I
am a big fan of Mario and his buddies, so I was
able to enjoy The Super Mario Bros. Movie quite a bit
despite its many, many flaws. It was colorful, it was pretty, and it was a
thrill to see some of Nintendo's biggest characters realized in a way
that didn’t include a drunk Bob Hoskins
and goombas that looked like horrible nightmare lizard men.
But mama mia was there room for improvement. The
Super Mario Galaxy Movie actually manages to do a few
things quite a bit better than the last movie;
it also, unfortunately, does a few other things much worse.
For one thing, the character work in Galaxy ranges
from cursory to nonexistent. Mario’s trusty pal/occasional steed
Yoshi shows up and is technically present, Princess
Rosalina makes her debut and has a line or two, and Mario
himself somehow manages to be mostly superfluous in his own
movie. Bowser is the only character with anything resembling an arc, and
even that is shallow and left mostly unexplored. The story,
meanwhile, is only slightly more interesting than what you would find in a
Mario video game, i.e. Bowser kidnaps a princess and
Mario gets her back (or not, depending on how good at games you are).
So, what does Galaxy do
better? It doesn't have nearly as many
eye-rolly jokes, for one, which the last movie
(and Illumination films in general) had in abundance. Sure, there are
only a few jokes in Galaxy that work, but
at least there are even fewer that don’t (I
still don’t understand why these films insist on having three or four
awful slow motion “character makes-a-stupid-face gags, though). Galaxy also
doesn't have any obnoxious pop song needle-drops, wisely choosing
to exclusively use excellent arrangements of excellent
pre-existing Mario songs instead (just remembering
that The Super Mario Bros. Movie had “Holding Out For A Hero”
and “Thunderstruck” sandwiched between Brian
Tyler’s lovingly crafted compositions makes me want to cringe
right out of existence).
The animation in The Super Mario
Galaxy Movie is gorgeous, and the worlds presented are
imaginative and vibrant. The film was clearly made with a whole lot
of love for the I.P.—it is chock-full of fun Easter eggs that
fans will appreciate, but it’s a shame that the film’s
biggest surprise was spoiled by the advertisements (if you know, you
know). Kids and fans will like it, parents will be
able to stand it, and everyone else can rest easy if they never
end up seeing it. Maybe the third time will end
up truly being the charm?
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is
now playing in theaters.
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