Due to having visited theaters multiple times over the span of a few months for various films, I ended up skipping out on seeing The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in theaters when it released. Of course, I almost immediately ended up regretting that decision, as I heard so many snippets of information from other people online that really made it seem like I was going to enjoy the movie, once I was eventually able to catch it via digital streaming.
See, it’s not exactly a huge secret or anything, but I’m a huge fan of the Mario series. Particularly when I was younger, Mario was a major part of my life.
I had birthday decorations themed around Mario. I made Mii versions of every single Mario character when I got a Wii, so that I could play bowling and tennis as Mario and friends. I played almost exclusively as Mario, Luigi, and Peach in the first few Super Smash Bros games. I dressed up as Mario for Halloween one year, which was such an exciting highlight of my childhood. And, since my middle name begins with an ‘M‘, I even began stylizing that initial like Mario does whenever I wrote my name on school homework assignments.
And, obviously, I ravenously consumed basically every single Mario game that I could get my hands on, with particular emphasis on the platforming games. I’ve said plenty of times on this blog that Super Mario 64 was my first video game that I ever played. Super Mario Sunshine consumed me for a few years to a maybe almost slightly obsessive degree, and I’ve joyously played and beaten every other platforming adventure in the franchise, playing through those games with a smile on my face like no other series than Mario is really able to spark.
Amongst the entire pantheon of Mario titles, though, a single game stands supreme as not only the best entry in the franchise, and not only the best 3D platformer ever made, but also just one of the best video games in general. And that game is Super Mario Galaxy.
Super Mario Galaxy is important to me for a lot of reasons that venture into personal nostalgia territory and extend beyond the game just being a masterpiece.
For example, it’s the first video game that I ever 100% completed, dedicating myself to collecting every last star in my quest to save the galaxy. It’s also the game that I most associate with the turning point where I ‘became good at video games‘, an intangible moment of my life where I suddenly realized that I was pretty good at video games and ended up picking them up easily and conquering them without significant difficulty (though I’m not trying to toot my own horn here too hard, there’s a ton of games I’m not super great at).
It’s a game I come back to many times during my life, never going more than a few years at most without booting Super Mario Galaxy back up to help mister mustache save the galaxy from a big, mean turtle. It’s always floating around in my memory. I mean, I did say a few paragraphs ago that I consider it one of the best video games ever made, and absolutely the pinnacle of Nintendo’s self-developed titles. It is a genuine masterpiece.
But this article isn’t a review of the game, it’s a review of the movie. I just wanted to take a moment to set the stage and explain why I was so excited for The Super Mario Galaxy movie.
Even when the movie came out, and some reviews started filtering in, my enthusiasm for the film didn’t waver. Many of the reviews, as my wording might have implied, weren’t exactly glowing. The broad consensus culminated in an opinion of ‘it’s an average, harmless enough movie‘, which is about what I’d expected from the reviews in the first place. After all, it’s a film that doesn’t hide who its target audience is. If you aren’t a small child or a big fan of the Mario universe (or, of course, both of these qualifiers), then this really isn’t going to be a movie for you.
However, I have to say that a curious thing happened after I watched the film, which is that I began to wonder if I’d even seen the same movie as many of the people leaving these reviews, or driving the most vocal parts of the social media discourse.
But we’ll get to that in a moment. For now, what is the film about?
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie picks up very shortly after the original The Super Mario Bros Movie from a few years ago. That film ended with a tease of a Yoshi egg, and this movie starts with the plumber duo stumbling upon everyone’s favorite green dinosaur buddy. Simultaneously, out in the far reaches of space, Bowser’s long-lost son, Bowser Jr, makes an unexpected appearance and battles a magic-wielding woman in blue, Rosalina, in an attempt to capture her and use her power for nefarious ends.
It’s a pretty action-packed beginning, and honestly, the word ‘action‘ goes a long way towards describing the feel of the entire movie. In all of the best ways, watching this film reminded me of the Kung Fu Panda films, and their own frequent use of energetic and clever choreography and action scenes. This movie is rated PG, but instead of using that rating as an excuse to tell dirty jokes or include mild swearing, they lean into the rating as a way to convey some kinetic fight scenes and explosive showdowns that are surprisingly tactile for a children’s film.
(Also, just as a brief aside while we’re on the note of this film’s rating, I wanted to express my shock and delighted surprise at the utter lack of toilet humor or bottom-of-the-barrel jokes in this movie. It’s so rare to watch a kids’ film that doesn’t have some sort of joke in the vein, and this movie had none. And it’s doubly-rare to see such a thing in a film produced by Illumination, perhaps the single most likely animation studio to include that sort of low-brown humor in their movies.)
Visually, the movie is beautiful. Animation just keeps improving when it comes to film, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is no exception. It’s a gorgeous film, from the cosmic scenery, to the scenic backdrops, to just the textures of a character’s hair and clothes, or the expressiveness of their facial animations. Vocally, everything is good too. I wouldn’t say any member of the cast puts in some sort of show-stopping voice performance (although Jack Black’s Bowser continues to shine), but no one does a bad job either.
The writing quality is just about the only area that I’m willing to side a little bit more with some of the reviews. I don’t think any of the writing is bad, it’s just not amazing either. Our protagonists don’t exactly have a major arc of character development to go through, and are primarily just engaging on an adventure to save the day. The movie, ultimately, isn’t saying a whole lot (in terms of thematic material, I mean). Some of the set pieces and obstacles placed in the paths of our protagonists are also solved pretty effortlessly, which could maybe cause someone to roll their eyes, but I was having too much fun to be unduly bothered by that.
Actually, speaking of character writing in particular, what the filmmakers do with Bowser in this movie is kind of interesting, and he’s probably the character closest to having a full arc. He goes on a bit of an interesting journey, and ends the film in a place I truly didn’t expect. We’ll have to see what happens with him in the inevitable third film they’ll make in a few years, and I’ll primarily reserve my judgment until then, but it was something that stuck with me that I didn’t expect to stick with me after the credits rolled.
Now, one thing I did expect was for this movie to be chock-full of easter eggs, secrets, and cameos. In that regard, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie did not circumvent my expectations, but I also didn’t want it to!
I don’t want to spoil every single little secret, since a not-insubstantial part of the enjoyment of this movie is catching all of the little easter eggs and secret goodies. There’s an in-your-face reference to one of Nintendo’s more beloved (yet niche) franchises around the mid-point of the movie, and then an extremely unexpected and blatant cameo during the final battle. Two actual bosses from the Mario series appear as foes that Mario needs to contend with, and they are both fairly obscure and unexpected picks. And then there’s a million background details you’d need multiple watchthroughs of the film to catch.
And speaking of multiple watchthroughs…it’s finally time to discuss the movie’s absolute best aspect: the soundtrack.
If you’d asked me before I saw this film if it’s soundtrack would end up needing to find a space on my Top 10 Favorite Film Soundtracks list, I wouldn’t have believed you. I knew it would be a good soundtrack filled with tons of fun references. But, uh…here we are, and it’s one of my new favorite film soundtracks ever.
With a beautiful blend of classic Mario tunes, remixed songs from the video games, and completely-new original compositions, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has a (pun-slightly-intended) stellar soundtrack. It’s a joy to listen to, both in-the-moment of the film’s scenes with every little action perfectly punctuated by the composer’s score, or even just listening to the soundtrack on its own. And like the film itself with its easter eggs and cameos, the soundtrack is stuffed with so many references you’ll never catch them all on only a single listen.
The music had me grinning from ear-to-ear the entire movie. It really is fantastic, and such an amazing reminder that, while these movies are movies, they are also adaptations of decades worth of video game history. The composer, Brian Tyler, does such a wonderful job paying homage to the games while still presenting their music alongside his own in fresh and inventive ways. Other video game films could learn a thing or two in this department, without a doubt.
Now, at this point in my review, I want to circle back to address one of the common critiques I saw repeated over, and over, and over, and over during the span of time between the movie’s release, and when I was actually able to stream it at home. Namely, the critique was that Princesses Peach and Rosalina were barely in the movie, and a certain furry, flying, space guy had way too much focus. When I first read the critiques, they sounded plausible enough, and yet after watching the movie I was left scratching my head in confusion.
The movie’s entire five-minute opening scene is exclusively dedicated to Rosalina, showcasing her caring nature and her magical battle prowess. Then, just two or so scenes later, we cut back to her again for another lengthy scene. Then we see her a few times more throughout the movie, before she plays a big role in the finale. She’s also essentially, alongside Peach, the emotional core of the movie, granting her more importance. Sure, she spends a large portion captured and in need of rescuing, but it feels reductive to say that she’s not important because of that, and it’s flat-out wrong to argue that she’s not in much of the movie.
The Peach comments are even worse, because just like the previous animated Mario movie, Peach is basically the secondary protagonist. She is in a ton of the movie, but I think people just got too focused on the fact that it takes around twenty minutes for her first appearance, and their brains just…I don’t know…edited out the rest of her scenes in their memories? I really can’t fathom it, she’s in a bunch of scenes. Again, she and Rosalina are the emotional core of the movie, and their flashbacks and present-day scenes are great. Peach also has a lot of scenes that exclusively follow her, and she takes center stage in multiple lengthy action scenes (including the film’s best scene, a big fight in a casino).
As for the furry, flying, space guy? He’s exactly what he should be, nothing more and nothing less. He’s firmly a supporting character, he doesn’t show up for over half the movie, and he has exactly as many scenes and lines as he should. He’s present just enough to be memorable without being intrusive. I don’t understand people’s criticisms around him either.
Truthfully, I don’t understand much of the criticism around this movie in general, and I think most of it has to do with what I believe to be a mistaken belief that all films need to be reviewed to the same set of criteria.
Do I believe that all films should be able to be scrutinized and critiqued? Yeah, of course. But do I also believe that we need to hold The Super Mario Galaxy Movie to the same standards as we hold The Dark Knight or Saving Private Ryan? No, I don’t believe that to be true. Why would it be? Those are completely unrelated movies filmed and developed in entirely different ways, meant to appeal to entirely unique demographics. I really do believe that a certain amount of context is critical when reviewing things like this, instead of subscribing to this unflinching, unilateral level of reviewing.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is not as good as The Lion King. But also, it was never trying to be, and also, that fact isn’t an objectively bad thing either.
I actually saw a YouTube video titled that read “Why The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Represents Everything Wrong With Modern Cinema“, and I had to do a triple-take. Is that really the hill you want to die on? A children’s animated movie didn’t appeal to you, so it’s thus an offense against cinema as an art form? Instead of, you know, being an inoffensive silly animated movie for Mario fans!
But I’m aware that a lot of this also has to do with our modern-day culture of rage-baiting, farming engagement via controversy and anger, and just generally being much more bitter, jaded, and cynical. That definitely plays a part in people just not having as much fun and whimsy as they used to!
Anyway, to sum up this lengthy and somewhat rambling review, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is one of my favorite movies that I’ve seen yet this year, and it really made me smile and think back fondly on all of my good memories with the film’s adapted source material. I’m excited to see where these animated Mario films go next, especially with the post-credits tease of a certain someone entering the story…
9/10
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 