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Have you seen The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)?

Yes

No

Haven’t even heard of this movie

Voting ended onJul 10

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The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) review

Gives Easter eggs a bad name.

Plot: Having thwarted Bowser's previous plot to marry Princess Peach, Mario and Luigi now face a fresh threat in Bowser Jr., who is determined to liberate his father from captivity and restore the family legacy. Alongside companions new and old, the brothers travel across the stars to stop the young heir's crusade.

I quite enjoy the Super Mario games. From playing on the old GameBoy, as well smashing out Double Dash on the Cube, I like many others have grown up with these characters. Yet, The Super Mario Bros. Movie a few years ago didn’t leave me too inspired, but it’s Easter so I thought in light of the holiday I’d give the sequel a go with an open mind. In particular as Yoshi is joining the club and who doesn’t love Yoshi??

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is bating to the extreme - characters from childhood we know and love appearing, musical cues of the signature theme tunes from the Nintendo games, the iconic 8-bit sound effect, one liners etc. As long as the movie does that and BOYYY does The Super Mario Galaxy Movie do that and then some, then of course it will please enough audience members. That being said, when the film has F all else to offer, I wonder how generally shameless Universal and Illumination are, where they aren’t even remotely attempting to hide the fact that this movie is an utter cash grab and nothing more. Of course - this movie will make $1 billion at the box office. At least. Probably even more. This is an under 2 hour fan-service meal for our brains to chew on without any significant substance or meaning behind it. Look, I get this is a kids movie. Fully respect that, but you can still make a childish movie with somewhat of a sincere message or life lesson behind it, or at least tell a cohesive and interesting story. Heck, we had Hoppers come out earlier this year, and it was a lovely story about animals and the environment, featuring fun characters, beautiful animation and a delightful time overall. That, by the way, was a big budget mainstream animation from Disney Pixar, so proves the point that blockbuster filmmaking doesn’t need to feel so empty and artificial. But then there is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. You’ve got Yoshi saying his name in a high pitch voice (akin to the games) and yes it’s adorable, but otherwise adds zero to nothing to what’s happening in the movie. Let’s throw in a Baby Mario and Baby Luigi gag but then get that resolved so easily that one wonders why it was done in the first place. Star Fox shows up Nick Fury-style promising to invite us into the Nintendo Initiative, and then proceeds to act like Temu Han Solo for the rest of the movie.

Even with children as the primary target audience, the screening I was in had quite a few families and kids among them, and yet I hardly heard a peep from any of them. No chuckles or laughs and excited squeaks - almost as if they weren’t really enjoying what was happening on screen. So look, I’m not the only hater here. Blame my entire screening!

There are some redeeming qualities - the animation looks fantastic with lots of eye-popping colours, and the animators have done a wonderful job at bringing the Mushroom Kingdom and the rest of the galaxy to life. The voice cast all do the best they can, with Jack Black as Bowser again standing out as the MVP, with his lines actual being quite funny, mainly due to his delivery rather than the actual lines themselves. Oh, as the music by Brian Tyler has plenty of cues from the original games, yet they were sprinkled well enough and spread out with some good melodies for a solid accompaniment. Outside of those this movie is bad, but it doesn’t matter what I say nor anyone, as this will make a ridiculous amount of money. Another win for Hollywood.

Overall score: 3/10