The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an origin story for Nintendo's most iconic mascot.

There are four directors, from Illumination there's Pierre Leduc and Fabien Polack, from Teen Titans Go! there's Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. That's a lot of cooks in the kitchen which could have led to a horrible movie. I think everyone that has seen the movie is thankful that wasn't the case. The problem though that I do have with the direction is how tight the movie feels. There's little room to breathe and something is always going on that demands your attention. It's hard to find time to look at the world that Illumination has animated.

Jack Black plays a cartoonish characterization of Bowser who up until now in the Mario games was just a villain with basic motivations. Now Matthew Fogel has given him a more relatable motivation that some might consider a spoiler so I won't discuss that here.

Chris Pratt and Charlie Day play Mario and Luigi so well that I forgot very quickly that they're voiced by them. Charlie Day was the perfect casting for Luigi for his hesitant and sometimes scared voice. I enjoy Anya Taylor-Joy's filmography and never really thought of her as a strong voice actor. I imagine she will take this experience along with The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and improve her emotes. Keegan-Michael Key plays the Toad that stands out. He's hilarious in most things and wasn't too bad here either.

I was on the fence about how to rate this movie. I let it gestate and waited until I could definitely place it somewhere. I couldn't see it being placed with other movies at an A- and so I bumped it up to a low A. I highly recommend this movie, Mario fan or not.

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