I have not seen a movie in the theater in a long time mainly because I haven’t been interested in a lot of the features that were released in a while. I was skeptical about the Mario Movie, but I had heard good things about it. My son is headed toward a game designer career and he is very picky about movies and animation in general. After the credits rolled, he said, “That was well done.” That’s a high compliment if there ever was one. He was right, though. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
Nintendo collaborated with Illumination and Universal to produce the movie. Voicing of the characters is performed by Chris Pratt as Mario, Jack Black as Bowser, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong and many more. The movie is based on the highly popular Mario Bros. video game series by Nintendo that has been around since the 1990s. Even if you are not a gamer, you might be able to recognize elements from all the games infused into the movie. The movie opened in tandem with the opening of Super Mario World at the Universal Theme Park in California.
The plot is a straightforward one that tells the story of two brothers, Mario and Luigi, who start a plumbing business. While taking a call for a plumbing emergency, Mario and Luigi are sucked into a pipe that sends them on a journey through space and time. On the way, the brothers are separated: Mario ends up in the Mushroom World ruled by Princess Peach and Luigi ends up with the Koopas, ruled over by Bowser. Luigi is captured by the Koopas and engages the Mushroom people to help rescue him.
The movie has received rave reviews from the audience, but not so much from critics. No matter what the critics have said, Super Mario Bros. can claim the highest-grossing film so far in 2023, bringing in a little over $1 billion. It has also been recognized as the highest-grossing film based on a video game and also the biggest opening weekend for an animated film.
The movie was released on April 9. 2023 and will remain in theaters for a little while longer, so make plans to see it in the theaters in the next couple of weeks. After that, it will be released for on-demand viewing on May 9. Peacock plans to stream it starting in June and on DVD formats on July 1. The movie is also headed to Netflix at the end of the year.
One way or another, the Super Mario Bros. movie is one to see. It is an entertaining film that the whole family will enjoy. Make sure to see it in some form. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
