Director: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc
Distributor: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 92 minutes
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Movie adaptations of popular video games tend to be rather horrific in many cases, especially when looking back at some 90s and 2000s movies that generally missed their marks. Most Mortal Kombat movies would come to mind for many, but also 1993’s Super Mario Bros. While this live-action movie adaptation of the Super Mario games may have earned a certain cult status over the years, it was a horrendous movie that simply felt disconnected from Nintendo’s beloved IP. Now, thirty years later the mustachioed plumber made his return to the silver screen, albeit in animated form, and this time things were done right.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie revolves around struggling Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day). When the brothers set out to start their own plumbing business, things are looking up when they finally get called for their first job. Sadly, things go horribly wrong, and the house of their client ends up in a horrible state. When all of a sudden Brooklyn is affected by burst pipes with a massive flood as a result, Mario is determined to prove his skills and sets out with Luigi to fix the problem. Again, things go wrong, and Mario is sucked into an odd-looking pipe and he is transported to another world as a result. Mario ends up in the Mushroom Kingdom, where its mushroom-like inhabitants are always cheerful and friendly. Luigi, however, finds himself in the realm of the evil king Bowser (Jack Black), who is on his way to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser doesn’t intend to stop there, as he is determined to ask its ruler, Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), to marry him. Princess Peach is immediately happy to see Mario, as he is seemingly the only other human in the Mushroom Kingdom and its surrounding territories. Both of them will have to work together to rescue Luigi, but also to save the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser’s Koopa army.
Movies directed toward a younger audience often have a rather predictable flow and pacing, and this is also true for The Super Mario Bros. Movie. In terms of story, you somewhat know what to expect, and there is of course a happy end to be found when the credits start rolling. However, in terms of humor, atmosphere, and overall likeability of characters, this animated flick knocks it out of the park. For younger viewers, the story and the wacky antics of the characters provide more than enough entertainment, while older viewers (who probably played through most Mario games) have so many fun easter eggs to uncover. The music for this movie is absolutely perfect, ranging from orchestral versions of iconic Mario tunes to Pop classics. This is a movie that’s worth watching twice, as you probably missed a lot of details the first time around.
Even though the voice acting is quite good in the movie, we still had mixed feelings about certain characters. This mainly concerned the voice-acting performances of Seth Rogen and Jack Black. Don’t get us wrong, both actors did a formidable job voicing their characters, but we felt that certain things felt a bit off. For some reason, we found it difficult not to picture the real-life actors when hearing them speak in the movie. In other words, the immersion was sometimes a bit broken. We felt as if both actors were just being themselves, rather than bringing their respective characters to life. That being said, we loved Charles Martinet’s cameo in the film, and a special mention goes to Anya Taylor-Joy, who put down a great version of Princess Peach. All in all, we loved the voice cast, and even the heavily criticized Chris Pratt did a good job voicing the iconic plumber.
When buying the 4K UHD version of the movie, you’ll get quite a few extras on the disc(s). Most of the special features revolve around the cast members and the creative process behind the film. You’ll get roughly an hour of bonus content, and we quite enjoyed watching all of it. It was rather interesting to see how the movie was made and how the iconic game characters were fleshed out to become movie stars.
Conclusion
The Super Mario Bros. Movie proved to be a great homage to all Super Mario Bros games, and it was just an amazingly fun movie to boot. While we weren’t always convinced by some of the voice acting performances in the movie, the cast did a formidable job bringing the Brooklyn plumber duo and the many inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom to life. If you’re a longtime fan of the games, and you have a few family members you want to share your passion with, this movie is guaranteed to be a hit. All we can say is that the overall atmosphere, the visuals, and the perfect music composition made us smile from start to finish.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Blu-ray) - Movie Review,
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