Exactly three years after 2023’s hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Nintendo’s rotund mustachioed mascot and his cadre of companions make their return in the greatly anticipated sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Whereas the first film mostly served as an introduction and origin story for Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi (Chris Pratt and Charlie Day) as they are transported into the Mushroom Kingdom, meeting its benevolent ruler Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and tangling with reptilian despot Bowser (Jack Black), the sequel takes inspiration from the entire breadth of Mario games while focusing on the two Super Mario Galaxy games (originally released on the Nintendo Wii), which sent Mario on a planet-hopping adventure.
And it’s quite a blast! The film draws heavily from a bigger scope of the Mario and Nintendo universe, though perhaps it makes the jump to space too early – aren’t you supposed to wait until the at least the fourth movie for that?
The sequel introduces a new villain, Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), an evil-genius turtle-tyke who has taken control of his father’s fallen kingdom after the events of the first movie. Possessing a massively powerful spaceship, the Koopa scion wreaks havoc, kidnapping the space princess Rosalina (Brie Larson), springing his father from imprisonment, and even stealing Peach’s castle.
Meanwhile, Mario and friends encounter a new friend, the dinosaur Yoshi (Donald Glover), Mario falls in love with Princess Peach, and Peach, who was orphaned in the Mushroom Kingdom as a child but isn’t native (as evidenced by her lack of a mushroom for a head), gets a chance to discover the secret of her own origin.
Fan service can be a double-edged sword. Too little, and what’s even the point? Too much, and it can become a substitute for substance. The announcements of Yoshi and StarFox‘s Fox McCloud (Glen Powell, slightly riffing on his real-life and on-screen piloting bonafides) joining the cast had some fans fearing the film could turn into a lackluster IP-jam like Ready Player One or Space Jam: A New Legacy, but thankfully there’s a deft hand at work here. McCloud’s appearance is of a similar weight as Donkey Kong’s supporting turn in the prior film, and the cameos that do pepper the story are occasional and welcome. My 9-year-old son, who is an enthusiastic fan of the Mario universe, audibly gasped with delight several times throughout the film at various reveals.
The first film was a big case of diminishing returns for me; I liked it quite a lot at first but the annoying soundtrack full of the laziest, most stereotypically obvious and low-hanging songs possible (mostly cribbed from other recent movies) becomes more infuriating with each viewing. This criticism is pretty emblematic of my general problem with Illumination (the studio behind both Mario films) and their lowest-common-demominator approach.
But Super Mario Galaxy doesn’t suffer the same fate. It’s much more judicious with the needle-drops, which are fewer and used to better effect. Instead it leans heavier into the score featuring classic Nintendo themes and cues, and new compositions by Brian Tyler, for a more timeless feel.
There’s a lot of love for the games built into this movie, with its fun cast of characters and the kind of gorgeously rendered mainstream CGI animation that we tend to take for granted. It even takes some fun stylistic detours into both anime and pixel-bit animation for specific narrative asides. Despite having some issues with the first movie I found this one incredibly charming and overall a great improvement.
A/V Out.
