The first Super Mario Movie was breath of fresh air in the videogame movie world. It was equal parts fun, nostalgic, funny, and well-paced, and had something both kids and adults could enjoy. (And of course, THAT Peaches song)
This follow up has none of those things. Yes, it’s still packed to the brim with cute characters, there’s lots of fast video game action, and kids will probably love it.
There are also loads of nostalgic Easter eggs for all you Nintendo fans out there (Star Fox! Yoshi! Super Scope!). The problem is... it has all these eggs but no basket to keep them all in one place.
Having saved Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and the Mushroom Kingdom from the clutches of Bowser (Jack Black) the last time around, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are now... er, plumber adventurers (plumb-venturers?) who help the denizens of the kingdom with their problems.
On one of their missions, they meet a friendly dinosaur named Yoshi (Donald Glover), and promptly accept him as part of the gang. (No, really, he really just fits right in, no questions asked.)
Bowser is now a captive in Peach’s castle, but his son, Bowser Jr (Benny Safdie) is running riot in outer space. After kidnapping Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson), he then turns his eye on rescuing his dad next.
And so it begins. An endless, relentless, directionless, and ultimately, pointless race to... well, various placeholder places and planets, fighting cookie-cutter characters that were probably included as fan service, and collecting more Easter eggs and nostalgic remnants of the past (hello. Fox McCloud!) along the way.
The whole running around doing stuff, screaming, punching, jumping and wahoo-ing shtick is entertaining for about, 10 minutes of the movie, and after that you start wondering whether this is all you’ll get for the entire 98 minutes runtime (the answer is: pretty much, yes).
The speed in which they run through scenes and action sequences is so fast that sometimes it feels like you’re watching Netflix on 1.5x speed, complete with squeaky voices and blurred movements.
With Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, already well-established in the first movie, character development is shoved aside like a Goomba on a pillar in order to cram the movie with more Easter eggs.
No one knows why Yoshi is there. No one explains why Jr has those wonderful painting powers. At one point we think we MIGHT get a hint of a romance between Mario and Peach but nothing actually comes of it.
Some might say it’s just like the video game, but honestly, if I wanted to watch the video game, I might as well be playing it instead. Then maybe I’d get more sense of jeopardy or at least SOME reason to care whether these characters achieve their goals.
As it is, no one in this movie even gets hurt, let alone die. (one character even falls into a pit of lava, but is resurrected not even five minutes later).
Films like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie exist for just one reason - to make a ton of money. Plot? Character development? Drama? Jeopardy? Bah! Who needs those when you’ve got the Minions... I mean, the Super Mario gang?
Heck, this movie is so obviously lifted straight from the Minions playbook that I wouldn’t be surprise if they did a cross over of the two franchises one day. Can you imagine a Minions Vs Mario movie? Oh wahoo no.
Summary:
All these Easter eggs but no basket to keep them all in one place.
