The Super Mario Bros. Movie

On 04/24/2023 at 01:55 PM by KnightDriver

I saw this the weekend it came out on IMAX. I enjoyed it quite a bit from story to cast to music.

I thought the story was well told. Mario and Luigi, plumbers in the real world, get pulled into a fantasy land through a magic pipe and are forced to fight King Koopa (turtle), Bowser for the Super Star. I loved all the video game references especially related to Luigi's Mansion and Donkey Kong Country which are both significant locations in the film.

I really enjoyed the voice cast. I spotted Charlie Day's voice as Luigi right away even though I didn't know he was in this. Jack Black did a great Bowser. I thought one scene showing his dark court with heavy metal rockin' Koopa's really fun, if incredibly short. Keegan-Michael Key was a great exhuberant Toad. I really enjoyed the Kamek character, voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, as Bowser's right-hand man. His magic powers were impressive.

The Mario Kart inspired battle scenes made me think of Mad Max: Fury Road with those elaborate vehicles and raucous destruction. That was a really fun sequence.

What has stayed in my memory the most though is the music. They weaved the theme music into so many corners of the film. It was really fun to hear it in unexpected places. Touches of the music from Luigi's Mansion too and many others. I'm keen to get my hands on the soundtrack to hear all the musical references made. I believe it's just out now, and I will be getting it.

Cary Woodham

04/28/2023 at 04:15 PM

I watched the Mario movie a couple of weeks ago. While I can understand why the critics had problems with it, I still enjoyed it. Sure it had no plot and the dialogue was mediocre at best and I wasn't always thrilled with the voice cast. But it was a heck of a lot better than the last Mario movie we got. I'm a big fan of MST3K and Rifftrax and I can sit through a lot of bad movies. But I couldn't sit through five minutes of that live action Mario movie. Ugh!

My two favorite things were all the references and Easter Eggs to find, and the music score which had loads of Mario game licks thrown in. It was also great to have a movie the whole family could enjoy and not have any political or social commentary thrown in. I also really liked their plumbing van and the commercial rap that made reference to the old cartoon. I only wish they would "Do the Mario" at the end credits!

I hope in the future we get a Luigi's Mansion movie. I think that would make a much better movie than a generic Mario one. Or maybe one of Nintendo's other franchises that I like way more than Mario, like Kirby, Animal Crossing, Zelda, Metroid, etc.

Sorry it took so long to respond to this blog. I was actually busy this past week doing something else Mario related! This past week I went to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Hollywood! As soon as I collect my thoughts and organize my pictures, I'll be sure to talk about it all in LOTS more detail later. Long story short, though, is that while I enjoyed it and was glad I got to go, I don't think I want to do it again. At least not for a LONG while!

KnightDriver

04/29/2023 at 09:28 AM

I liked the visual thrills in SMB movie. Who needs plot in a movie about a platformer? I loved the music and can't wait to get the soundtrack. I believe it's out now.

I would love a Luigi's Mansion movie. Kirby would be great. What was the deal with the scene after the credits? (Spoiler for anyone reading this, so I'll cover it.) Yoshi movie?

I can't wait to hear about your trip!

04/30/2023 at 07:29 AM

I'm just going to put a SPOILER ALERT right here, although I don't think it's much of a spoiler.

So there wasn't much Yoshi in the Mario movie, except for one scene where you saw a herd of Yoshis running by in the background as Mario and Peach were walking in a montage. So I guess maybe they're hinting that Yoshi will be featured more in the next movie. And you know they're going to have a sequel since the Mario movie is almost about to reach a billion in sales and maybe even surpass Frozen as the highest grossing animated feature of all time. Which I think is hilarious.

05/01/2023 at 03:21 PM

Well, that's great! I always liked Yoshi.

PixlBit