Like many a faith-based movie, this colorful animated video-game adaptation offers delights for the converted but precious little for the uninitiated.
Let’s give The Super Mario Galaxy Movie this: for a piece of intellectual-property exploitation, it’s created with far more craft and care than it had to be, with dazzlingly colorful backgrounds and action that’s constantly moving forward. At the same time, it never stops to explain the rules of the characters and their interactions for those of us not steeped in four decades of gameplay. In other words, people who want to see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will get a full-throttle The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and for people with no interest in the source material — well, Hoppers is still in theaters.
That refusal to explain itself to newbies is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the cartoon moves at a brisker pace than its predecessor, never pausing to footnote its world-building. On the other hand, outsiders will have to take it on faith that, say, Princess Peach (voiced by Anja Taylor-Joy) eating a magic mushroom will make her grow in size, Alice in Wonderland–style. (Adult viewers not tasked the responsibility of chaperoning small children may wish to sneak their own edibles into the theater to improve the experience.)
The villain this time around is Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie, which should thrill all the toddlers who loved Good Time), seeking to rescue his father Bowser (Jack Black), who was imprisoned and miniaturized after trying to kidnap Peach in the previous adventure. Bowser Jr. steals another Princess, Rosalina (Brie Larson), to use her powers in nefarious ways. Rosalina is “mother to the stars,” and she sends one of her children to find Peach. After Peach departs in pursuit, Bowser Jr. steals her entire castle, including plumber brothers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day), and the galaxy-spanning chase is on.
Along the way, they’ll encounter an amphibian mobster (Luis Guzmán), omnivore Yoshi (Donald Glover), and a very Han Solo–ish space pilot (Glen Powell) — the arrival of the latter two garnered applause from game fans at my press screening — while a seemingly reformed Bowser finds himself torn between his son’s desire to conquer the universe and the lessons of friendship he’s learned from his former captors, particularly Luigi.
Returning screenwriter Matthew Fogel makes no bones about the fact that he’s adapting a video game here, with the plotting reduced to pure “go to the place and get the thing.” The two laughs I got along the way, even as a non-player, were couched in familiarity: Powell’s ne’er-do-well is clearly playing off its Star Wars references, and a slow-talking information robot utterly rips off the sloth from Zootopia.
The animators and designers, for their part, have crafted a multitude of dazzling worlds and backgrounds for the characters, from the realism of a Monument Valley–style desert (across which Mario and Luigi ride motorcycles) to a gravity-defying casino where there’s gaming not just on the floor but also up the walls and across the ceiling. There’s also some lovely character design on Bowser Jr., whose wide eyes and quivering jaw communicate his desire to make his dad proud (when he’s not ferociously trying to destroy our heroes with his magic paintbrush.)
Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (who gave the world the brilliant Teen Titans Go to the Movies! before getting mired in Mario world) know where their bread is buttered, re-enacting the left-to-right action of the original video game whenever possible so that fans, in turn, can re-enact the “Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the screen” meme.
And why shouldn’t they? The last few decades of pop culture have demonstrated that, to paraphrase the emperor in Amadeus, people like songs they already know. It’s just a little disappointing that the brain trust behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie couldn’t throw the occasional bone (or mushroom, or box with a question mark on it) to viewers who don’t already have a high score but might like to join the game.