“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was released on April 5, 2023. This film followed Mario (Chris Pratt) trying to get his little brother Luigi (Charlie Day) back from the dark land, where he is in the hands of Bowser (Jack Black), who has possession of the Super Star, which he plans to use to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario sets off on this quest with the help of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogan). This movie exceeded my expectations and had me fully immersed in the film.
One of the many things that blew me away in this movie was the score by Brian Tyler, a famous composer who has composed music for movies and video games, so this was right up his alley. The score took music tracks from various different Mario games and remade them with epic instrumentals. The score periodically put me in tears because of how it took these songs from my childhood and made them sound so grand. According to Los Angeles Times, there is a minimum of 130 references to the Mario franchise in the score. I have seen a lot of movies in my lifetime, but none have had such an impactful score as this film.
A gripe that I hear a lot of people talk about was the pacing, and I totally agree; the movie was going super fast. This movie was also targeted to children mostly, so you can’t really blame them for giving it an hour and 32-minute runtime.
I went into this movie expecting it to be good, and it was excellent. It’s an indescribable feeling when you see these characters you grew up with on the big screen, and it’s a huge nostalgia trip. Though the 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes could be a bit frightening, it is an excellent film for the targeted audience. This film is jam-packed with easter eggs, cameos and on-screen chemistry, and I couldn’t get enough. I went and watched this movie with my friend, and we are both die-hard Nintendo fans. Every time there was a reference or a cameo, we would look at each other and point. It was awesome to experience that with one of my best friends, and that made the film that much better. Though the film was made for children, if you are a long-time fan of the Mario franchise or just a Nintendo fan in general, you will have a blast with this movie.