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I can vividly remember playing the first Nintendo version of “Super Mario Bros.” when I was just a boy in the ‘80s. It was at a friend’s house, my first buddy to get an NES, and I went home and had a dream about the game. The goofy, jumping plumber has been a part of my entertainment life ever since. I’ve passed my love for the franchise down to my boys, who have all played the stunning “Super Mario Odyssey” to completion more than once. Mario has come a long way since the notoriously awful 1993 version of his adventure starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo , but the new “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” doesn’t reflect the franchise's creativity in the slightest. The latest animated blockbuster from Illumination is their most soulless to date, a film that feels like ChatGPT produced it after data and imagery from the games were fed into a computer. It is “The Chris Farley Show” of family entertainment, mistaking making references to something that was “awesome” for actually making a movie. And it is one of the most drenched-in-desperation animated films I’ve ever seen. “Remember this?!? Remember how much you liked it?!? Please like it again!” I so desperately wanted to see something that sparked the imagination of the kid in me, like that first game, or spoke to the fun I’ve had playing installments across multiple Nintendo platforms. Instead, I got a movie that's as hollow as a trailer, something that willfully avoids anything creative or ambitious. Mario and Luigi deserve so much better.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” opens in Brooklyn with the plumbers Mario ( Chris Pratt ) and his brother Luigi ( Charlie Day ) trying to get their new business off the ground. Some Nintendo easter eggs in the background of these initial scenes should produce a small smile from people of my generation, and there's a bit of inspiration structurally, like a clever early shot in which Mario and Luigi race through the city in a side-scrolling manner that mimics the earlier games. There’s also a nod to The Odyssey on a bookshelf in Mario’s room, implying that we’re about to watch a hero’s journey and a reference to the incredible Switch game. What follows doesn’t live up to either inspiration.

In a way that makes little sense, Mario and Luigi find a massive chamber of pipes under Brooklyn, get sucked into one, and end up in the Mushroom Kingdom, which is being threatened by the villainous Bowser ( Jack Black ). The notorious bad guy has found the Super Star he needs to make his final assault on Princess Peach ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) and the residents of her kingdom, including Toad (Keegan-Michael Key). Bowser doesn’t just want power; he wants to make the Princess his bride, singing some truly uninspired songs about his love for her. How on Earth a film like this gets a rock talent like half of Tenacious D and doesn’t let him unleash a few clever Bowser tunes is one of this film’s many mysteries.

Although Luigi lands in the pipeline that drops him immediately in the dark lands and makes him Bowser's prisoner—a dumb decision that sidelines him for an hour—Mario meets Princess Peach, who introduces him to power-ups. And so all the question-mark cubes get a chance to shine as Mario grows, shrinks, and even turns into a raccoon. They eventually recruit Donkey Kong ( Seth Rogen ), race down Rainbow Road, and save the day. That’s not a spoiler if you’ve ever seen a movie.

Fans of this movie will shout from the rooftops that the scripting for something called “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” doesn’t need to be a strength. And, to be fair, there are a few strong settings in terms of design. I enjoyed the choices made by the team in the structure of Donkey Kong Country, and the Rainbow Road “Super Mario Kart” sequence is well-directed. But I would ask why fans of a franchise that has inspired so much love for generations must be satisfied with the absolute minimum regarding storytelling.

There are so few actual decisions made in the construction of this film. It’s just a collection of visual and character references cobbled together to form a 92-minute movie. Take a risk. Just do something . Anything. It got me thinking about the fun spin-offs that could exist, like a “ Mad Max: Fury Road ” version of the “Mario Kart” sequence that gets energy out of non-stop motion. Or a version that unpacks like “The LEGO Movie” that's more sharply aware of its references and world-building—something that even incorporates the player like that movie does in the end. I swear that almost everyone who has played a game like “Odyssey” could come up with something more inventive. Heck, almost any ten minutes of that game is more creative.

It doesn’t help that the voice work is uniformly mediocre too. Chris Pratt can be charismatic with the right material, but it sounds like he pounded this out in three hours in a voice studio. Charlie Day has such an expressive voice, but the movie barely uses him. Seth Rogen is always a welcome presence, and he at least seems to be having some fun. I wish I was too.

With the nostalgia craze merging with the power of Nintendo and Illumination, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” feels too big to fail. That means we’ll get a sequel, and I expect another cycle of the debate of “critics vs. fans.” I am both. And I want a world where the people who made films for a fan base as devoted as this one don’t take that fandom for granted. This is far from over. I suspect we will get a ton of films from the NES universe, including “Donkey Kong Country” and “The Legend of Zelda” (and let’s not forget “Kid Icarus”). But we need creators who don’t just see these games as products to be referenced but as foundations on which new ideas can be built. That ‘80s kid who dreamed of Mario deserves it.

In theaters today .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie movie poster

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Rated PG for action and mild violence.

Chris Pratt as Mario (voice)

Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach (voice)

Charlie Day as Luigi (voice)

Jack Black as Bowser (voice)

Keegan Michael Key as Toad (voice)

Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong (voice)

Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong (voice)

Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek (voice)

Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike (voice)

Charles Martinet as Giuseppe (voice)

Khary Payton as Penguin King (voice)

Eric Bauza as General Toad (voice)

Michael Jelenic
Aaron Horvath
Matthew Fogel
Eric Osmond

Composer (original Nintendo themes by)

Brian Tyler

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Where to watch.

Watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie with a subscription on Netflix, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

While it's nowhere near as thrilling as turtle tipping your way to 128 lives, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a colorful -- albeit thinly plotted -- animated adventure that has about as many Nintendos as Nintendon'ts.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Aaron Horvath

Michael Jelenic

Chris Pratt

Anya Taylor-Joy

Princess Peach

Charlie Day

Movie Clips

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Movie Review
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the new gold standard for video game films

From its cheesy nostalgia plays to its breathtaking and imaginative visuals, Universal’s new Mario movie is everything a video game adaptation should be.

By Charles Pulliam-Moore , a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

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A man wearing a full body suit that makes him look like a fuzzy yellow cat and crouching on a steel beam in the middle of a colosseum.

The most delightful part of Nintendo’s entire Mario franchise is how — despite all their decades of conflicts in various video games — Mario, Bowser, Peach, and the rest of their crew have really always been a troupe of actors putting on whimsical stage plays for a captive audience. That idea alone isn’t exactly what defines Universal and Illumination’s new The Super Mario Bros. Movie from co-directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. But much in the same way Super Mario Bros. 3 ’s ending invited players to think about and appreciate it as being more than just a video game, The Super Mario Bros. Movie plays like a magical celebration of how this franchise has evolved.

For years after Nintendo’s first live-action Super Mario Bros. movie debuted in theaters and immediately bombed at the box office, it seemed as if the studio wanted nothing more than to leave the entire endeavor in the past and steer clear of trying to make movies. But one of the more intriguing things about Universal’s new feature — a co-production between Nintendo and Illumination — is how effectively it manages to weave together so many iconic elements from the franchise’s bigger outings, like the ’90s movie, Mario Kart , and the Donkey Kong games, into a story that’s equal parts nostalgic and reflective of the franchise’s future.

In addition to being generally good guys who know a thing or two about pipes, The Super Mario Bros. Movie ’s Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are also introduced as Brooklynites and small business owners trying to make a name for themselves in the film’s opening scenes. As adults and the two youngest members of their surprisingly large family, both of the Mario bros. know how crushing it can be to come home every day to nothing but incessant criticism. But at the heart of Mario and Luigi’s bond is also the mutual understanding that, so long as the two of them stick together, there’s little they can’t accomplish.

An image from The Super Mario Bros. Movie

That attitude’s what gets the brothers up every morning and inspires them to go out into the world in search of bill-paying gigs. But it’s also why they’re both so game when they unexpectedly get sucked into the adventure of a lifetime by way of a mysterious green pipe hidden somewhere deep in New York City’s sewer system.

Because it’s so dense with painstakingly crafted details meant to spark joy from the jump, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when The Super Mario Bros. Movie ’s intangible magic — the general feeling, rather than the movie’s actual magic — first kicks in. But as the Mario bros. jump, flip, and twirl their way across town on foot in an early action sequence styled after the classic Mario side scrollers, you can immediately get a sense of just how serious the movie is about translating the essence of its source material into something that feels familiar but also like its own distinct quantity.

This ends up being the case with most of The Super Mario Bros. Movie ’s complex set pieces, which doesn’t come as a surprise given Illumination’s track record and Nintendo’s reputation for being extremely protective of its brands. What does come as something of a shock, though, is how genuinely inoffensive (which is to say “not off-putting”) Pratt and Day’s takes on Mario and Luigi are — a concern the movie addresses head-on with some solid gags and a textual explanation as to why Mario occasionally sounds like he might have spent some time in Pawnee, Indiana.

As much information about the Mario bros. as the film lays out before they’re isekai-ed across the galaxy, it’s far, far more reserved about others like Bowser (Jack Black) and his sorcerer Kamek (Kevin Michael Richardson), who serve as hammy villain foils to the Mushroom Kingdom’s Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her loyal subject Toad (Keegan-Michael Key.)

If you’ve played through games like Super Mario World or Super Mario Odyssey , then the general shape of The Super Mario Bros. Movie ’s plot will be obvious from the moment you first hear why Bowser’s so hell-bent on getting his hands on a certain star-shaped MacGuffin. The movie works, though, because as it’s building toward its logical and very traditional Mario kind of ending, it uses every possible opportunity it has to make its various fantastical worlds feel like living, breathing, organic places that you’d want to spend hours exploring if they were parts of an open-world video game. It’s cool as hell every single time someone’s outfit transforms after they ingest mushroom power-ups, but it’s things like being able to see each of the individual seeds on a fire flower’s face flicking like a candle that really make you appreciate how hard the movie’s working to get things “right.”

At times, it almost feels like Illumination might have gone overboard in terms of dotting its i’s and crossing its t’s for a movie that moves incredibly fast and consistently has the air of something that’s been crafted with children prone to rewatching the same thing in mind. But it’s just as easy to interpret those things about the film as signs of how much more immersive and engaging Nintendo plans for its Mario theme park and future games to be.

Watching The Super Mario Bros. Movie , it’s impossible not to imagine what it might be like to one day play a game as visually rich running on hardware that puts current-gen Nintendo Switch to shame. That’s probably (part of) the reason the movie exists. But as big-budget commercials for video games and consoles go, The Super Mario Bros. Movie ’s going to be undefeated for quite some time.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie also stars Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Charles Martinet. The movie’s slated to hit theaters on April 5th.

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‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Review: This Ain’t No Game

A famed video game character side-scrolls once again to the big screen in this bland, witless and flagrantly pandering animated comedy.

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Mario, with bright blue eyes and a brown mustache, is peering at some machinery.

By Calum Marsh

One thing every great Mario game has in common, from 2D classics like Super Mario World to seminal 3D installments like Super Mario 64 or the recent Nintendo Switch masterpiece Super Mario Odyssey, is a certain effortless charisma. No convoluted backstory, no sardonic attitude, no pretension whatsoever: just easy, straightforward video game fun, elevated by splashy visuals, tight controls and an attention to detail that borders on perfectionism.

Illumination and Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the second attempt at a big-screen adaptation of the game franchise after the woefully unsuccessful “ Super Mario Bros. ” (1993), gets many things about Mario right, often painstakingly so. The Mushroom Kingdom, the magical land in which the film is largely set, looks pretty much exactly like the Mushroom Kingdom of the games. Fireflowers, super stars and question mark boxes all look, sound and function like they’re supposed to, and when the notoriously vexing blue shell makes a fan-baiting appearance, it spins, crashes and explodes in a way precisely faithful to the source material. Even Mario (a grating, unctuous Chris Pratt), who doesn’t sound like the Mario of the games, still manages to invoke trademark catchphrases like “it’s a-me” and “let’s a-go.”

But while the details are meticulous, the attitude is all wrong, trading the simple, unaffected charm that has served the character so well since his introduction in 1981 for a snarky and fatuous air that leans hard on winking humor and bland, hackneyed irony. This is Mario in the Marvel mold: every line a punchline, every gag an arcane meta reference for the nerds who can’t get enough of that sort of thing. Served some spaghetti with mushrooms, Mario winces and says he hates mushrooms. Because in the game he’s always eating mushrooms, you see. Sound like fun yet?

In this rendition, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, Mario and his cowardly younger brother, Luigi (Charlie Day), are upstart plumbers from Brooklyn who, for reasons that feel both unnecessarily complicated and curiously underexplained, are zapped into the fantastical world of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) and the nefarious Bowser (Jack Black). Much of what transpires has some basis in the original games, in a way that often feels oppressively pandering, and the movie’s commitment to fan service frequently results in baffling decisions in the context of the film. When Mario recruits Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) to take on Bowser’s army, they elect to travel via go-kart. Are go-karts inherently interesting or compelling? No. Is there any logical reason why they would use go-karts? No. But there are go-karts in the video game Mario Kart, so in karts they go.

Every level of the original Super Mario Bros. ends with an apology that has become one of the game’s most enduring catchphrases: “Our princess is in another castle.” In “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” it’s deployed as a flat, mirthless inside joke — another pat reference, unfunny and predictable, charged with a yawning desperation to please. It doesn’t seem right that the spirit of such a pure and exuberant character should be reduced to something so flippant and basically cynical. And though every conceivable effort has been taken to make this “Mario” as Mario-like as possible, the attitude is antithetical to exactly what the franchise so wholesomely represents.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters.

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‘the super mario bros. movie’ review: zippy animated version breathes new life into beloved video game.

Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key and Seth Rogen are among stars providing the voices for this new screen adaptation of the iconic Nintendo franchise.

By Frank Scheck

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Mario Chris Pratt, Princess Peach Anya Taylor-Joy, and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) in Nintendo and Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie

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The super mario bros. movie, common sense media reviewers.

Colorful adventure is a bit more violent than the games.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Poster: Lots of colorful Mario characters stand in front of the movie's title

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Perseverance, teamwork, and courage are important.

Mario stands up for himself and his brother when i

Mario and Luigi are White, of Italian descent. The

Fantasy animated action violence: missiles being s

Mario and Bowser both express romantic interest in

Insulting, bullying language used to humiliate and

Based on the hugely popular Nintendo video game/en

True to the game, Mario eats magical mushrooms tha

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Mario stands up for himself and his brother when it comes to villains and those who bully others, and he doesn't let teasing or mean comments get the best of him. When it comes to achieving his goals, he puts in hard work and never stops trying. He also shows great courage when it comes to taking on a new world and obstacles. Princess Peach is brave, proactive, and relentless when it comes to defending her land and the creatures in it, putting their needs before her own. Mario and Peach have different goals but work together to achieve them.

Diverse Representations

Mario and Luigi are White, of Italian descent. The movie's take on their over-the-top Italian accents is that they're just for show, but Mario's time with his family reinforces some Italian American stereotypes. Though most of the actors who voice Mario's family are of Italian descent, Mario himself -- Chris Pratt -- is not. The movie's magical worlds feature almost all non-human creatures, but three Black actors voice key characters. Princess Peach is a skilled, brave female leader who leads an army to defend her kingdom. But as fierce and courageous as she is, she's the only female character in any of the lands and is portrayed as a love interest for both Bowser and Mario. In Brooklyn, a wealthy Black couple hire the Mario Bros. for a plumbing job. The creator and some film executives are Japanese.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Fantasy animated action violence: missiles being shot, fingers being crushed in a piano, talk of ritual sacrifices, chases in which characters are in peril. Extreme falls. Character put into intense pain through magic (they're never physically touched). One scary sequence plays like a horror movie, with skeleton zombies that have glowing red eyes chasing a terrified character, crawling out from the ground and eventually capturing him. Dog attack. Spaceship has horns and glowing red eyes. A menacing villain burns down a kingdom and threatens or attempts to kill positive and/or adorable characters. Mean, bullying behavior. Explosions. Adorable character is the voice of doom, making dark comments with the voice of a young child. Bowser's one-sided interest in marrying Peach is at the heart of the plot, and he uses violence against another to coerce her to agree to marry him.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Mario and Bowser both express romantic interest in Princess Peach. Some characters joke with Mario that she would never go out with him.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Insulting, bullying language used to humiliate and put down main characters includes "idiot," "shut up," "stupid," "worthless," and "you're a joke." The ableist term "crazy" is used to describe a character.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Based on the hugely popular Nintendo video game/entertainment franchise. The story weaves together various iterations of the video game and is essentially a commercial for the property. Extensive merchandising in conjunction with the film.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

True to the game, Mario eats magical mushrooms that give him temporary power.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Super Mario Bros. Movie is based on the hugely popular Nintendo video game/entertainment franchise . Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt ) and Princess Peach ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) team up for a quest that involves elements from several of the games, including Donkey Kong , Mario Kart , Super Mario 3D World , and more. The movie is a bit edgier than the games when it comes to cartoon violence, scares, and bullying. Expect missiles, explosions, a well-landed punch, and a plan to make "ritual sacrifices." While Mario and Peach are brave, they and other characters are often visibly panicked and are in constant peril from villain Bowser, who burns down the walls of a kingdom and issues deadly threats to those in his way. Some kids may be frightened by a scene in which Luigi is chased by zombie skeleton turtles with glowing red eyes that creep out of the ground en masse and eventually capture him. The Mario Bros. also hear a lot of insults and are the targets of bullying behavior by a former employer and get teased by family members ("idiot," "stupid," "shut up," etc.). And, of course, there are those magic mushrooms. But ultimately themes of perseverance, courage, and teamwork are clear. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (64)
Kids say (99)

Based on 64 parent reviews

Fun Loving Movie Minus any Agenda

Great movie for families super fun, goofy and no politics, what's the story.

In THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE, Brooklyn plumbers Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt ) and his younger brother, Luigi ( Charlie Day ), fall down a mysterious portal and wind up separated inside a magical world. Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, which is ruled by Princess Peach ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), who's strategizing how to prevent her land from being conquered by the nefarious Bowser ( Jack Black ). When Mario realizes that Luigi has likely been taken prisoner by Bowser, he and Peach team up to save his brother and her people.

Is It Any Good?

Nintendo fans will feel like they grabbed a Super Star while watching this brightly colored magical adventure, which mashes several Mario games up into a full storyline. But for viewers who are less familiar, sitting through The Super Mario Bros. Movie may feel like watching a second grader play a Mario game: It's cute, but you can't help thinking about all the other things you could be doing with your time. Making movies based on video games that have beloved characters and a built-in fan base seems like a natural choice, but not many do it well (exceptions include Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu ), and The Super Mario Bros. Movie doesn't depart from that norm.

While it is fun to see the brothers in their "real life" environment in Brooklyn -- working as plumbers and living at home with their big Italian family -- as well as how the filmmakers incorporate elements of the games, the film isn't funny or creative enough to satisfy most teens or adults. Moreover, the child-friendly animation style is a tad misleading, as directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic up the scare factor, making Bowser and his minions more terrifying than they need to be. There's plenty of excitement, nonstop action, and colorful images, but this project as a whole doesn't exactly level up.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how the cartoon action in The Super Mario Bros. Movie compares to that of others you've seen. Does this kind of violence have more or less impact than what's in live-action movies?

What moments did you recognize from the games? If you're a fan of the games, create your own story about Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach.

Talk about the behavior Mario and Luigi experience in Brooklyn. Is Spike bullying them? Is there a difference between that and how Mario's family speaks to the brothers? What's the difference between bullying and razzing, if there is one? What should you do if someone is trying to put you down?

How do Mario and Peach demonstrate perseverance, courage , and teamwork ? Why are these important character traits and life skills? Do you think video games teach you perseverance? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : April 5, 2023
On DVD or streaming : June 13, 2023
Cast : Chris Pratt , Anya Taylor-Joy , Charlie Day
Directors : Aaron Horvath , Michael Jelenic
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Family and Kids
Topics : Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Brothers and Sisters
Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
Run time : 92 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
MPAA explanation : action and mild violence
Last updated : December 5, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Review: Sheer Animated Fun, and the Rare Video-Game Movie That Gives You a Prankish Video-Game Buzz

The second time's the charm for Mario on film, as Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy and a delectably villainous Jack Black voice a digital fairy tale that connects.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie - Variety Critic's Pick

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Mario just wants to rescue his brother, but then he meets Princess Peach ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), who rules over the Mushroom Kingdom’s denizens, who have spherical mushroom heads and the faces of airbrushed babies; they’re led by Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), a cuddlebug with attitude. Mario then teams up with Princess Peach to save her kingdom from Bowser, a fire-breathing beastie who commands a vast army of Koopas, who are turtles. Bowser is a turtle too, if a rather monstrous one — he’s like a fusion of Lionel Barrymore, the Wayland Flowers puppet Madame, and, a T. Rex plushie made for toddlers.

Jack Black , who voices this horny demon, gives a stupendous performance. Bowser is in love with Princess Peach, even as he’s planning to attack her empire, and Black, conjuring something very different from his usual hipster-stoner vibe, makes Bowser a domineering but deeply insecure romantic, like the Phantom of Opera as a neurotic troglodyte. Having a villain who’s a vulnerable ogre you’re at once appalled, amused, and fascinated by makes this a very different sort of kinetic kiddie fantasia. When Bowser is onscreen with his flaming red eyebrows and S&M arm bands, his gap-toothed reptile leer, his Meat Loaf-meets-Axl Rose soft-rock odes to Peach, and his nerd’s megalomania, the audience is in heaven.

There’s a way that mainstream animation, not to mention my own taste in it, has been evolving. So much of it has become rote, with an empty fractious dazzle that doesn’t ultimately sustain interest. And the Pixar brand, much as it saddens me to say it, has in recent years lost some of its humanistic luster. The animated movies I’ve been most drawn to have been off the Pixar grid — movies like “Trolls” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” which merge a kind of kinetic virtuosity with an emotional flair that sneaks up on you. I’d put “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in that camp. It’s going to be a huge, huge hit, but not just because of its beloved gamer pedigree. (That didn’t help “Super Mario Bros.” in 1993.) It’s because the movie, as directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (from a script by Matthew Fogel), is a serious blast, with a spark of enchantment — that je ne sais quoi fusion of speed and trickery, magic and sophistication, and sheer play that…well, you feel it when you see it.

There have been approximately 50 movies based on video games, and most of them are terrible. I’ve had limited patience even for the ones that “work,” like the coolly depersonalized “Resident Evil” series or that first “Lara Croft” film. It’s not that I’m hostile to video games; it’s that the game and film mediums are so different. Then again, not all video games are the same — the funky nihilist hellscapes of Grand Theft Auto couldn’t be further removed from the interactive innocence of the Mario franchise. Mario presides over a digital playground that lifts the spirit to a place of split-second wonder, and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” stays true to that. Its ingenuity is infectious. You don’t have to be a Mario fan to respond to it, but the film is going to remind the millions who are why they call it a joystick.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, April 3, 2023. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 92 MIN.

Production: A Universal Pictures release of an Illumination, Nintendo, Universal production. Producers: Chris Meledandri, Shigeru Miyamoto.
Crew: Directors: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic. Screenplay: Matthew Fogel. Editor: Eric E. Osmond. Music: Koji Kondo, Brian Tyler.
With: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco, Charles Martinet, Kevin Michael Richardson.

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie review: This faithful adaptation often feels like a cutscene

The new animated film — featuring the voices of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, and more — faithfully recreates the look and feel of Nintendo's games.

Christian Holub is a writer covering comics and other geeky pop culture. He's still mad about 'Firefly' getting canceled.

Movies and video games have changed a lot since the last time Mario and Luigi were on the big screen. When Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo played the titular roles in 1993's Super Mario Bros ., the concept of adaptation was very loose: The idea wasn't to replicate the experience of playing a Mario video game but rather to build an original story for a different medium with some of the same names and characters. Decades later, viewers have come to expect much more faithful translations. And so we have a new Super Mario Bros. Movie , which looks and feels much closer to Nintendo's iconic games — but, as a result, often feels like an extended cutscene.

The new animated movie from directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic ( Teen Titans Go! To The Movies ) opens with twin brothers Mario ( Chris Pratt ) and Luigi ( Charlie Day ) working together as plumbers in a Brooklyn somewhat like our own. They suddenly get transported to another realm, where the warlord Bowser ( Jack Black ) is on the warpath against the Mushroom Kingdom ruled by Princess Peach ( Anya Taylor-Joy ). While Luigi ends up captured by Bowser's soldiers, Mario finds himself embedded with Peach and her Toads as they try to build a resistance movement.

Despite the storied iconography of these characters, The Super Mario Bros. Movie infuses them all with distinctly modern characterizations. Instead of being a helpless damsel, Peach is an incredibly skilled and capable warrior-ruler who runs circles around the male characters. A female protagonist for the Rey generation, this princess hardly needs rescuing; her goal is to protect her mushroom-headed subjects from Bowser's wrath, while Mario just wants to save his brother. Donkey Kong ( Seth Rogen ) has the muscles to impress a colosseum crowd but remains desperate for the approval of his kingly father — he comes off like Succession 's Kendall Roy in a red tie.

Bowser, meanwhile, is portrayed as a lovesick playground bully who only knows how to express his unrequited affection for the princess by invading her kingdom. Black's performance is the standout of this voice cast (which makes sense given his years of experience in the Kung Fu Panda franchise), and Bowser's many parody songs expressing his love for Peach make great use of the Tenacious D vocalist's unique skills.

When Peach and Mario are preparing to face off against Bowser, they basically play a classic Super Mario game: running across pipes and girders, grabbing power-up mushrooms, the works. But this movie takes just as much from other Mario-involved games like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart . Peach's characterization is clearly influenced by modern archetypes of strong female protagonists, but it also fits perfectly for people who grow up playing her in Smash , where she is more than capable of beating up Bowser or Donkey Kong. The Mario Kart homage is more explicit, and the heroes' race against Bowser's Koopas down Rainbow Road joins the coconut pirates sequence from Moana in the amusing lineage of "kids' movie homages to Mad Max: Fury Road ."

It's all quite fun, with a good sense of humor and a consistent computer-animated aesthetic — plus, at 90 minutes including credits, it's short, sweet, and over before anything can get annoying. But it's hard to escape the feeling, especially during the aforementioned Rainbow Road sequence, that you would probably be having more fun just playing a game together instead. Grade: B-

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‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Review: Chris Pratt Gives Iconic Gamer A Charming Toon-Up For The Big Screen

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A Japanese anime version of Super Mario in 1987 was perhaps the first, or at least one of the first, movie adaptations of a video game, however modest that hourlong effort was. This time all the bells and whistles are there with a star voice cast that includes Chris Pratt as Mario and the irrepressible Charlie Day as younger brother Luigi, two New York Lower Borough-based plumbers from an Italian family that perhaps doesn’t appreciate their talents as much as they should. Stumbling into a crisis situation that requires a quick fix on bursting water pipes in the street, they instead are swept throughout the labyrinth of those pipes and spilled out into another world, much like when Alice went down the rabbit hole.

While Mario finds himself landing in the colorful and friendly Mushroom Kingdom, brother Luigi is in for something completely terrifying as he has been swept into the Dark Lands, where ruling King of Koopas, fearsome giant turtle Bowser ( Jack Black ), enlists him, by threat of death, in his quest to marry Princess Peach ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) in order to capture her Mushroom Kingdom and rule the world. Fortunately, Mario is on the case and helped by the cheerful resident Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), who befriends him and introduces him to the princess. They team up to stop Bowser in his tracks and rescue Luigi. Joining them eventually is Donkey Kong (of course), voiced amusingly by Seth Rogen , an enthusiastic and skilled citizen of the Jungle Kingdom and Kong Army run by his weary father Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen). In a battle to the death, Mario has to prove his worth to all before they will team for the ultimate battle that is a staple of this sort of entertainment these days.

All of this is immensely likable and loaded with laughs, if not raging wit. Having the likes of Black and Rogen in the voice cast definitely ups the ante of some stabs at subversive humor, and all seem to be enjoying this stint, which definitely is set up for sequels as Mario and Luigi are about to start a new act in their long careers. The CGI animation goes big for bright colors juxtaposed with the ominous Dark Lands, and the film is helped immensely by a zippy and lilting musical score from Brian Tyler. As proof of the filmmakers’ attempts to be true to their source, there is even room for Charles Martinet, original voice of Mario and Luigi video games for the past three decades.

Producers are Illumination’s Chris Meledandri and Mario creator and Nintendo’s Representative Director and Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto. Universal releases it Wednesday in theaters.

Title: The Super Mario Bros. Movie Studio: Universal/Illumination Release date: April 5, 2023 Directors: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic Screenwriter: Matthew Fogel Cast: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen Rating: PG Running time: 1hr 32 min

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Critics’ consensus on ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’? It’s a-mixed

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Opening weekend, here we come.

Reviews are officially in for Nintendo and Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which hits theaters Wednesday and has generated quite a bit of buzz leading up to its Easter-weekend release.

The animated film based on the cherished video-game series of the same name boasts a star-studded voice cast, including Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong and Chris Pratt as Mario.

When the family flick was announced back in 2021, fans and social media users immediately questioned the decision to cast Pratt — who has been racking up credits in blockbuster movie franchises like item boxes in Mario Kart — as everyone’s favorite Italian plumber.

Review: ‘Wahoo!’ isn’t quite right for mildly amusing, hectic ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’

‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ starring Chris Pratt, is mildly amusing, swift, noisy and unrelentingly paced.

April 4, 2023

In her review for Tribune News Service, film critic Katie Walsh deemed Pratt and Day’s vocal performances as sibling duo Mario and Luigi “so unremarkable that it could have been anyone at all.”

“Fortunately, this loud, hectic movie doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it wouldn’t have the material to last a second longer,” Walsh writes .

“It’s bright, busy, inoffensive and exactly the opposite of the weird, dark, edgy 1993 movie adaptation. That may be better for the business of Mario, but it’s not exactly terribly interesting either.”

Here’s a sampling of reviews of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” ranging from “Oh, no!” to “Wahoo!”

Mario (Chris Pratt) in cat form in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

Entertainment & Arts

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April 5, 2023

Arizona Republic

“There are also plenty of Easter eggs to be enjoyed by gameplayers as well as humor that can be appreciated by adults ... and kids alike,” KiMi Robinson writes .

“Much credit goes to the cast for having so much fun with their characters; Charlie Day, for one, manages to infuse as much Charlie Day into Luigi as he does in any live action role. ... ‘The Super Mario Bros.’ is family-friendly movie theater catnip over the Easter weekend, and it’s sure to be an enjoyable watch for the average viewer.”

Associated Press

“It makes you ... want to play Mario,” Jake Coyle writes .

“As nice as it is to look at ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ it’s not anywhere near as fun as it would be to play it. It’s a-him, Mario, but it’s no a-masterpiece. The storyline is only a touch above the interstitial bits of plot you usually get between gameplay. With the exception of Jack Black’s grandly lovesick Bowser ... there’s nothing here that deepens these characters beyond their usual 2-D adventures. Mario may be a modern-day Mickey Mouse but his kingdom is on the console.”

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“It’s all quite fun, with a good sense of humor and a consistent computer-animated aesthetic — plus, at 90 minutes including credits, it’s short, sweet, and over before anything can get annoying,” Christian Holub writes .

“But it’s hard to escape the feeling, especially during the ... Rainbow Road sequence, that you would probably be having more fun just playing a game together instead.”

Hollywood Reporter

“After the debacle that was the 1993 live-action Super Mario Brothers movie adaptation, the creators of the new animated version clearly felt the need to restore the faith of the wildly popular video game’s legions of fans,” Frank Scheck writes .

“While devoted players will weigh in on whether the film fulfills that goal sufficiently, The Super Mario Bros. Movie feels like a labor of love that should easily weather any nitpicking from purists. It should also prove a major cash cow for co-producers Nintendo, Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures, with sequels and spin-offs virtually guaranteed. While Matthew Fogel’s screenplay won’t win any awards, it builds a reasonable framework for the 90 minutes of nearly nonstop mayhem that ensues.”

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“The movie’s mostly excellent use of its source material does contrast with some ill-advised blockbuster animation tropes which can occasionally be grating,” Tom Jorgensen writes .

“Moments like this — as well as the frequent use of slo-mo to highlight jokes — are a bit too cute, and hint at how easily The Super Mario Bros. Movie could’ve slipped into ‘generic animated movie’ territory had it given way to more of these low-hanging stabs at making sure Uncle Jack has his ‘I understood that reference!’ moment, too.”

Independent

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie ... is nothing more and nothing less than what you’d expect from a Mario film,” Clarisse Loughrey writes .

“Its comfortable mediocrity is no better captured than in its choice to cast Chris Pratt — the current face of generic, easy-to-market heroism — in the starring role. Pratt, it should be said, is perfectly capable of the sort of outsized performance Mario needed, having previously turned in himbos of equal, puppyish élan in The Lego Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy. But the Pratt called upon here is of the blandly sincere, hire-a-hero variety, delivering lines like ‘let’s-a-go!’ and ‘mamma mia!’ with all the vigour of a contractual obligation and not a trace of Italian.”

“From the decision to cast the onetime Least Offensive Actor on the Planet Chris Pratt in the titular role to the production design that seems to be an exact replica the Wii-era Mario games, ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ largely plays things by the book, which is exactly what the assignment called for,” Christian Zilko writes .

“Co-directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic have delivered a perfectly serviceable movie that is going to make a lot of kids very happy and a lot of adults very rich.”

New York Times

“While the details are meticulous, the attitude is all wrong, trading the simple, unaffected charm that has served the character so well since his introduction in 1981 for a snarky and fatuous air that leans hard on winking humor and bland, hackneyed irony,” Calum Marsh writes .

“This is Mario in the Marvel mold: every line a punchline, every gag an arcane meta reference for the nerds who can’t get enough of that sort of thing. Served some spaghetti with mushrooms, Mario winces and says he hates mushrooms. Because in the game he’s always eating mushrooms, you see. Sound like fun yet?”

“There’s a perfect Mario game for nearly every kind of person — which gives the little plumber and his endless incarnations the sort of magical appeal that every modern movie franchise is desperate for,” Joshua Rivera writes . “Illumination’s animated adventure The Super Mario Bros. Movie attempts to bottle that appeal, but mostly just ends up referencing it. ... The Super Mario Bros. Movie feels like it’s made to be screenshotted more than watched. Nearly every frame is packed with a dizzying number of Easter eggs and references to Mario games and other Nintendo franchises.

“Cataloging them all might be the most enjoyable way to watch the movie, because when it comes to regular movie things like plot and character, well, all that gets blue-shelled to hell. (If you got that reference, you’ll probably like this movie more than the average viewer.)”

Screen Rant

“Black’s performance is truly what makes Bowser sing, ensuring every scene featuring the villain is one of the movie’s highlights. Beyond Black, Day is also pitch perfect as Luigi and Rogen is extremely fun as Donkey Kong. Taylor-Joy and Key are good, if unmemorable as Peach and Toad,” Molly Freeman writes .

“Pratt, whose casting as Mario was met with skepticism, doesn’t make a strong case for why he was a good choice to voice such an iconic character. He’s simply fine — not so bad as to be distracting, but not strong enough to be at all interesting either, which is about the same as The Super Mario Bros. Movie as a whole.”

“It’s going to be a huge, huge hit, but not just because of its beloved gamer pedigree. (That didn’t help “Super Mario Bros.” in 1993)” Owen Gleiberman writes .

“It’s because the movie, as directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (from a script by Matthew Fogel), is a serious blast, with a spark of enchantment — that je ne sais quoi fusion of speed and trickery, magic and sophistication, and sheer play that … well, you feel it when you see it.”

Washington Post

“The artistry is enough to keep children and adults watching. It may help that Mario gains power by eating mushrooms — a good message about healthy eating, on the one hand, yet one with an obvious psychedelic resonance at the same time,” Pat Padua writes .

“At its 8-bit heart, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is ultimately about family. (You know, the people you spend time with when you’re not playing video games.)”

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‘Super Mario Bros. Movie' review: A fun but safe Mushroom Kingdom romp

Nintendo takes no risks..

Super Mario Bros. is an almost perfect kids film. It's stunningly animated, it has enough momentum to keep youngins from being bored, and almost every character is unique and likable (even Bowser himself, thanks to the comedic stylings of Jack Black). It's clear that Nintendo didn't want to repeat the mistakes of that other Mario movie, the live-action 1993 film that's ironically beloved by some '90s kids (it's all we had!), but ultimately failed to capture the magic of the games. This film, meanwhile, is chock full of everything you'd remember from Nintendo's ouvre. It's a nostalgic romp for adults, and it's simply a fun time for children.

But boy is it safe. Maybe I'm a bit spoiled by the excellent non-Pixar animated films we've seen over the last decade, especially the ones that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have touched ( The Lego Movie! Into the Spider-Verse!) . But it's glaringly obvious Nintendo didn't want to take any major creative risks with this adaptation. The script from Matthew Fogel is filled with enough humor and references to keep us from feeling bored, and directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic deliver some inspired sequences. But it's almost like the film is trapped in a nostalgia castle thanks to the whims of an aging corporate dinosaur. (Bear with me.)

That wasn't a problem for the kids in my matinee audience, but it's a bit disappointing if you've waited decades to see a truly great Mario adaptation. It's in line with the recent live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie — Super Mario Bros. is "fine." There's no attempt to achieve anything deeper than the basics: Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are two floundering Brooklyn plumbers who are inexplicably transported to the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi, ever the scaredy-cat, is almost instantly captured by Bowser's minions, and it's up to Mario and Princess Peach (an effervescent Anya Taylor-Joy) to save him. Big bad Bowser, meanwhile, has plans to either marry Peach or, barring that, take over the kingdom.

The film bombards you with an endless series of references from the start – just look at all those Punch-Out! characters on the wall! – something that will either delight longtime Nintendo fans or make your eyes roll. Personally, though, I mostly enjoyed seeing how all of the nostalgia fodder was deployed (the adorably fatalistic Lumalee from Mario Galaxy practically steals the film). The filmmakers also show off plenty of visual flair, like an early scene in Brooklyn that rotates into a 2D chase sequence. If only some of the musical choices were more creative. (A Kill Bill reference? Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" during Mario's training montage? Come on .)

It's always nice to see kids movies reach far beyond our expectations — The Lego Movie wrestled with the prison of capitalism, the importance of pushing against restrictive social expectations and how fandom can ruin the thing you actually love, all in addition to being a fun adventure for kids and injecting a dose of smart humor for adults. In Super Marios Bros., Mario learns to eat mushrooms because they literally make him big and strong. What subtext!

At the same time, I can still respect a movie that simply accomplishes its goal of entertaining children. Over the years, I've been subjected to plenty of truly awful kid's films with ugly animation and production design, lazy writing, and zero creative vision. I wish I could reclaim the time I spent watching Space Jam: A New Legacy or the 2011 Smurfs movie. The Super Mario Bros. may be a bit basic and safe, but it's not a waste of time.

For one, we've never seen Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom look this good. Illumination may not have the stellar track record of Pixar, but this movie is filled with gorgeously detailed characters, vibrant worlds jam-packed with detail and some of the most fluid animation I've seen in years. It's a visual feast, and it makes me long for the day when a Mario game can look so lush (as much as I loved Super Mario Odyssey , it's visuals are held back by the Switch's aging hardware).

And for the most part, the voice acting kept me invested. Jack Black is inspired as Bowser, a hopeless romantic who can only express his feelings through song and world domination. Charlie Day basically plays his usual harried persona, but it fits Luigi, a character who mainly exists to support his little bigger brother. And Anya Taylor-Joy makes for a perfect Princess Peach, a leader who has to feign bravery to protect her adorable Mushroom Kingdom people.

For all of Chris Pratt's hype about his Mario voice, though, it's merely serviceable. The movie jokes about Charles Martinet's original problematic accent (Martinet also voices two characters in the film), but Pratt's spin on it just feels like someone pretending to be a schlubby Brooklynite. That's particularly surprising since Pratt injected so much life into his Lego Movie lead.

What's most disappointing about The Super Mario Bros. Movie is that it's so close to being genuinely great. If the film had more time to build up its characters, or if it made room for Jack Black unleash his full Tenacious D talents as Bowser, it would easily be stronger. Why not go a bit harder on that Mario Kart sequence? (Even Moana managed to fit in a Mad Max: Fury Road reference!) Why not spend a bit more time on the rivalry/budding bromance between Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) and Mario?

With a projected opening weekend of $150 million or more, it's clear that Nintendo has a hit on its hands. A sequel is inevitable. I just hope that the company loosens up the next time around. After all, what fun is a Mario adventure without taking a few creative leaps over chasms of uncertainty?

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie Review

07 Apr 2023

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

The last time Mario — the lovably high-voiced moustachioed Italian plumber, and the most iconic name in video games — starred in a film, it bombed so badly that Nintendo waited 30 years before giving their mascot another crack at the big screen. Now something of an oddball cult classic, the 1993 Bob Hoskins -starring live-action version was both a strangely realistic take on the game (Mario is fixing broken dishwashers and worrying about paying rent) and bafflingly outlandish (it is partly set in a dino-steampunk parallel dimension), bearing only tangential resemblance to the source material. This lively new animated version, on the other hand, is deeply faithful — to a fault.

This is exactly what you might expect from a Super Mario Bros. movie. It’s like a greatest hits parade of the franchise: there’s the rainbow road from Mario Kart , the spooky house from Luigi’s Mansion , the New Donk City level from Super Mario Odyssey , the moons from Super Mario Galaxy , and more obscure Easter Eggs besides (listen out for the GameCube start-up sound). The story borrows mechanics and terminology from the game, too: there are power-ups, blue shells and a side-scrolling mission. Brian Tyler’s score never misses an opportunity to borrow some of Koji Kondo’s gloriously recognisable musical motifs, either.

It’s-a-gonna win many box-office gold coins, no doubt. But the Bob Hoskins version is far more imaginative.

It’s all laser-designed to tickle the nostalgia adenoids of Nintendo nerds. But it ultimately never feels more than just a very high-definition, feature-length video game cutscene – the bit you sit through while waiting to play the actual game. While a training montage sequence hints at the repetitive trial-and-error of the original NES title, what follows only confirms that the real joy of these games was, first and foremost, the gorgeously designed, addictively satisfying gameplay.

Without that here, we’re left only with the characters, which are as thin as an 8-bit image file, and, with the possible exception of Jack Black (who brings a Tenacious D energy to his Bowser), entirely miscast. There’s an admirable attempt to explain this away, but in a world where everyone already knows exactly what Mario sounds like — the movie itself even reminds us, in a cameo from long-standing voice actor Charles Martinet — Chris Pratt ’s take simply doesn’t sound like Mario. (The Mario family as a whole, incidentally, are the most egregious Italian stereotypes to be seen this side of a Dolmio advert; how many “Mamma Mia!”s does it take to constitute a hate crime?)

This comes from Illumination, a studio that never quite earned the critical cred of rivals like Pixar or Cartoon Saloon, but through their Minions and Sing franchises have certainly figured out how to make millions of family-friendly dollars. You feel that half-term hymn sheet being sung from in the endless peril, the bright colours, the largely unfunny gags, the empty sentiment (“Nothing can hurt us as long as we’re together!”). The studio brings experience and talent; the standard of animation, crisply rendered and richly art-directed, is undeniably high. It’s-a-gonna win many box-office gold coins, no doubt. But the Bob Hoskins version is, if nothing else, far more imaginative.

Movies | 20 12 2023

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Review: 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' is the next best thing to playing the actual game

Critics jeered, but audiences came in droves.

Mario, Princess Peach, and Toad are shown in a scene from "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

When "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" opened in theaters earlier this month, the experts were ready to count out the computer-animated film as another disposable video-game byproduct like the colossally awful, 1993 live-action take on the 1985 Nintendo game. Not so fast.

Critics jeered, but audiences came in droves. Having already cleaned up with more than $700 million worldwide, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is now the biggest box-office hit of 2023, setting records for the largest global opening ever for an animated film. How far can it go? Do I hear a billion? Easy.

What happened? Parents starved for family entertainment, that's what happened. There's also the fact that "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is way more fun even for non-gamers than skeptics predicted. Repeat business is off the charts. So get over your hesitation and jump aboard.

PHOTO: Mario is shown in a scene from "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

Don't expect miracles. Even at 93 minutes, the movie can drift into dull and derivative. Still, I think it's an asset that "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is aimed at 5-year-olds of all ages, meaning the child in all of us. Look elsewhere, maybe "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves," for winking adult references. It's the dedication to silliness that makes "Mario" such an impish delight.

As directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, from a script by Matthew Fogel, the film doesn't even try to reinvent the genre. It only wants to capture enough of the joystick energy of the game to cover the sins of merch pedaling and thin plotting and characterization.

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Fears about ethnic stereotyping emerged from the voice casting of non-Italian Chris Pratt as Mario. Relax. Pratt uses his own voice to play the mustachioed Italian plumber in overalls. Ditto Charlie Day as his shy brother Luigi. Both put on exaggerated Italian accents in a TV ad for the bros' Brooklyn plumbing business, then revert to normal. Problem solved? Pretty much.

PHOTO: Mario, Princess Peach, and Toad are shown in a scene from "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

Trouble starts immediately as Mario and Luigi go underground to fix a manhole leak and are sucked into a warp pipe that sends them into two separate universes. Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, ruled by Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy in fine, frisky form).

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Poor Luigi is zapped into the Dark Lands controlled by the evil King Koopa, Bowser, a kind of demonic turtle with red eyebrows who finds the perfect verbal pairing in wild man Jack Black. Bowser yearns for Princess Peach and will destroy her kingdom if she refuses to marry him.

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Mario, who is also hot for Peach, can't have that, plus he needs to rescue Luigi from Bowser and form an alliance with the Kong family of gorillas by showing that he -- even in a cat suit -- can win a fight with the king's son Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen doing a great Seth Rogen).

Got that? No matter. The plot is just a flimsy excuse to have these characters mix it up one more time on the big screen. Live action can't cut it. The first "Mario" movie proved that by staying rigidly earthbound.

The real secret behind the unexpected and staggering success of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is animation, which niftily catches the anarchy of gaming. It creates the illusion that anything is possible. It's also the next best thing to playing the actual game, which continues to thrive and multiply.

Can the movie spawn its own hive of sequels? Two words: Game on.

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Cast & crew
User reviews

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Jack Black, Charlie Day, Scott Menville, Chris Pratt, Kevin Michael Richardson, Seth Rogen, Keegan-Michael Key, and Anya Taylor-Joy in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

A plumber named Mario travels through an underground labyrinth with his brother Luigi, trying to save a captured princess. A plumber named Mario travels through an underground labyrinth with his brother Luigi, trying to save a captured princess. A plumber named Mario travels through an underground labyrinth with his brother Luigi, trying to save a captured princess.

Aaron Horvath
Michael Jelenic
Pierre Leduc
Matthew Fogel
Chris Pratt
Anya Taylor-Joy
Charlie Day
1.2K User reviews
288 Critic reviews
46 Metascore
1 win & 43 nominations

Princess Peach

Penguin King

Mario's Dad

Uncle Arthur

Mario's Mom

Toad General

Cranky Kong

Donkey Kong

Koopa General

Additional Voices
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Dream Kart Designs With the 'Super Mario Bros.' Cast

More like this

Did you know

Trivia When Mario and Toad try to enter Princess Peach's castle, two toad guards joke that "the princess is in another castle". This is a reference to the original Super Mario Bros. (1985) , where at the end of each world (bar world 8) a toad said "Thank you Mario, but our princess is in another castle".
Goofs Luigi never asks the calling customer for their address. Even if the customer told him their address, he never told Mario but somehow Mario gets there before Luigi does.

Lumalee : In an Insane World, it is the Sane who are called crazy.

Crazy credits SPOILER: In a post-credits scene, a white egg with green spots hatches, upon which the roar of Yoshi the dinosaur is heard.
Connections Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Chris Pratt/Laverne Cox/Big Data & Joywave (2014)
Soundtracks Battle Without Honor or Humanity Written and Performed by Tomoyasu Hotei Courtesy of EMI Music Japan Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews 1.2K

educunhaholanda
Apr 8, 2023
How long is The Super Mario Bros. Movie? Powered by Alexa
Are Mario and Peach gonna be married in later Mario Movie instalments?
When Bowser ripped Luigi's mustache before he was locked in a cage with the other characters, his mustache grew back, is this supposed to be an animation error?
Why did Princess Peach say that Mario's not important to the Toads? Was it because they think that Mario is a bad person?
April 5, 2023 (United States)
United States
Nintendo (Japan)
Official Facebook
Super Mario Bros. La película
Paris, France (Studio)
Universal Pictures
Illumination Entertainment
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$100,000,000 (estimated)
$574,934,330
$146,361,865
Apr 9, 2023
$1,362,029,918

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 32 minutes
Dolby Digital
12-Track Digital Sound
Dolby Atmos
IMAX 6-Track

More to explore

Everything We Know

Everything we know about the super mario bros. movie, we break down all the details, including who made it, who's in it, what the story might be, and what this could mean for the future of video game adaptations..

TAGGED AS: movies

Video game adaptations sure are leveling up this year, if you’ll forgive the pun. HBO’s take on The Last of Us got the year off to a good start, but this spring, the most iconic video game character of all will be making the jump (pun also intended) to the cinema. The Super Mario Bros. Movie , from Illumination and Universal Pictures in collaboration with Nintendo, will stomp into theaters on April 5, 2023.

If you have questions about The Super Mario Bros. Movie , allow us to answer them as if we were punching a big floating “?” block. Let’s-a go!

The Cast is Mostly A-List Actors

Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black

(Photo by Jon Kopaloff, Phillip Faraone, Samir Hussein, Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Nintendo announced the cast of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in September 2021, with Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto revealing the news during a Nintendo Direct event — one of the gaming company’s regularly streamed preview presentations. Mario is a man of few words in the games; Charles Martinet has voiced the character since 1992, but “It’s-a me, Mario!” isn’t quite enough dialogue to fill a feature-length script. A new, more talkative voice actor was required.

But when Miyamoto revealed that Mario would be voiced by Chris Pratt , there was some outcry. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World star has done voice work before — he’s quite good in The LEGO Movie and Onward — but there were criticisms that he was overexposed as an actor and that his Mario voice would probably just end up sounding like… Chris Pratt. Your mileage may vary on the first point, but when trailers for the movie came out, it was confirmed that Mario does indeed sound like Chris Pratt in this film. Meanwhile, Martinet will still feature in the film in what’s been described as surprise cameos.

Toad and Princess Peach in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

(Photo by Universal Pictures)

The rest of the cast is less controversial. Anya Taylor-Joy , star of The Witch , The Northman , and Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit , voices Princess Peach. The movie, as with more recent games in the Mario series, gives Peach more agency as a capable leader of Mushroom Kingdom rather than just relegating her status to a damsel in distress. Charlie Day of It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia , Pacific Rim , and The LEGO Movie (in which he co-starred with Pratt) plays Luigi, Mario’s younger, green-clad brother. Day’s on-screen persona tends to lean towards the manic, which should be a good fit for Luigi. Jack Black voices Bowser, Mario’s archenemy and frequent kidnapper of Princess Peach. Based on early reactions to the trailers, Black’s take on King Koopa looks poised to be a highlight of the film, as he’s imbuing the character with a good mixture of menace, bluster, and comedy.

Keegan-Michael Key ( Key & Peele , Wendell and Wild ) voices Toad, Peach’s dutiful but oft-hapless assistant. Seth Rogen voices Donkey Kong, who was technically Mario’s first villain when they both made their debut in the 1981 arcade game, but they’ve since become allies — or at least acquaintances who go-kart and party together. Fred Armisen voices Cranky Kong, an elderly and, well, cranky member of Donkey Kong’s family. Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco voices Foreman Spike, a relatively obscure Mario character who made his debut as Mario and Luigi’s boss in the 1985 game Wrecking Crew . Kevin Michael Richardson , a veteran voice actor, lends his pipes to the role of Kamek, Bowser’s magic-using right-hand man — err, koopa — and Khary Payton voices the Penguin King, the monarch of a chilly land that Bowser conquers.

The Plot Does Not Seem to Be Based on Any One Mario Game

Mario, Princess Peach, and Toad in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Typically speaking, the Super Mario games are not known for having deep, complex plots. There are exceptions — the Paper Mario series of RPGs are fairly lore-dense — but for the most part, the mainline platformer games are pretty bare-bones: Mario must find peach and defeat Bowser. The spin-off games are devoid of a plot. (Mario and Bowser and Co. race go-karts because of… reasons?) The Super Mario Bros. Movie , based on the trailers, seems to be adding a little more context to the basic premise while also drawing in lots of video game Easter eggs.

Bowser is attempting to conquer the world, as one does, and once he obtains a Super Star (the sort that makes Mario temporarily invincible in the games), he has the power he’ll need to do so. Only Mario — who it appears is a newcomer to Mushroom Kingdom — stands in his way. As a character, Mario is said to be an Italian plumber from New York City, but most games don’t really engage with his supposed real-world background or hometown. He just jumps around and plays golf and tennis in Mushroom Kingdom. It seems like the movie’s Mario hails from a place that’s more like our real world and less fantastical than Mushroom Kingdom, but it’s unclear exactly where he’s from.

Upon arriving in Mushroom Kingdom, Mario meets Toad and is taken to Princess Peach, who attempts to train Mario in order to face off with Bowser. There are Yoshis, a Super Smash Bros. -like duel with Donkey Kong, and a Mad Max -esque chase down Rainbow Road, a classic course from the Mario Kart games.

This Is Not the First Mario Movie

John Leguizamo and Bob Hoskins as Luigi and Mario in Super Mario Bros. (1993)

(Photo by ©Buena Vista Pictures)

There have actually been two movies based on Mario before this one. In 1986, the anime film Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! opened in Japan. It’s notable for being the first film ever that was based on a video game, though it technically shares the honor because Running Boy: Star Soldier’s Secret , another video game adaptation, came out on the very same day. The plot follows Mario as he’s sucked into the video game he’s playing, an early example of what’s now known as the isekai genre.

Western audiences are probably more familiar with 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros. , which is either a cult classic or one of the worst films ever made, depending on who you ask. Starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as the titular Bros. and Dennis Hopper as Bowser, the film drastically altered the basic Mario story, reimagining King Koopa as a highly evolved dinosaur from a parallel world that first formed when a special meteor hit the earth. It’s a mess, albeit one that’s not without its charms, but its commercial and critical failure is reportedly part of the reason it’s taken so long for Nintendo to allow more film adaptations. Nintendo worked with Universal Parks & Resorts to build Mario-themed lands at Universal’s theme parks, and that relationship helped lead to the upcoming feature film.

Talk of a new movie began in the mid-2010s and production began in earnest in 2018 when Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination founder Chris Meledandri were confirmed as co-producers. The film is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic ; Horvath oversaw Teen Titans Go! to the Movies , while The Super Mario Bros. Movie marks Jelenic’s feature film debut.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Could Be Just the Beginning

Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Nintendo saw some big-screen success in 2019 with the release of Pokémon Detective Pikachu , a live-action adaptation of a Pokémon spin-off game. Should The Super Mario Bros. movie be a success, there will probably be even more adaptations, and Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has said as much. There are already (unconfirmed) reports that Illumination is prepping a Donkey Kong spin-off, but there are so many Nintendo IPs that could easily become movies. The Legend of Zelda ? Metroid ? Star Fox ? Fire Emblem ? And imagine them all coming together in an Avengers -style crossover (too much?). It could be the start of a new wave of video game adaptations, one that could finally disprove the conventional wisdom that all video game adaptations are bad.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie opens in US theaters on April 5, 2023, and it will open in Japan shortly afterward on April 28.

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DVD & Streaming

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Action/Adventure , Comedy , Kids

Content Caution

In Theaters

April 5, 2023
Chris Pratt as Mario; Charlie Day as Luigi; Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach; Jack Black as Bowser; Keegan-Michael Key as Toad; Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong; Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong

Home Release Date

May 16, 2023
Aaron Horvath; Michael Jelenic

Distributor

Universal Pictures

Movie Review

You may think of Mario and his brother, Luigi, as a couple of thickly accented Italian plumbers with bright, monogramed outfits and bushy mustaches.

But hey, all of that is just for the commercials.

I mean, if you’re gonna break away and start your own plumbing business in Brooklyn, ya’ gotta have a schtick, right? Something people will remember. And as goofy as it sounds, That’s-a theirs! (Except for the mustaches, that is. All the men in their family are blessed with fabulous mustache-growing genes, dontcha’ know.)

However, even with a fake persona and a flashy pair of soup-strainers, Mario and Luigi’s business isn’t going so well. There’s always something that goes a bit sideways during their jobs.

Of course, Mario still holds a dream in his heart. He is convinced that if they stick together, he and his brother can be great. Hey, they may even save Brooklyn someday. Uh, plumbing-wise, that is.

And then Mario spots a newscast on TV and sits up with a flush of excitement. A huge water main has cracked open downtown, and the city is having a tough time stopping the flood. This could be the Mario Bros. chance.

Problem is, once Mario and Luigi get to the source of the city’s emergency, they end up being washed into the wrong place and down the wrong pipe. And before you can say Wahoo! They find themselves sucked into some oddly colorful magical dimension … hidden down deep under Brooklyn! Who woulda thunk it?

Mario lands in a Mushroom Kingdom ruled over by a pretty princess in pink named Peach. (Which is, frankly, not such a bad turn of events.) But, not everything is peachy. Mario has some pressing questions to answer.

What is this place? Where did Luigi go? Who’s this dangerous, fire-breathing King Bowser that the mushroomy residents are all afraid of? How can Mario get Princess Peach to give him the time of day?!

One thing’s for sure: Mario has never been a sit-back-and-watch-the-water-drip kinda guy. If he wants answers and solutions, he’s gonna step up with a wrench in hand and work ‘em out.

Let’s-a-go!

Positive Elements

Mario. Luigi and Princess Peach all fight to protect the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom. And they’re willing to give their all to protect one another.

Peach steps up alone to face a threatening army in order to give her people more time to escape, for instance. And Luigi grabs a manhole cover, taking the brunt of an attack, to shield Mario from Bowser’s flames. For Mario’s part, we see him risk his life to save Donkey Kong from drowning, even though they were at odds with each other.

Peach finds herself quite taken with Mario, in fact—not because he’s tall and handsome or an incredible fighter, but because he’s sincere, kind and refuses to give up.

Mario and Luigi also have a special brotherly bond. Luigi is something of an accident-prone mess-up at times. But Mario resolutely declares, “Nothing can hurt us as long as we’re together!” And indeed, the Bros. are a much more formidable force together.

We learn that both Mario and Donkey Kong are bothered by a seeming lack of respect from their fathers. But by story’ end, both dad’s step forward (at different times) to publicly praise their sons for the brave and upright choices they make.

Even though Bowser is a bully-like ruler who’s not afraid to fire-blast his foes, at his core he’s really seeking Peach’s approval. He declares that he’d actually like nothing better than to simply marry her in a “fairytale wedding.” But, of course, his destructive choices belie any small sighing positives that might peek through in his character.

Spiritual Elements

The magical realms that Mario and Luigi slip into are never really explained, apart from Peach mentioning that there’s a “huge universe out there with a lot of galaxies.” In fact, she notes that she herself stumbled into the Mushroom Kingdom when she was just a little girl. And the mushroomy toad residents there raised her and then made her their princess.

Later in the movie, the magical force that drew Mario and Luigi into that foreign world is reversed, sending Mushroom Kingdom characters into Brooklyn.

It’s not spiritual, per se, but both Bowser’s visage and his dark, floating volcanic lair have a very foreboding and perhaps even devilish-looking vibe to them. It’s also a bit reminiscent of Mordor for Lord of the Rings. That darkness is offset somewhat by Bowser’s goofy minions. But sensitive young viewers might be frightened by Bowser’s foreboding appearance.

A scene early in the film has some of Bowser’s minions crawling up out of the ground to pursue Luigi through a dark forest in a way that’s reminiscent of zombie movies, another scene that could be intense for young or sensitive viewers.

Sexual Content

Both Mario and Bowser find Princess Peach to be quite appealing from first sight. And its obvious that Peach kinda thinks Mario is pretty special, too.

Bowser practices his wedding proposal to Princess Peach by dressing up his male wizard like Peach and having him roleplay her response in a scene that’s played for laughs (and which doesn’t seem to be making a political statement, though some might interpret it otherwise).

Violent Content

Once Mario and Luigi find themselves in Peach’s magical realm, the peril of their situation increases dramatically. It’s a cartoony peril but could at times be stressful for younger viewers. That peril is reinforced by threats Bowser and some of his henchmen make to various people. Someone says, “This guy’s brother is going to die imminently.” Another says, “Mario, you’re a dead man!”

Bowser also blows out flamethrower-like bursts of fire that melt an icy castle and burn up a variety of things, including a Koopa that’s transformed from flesh to animated skeleton form. He declares his plans to conquer and rule everything. He sends out his army of Koopas and Ghost Guys and Dry Bones to attack Mario, Peach and the good-guy army.

These battlers smash into each other in Mario Karts, as well as punching and bashing at one another. Vehicles explode and are smashed. A large group of skeleton-like Dry Bones chase and grab at Luigi.

Donkey Kong and Mario jump into battle with each other, and Kong pounds the plumber around, smashing him with barrels and throwing him into walls. It’s only when Mario dons a Cat suit that he comes back with quick scratching attacks. Mario also gets thumped around repeatedly as he tries to make his way through Peach’s obstacle course filled with spikes, clubs and traps.

Again, none of these attacks or thumping falls are bloody or more than cartoony bashes, but the skirmishes can be frenetic at times. And after one pounding battle with Bowser, Mario looks pretty beaten up and bruised until he regroups and steps out once more.

Elsewhere, Bowser intends to destroy a city with a large bomb. And in the real world of Brooklyn, he sends vehicles flying, endangers a large crowd of people and blasts things with fire. But in the end, his destructive plot is foiled.

On a more intimate level, Bowser slams a piano’s wooden keyboard cover down on a sidekick’s fingers and tells him, “Pain is the best teacher.” He declares that he will kill Mario and plans to kill Luigi to set Mario back on his heels. Bowser also decides to sacrifice a large group of prisoners by lowering their cages into a lake of lava. “I’ll be ritualistically sacrificing them in your honor,” he tells Peach. The cages are lowered and begin to melt, but the prisoners are saved.

Crude or Profane Language

Mario and Luigi’s former boss, Spike, calls the brothers “stupid” for leaving his employ. “You’re a joke and you always will be,” he tells them. Someone is told to “shut up.” Other name-calling includes similar phrases, such as “idiot,” “lunatic” and “psycho.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Mario and others bop yellow Question Blocks that hold magic mushrooms. They gobble them down and are given special power-ups. One can make you bigger, another smaller, for instance. We also see the mushrooms give Mario special Cat and Racoon suits to battle with. Peach consumes a (similar) ice flower that gives her icy powers.

Other Negative Elements

There’s one oddly dark element in the mix that’s played for laughs. In the group of prisoners that Bowser is holding elevated in cages, a particular glowing Luma character makes fatalistic statements. This star-like critter is utterly cute-looking but sighs out statements such as, “The only hope is the sweet release of death,” and, “There is no sunshine, only darkness.” These declarations drive the other prisoners crazy as they plead for it to be quiet.

With the announcement of a new animated Super Mario Bros. movie, I’d wager there were a lot of people worrying that some Hollywood braintrust was going to, once again, ruin a memory from their childhood. (Yeah, I’m old enough to remember that truly horrible live-action Mario pic from the ‘90s.)

But worry not: Mario and crew come through the cinematic translation this time with lots of colorful and sparkling charm to spare.

Granted, this pic has the slow upfront load time of an old Game Cube—with story set-up fanservice that tiny fans likely won’t catch. And the central characters don’t sound or always act like you remember (though Jack Black’s Bowser is a hoot.) But their hearts are all in the right place.

There are heroes, cartoony perils, loving family members and a happy ending. In fact, once the gang gets to goofily stomping Koopas, chucking Donkey Kong barrels and gleefully Mario-Karting about, you can’t help but enjoy yourself.

That said, the only real concern is that some scenes might be visually frightening to really young or sensitive viewers. Much of the peril here, most of it really, is pretty cartoony. But Bowser’s glowing eyes and volcanic HQ do have a dark feel to them that might be upsetting to some.

Still, this is a movie for fans, first and foremost. And I suspect most who’ve played any of these games will have a ball watching this rollicking big-screen homage to Nintendo’s flagship franchise.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie - Review

Mario’s cinematic pipe dream comes true..

It took nearly four decades, one spectacular live-action misfire, and dozens of other failed video game adaptations to learn from, but none of it went to waste: Illumination and Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. Movie finally gives the most iconic character in gaming the onscreen adventure he’s always deserved. Benefitting immensely from the endless creativity of the innumerable game developers, artists, and musicians who’ve made the Mario franchise a pop culture juggernaut, The Super Mario Bros. Movie rockets along with the momentum of a Bullet Bill exploding out of a cannon. The Mushroom Kingdom is realized with incredible detail and reverence, and not even a Paper Mario-thin plot can keep the magic of the games from being lost along the way.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s setup is dead simple: while on a plumbing job underneath Brooklyn, brothers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom through a warp pipe and become embroiled in King Bowser’s (Jack Black) plans to steal the Super Star, which would give him the power to take over the Toad-filled domain of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). Mario’s Cheep-Cheep-out-of-water journey hits all the predictable beats of the “warrior from another world” narrative, but decades of Mario games ensure co-directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (Teen Titans Go!) have an infinite well of wild scenarios and iconography to pull from to stage inventive action moments, especially once Mario’s gotten a handle of how to properly fly with a Tanooki suit.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie almost always has an inventive in-world solution to whatever problem pops up that relies on something easily recognizable from the games, but never withholds explanation of how that thing works (even if the why goes rightfully ignored.) Whether it’s recreating the path of World 1-1 as Mario and Luigi parkour their way through Brooklyn or the pre-emptive giggle fans will get seeing Mario ingest a blue mushroom instead of a red one during a fight, The Super Mario Bros. Movie manages a great balance of accessibility for general audiences and inside jokes for those of us who’ve dipped in and out of the series over the years.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s heavy use of references isn’t a good thing in and of itself, but their inclusion feels justified because they are used in ways that feel relevant and organic to the world. At worst, sequences like the Rainbow Road race can feel a bit tacked on when they don’t fully make the case for being there with any kind of logical reason (being able to sell movie-branded Mario Kart toys doesn’t count), but then logic is not a currency anyone’s expecting The Super Mario Bros. Movie to trade in anyway. The movie trusts its audience isn’t going to care much about why platforms float, or why there are blocks with question marks all over the place full of power-ups that turn people into cats and flamethrowers. Once you’ve already bought in to things like that, giving 10 minutes of the movie up to staging a big-budget Mario Kart race so that a trek from A to B feels a little more lively is an easier pill to swallow.

The bombastic score perfectly expresses the grandeur and whimsy of the games' tracks.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s visual vibrance sets a very high bar for the other animated video game adaptations which will surely follow, be that from Nintendo or another studio. Bowser’s fire-versus-ice siege of the Penguin Kingdom, the expansive fungi vistas of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the lush greenery of the Kongs’ Jungle Kingdom are all super-saturated dreamscapes that coalesce into a bustling world begging to be explored further. Brian Tyler’s bombastic score takes care of the musical side of this equation, perfectly expressing the grandeur and whimsy of the games’ tracks at every turn and mining Koji Kondo’s original orchestrations to great effect. The Mario series has some of the most recognizable music cues in gaming history, and Tyler deploys many of them throughout the action just where you hope they’d drop.

The movie’s mostly excellent use of its source material does contrast with some ill-advised blockbuster animation tropes which can occasionally be grating. Kind of like someone stealing a star from you in Mario Party, the fantastic score makes the pop tracks that are shoehorned in feel lazy by comparison. A little “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn” as Mario and Luigi parkour their way through the borough never hurt anyone, but by the time Mario and Peach are being karted around the Jungle Kingdom to A-Ha’s “Take On Me,” you may find the needle drops being a little too much of a snap back to reality. That goes double for the writers being unable to resist the urge to have Donkey Kong himself saying “it’s on like Donkey Kong.” Moments like this - as well as the frequent use of slo-mo to highlight jokes - are a bit too cute, and hint at how easily The Super Mario Bros. Movie could’ve slipped into “generic animated movie” territory had it given way to more of these low-hanging stabs at making sure Uncle Jack has his “I understood that reference!” moment, too.

The interminable Discourse surrounding the voice acting in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as expected, feels totally out of touch with what the cast actually ended up delivering: enthusiastic performances that bring life to the characters, with no real weak link among them. Chris Pratt and Charlie Day’s Mario Bros. are certainly not going to be taking home any commendations from the good people of Brooklyn on their New York accents, but each handily embody their character’s heroism and bravery (hard won though that may be for Luigi). There’s definitely been a flattening of the more cartoonish qualities to the lead characters’ in-game voices - something the movie addresses immediately - but the choice to ground conversations in more a more natural delivery balances well with the fantastical trappings of the Mushroom Kingdom. More than that, it still leaves room for supporting characters like Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), Kamek (Kevin Michael Richardson), and Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) to be a little kookier and give the ensemble more range. And even though it’s a one-joke character with no impact on the plot, Lumalee’s (Juliet Jelenic, co-director Michael’s daughter) gleeful nihilism lands big laughs every time thanks mostly to the young voice actor’s unerring excitement, which bubbles behind every pitch black observation she makes while locked up with Luigi.

Jack Black’s Bowser feels like the standout vocal performance as the actor’s trademark bombast fits well with the Koopa King’s outsized sense of self. Bowser’s thirst for power isn’t explored in any serious way: he wants to take over the Mushroom Kingdom because he’s a bad guy and that’s what bad guys do - apparently he missed the point of that group session in Wreck-it Ralph. But Black’s Bowser is frightening, impetuous, and desperate for attention at times, and those frequent mood shifts lend his scenes unpredictability. Jables’ Bowser even performs a ballad in Peach’s honor which feels like a safe-for-work Tenacious D b-side, a descriptor I can’t imagine will upset any fans of Black’s musical chops.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is constantly and joyfully entertaining, and that’s crucial because it lacks any meaningful thematic throughline outside of “we can do anything when we work together!” That lesson feels like an obligated afterthought considering Mario and Luigi spend the majority of this movie separated - not because of any emotional fracture between them early on, but by pure happenstance (warp pipes are crazy!) The brothers mostly agree on everything, and both are quick to enlist the help of allies when the time comes, so the little effort that went into that aspect of the story goes very much amiss. This feels especially frustrating considering the pair of brief flashbacks which give us insights into the characters’ childhoods. Both of these short scenes manage a comparatively touching tone, and hint at better avenues the story could’ve explored to make Mario, Luigi, and Peach feel more fully formed.

The Verdict

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a fireball of animated fantasy. Mario, Luigi, and Peach’s adventure delights with its infectious energy and smart implementations of video game callbacks, and the top-shelf animation renders the Mushroom Kingdom as an Oz-like wonderland that begs to be explored in the inevitable sequels that will follow. The assembled voice cast puts a unique spin on each of their characters, but undercooked emotional arcs don’t get the same attention as the aesthetics, something not helped by a paint-by-numbers plot that bafflingly keeps Mario and Luigi away from each other for half the movie. Illumination and Nintendo set out to deliver a Mario movie that anyone could enjoy, and that anyone with even a passing knowledge of the games could get lost in - they’ve undeniably succeeded on both fronts.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The super mario bros. movie review.

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Three new movies are getting wide releases this week.

In a relatively quiet week ahead of a major new release, Lionsgate took the opportunity to debut two movies aimed at very different demographics. While Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie is still expected to top the box office this weekend — making it four for four over the entire month of April — the literary adaptation Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. and the genre title Sisu are aiming to successfully provide some counter-programming between mainstream fare.

Expanding into more than 3,300 theaters today, Are You There God? generated $600,000 from Thursday previews (and some early access screenings). Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig and starring Rachel McAdams and Abby Ryder Fortson , the comedy drama is based on Judy Blume ’s 1970 novel about a young girl’s journey to discover her religious identity. The movie has received phenomenal reviews , which might help push it past its currently projected weekend finish between $7 million and $9 million.

Playing in just 900 domestic theaters, the Finnish-language historical action film Sisu over-performed with $585,000 on Thursday. The film is currently eyeing a $4 million debut weekend, but this number could easily be higher considering the tremendous reviews that it has been getting. Sisu hails from filmmaker Jalmari Helander , best known for the 2010 horror comedy Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale , and stars Jorma Tommila and Aksel Hennie .

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Also opening this week is Sony’s faith-based sports drama Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World , directed by George Tillman Jr. The film is currently projected to gross $5 million this weekend, after pulling $250,000 from 2,600 theaters on Thursday. Big George Foreman is coming on the heels of two other faith-based hits — Jesus Revolution and His Only Son .

The Top Five Will Still Be Dominated by Holdover Hits

The top will likely still be dominated by holdover hits. Super Mario is looking to finish its fourth weekend with around $30 million. The animated video game adaptation added nearly $3 million on Thursday, pushing its running domestic total past the $450 million mark. John Wick: Chapter 4 also passed a major box office milestone on Thursday, as it finally overtook John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum ’s lifetime domestic total of $171 million to become the biggest film of the franchise both domestically and worldwide. The action sequel is eyeing $8 million this weekend. But number two will likely go to last week’s new release, the well-reviewed horror title Evil Dead Rise , which added $1.6 million on Thursday for a running domestic total of $32 million. The fifth film in the long-running horror franchise is expected to make around $10 million in its sophomore weekend.

Next week will see the release of Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 , which will finally dethrone Super Mario after a month of box office domination. You can watch our interview with Are You There God? writer-director Fremon Craig and author Blume here, and stay tuned to Collider for more box office updates over the weekend.

Screen Rant

Super mario bros. has an anime few know about, and it needs a reboot asap.

Super Mario Bros. is primarily known as a legendary game series, but it actually has an anime that few know about, and it needs a reboot ASAP.

An anime film based on Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan in 1986, but the franchise would benefit from a new anime.
Super Mario Bros. characters have expanded into various spin-offs like Super Princess Peach and Mario Kart, and they would be a great anime cast.
Miyamoto's vision for Mario as a normal guy could lead to a slice-of-life Super Mario Bros. anime series.

While Super Mario Bros. is primarily known as a legendary game series franchise, it actually has an anime that few know about, and it needs a reboot immediately . Just after the release of the first NES Super Mario , an anime film based on the game was created and released only in Japan.

Shigeru Miyamoto’s first characters, Donkey Kong, Pauline, and Super Mario, first appeared in 1981. Next came the 1983 arcade game, Mario Bros. , until finally, Super Mario Bros. was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on September 13, 1985. Since then, the imaginative world of Super Mario Bros. has reached every corner of the globe.

Fun Fact: Mario's name in Donkey Kong (1981) was originally "Jump Man."

For over 30 years, the franchise has expanded into a major game series with multiple spin-offs, including Super Princess Peach , Luigi’s Mansion , Mario Kart , and more. In 1993, Mario was seen on the big screen in a live-action movie, and again in 2023 in an animated film by Illumination, starring Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as the iconic brotherly duo. However, t he animated film was only released in Japan, so very few fans know about it, and it needs a series reboot ASAP.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2: Release Date & Everything We Know

A super mario bros. anime & manga series already exist (but they’re very old), few fans are aware of the anime film and manga series based on the mario franchise released over 30 years ago.

On July 20, 1986, the animated Super Mario Bros. film: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! , was released in Japan. Four years later, Super Mario-Kun , a monthly manga in CoroCoro Comic , was serialized in November 1990. Both the anime and manga were translated for a worldwide audience to enjoy. However, The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! didn’t receive an English dub until 36 years after its initial release , when a group of die-hard fans came together to re-dub the Japanese animated film. Since the original anime and manga, Super Mario Bros. has not received an updated anime adaptation.

Illumination Animation Studios produced the first major SMB film since the 1993 train-wreck starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo . Led by Christopher Melendandri and Shigeru Miyamoto, The Super Mario Bros. Movie became one of Universal Studios’ highest-grossing films of all time , earning $146 million on its opening weekend. The project was also nominated for multiple Golden Globes, including Best Motion Animated Picture and Best Original Song. The films’ overwhelming success l eft fans, both new and old, wanting more expansive stories, exploring the fantastical world of the Mario gang.

The Intricate Relationship Between Studio Ghibli and Nintendo

The fascinating history between studio ghibli and nintendo could reveal that a super mario anime series is highly plausible.

Super Mario Bros. has taken tidbits of inspiration from the Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli, which is one of the main reasons an anime adaptation reboot makes perfect sense. Yoichi Kotabe, a Japanese animator, played a pivotal role in the connection between Studio Ghibli and Nintendo. After leaving Toei Animation, Kotabe worked closely with Hayao Miyazaki, who would later become the director of Studio Ghibli. Together, Kotabe and Miyazaki helped to create The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun , which is considered by some to be the first unofficial Studio Ghibli film.

Around the same time, Hiroshi Ikeda, a former writer and director for Toei Animation, began working for Nintendo. He hired Kotabe to help Shigeru Miyamoto, who was a graphic designer at the time, develop Nintendo’s animation techniques and character designs for the iconic franchise, Super Mario Bros . Years later, Miyamoto, now a game director at Nintendo, admitted that he regularly takes inspiration from Studio Ghibli’s storytelling and art styles. This underlying connection between the two admired studios further exemplifies why a Super Mario Bros. anime adaptation is perfectly plausible.

The Expansive Possibilities of a Super Mario Bros. Anime Series

Since the first mario-themed game in 1981, nintendo has provided a plethora of lore to explore.

As seen in the 2023 movie, the Super Mario Bros. franchise is filled to the brim with Easter eggs , fan theories, and canon lore. For example, some of the most famous theories surround the original 1981 Donkey Kong game. There is a theory that the original protagonists, Jump Man and Pauline, are Mario and Luigi’s parents. On the other hand, since the release of Super Mario Odyssey in 2017, some speculate that Pauline is Mario’s ex-girlfriend.

Other unanswered questions include the true identities of Wario and Waluigi in relation to the Mario Bros., Peach’s parents, Daisy’s familial relation to Peach, and Bowser Jr.’s mother. Furthermore, some of the existing canon lore is somewhat contradictory. In the officially licensed Prima guides for Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii , Daisy is stated to be Peach’s supportive, fiery cousin. However, in Super Mario-Kun , Daisy is depicted as Peach’s rival, constantly battling for Mario’s attention. Regardless, it is clear that an anime series could provide long-awaited answers to some old fan theories and conflicting canon lore.

A Statement from Miyamoto Could Change the Whole Genre of Super Mario Bros.

Miyamoto stated that he wants mario to be seen as more than just a superhero.

With its arduous obstacle courses and iconic battle sequences, Super Mario Bros. could best be categorized as a Shōnen anime , alongside series like One Piece , Naruto , and Demon Slayer . While Illumination gave audiences a taste of the brothers’ day-to-day life at the film's beginning, the ending was cut short. As a result, fans were robbed of seeing the Bros. embrace their new life in the Mushroom Kingdom. However, a statement from Miyamoto during an interview with Variety , could inspire a whole new exploration of the Mario franchise: a slice-of-life element,

“I do not want Mario to be a superhero that is always on a pedestal. I want him to be a normal guy who doesn’t seek attention too much.” - Shigeru Miyamoto

Quintessential elements of slice-of-life anime include beach trips, sports games, and festival episodes. Both light-hearted and action anime with these beloved, real-life moments are effortlessly popular among viewers, making it the perfect addition to the Super Mario Bros. universe. However, every slice-of-life series needs a memorable, dynamic cast of characters, and Nintendo has crafted just that : Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi, and their royal companions, Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Daisy of Sarasaland.

Super Mario Bros. Characters That Deserve More Screen-Time

An anime series could bring some well-deserving characters to the forefront.

While the overall-clad protagonists could easily bring an anime series to life, the side characters capture the audience’s hearts, like with any anime series. Nintendo pleasantly surprised fans with new games like Princess Peach: Showtime! and Super Mario Bros. Wonder , both of which have key female figures. Additionally, the latter marked Daisy’s first appearance in a mainstream Mario game. An anime series incorporating powerful, complex female characters such as Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Pauline, and Rosalina could make a Super Mario Bros. anime series really shine.

Furthermore, a budding romance between two of Nintendo’s most underrated characters could be the anime series’ biggest asset. The franchise’s use of Princess Daisy has always been sporadic. The competitive princess mainly appears as a side character in spin-offs such as Mario Strikers . However, in the 1993 film, Daisy replaced Peach as the primary love interest alongside John Leguizamo's Luigi. The most intriguing Easter egg surrounding Daisy and Luigi’s relationship is in Mario Kart Wii (2008) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe . On the orange princess’s titular course, Daisy Circuit, a massive statue depicting a dance with her supposed love interest, sits in the center.

Finally, one of the defining traits of Mario games, the boss battles, could bring the Super Mario anime series to the next level. Bowser has become one of the most recognizable villains in video game history. However, the SMB universe includes countless antagonists that would prove to be an epic challenge for Mario and the gang to overcome, including Mr. L, Luigi’s little-known alter-ego. King Boo, Dimentio, Fawful, Foreman Spike, and Count Bleck are just a few examples of the many foes that could produce legendary fight sequences in an anime series.

Shigeru Miyamoto is Protective of Mario’s Legacy, Which Could Help Bring His Story to Life

A super mario bros. anime series could ease miyamoto’s worries, putting creative power back in nintendo’s hands.

The 2023 Illumination adaptation of Super Mario Bros. was a raging success, but it didn’t happen overnight. Chris Melendandri of Illumination Studios worked closely with Miyamoto to secure the right to the esteemed franchise. Since the box-office failure of the 1993 film, along with severe fan and cast backlash, Nintendo was hesitant to allow another adaptation to be produced. However, the 2023 film became one of the most successful video game adaptations of all time, exceeding the studios’ expectations.

While Miyamoto’s fears were eased upon the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie , an anime series could be a fantastic way for Miyamoto and Nintendo to have complete creative control of the franchise. One aspect that Miyamoto was passionate about when negotiating with Nintendo was the film’s resemblance to the video games:

“The reason we were so resistant and careful to adapt our games into movies is because in video games there is always a player who overcomes challenges and fights their way through. Their struggle — redoing the levels over and over — is all part of it.”

A multi-episodic series of Super Mario and his friends could capture the magic of the Illumination film and so much more. Super Mario Bros. , Nintendo’s crown jewel, has an anime and manga series that very few know about, but it needs a reboot now more than ever.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Mario jumps to the big screen in The Super Mario Bros Movie, directed by Teen Titans Go! collaborators Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and more appear in this animated comedy that pits the characters in an all-new adventure set in the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond. You can buy The Super Mario Bros. Movie right now for $13, down from its usual price of $20.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2: Release Date And Other Things We Know About The Movie

Are we going back to the Mushroom Kingdom?

Mario, Peach, and Toad stand among pink fluffy clouds in The Super Mario Bros Movie.

The Release Date
Nintendo and Illumination
The Directors
Other Nintendo Movies

In the year since The Super Mario Bros . Movie became the second-biggest theatrical release of 2023 and one of the best video game adaptations of all time, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding a potential sequel. Well, no surprise, but not only is The Super Mario Bros . Movie 2 (or whatever it ends up being called) happening, we actually know quite a bit about one of the most anticipated releases of the next few years.

So, if you’re someone who has been eagerly awaiting what will probably be one of the biggest upcoming video game movies on the horizon, stick around and come with us down the “Rainbow Road” of awesome details about the film and its future. Here’s everything we know about The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 , including its release date, the creative team making it happen, and so much more…

What Is The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 Release Date?

There’s good news and there’s great news when it comes to The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 , as we don’t only know when the upcoming sequel will hit the big screen, but we also know it won’t be that long of a wait because it has a release date of April 3, 2026 . The official Nintendo of America X (formerly Twitter) account shared the news on March 10, 2024, a.k.a. “Mario Day,” saying that the animated movie will land in other territories throughout April 2026.

Who's Returning Or Joining The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 Cast

Though we have a release date for The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 , Nintendo has yet to reveal exactly who will be returning from the first film’s cast . That being said, we can still make some educated guesses as to who’ll be returning to the franchise once Mario returns to the Mushroom Kingdom, or wherever the sequel takes place.

Chris Pratt , who voiced the iconic plumber in the first film, has teased the sequel over the past year, so it appears the Marvel and Jurassic World star will once again be leading the cast the second time around. We would assume Bowser will, again, be voiced by Jack Black, who even found a spot on the Billboard charts with his “Peaches” song, but the actor described the situation as “radio silence” in late 2023.

Nothing’s been said about Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlie Day ’s Princess Peach and Luigi, respectively, but it’s hard to imagine The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 cast not including any of those staples from the first film. Expect to hear more about casting news in the weeks and months ahead.

Though Plot Details Haven’t Been Revealed, The Super Mario Bros. Movie Will Have A ‘Bright And Fun Story’

Mario in Tanooki suit in The Super Mario Bros. Movie

There are so many directions The Super Mario Bros. Movie could take when it comes to its story, but Nintendo has yet to make those plans public at the time of this writing. However, in the same X post where Nintendo of America revealed the film’s release date, the iconic video game publisher teased a “bright and fun story” for Mario’s next adventure:

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We’re thinking about broadening Mario’s world further, and it’ll have a bright and fun story. We hope you’ll look forward to it.

Well, not only are longtime fans of the franchise looking forward to what the film’s creative team has cooking for the sequel, but some have even begun to share theories about its potential story and where it could be taking us in April 2026. And, with so many games having been released under the Mario banner over the past 40 years, there are certainly some wild adventures the movie could pull from. The dynamic worlds of Super Mario Galaxy , the satisfying callbacks and mechanics of Super Mario Odyssey , and even the wild direction of Super Mario Bros. 2 (the Western version) could make for a fun sequel.

The New Mario Movie Will Once Again Be A Collaboration Between Nintendo And Illumination

The cast of The Super Mario Bros. Movie riding Mario Karts on Rainbow Road.

The worlds of video games and animated films came together magically (and successfully) for The Super Mario Bros. Movie with the collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment, and the two powerhouses of their respective industries will attempt to capture lightning in a bottle a second time with the film’s sequel.

In a Mario Day 2024 video announcing The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 , the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that Nintendo would be working in concert with Illumination yet again. Best of all, it sounds like the animation team responsible for crafting the worlds and characters seen in the 2023 box office juggernaut will once again be doing what they do best with the 2026 release.

Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic Are Returning To Direct The Video Game Sequel

Mario tearfully streaking through the air on a Bullet Bill in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Not only will the producers from the first film be returning for The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 , but the filmmaking duo who led the charge will also be back for another round of action. During the aforementioned Mario Day 2024 video, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri revealed that Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic were already busy at work with the animation team to come up with ideas and storyboard various scenes in the early stages of development.

Though production hadn’t gotten started at the time of the March 10th video, Meledandri noted that the process would begin soon, so expect to hear much more about that aspect of the process in the coming months, if not sooner.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 Isn’t The Only Nintendo Cinematic Project In The Works

Link holding arm up in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 is certainly the biggest Nintendo adaptation on the way, but it’s far from being the only upcoming project based on the publisher’s great characters. Back in November 2023, Nintendo announced that a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie was in development at Sony Pictures with Wes Ball serving as its director. There hasn’t been much in terms of updates since the announcement, but with Zelda being one of video game’s most beloved franchises, it’s only a matter of time before we hear more.

But there could also be even more movies based on Nintendo games on the way. Several Easter eggs , including The Super Mario Bros. Movie ’s post-credits scene , also set up further movies set within the character’s expansive universe like Yoshi, and maybe even a Luigi’s Mansion spinoff if we’re lucky.

Expect to hear much more about The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel in the coming months and years as we look toward its eventual release. In the meantime, however, don’t forget to check out our breakdown of the 2024 movie schedule , which includes several high-profile video game films.

Philip grew up in Louisiana (not New Orleans) before moving to St. Louis after graduating from Louisiana State University-Shreveport. When he's not writing about movies or television, Philip can be found being chased by his three kids, telling his dogs to stop barking at the mailman, or chatting about professional wrestling to his wife. Writing gigs with school newspapers, multiple daily newspapers, and other varied job experiences led him to this point where he actually gets to write about movies, shows, wrestling, and documentaries (which is a huge win in his eyes). If the stars properly align, he will talk about For Love Of The Game being the best baseball movie of all time.

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Miyamoto confirms new Super Mario Movie from Illumination coming in 2026, but instead of a sequel, the film is "broadening Mario's world"

Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto is back in a producing role

Following the billion-dollar success of the first Super Mario Bros. Movie, series owner Nintendo and animation studio Illumination have announced another film "based on the world of Super Mario Bros."

"We are now creating a new animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros," series creator Shigeru Miyamoto announces on Nintendo's Twitter . "This film is planned for release in theaters on April 3rd, 2026 in the US and many other markets, and throughout the month of April in other territories."

“We'll let you know the details once we’re ready to share more," he continues. "This time too, the staff at Illumination and Nintendo are working together. We're thinking about broadening Mario's world further, and it'll have a bright and fun story."

Both companies curiously stop short of calling the follow-up a sequel, though the mention of "broadening Mario's world" certainly implies that the mustachioed plumber might still be in the front seat. But Nintendo is no stranger to spotlighting other characters in the Mushroom Kingdom for a solo adventure, between Luigi's Mansion, Yoshi's Island, or the upcoming Princess Peach game .

Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto return as producers, according to Nintendo's announcement post . Aaron Horvath and Micheal Jelenic are back in the director's chair(s). And Matthew Fogel is once again penning the screenplay.

Nintendo writes that it will "continue its efforts to produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible." The company is reportedly gearing up to launch its Nintendo Switch successor next year, along with producing an upcoming Legend of Zelda live-action film in collaboration with Sony .

Jack Black recently defended the Super Mario Movie against negative reviews while teasing his upcoming role in the Minecraft film.

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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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Ethan Coen's latest has gathered up a large ensemble cast.

preview for Chris Pratt & Charlie Day on who could join the Super Mario Bros Movie

As reported by Deadline , 13 actors have now joined the previously-announced Chris Evans, Aubrey Plaza, and Margaret Qualley in the comedy Honey Don't!

The other newcomers alongside Day include Difficult People and Bros star Billy Eichner, Broadway star Talia Ryder, Gina Yei actor Jacnier, Blue Bloods and Succession actor Gabby Beans, House of Cards ' Kristin Connolly and Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin 's Lera Abova.

The large ensemble also includes Snowpiercer 's Lena Hall, True Blood actor Don Swayze, Runaway 's Josh Pafchek, Red Dead Redemption 2 's Kale Browne, Magnolia Flowers actor Alexander Carstoiu, and Spartacus ' Christian Antidormi.

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Production is currently ongoing in New Mexico, and KFTV previously reported that the movie will centre on a detective investigating a young woman's mysterious death, and whether it's linked to a mysterious local church.

It's been confirmed that frequent Coen Brothers collaborator, and Ethan's wife, Tricia Cooke, has co-written the script with her husband.

We also know that the film is said to be in a similar vein to the couple's comedy road trip movie Drive-Away Dolls , which starred Qualley.

Related: Bros ' Billy Eichner defends film's poor box office performance

Day has a few upcoming projects including the dark comedy Kill Me , which sees him play a man who wakes up after nearly dying. While all evidence points it to looking like one thing, he sets out with the aid of a 911 operator to prove that things aren't as they seem.

There's also the confirmed sequel to The Super Mario Bros Movie , and the Luigi actor told Digital Spy last year which Always Sunny co-star he thought would be a good addition to the cast.

"If you put anyone from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia into the Mushroom Kingdom, they're going to be great. Maybe [Danny] DeVito would be a great Wario," he said. "He would be really good."

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer and resident Welsh person at Digital Spy , having worked there since 2016.

In his time he's covered a host of live events, interviewed celebrities big and small and crowbarred a countless amount of great/awful (delete as appropriate) puns into articles.

A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe's main interest is in video gaming. Although particularly a PlayStation gamer, he plays across Xbox, Nintendo and PC/Steam Deck, and likes to keep tabs on many games he's not got the time to play.

Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish (which you really should do).

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie movie review (2023)
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" opens in Brooklyn with the plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day) trying to get their new business off the ground.Some Nintendo easter eggs in the background of these initial scenes should produce a small smile from people of my generation, and there's a bit of inspiration structurally, like a clever early shot in which Mario and ...
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Our review: Parents say ( 64 ): Kids say ( 99 ): Nintendo fans will feel like they grabbed a Super Star while watching this brightly colored magical adventure, which mashes several Mario games up into a full storyline. But for viewers who are less familiar, sitting through The Super Mario Bros. Movie may feel like watching a second grader play ...
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie review: This faithful adaptation often feels like a cutscene. The new animated film — featuring the voices of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black ...
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Read a review of 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie, ' which is helped enormously by a talented voice cast including Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Jack Black and others.
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie is out this week, and many of the first reviews are calling it a fun and faithful animated adventure. Whether you're a hardcore fan of the Nintendo franchise or nostalgically curious, there's apparently a lot to enjoy in the video game adaptation. ... The Super Mario Bros Movie is very much a kids' movie that ...
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While working underground to fix a water main, Brooklyn plumbers Mario and brother Luigi (Charlie Day) are transported down a mysterious pipe and wander into a magical new world. But when the brothers are separated, Mario embarks on an epic quest to find Luigi. With the assistance of a Mushroom Kingdom resident Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) and some training from the strong-willed ruler of the ...
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a great kids film, but it's afraid to take any major creative risks. ... Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low dives into new releases from Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, and ...
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I have a soft spot for it, and think it deserves more credit, but one of these films is a Super Mario Bros. Movie, another is a fairly enjoyable cyberpunk romp wearing Super Mario accessories. 22 6
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 2023 American animated adventure comedy film based on Nintendo's Mario video game franchise. Produced by Universal Pictures, Illumination, and Nintendo, and distributed by Universal, it was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and written by Matthew Fogel. The ensemble voice cast includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan ...
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Movie Review. You may think of Mario and his brother, Luigi, as a couple of thickly accented Italian plumbers with bright, monogramed outfits and bushy mustaches. ... With the announcement of a new animated Super Mario Bros. movie, I'd wager there were a lot of people worrying that some Hollywood braintrust was going to, once again, ruin a ...
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2023 film of the same name, based on Nintendo's Mario video game franchise. The original score for the film is composed by Brian Tyler, who incorporated and remixed the original themes from longtime Mario composer Koji Kondo under his collaboration. According to Tyler, he wanted to "incorporate the music ...
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Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, April 3, 2023. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 92 MIN.