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Disclaimer: Spoilers for the Mario Movie in this article during my review. Proceed with caution!!

After months of waiting, The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in theaters on April 5, 2023. On opening weekend it made $377 million worldwide making it the highest grossing-debut of 2023 so far. Although critics have been complaining about it, a large majority of people have very much enjoyed the film. It has appeared that people who enjoyed the Mario games have really enjoyed the show while those who have no connection to the games only found it to be mid. Clearly they don’t realize the movie has a demographic and is meant for those Mario Bros. fans. 

Overview of the Movie

The movie itself follows a similar basic plot to the games. Bowser wants to marry Princess Peach and destroy the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario has to stop all of this from happening. However, instead of Peach being the one captured, the creators switched it up a bit and instead had Luigi captured. Through the film, Mario’s main concern is saving his brother. While Mario is intent on saving his brother, Peach is working to build an army to protect her people, the Toads. Since Mario and Princess Peach’s interests lead to the same person they work together. Accompanying them is a Toad who, I assume, is supposed to be Captain Toad. 

In the film there are references to several games. Some of them include the first Mario game, Mario Kart, Super Mario 3D World, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and several more. Surprisingly these all seamlessly tied into the plot of the movie without seeming forced. 

There were also a lot of familiar characters that were shown throughout the film as well. Obviously characters like Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Bowser but there were several others. There was Donkey Kong who isn’t in the first half of the film but does play an important role by the end. There is Kamik Koopa who is Bowser’s trusted right hand man. There was Cranky Kong, Lumalee, and the Penguin King. 

I don’t want to say too much about everything that happened because part of the appeal is watching the story unfold and seeing all the characters that show up. Because of that, although there is a lot more I could talk about in the overview I’ll leave some out. 

My Review

For starters I will be getting more specific with details, so if you have any interest in seeing the Mario Movie and you don’t want spoilers then don’t proceed. 

For me this movie was spectacular. I grew up playing Mario and some of my earliest memories are playing the games. Because of that, this movie held a special place in my heart, even before I saw it. Just seeing characters I’ve always loved come to life on a screen was truly amazing. However, it got better. 

For starters I want to talk about the soundtrack. I’ve always been a fan of how cheerful and fun Mario music is but I also enjoyed how interesting it was. This movie took that to a whole new level. The soundtrack was all taken from the games, but it was given a little something extra. It really tipped it over the edge and hearing some of my favorite music but with a little more spectacle was, dare I say, life changing. I wouldn’t have requested the music to be changed at all. Not to mention the original song from it, which I’m sure almost everyone’s heard by now, “Peaches”. The movie just wouldn’t have been the same without the music. 

The next thing I loved was the references to other games and jokes. There were some hidden easter eggs for stuff which was so cool. The detail they put into the movie was amazing, but I’m talking about spoken references. My personal favorite was a nod to the early Mario games. In the games when you would finish a castle and go to the top expecting to find Peach you would be greeted by a toad instead. The toad would tell you, “I’m sorry, but the Princess is in another castle”. This line was used during the movie and I thought it was perfectly placed. There were several other jokes related to other things, it would take a separate article to talk about them all, but that one was my favorite. Again, the movie wouldn’t have been the same without them. 

There are so many other things I could say I loved, but the last thing I’ll talk about is the voice actors. If you’ve seen anything related to this movie you’ll definitely find that not everyone is pleased with the voice actors. There have been some complaints specifically towards Chris Pratt. They’re mad that they didn’t get Charles Martinet who voices Mario and Luigi in the games. Something not a lot of people know is that he is in the movie, so people can chill. Anyway, back to Chris Pratt. Personally I think he did a wonderful job. I thought all the voice actors did a wonderful job bringing these characters from my childhood to life. I thought all the voices fit perfectly. 

If you haven’t picked up on it by now, I loved this movie so much. Although cheesy I give it 100/10 and I would recommend it to all Mario fans. Although it might be enjoyable to watch having little knowledge on Mario it was definitely made for people who grew up playing the games. I am really hoping that they’re going to make a sequel (and one was hinted at at the end of the movie), but even if we don’t I’m really glad that we got this movie. It’s definitely one I will watch over and over.