Okay, I need to complain about Super Mario Galaxy some more. Its handling of Rosalina and Peach were my immediate kneejerk thoughts but after digesting it a bit more, I have issues with Mario and Bowser too.
First, the obvious. The film presents Mario more like a Chris Pratt character than like Mario. Mario's cynical and catty now.
Bowser's first scene reintroduces his feelings for Peach not because Peach is in any way relevant to Bowser's character arc but to set up Mario's romance with Peach by way of having Mario and Bowser bicker over her.
Mario is callous, mean, and dismissive towards Bowser throughout the first act of the film, and it's indicated that this is partly because Bowser is a villain whose reformation he doesn't trust but also partly due to possessive feelings towards Peach, who Bowser openly desires. It's a combination of two sentiments.
-> Bowser is a vile scumbag piece of shit worth less than the bottom of my shoe, and he doesn't deserve a chance at any sort of life beyond the inside of a jail cell.
-> And he's making moves on MY WOMAN.
None of which really feels true to Mario as a character. It feels like some hypothetical Legend of Neil version of Mario. Dudebro Parody Mario.
Mario is so unrecognizable in this film that there is actually a joke in the movie where Mario meets Fox for the first time and there's a moment of suspense before Mario is like "Oh, he's a cool guy!" Why is that moment of suspense there? Because the audience is supposed to expect Mario to just hate him on sight.
It's actually treated like a subversion of expectations when Mario sees Fox in the proximity of Peach and doesn't decide to be pointlessly shitty to him.
That is the character they have written.
Which is only made weirder by Bowser's bizarre character arc throughout the film. It's a shocking twist when Bowser genuinely, sincerely turns good.
He actually has turned over a new leaf! He does want to work on himself and stop being such a violent menace, but the constant negative reinforcement from Mario being such a mean-spirited and weirdly possessive piece of shit keeps triggering him into backsliding.
This culminates in Bowser provoking Mario into hitting him, which deactivates the Shrink Mushroom power-up and returns him to normal size, only for him to then reveal his genuine and sincere reformation despite Mario's aggression. He goes on to sacrifice himself for the bros, selling himself into slavery so that they can go help Peach.
...and then Bowser Jr. picks him up and it's a second, separate shocking twist when Bowser genuinely, sincerely turns evil. For love of his son, Bowser abandons his newfound goodness and returns to being the villain for the film.
...movie, what are you doing? What is accomplished by this complete circle of a character arc?
I mean. I know what's accomplished. Jack Black gets to riff onscreen for an hour.
But. Like. It's so weird how they made Bowser a genuine good guy just to make Pratt's Mario look even more like a mean-spirited asshole only to then turn around and have Bowser become the villain again anyway.
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