- Staring
- Chris Prat, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy
- Directors
- Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
- Rating
- PG
- Genre
- Animation, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family
- Release date
- April 7, 2023
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
Mario started his digital life as a carpenter named Jumpman in the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game. From those humble beginnings, he’s gone on to star in or be featured in over 200 video games, easily making him the most prolific video game character of all time. Now, he’s also the star of his very own feature-length film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
There is a lot to like about The Super Mario Bros. Movie: it’s bright and beautiful, with crisp animation that is so loyal to the source material that it is clearly a love letter from the animators. It also boasts competent voice acting from Chris Pratt, et al, mostly excellent pacing, quality dialogue, and a few cute comedy moments as well as some fun action. However, the star of the film is definitely nostalgia porn.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie has more Easter Eggs than Easter Sunday. Without exaggeration, every frame is jam-packed and overflowing with multiple somethings designed to give you a hit of dopamine as you exclaim (sometimes out loud, as it was in the theater I went to) “Look at that. I remember that from the game.” By the end of the film, you’re so high on your own supply that all you want to do is light a cigarette and enjoy the refractory period.
The core story is fairly simple and straightforward with few surprises. Like in most of the games, Mario and Luigi are plumbers and brothers who find themselves magically transported to the Mushroom Kingdom via a sewer pipe. Once there, they use a lot of jumping and power-ups to help to stop Bowser from conquering the world in a misguided attempt to woo and marry Princess Peach. Along the way, the heroes enlist others from Nintendo legacy game franchises to help them in their fight.
What stands out the most in the film is that Mario unabashedly embodies the best of manhood: he’s determined, loyal, capable, and dangerous…most of the time (more in the Woke Elements below). He is unembarrassed by the depth of his feeling for his little brother, he recognizes and embraces the responsibility of being an older brother, and nothing and no one will stand in the way of his finding and rescuing Luigi.
All of that being said, The Super Mario Bros. Movie isn’t a perfect film. The story/plot is very basic, and much of the voice acting is only good, not great, which is a shame because there’s some real talent behind the pixels. I must say though, that Charlie Day was completely wasted as Luigi.
The main reason that you hire Charlie Day is for all of his Charlie Dayness. Instead, his Luigi is locked in a cage for 90% of the film and is given next to nothing to do. What’s most egregious is that Day has a set of pipes on him and, while they give Jack Black, who plays Bowers, multiple opportunities to belt out some tunes, not once do they let Day have at it. What’s even worse is that, while Bowser has him in his custody, the filmmakers completely miss the opportunity to have the two sing a duet.
While we’re talking about music. They did a great job of orchestrating the various musical themes from the games into a fun memberberry score. However, they also incorporate modern music like AC/DC’s Thunderstruck and Battle Without Honor Or Humanity (most will recognize from Kill Bill). Unfortunately, they mostly waste it.
Battle Without Honor plays for a few bars for laughs at the beginning of a humorously one-sided battle, and Thunderstruck is played during a Mario Kart selection scene. Both songs are perfect for amping things up, and both times that they were used, it only served to arrest any momentum built when the actual action would begin and the score would kick in.
Ultimately, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an entertaining, if not groundbreaking, family movie experience possessing enough fun action to engage the kids and all of the nostalgia that parents could want.
INAPPROPRIATE ELEMENTS FOR CHILDREN IN SUPER MARIO
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie earns its PG rating in the way that films of yesteryear did. There’s no use of the Lord’s name in vain. The writers didn’t squeeze in a superfluous curse word or some cartoon sexpot to goose it up from G. Instead, there are some serious scenes and a bit of dark humor that, while not gratuitous, might be too much for the very young. I know that I saw some children that I’d estimate at around age four burying their heads in their mom and dad’s arms during the more intense moments.
- In the same vein, Bowser utters the line, “…when he watches me kill his brother.”
- One of the characters (I think Luigi) refers to a creature as a hellhound.
WOKE ELEMENTS
- The movie’s greatest weakness is its use of Peach. With the exception of the American version of Super Mario 2, the plot for every main title Super Mario game is that Peach is kidnapped and Mario and Luigi rescue her. However, in this film, it is Luigi who is kidnapped and Peach and Mario who go on the main quest.
- That’s all fine and good but what isn’t is that Peach is absolutely amazing and perfect in every way, completely actualized, and needs to learn nothing in the film. She never makes a mistake or a wrong turn. She is a textbook Mary Sue. Mario is only along for the ride because she allows it.
- This shift in dynamic only serves to water down Mario while nearly completely castrating Luigi. It also, makes Luigi’s transformation at the end virtually meaningless and nonsensical. He spends nearly the entire film being afraid of everything and locked in a cage with no chance for a hero’s journey to learn any lessons. Yet in the end, he has an epiphany and becomes a hero completely out of the blue.
- It’s pretty clear that the earlier drafts of the film had Mario, Luigi, and Toad adventuring together to rescue the princess and, only after some woke writer or producer whined about representation, did they rewrite it to make Peach ridiculous. You can tell by the way that Toad is introduced as a helpful and immediately loyal and dependable friend, as well as the fact that his role in most of the games has always been to aid Mario and Luigi, that he was supposed to help direct them in this film. However, when Peach is artificially shoved into the mix, Toad all but vanishes and is only there to yell out a comedic line or two.
- Had they made the adventure that of the two brothers adventuring together, they could have really done something special with Mario standing as an example to his brother of bravery and fierceness while under fire, building to a crescendo when Luigi emulates his brother and stands up to protect him. Instead, they went the woke route and we got a serviceable movie that will still surely launch a franchise.
- That’s all fine and good but what isn’t is that Peach is absolutely amazing and perfect in every way, completely actualized, and needs to learn nothing in the film. She never makes a mistake or a wrong turn. She is a textbook Mary Sue. Mario is only along for the ride because she allows it.
- Mario, as I mentioned earlier, is capable and competent…unless he’s in proximity to Peach. Every time that they work together, she is perfect and has to help Mario, and every time that they are apart, he handles business.
James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
25 comments
Gabe
April 27, 2023 at 10:27 am
I agree that they missed the opportunity for Luigi to explore his fears through the stories of the ghosts in Luigi’s Mansion. Then again, they will probably save that for the sequel. Luigi’s development isn’t out of the blue, though. He spent the entire movie alone with his thoughts. He would have had time to decide to be braver. As Kratos says: “we will be better.”
I disagree that Peach “castrates” anyone. She’s the only human among a nation of toads. Toad himself is portrayed as an outlying personality, being more adventurous, among the other Toads. Peach has had her entire life in a world where intense acrobatics are required for daily tasks, so she would be the obvious mentor of Mario, who isn’t used to all the acrobatics. Her whole arc is about learning to work with others and no longer being alone, but skips over the whole “I am a lone wolf” mentality that male counterparts to this arc love. She’s a woman who has taken her responsibility as sovereign seriously. Why is that so hard for you to stomach?
You want a moment of weakness from her? Revisit the scene where she immediately gives up on the Kong army when Cranky denies her. Mario is the hero of the scene when he insists on a trial by combat. Peach learns to channel that desperate heroism when she has Toad sneak her an ice flower at her wedding. She’s a quick learner. Besides, audiences are tired of the trope of “grrr, I’m so strong I refuse all help” that needlessly drags on every story. It’s surprising that she adapts so quickly to accommodate Mario and internalize his lessons. Did that just go over your head?
As you said, you watched this movie for the Easter eggs and nostalgia. You completely missed out on everyone’s individual character arcs. You also missed the cross-dressing as one of the “woke” points. Maybe revisit the film when you’re more mature?
James Carrick
April 27, 2023 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for your comment, hyperbole notwithstanding. You’ve clearly put a lot of thought into this, which is great. One of the best things about good movies is their ability to transcend the screen and continue to engage our thoughts and imagination long after the credits have rolled.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so bear with me. I agree that Peach does not castrate Luigi. However, that was never my contention. What I was trying to convey is that the shift in dynamics served to neuter any meaningful way for the audience to join Luigi in his personal growth. Movies being a visual medium, “watching” someone internalize their emotional journey is an ineffective way to engender empathy. The artistic goal for storytellers of all types, when portraying a character whose arc is to begin as a coward and end up a self-sacrificing hero, is for the audience to experience a sense of catharsis at the moment of transformation. The more we empathize, the greater the catharsis.
I have no problem whatsoever with a monarch taking her role seriously, nor did I indicate that in my review. However, I would disagree with the assertions that she’s a quick learner. Instead, she’s an instant learner, and we can certainly disagree on that point, but, with a singular exception (keep reading for it), there’s never a moment when she doesn’t know the exactly correct thing to do. Again, that’s doesn’t make for compelling storytelling.
Yes, it’s explained that her character was able to perfectly complete the obstacle course on her first attempt because she grew up there, which is silly but fine (I doubt that Toad could have done so, and he was born there). However, for the purposes of narrative and character growth, perfection is far from compelling, and, in this instance and in several proceeding ones, served only to make Mario’s failure a punchline. It’s my belief this only detracted from Mario’s heroes journey.
Furthermore, she does not immediately “give up on the Kong army.” Cranky Kong says that the Kongs will only fight alongside her and the Mushroom Kingdom if someone defeats Donkey Kong. When she takes Mario aside, it’s to tell him that accepting Cranky’s challenge is a “really bad idea” because she doubts Mario’s ability, not because she’s giving up on trying to convince the Kongs to help. It’s not the same thing as, “oh well, ok then. We’ll be on our way.” Also, after he wins (and she is shown to have been wrong one time in the entire movie), she immediately undercuts Mario’s victory with backhanded compliments at his expense.
She’s literally a hero from the moment that she is first on screen, and of course she adapts quickly to accommodate Mario, she’s next-to perfect.
Next, I did not say that I watched the movie for the the Easter Eggs, only that they were the most thoughtful and interesting elements of the film.
Almsot done here: I did not miss the cross-dressing. It was done comedically, because cross-dressing is ridiculous, not as an affirmation of mental illness. That’s a perfectly sane use of the trope.
Finally, as far as maturity goes, allow me to point out that we are both arguing the virtues and vices of a children’s cartoon about two plumbers from Brooklyn who take performance-enhancing substances in order to save fungus people and a floating princess from a firebreathing turtle monster. However, only one of us is doing so in an effort to provide a service to parents, while the other is…not.
SHeikVoigt
May 14, 2024 at 8:20 am
I personally found Peach really unlikable in the movie, she usually walks with this stiff posture and serious expression; a far cry from the sweet and graceful princess who gets Sheik and Fox to stop fighting in Smash Bros by having them share a cup of tea on the wing of a plain. The only times I liked her were when she agreed with Toad that Mario looked cute as a cat and when she starts to cry as she goes off with Bowser to get married. Finally she got the scowl off her face and expressed some relatable emotions!
The best characterization of Peach, in my opinion, is in Thousand Year Door when she’s held captive in space and teaches a computer what love is. She shows her ability to be capable and act in the way a monarch would – using her words and negotiation abilities to eventually be able to contact Mario and aid in her rescue. All while being cute as a button in the process!
In Super Princess Peach she literally uses her emotions to save the day (and that game is fun as heck and adorable as well). I like to call that one “Period Simulator”.
I’ve always been considered more of a tomboy myself, but Peach’s girly demeanor has always been a delight to me and I find myself annoyed every time she’s on the screen, but my son loves this darn movie so I let it slide and eagerly wait for her to go away. My hope is they downplay these more masculine traits she has in the next film.
james
May 2, 2023 at 9:53 pm
a female lead that is perfect and a bumbling male lead isn’t really my definition of “woke”, at least not in 2023 terms. Besides, the movie explains her perfection: they are in her world so she is accustomed to it and mario is from the real world. But I love the website, great idea, can’t believe you started it in 2022, you just need to get a clearer idea of what “woke” is.
james
May 2, 2023 at 10:03 pm
Sorry I’m back, I read your definition of woke on your about us page, and my only disagreement is with strong female leads, I don’t think that meets the definition of “woke” in 2023. I guess maybe 20 or 30 years ago I would agree, but now days I feel like there’s so many more dangerous ideologies that having men be fools and women be leaders isn’t high on the “woke” list anymore. I’m more concerned with drag queens, transgenders and characters who have been white redheads for 35 years worth of movies, toys, cartoons, posters, bookbags, etc being erased. That’s the “woke” I want to know about.
James Carrick
May 2, 2023 at 11:12 pm
Hi James (great name by the way),
Thanks so much for the comments. Let me begin by saying that we have absolutely nothing against strong female leads whatsoever. Our problem is that modern film and TV seem to promote women by denigrating men. We think that strong female role models are very important for young girls. Likewise, strong male role models are important for young boys but woke culture wants to paint strong men as toxic and men, in general, as useless. It is our contention that this is incredibly dangerous and damaging to both sexes.
While we agree that there are many things that fall under woke ideology that are of great concern, we would also argue that much of what is going wrong in the world today comes from the weaponization of feminism against masculinity, and men abdicating their roles as leaders. The world needs strong men more now than in any other time in my lifetime. By continually portraying men as bumbling fools to their vastly superior female counterparts, the culture is doing its part to breed those very same types of men.
I would strongly recommend if you have not already gone down the rabbit hole, that you check out some videos with Jordan Peterson. He is among the most articulate and well throughout voices on the subject.
Here’s a good one to start with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLjQpRLKCK0
In any case, we promise to keep our eyes out for ALL of the dangerous wokeness in films and TV and call it ALL out.
Thank you again for taking the time to reach out.
Eddie
May 29, 2023 at 1:19 pm
Mario movie about how awesome Peach is.
Yeah, reminds me of when Batman was mostly about how awesome catwoman was. I get what you’re getting at. I like to sum it up as, “girl boss.” Basically, when the female in the movie is the one with all the answers and generally looks down on the male characters (who should be the actual protagonist). DnD was also a lot of that. Solid review and thanks for pointing that out.
Dane
June 1, 2023 at 11:47 am
Peach cannot fail. Mario cannot succeed. This is the cornerstone of woke. Girls must be superheroes, nothing short of that will suffice, and boys (especially white boys) are destined to failure unless enabled by someone less privileged. Toxic for both young men and young women. Children should not be exposed to narratives like this.
Chris
June 1, 2023 at 1:47 pm
I have played most Mario Bros games and their spin-offs. My wife has not.
I found the movie fun and full of fan service with cool Easter eggs. My wife found it boring and pointless.
Without the nostalgia, I believe I would have also found it boring and pointless.
Samuel
June 1, 2023 at 3:29 pm
Excellent review; all my disagreements are nitpicks. I do want to make a factual correction, though, in that this role isn’t really all that new for Princess Peach. She appeared in a heroic playable role in 2013’s Super Mario 3D World, she starred in 2005’s “Super Princess Peach” which was focused around rescuing the brothers from Bowser, and a multitude of recent titles have portrayed her as more than capable of fending for herself to various degrees – in some cases, Bowser only barely manages to overpower her, which is essentially what happens in the film. This doesn’t really detract from your assessment of the film, but it is something to keep in mind.
pixls
June 2, 2023 at 2:31 am
Peach from the games should’ve been used here, but clearly the writers didn’t want to because “durr hurr, muh gurlbawss, sley kween, i do wut i want, men are trash in my presence” thoughts. Game!Peach would’ve wiped the floor with this pretender and still show off how much of a girly girl she was and still treat Mario with respect even with his shortcomings.
I agree Luigi was gutted by the writers, and he’s my favorite character.
They ultimately devalue Game!Peach by virtue signal defending that woke-ish Movie cardboard cutout.
Don
June 2, 2023 at 9:12 pm
Re: the conversation between the 2 James (Jameses?) – the woke criteria in About Us are decent. The overall feeling of woke I’ve seen does feel a little bit off though. I agree with critic James that the strong female lead is a key of wokeness, isn’t it called the Peter Griffin effect or something? Breitbart wrote about it in 2015 or 16. And it is pervasive and bad. I agree with commentor James that there’s probably something missing. 2 suggestions: 1. Critical Drinker’s “the message” – do your own thing, don’t copy him, but check out him and some of his cohorts to hone in the feel portion of defining woke. 2. Crowd source? Give me a +/- or thumbs up/down to add my input, heck even give your vote compared to audience. I disagree in both directions on various films, some I think are more woke than you say, others I don’t think are as bad, your thoughts alone are a starting point but I think viewer scores could help. On the other hand, that could open you up to lefties coming in and ratioing things. But hey I’ll finish with, you specifically call out Disney’s not so secret day agenda, why not make being produced by Disney at all a ding on the woke meter? It is my intention never to see anything by them again, even if Guardians 3 truly isn’t bad.
James Carrick
June 2, 2023 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for the feedback. We’ve been live for just shy of 4 months and have many plans to improve the site and grow.
One of the primary reasons we chose to not only rate the wokeness but to list specific instances of it is so that readers could make up their own minds on what they could tolerate. No matter how “scientific” we may try to be with our scoring system, the fact of the matter is that a lot of this is subjective. We hope that, until future site upgrades make it easier/less ambiguous, and more interactive, individuals will sound off in the comments and catch things that we missed and/or disagree with our opinion, giving others a better and more rounded sense of each film.
We only promise two things on this site: 1.) We will never compromise our principles. 2.) We will remain human beings who get it wrong from time to time.
P.S. I love The Drinker.
Anon
June 5, 2023 at 1:58 am
Mario looks sad in one scene and Peach tries to cheer him up by saying she failed too. Then he asks if she means it and she’s like “Nah, just kidding bro, I’m perfect.” Later on a toad asks who the new guy is (Mario) and Peach replies “He’s…not important!”
Yep, nothing woke there.
It’s rather sad to see people get offended at calling out what a bad character is. You can be badass and not an awful character. It’s simple. Don’t insult others around you, because if you do that makes you petty rather than awesome. Belittling others makes you desperate, not strong. Even being a Mary Sue might be fine but they just HAD to make sure she put the males down and made them look weak and pathetic. Whether this is small or minor doesn’t matter because the motivation behind it is obvious. It isn’t part of her character, it’s what the writers *wanted* her to be. 30 years ago she was a member of the team on the TV series. Mario never told her that he’s awesome and he will take the lead and she should sit back and look sad for being weak. Mario himself doesn’t do that. Woke Peach does.
There is no equality in woke. There is only inequality and being proud of it.
Bob
June 23, 2023 at 2:29 pm
All the peach defenders are tiring. I know they liked the movie but that’s not an excuse to defend the wokeness. If this was made 10-20 years ago, the script would not have been written like this plain simply. Can’t wait for the Zelda movie where links gets kidnapped by Ganon and the princess has to save him.. gonna be hilarious to read the same people defend it because zelda can mow down armies in Hyrule warrior…….
Brad
June 27, 2023 at 3:08 pm
I watched this with my wife and kids recently. My wife had seen the movie previously, and was excited for me to see it as well. Her main excitement was that there were a lot of nods back to the original Mario (Easter Eggs I suppose), and she enjoyed that. After we watched the movie, she asked what I thought. I told her basically, eh, it was fine. I knew she wanted me to like it so I didn’t elaborate much, but something about it really bothered me. The next day, we talked about it a little more. I told her that after thinking it through, the main thing I didn’t like was the Peach character, and that Mario wasn’t really the hero. I mean come on, a movie about Mario would naturally be that he saves the princess. In this movie, the princess is clearly the “superhero.” It bothered me because that isn’t the Mario backstory. If Mario was originally about an amazing Peach and a bumbling but punchy Mario, then great, it isn’t woke, it just is what it is. However, when you change the entire narrative of the story in order to make the female strong and the male dependent on her, that is woke. Strong female leads are great, that isn’t the point. I probably would have liked it better if they named the movie “Perfect Princess Peach,” but this supposedly was the “Super Mario Bros Movie.” Great review, great site; discovered it because Bongino mentioned it on his podcast.
James Carrick
June 27, 2023 at 3:39 pm
Thanks for the comment and the kudos.
That’s awesome about Bongino! Do you remember what day that was?
TRACY
June 27, 2023 at 10:51 pm
06/27/23 Tuesday
Alexis
June 28, 2023 at 8:32 am
Yesterday – 6/27 this website was mentioned by Dan Bongino. Love this!!
James Carrick
June 28, 2023 at 8:40 am
Incredible. Thanks.
John Thiel
June 28, 2023 at 1:27 pm
It was mentioned yesterday, 6/27/23. It is podcast episode, E2040.
Belanah
November 13, 2023 at 3:10 pm
I absolutely loved this movie and Peach was not unbearable. I think Luigi being captured worked really well for the plot that they made, Mario has more of a connection to Luigi therefore making him motivated to save Luigi. The movie would have had to be very different if Peach was being rescued. Peach herself was very reasonable compared to other woke characters. She does eventually respect Mario, and she isn’t the ultimate hero of the story. Her character ark is very similar to Princess Leia in the Star Wars movie and no one has a problem with Leia. So just because there is a woman doesn’t mean it’s woke.
James Carrick
November 13, 2023 at 3:19 pm
Our review doesn’t make the claim that the movie was woke nor do we ever assert that having a woman in it makes a film so.
MBII
December 23, 2023 at 3:46 am
What’s wrong with cartoon sexpots?
Romskostenlos
February 26, 2024 at 3:53 am
The defenders of the peach are becoming tiresome. While they may have enjoyed the movie, that doesn’t justify defending its “wokeness.” If this film had been made 10-20 years ago, the script would have taken a different, more straightforward approach. I’m eagerly anticipating the Zelda movie, where Link is captured by Ganon, and the princess must rescue him. It will be amusing to see the same individuals defend it, especially considering Zelda’s ability to command armies in Hyrule Warriors.