The Super Mario Bros. Movie
The latest Nintendo off-shoot is an apocalyptic, gravity-defying and derivative rollercoaster ride.
Madcap fury road: Peach and Mario on a ride
Courtesy of Illumination Entertainment, Universal Pictures
Pity the poor children. With animation you can get away with murder, or in this case genocide and global annihilation. For many a young mind, the video game supplies the calories of fast-food entertainment and the best that can be said for The Super Mario Bros. Movie is that it’s vibrant, colourful and fast-paced. Mario and Luigi themselves make for appealing protagonists, being loyal brothers who just want to fix your plumbing for a competitive price. But the calculating alliance of Nintendo and Illumination just sees them as an excuse to explore new portals into alternative realities in which we are treated to the all-too familiar worlds of pop-cultural sameness.
And so we have Bonnie Tyler belting out ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ (last heard on the soundtrack of Shazam! Fury of the Gods) as Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) is propelled out of Brooklyn and into the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario is not a fan of the fungus, edible or otherwise, and so would have abhorred the Mushroom Planet on which Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik found himself marooned in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). But rest not, young reader, as poor Luigi (Charlie Day) has been dumped into the Dark Lands, and Mario is forced to find help. So with the aid of an accommodating toadstool, he is transported to the castle of Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), a blonde princess with a giant head who just might be able to lend a hand…
What follows can be largely established from the trailer, where we enter a realm of free-floating rock formations (cf. Avatar), ghost-faced minions and a fire-breathing Ninja Turtle (Jack Black) bent on world domination. There’s a thin line between homage and plagiarism, but the latter is the least of the film’s worries as it somersaults its charmless way through a series of increasingly violent escapades. One might argue that the characters are merely blips in a video game, and that Tom & Jerry have a lot to answer for, but this exercise in excess can do little but pander to the mindfully challenged.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Voices of Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco, Charles Martinet, Kevin Michael Richardson.
Dir Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, Pro Chris Meledandri and Shigeru Miyamoto, Screenplay Matthew Fogel, Ed Eric Osmond, Music Brian Tyler, Sound Randy Thom and Jamey Scott.
Universal Pictures/Illumination/Nintendo-Universal Pictures.
92 mins. USA/Japan. 2023. US Rel: 5 April 2023. UK Rel: 7 April 2023. Cert. PG.
