After its announcement 40 years ago, the new animated Mario Bros movie is finally here! Made by the studio that brought you The Secret Life of Pets and the Despicable Me franchise... yeah I'll admit the idea of this studio making a Mario movie didn't exactly excite me when I first heard about it. Then the announcement of the cast made me feel a little more confused than I would have hoped (at least the voice of Mario anyway). So with all those things going against it, I still went into this movie with more positive thoughts and hope. So the time has come and the movie has been released, does it live up to the hype or were my worries about this movie proven to be legitimate?
I'm happy to say that this movie is... pretty good actually. There are good and bad things here for sure, but I think ultimately the good stuff keeps this movie from being a mediocre kid's movie. Yeah, so make sure you know this movie is aimed at kids mostly, with some nice little nods to the ones who grew up with the classic Mario games in the 80s and 90s. The humor and dialog are still aimed to make the kids laugh and keeping them entertained. I'll start with the good stuff first though and the main thing you'll notice when watching this is how great the visuals are. There is huge attention to detail in the world and characters that will have you scanning the screen looking for references and easter eggs, but also just enjoying the bright and iconic landscapes of the mushroom kingdom and other Mario levels you might remember. By far the best visuals of any Illumnation movie to date. My only minor complaint would be of Mario himself, I don't know how to explain it but he just didn't feel like Mario from the video games exactly. It's a mix of the visual style and the voice by Chris Pratt that makes it feel a little off. That being said all the other characters are great and the voices fit them well, especially Bowser played by Jack Black. Bowser is the character who steals the scenes and is the best part of the movie when he's onscreen as he's the funniest and Jack Black just nails the vocal performance.
The story plays out as an origin story for Mario and Luigi and how they first got to the Mushroom Kingdom. They start off as struggling plumbers in New York, who can't seem to find clients for their new business. When the streets of New York start to flood, the Mario Brothers try to fix it by entering the sewers, only to accidentally stumble on a warp pipe that sends them to the mysterious land of the Mushroom Kingdom. There they find themselves caught in the middle of Bowser's plan to rule the world. Mario must team up with his new friends Peach and Toad to stop Bowser and find his brother Luigi. It plays out exactly like you'd expect a Mario video game storyline to, which isn't a bad thing at all. The humor isn't too far off what you'd find in other Illumination movies, kinda hit or miss for me. The story is still enjoyable enough to keep things interesting for the hour-and-a-half length of this movie. It's short and sweet and never feels like it wastes too much time, except maybe at the start where it felt like a little too much time was spent in New York.
There were a few things in the movie I didn't like too much. As I mentioned before, Mario feels a little off in this movie. Donkey Kong makes an appearance and he's pretty fun, but Seth Rogen as the voice just pretty much sounds like Seth Rogen so it's a little distracting. The humor is overly slapstick at times and can get a bit repetitive in that way. There are only so many times I can watch Mario get hurt before it kinda stops being funny. The movie also introduces Mario and Luigi's family in New York and they are barely in the movie, which makes a scene at the end feel a bit shoehorned in.
After the movie ended I felt good as the credits rolled. This felt like a solid Mario movie, one that I was happy to see after all these years of waiting. My expectations weren't high going in, but I think it surpassed them overall. The visuals and the fun characters are enough to ignore some flaws in its humor and storytelling. It felt like the people behind the scenes really cared about the characters and the video games and really made a movie that I think most fans of the games will at least like and possibly even love. I guess I fall somewhere in between those two. I think it's a good movie, but one where there could have been a few things done better to really make a great family Mario movie.
Jack Black is amazing.
Overall Grade: B
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