The Super Mario Bros. Movie / ザ・スーパーマリオプラザーズ・ムービー(2023)

On September the 23rd of 2021, I was watching a Nintendo Direct expecting more information on videogames coming to the Nintendo Switch, when all of a sudden Shigeru Miyamoto himself came barging in and dropped on us a comedic bombshell: The cast for this movie. Without any further context, names came flying past your screen before you had any chance to recover. Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. Needless to say, I laughed profusely, and knew that this film would either be an enjoyable mess, or a pretty good time.

Luckily, it wasn’t bad! In fact, I quite liked it. The plot is fine and the script is decent, with good performances from the whole cast that really brought the characters to life. The animation is great and surprisingly fluid. Although the score was very nice, it utilized too many listened tracks and sometimes detracts from the movie. Some of the easter eggs were pretty deep cuts, and if you are a video game enthusiast you will get a kick out of them.

All in all, I had a pretty good time and it is easy to see why this film earned a billion dollars. Woo-Hoo! 8/10.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently playing in theaters.