[Rating: Minor Rock Fist Up]
Since the first Super Mario Bros. Movie was released three years ago, I’ve played more games in the Mario-Nintendo Universe. So, it very much pleases me to note that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (once more directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic) is a worthy sequel filled with lots of easter eggs that had me pointing at the screen every so often to catch them all!
Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) lives in her Comet Observatory with her Lumas, little star creatures. She’s captured by Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), who whisks her away along with one of her Lumas. She tells her Luma to save itself and find help.
Meanwhile in the Mushroom Kingdom, Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) save the Luma and travel with it among the stars in order to save Rosalina. Mario (Chris Pratt) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day), alongside their new sidekick Yoshi (Donald Glover) are left in charge of the Kingdom. They are also left in charge to make sure a now tiny Bowser (Jack Black) stays on his best behavior during his imprisonment. However, when the Princess is away, the castle is attacked by Bowser Jr., who is looking for his father. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Bowser escape, with Bowser now wanting to help Mario, as he feels he has been a bad father and doesn’t want any harm to the brother plumbers.
Back to Peach and Toad, they journey to a different planet in order to find the whereabouts of Rosalina. In their quest, they find help from Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) , a space pilot who can get them where they need to go. Soon, the entire team is back together (sans Bowser who decided to join his son after all – of course) and save Rosalina before the Bowser’s enact their evil plan to destroy the galaxy.
The one word I could describe this movie is loud. Loud colors, loud noises, loud plot. Now, that’s not to say it’s bad at all. In fact, I liked this a bit more than the first, because we have established characters who go on their own quests across the galaxy. I loved seeing a lot of things I could recognize, especially characters from my favorite games, Mario Odyssey and Mario World 3D. The new characters from Glover and Safdie are very enjoyable and really sell their parts to live up to fans expectations. And, for an animated flick, it’s a very good looking one at that!
This Mario film follows the sequel narrative very well of splitting the team apart, only to bring them all together and honestly, that cliche works a bunch here. Throw in every sort of Nintendo reference in honor of its 40th anniversary, and you have a successful setup for a sequel.
Christian Ramos is a classic film fan, having had the dream to host Turner Classic Movies for years now. He also has a large amount of Oscar trivia in his head, remembers dressing as Groucho Marx one Halloween, and cherishes the moment Julianne Moore liked his tweet.
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