screenwriter Matthew Fogel), The Super Mario Galaxy Movie fails to live up to what made its predecessor work. It feels sloppily rushed, with executives likely pressuring the team to rush a sequel to theaters before it was truly ready. It also feels like bad cinematic management of Nintendo’s IP, and that may be the film’s greatest faux pas of all.
I give The Super Mario Galaxy Movie 2 out of 5 stars.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits theaters on Wednesday, April 1st.