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By Jess Jones.
The Super Mario brothers have returned to the big screen, our hero plumbers, the man himself, Mario (Chris Pratt), and everyone’s favourite Luigi (Charlie Day).
Galaxy is surely an understatement, it seemed every five minutes the group was travelling from planet to planet, whether that be Princess Peach (Anya Taylor – Joy) and Toad (Keegan – Michael Key) floating through space with the power of sparkly magic, or hitching a ride in a spaceship with a Glen Powell voiced Fox named Fox McCloud.
Mario speaking with an American accent, thanks to Chris Pratt, was sometimes very distracting. With the contrast of Donald Glover being unidentifiable as Yoshi, maybe the directors of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath, should have requested he make it a little bit more exaggerated. Personally, an exaggerated Mario Italian accent would have been far less distracting than abruptly remembering it’s Pratt as soon as he opens his mouth.
Going into it, the opening scene with Rosalina (Brie Larson), where she is ambushed by a giant robot who wants to kidnap her from her home, was an exciting start. Followed by the reveal of Yoshi (Donald Glover), who I knew would be my favourite character, I seemed to have been baited into a film I thought would have a fairly simple and enjoyable storyline.
However, it didn’t. Sometimes I would forget what characters were doing or where they were going, and how these actions would aid the overall plot. After a while it just gave the impression it was putting in random storylines, all of which I assume are reminiscent of the old games, just for reference’s sake. Princess Peach and Toad went on their own sidequest in a casino that lasted so long, I was surprised the characters even remembered why they were there in the first place.
Despite the opening scene making us think Rosalina would be an important character, her screentime said otherwise, feeling like maybe 7-8 minutes at most. This being in contrast with Yoshi, who felt present for much of the film, it does make me question which character was actually supposed to have more of an impact on the plot.
Now, I have heard the arguments. ‘It’s a kids movie’, and ‘it’s a film for fans’. Yes, it was advertised directly towards kids, and there were only kids and their parents in our showing. But, when the fans are the ones that aren’t happy with the execution of the story, it may be time to cool down with the constant reference drops to keep them engaged.
This being said, I still enjoyed the film as a whole. The animation style is nice, it was a lot funnier than I had anticipated, and sometimes it was nice thinking ‘I know that character!’, or seeing the main duo, Mario and Luigi, completing tasks around Peach’s Kingdom as they do in the game.
I honestly wasn’t expecting Bowser (Jack Black) to come back, although I did go into the cinema not knowing who the villain of the sequel was meant to be. Bowser Jr (Benny Safdie) was as annoying as you would expect him to be, so I can’t really complain there. My personal hope for any Super Mario 3 is definitely an appearance from Waluigi and Wario. I half expected them to show up, but I guess I’ll have to wait.
Super Mario Galaxy Movie is still showing in cinemas, though showing times do seem to be declining, so if you want to see it on the big screen rather than streaming, I would go and check it out soon.
