The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) – Transported through a mysterious pipe, down and out Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi find themselves trapped in the Mushroom Kingdom. Separated from his brother, and with the dangerous Bowser looking to marry Princess Peach at all costs, can Mario and his new friends fight back?

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) – Director: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic

By Universal, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68810546

Rating: PG

Running Length: 92 mins

Starring: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black

Genres: Comedy, Adventure

REVIEW: ‘THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023)’

When the last movie made about your characters is widely regarded as one of the worst of all time, really anything you make must by default be better. Nintendo certainly aren’t taking any chances with this 2023 animated re-do. By teaming up with Illumination (the studio behind ‘Despicable Me‘), they have produced an end product finely tuned by committee to stuff every little element of the games into a glossy, if vapid, slice of content.

The plot, such as it is, serves as reason to go from familiar place A to familiar place B. Mario (Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) get sucked into a strange world and separated. Thus Luigi cowers whilst Mario makes friends such as Princess Peach (Taylor-Joy) and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) before setting off to rescue him. There’s a minor layer about having to prove himself but within the very lean 90 minutes (including credits) there is only time for colour and sound, not character.

Which is fine. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) is fine. It is a perfectly adequate crafted collection of ‘ooo, I know that!’ moments for fans of a game that hasn’t changed it’s ‘save the captive’ plot in 30 odd years. Mario Kart sequence? Check. Super Smash Bros. fight? Yup. Pipes? Oh, so many. Every little familiar beat of music, power up, or sound effect is there and is guaranteed to slap a smile on the faces of those who like seeing things they know, i.e. children.

‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)’ doesn’t add any extra layers on top. There is no self-awareness like ‘The Lego Movie‘ or drop of poignancy in the gags like ‘Sonic the Hedgehog‘. It’s a fun theme park ride that coasts for the build ups, saving its spectacle for the set pieces. Bowser’s insecurities are exploited for some good humour and Mario bounces off everything unharmed, and inherently charmed.  It’ll keep the kids happy and tickle the nostalgia of any gamer. Nintendo remain safe, and presumably a lot richer, as a result.

CONTENT: IS ‘THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023)’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

In an argument in a restaurant, Mario is picked up bodily and thrown to the ground. He glowers at his mean assailant.

On a plumbing job, a dog is upset at Luigi’s presence. It waits until Mario and Luigi are in the bathroom and then approaches slowly whilst growling and baring it’s teeth. It attacks them aggressively. As the first lunge is direct to camera this could upset children who don’t like aggressive dogs. However, the scene quickly becomes comedic.

At a family dinner, Mario’s family make fun of him. Mario’s father is dismissive of his efforts. Mario leaves the table, upset, and goes to his room.

Mario and Luigi grab each other as they are swept away by a mysterious force. Mario says that they’ll be “fine, so long as they stay together.” However, Luigi is suddenly separated from him and flies away into a scary looking place. Mario is briefly upset until he lands at his own destination.

Luigi lands in a scary dead-looking forest. He wanders, trembling. Bats flap past him in a jump scare moment. A skeletal creature lunges at him with glowing fire eyes, accompanied by a loud musical sting. More of the creatures suddenly burst out of the ground, pulling themselves out whilst moaning. They chase Luigi who runs away in terror, locking himself into an abandoned mansion. Lightning flashes and briefly illuminates that he is surrounded by small masked figures, then the scene cuts. This is probably the scariest moment in the film and lasts around two minutes.

A flashback to Baby Luigi and Baby Mario shows a bully kicking over Luigi’s block building and laughing. Baby Mario quickly appears to defend his brother.

Bowser ‘tortures’ Luigi by pulling on a single hair of his moustache to make him talk. He then grabs a whole side of it and pulls hard. Luigi is in pain but the overall tone is comedic due to the absurd nature of pulling on a moustache to make someone talk. When talking about Mario, Bowser growls, “We’ll see how tough he is when I kill his brother.”

Two characters visit the Kong kingdom. They knock on a door which bursts open to reveal a large ape who roars right into the camera in a jump scare moment.

When a large amount of cars are driving to a destination, one character interrupts a conversation between Mario and Peach to mock him, saying “Is this you flirting?”

A creature with a blue shell is defeated in a race but grows wings and targets the lead vehicle. It explodes on impact, presumably ‘killing’ itself in the process. However, this is just like as in the video game Mario Kart and would unlikely be understood to be an actual ‘death’ by children.

Two characters land in the ocean and are swallowed by a large shark like creature. This is sudden and a jump scare.

One character is caught in a magic spell and ‘electrified’ causing them to cry out in pain. This is very brief.

Several characters are trapped in cages suspended above lava. They are slowly descended towards the lava in a tense and exciting moment, but one main character is scared and tries desperately to climb up the cage to avoid the lava. this lasts around 30 seconds.

Bowser can breathe fire and blasts a powerful jet at two characters. This is deflected at first but for a moment it appears as if the fire has consumed them. The moment is brief but could upset some children. However, this is right at the end of the movie and so any child that has been fine up to this point will likely be ok.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?