With the Mushroom Kingdom now being safely guarded by Mario and Luigi (voiced again by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day) and Bowser (voiced again by Jack Black) still stuck as a tiny prisoner of Princess Peach (voiced again by Anya Taylor-Joy), peace seems to have finally returned for the magical realm, but it doesn’t last very long as Bowser’s son, Bowser Jr. (voiced by Benny Safdie) rescues his father from captivity, takes him to the newly made ‘’Planet Bowser’’, and tells him of his plan to use the power of the intergalactic and recently captured Princess Rosalina (voiced by Brie Larson) to charge a mega death ray that’ll wipe out most of the galaxy. With Peach heading off to search for Rosalina along with Toad (voiced again by Keegan-Michael Key), and Mario and Luigi following behind with their new dinosaur companion, Yoshi (voiced by Donald Glover), this galactic rescue mission gets underway as the gang encounters all kinds of enemies and allies along the way as they try to free this new princess and stop their long-time enemy.
THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE is practically identical to its previous film in positives and negatives, but instead of fixing the problems, it may’ve doubled down on them to the point that even the die-hards can’t ignore them so easily. While still vibrantly animated, nicely voice acted, and has just enough heart to feel like it has at least some point behind its mayhem, the overly brisk pacing, flimsy narrative with even flimsier character arcs, and little to no substance present in the script or plot, prevents it from ascending to new heights.
Learning that critics didn’t like this sequel was no surprise considering their dislike for the first, but the specific level of vitriol is interesting considering Illumination have always made animated films that offered little substance or variety and mostly relied on high-quality animation, hyperactive slapstick comedy, and celebrity casting to pander to their children demographic. While this didn’t automatically ruin all their features, it gave them an identity and The Super Mario Movie continued this mindset, with the fans helping keep the film afloat amongst the negative critical reception by pushing it past a billion dollars at the box office, so it’s not shocking that the sequel had the same mentality.
On the surface, it feels roughly the same as the first, offering a hyperactive reference-filled experience that doesn’t pay much attention to character or narrative and instead allows fans and kids to get lost in watching these gaming icons play out familiar scenarios. While this first movie just barely made this work with just a smidgen of story and character, THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE has given up even that bare minimum, providing even more excess fan service within a plot that is extremely loose and barely held together despite the outline being incredibly simple.
With Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic returning as director, Matthew Fogel returning as the sole screenwriter, and Chris Meledandri and Shigeru Miyamoto still acting as producers, there wasn’t going to be a massive shift in delivery, but the film gets easily sidetracked despite its minimal length, the characters barely advance despite the opportunity to do so (albeit minimally), and the action and visuals are very pleasant and frenetic, but feel extra hollow since the story doesn’t have much drive or urgency.
Aside from a largely unfunny script and directionless plot that wastes the potential that could come from a movie based on the popular 2007 game (which didn’t have a super grand story, but had a weight and elegance to its presentation which would’ve helped this film stand apart from its chaotic former feature), the film isn’t irritating to sit through and does have the tinniest amount of heart attached thanks to some of the character dynamics, but that will only work for those who are privy to the series, whereas the rest will just see seeds of something that never starts growing.
Mario has such a giant roster of characters and slowly drip-feeding them into this cinematic franchise is a solid move to keep people interested in each feature, with this sequel promising to include popular names like Bowser Jr., Yoshi and Rosalina. This felt like a good steady escalation and, with this series deciding to intertwine aspects of several games into one (with it also taking from Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Odyssey), it could offer a new perspective on these familiar roles and situations.
However, not only does it feel like the celebrity casting has gotten even more pointless (why did we need Donald Glover to make random noises every few seconds?), but even most of the new characters aren’t as memorable as their gaming counterparts. Yoshi is harmlessly cute, but doesn’t provide all that much, Rosalina gets a good opening and is nicely voiced by Brie Larson but is largely just a hostage for most of the plot and isn’t allowed to do much, and Bowser Jr. is pretty underwhelming and feels pretty bland, with the only saving grace being the surprisingly touching scenes between him and Bowser.
Mario and Luigi just feel like they’re along for the ride without changing all that much, it’s nice to see Peach actually contributing in these adventures as opposed to her frustratingly docile gaming counterpart, but aside from a connection with Rosalina (which also goes unexplored), doesn’t really evolve much despite nearly being the main character, and while Jack Black is surprisingly still one of the best things in this cinematic adaptation and has the closest thing to an arc with trying to bond with his villainous son after having grown a slight soft spot for the mushroom gang, the character petters out with a whimper by the end. Some of the other Nintendo cameos are harmless and Fox McCloud (voiced by Glen Powell) could’ve been a cool surprise if not spoiled by the advertising, but they just feel like teasers for an eventual team-up movie down the line, and not like critical characters who needed to be in this movie.
The Super Mario Movie nicely captured the style, life and unique identity of Nintendo’s biggest franchise, and while this sequel retains the great colors, fluid movements, and wonderful environments of the last film, it ironically doesn’t stand out as much because it feels fairly underwhelming compared to what could’ve been. With a literal galaxy to explore, it feels like a good chunk of the locations are appropriately and distinctly designed, but whether it’s due to not feeling different enough from pre-existing locations or that the zippy pacing means there’s not enough time to take them in, few to any of the environments explored are that visually awing (ironically the meteor shower in the first act is the prettiest thing in the entire movie). This isn’t the movie’s fault necessarily but rather a consequence of the Galaxy and Odyssey games providing truly stunning and eye-catching locations that felt distinct but still reminiscent to the Mario brand, and it’s therefore noticeable when it doesn’t land the same way.
While the lesser impact of the environments that much of a problem, the soundtrack and score may be a little moreso, as the score for Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel composed by Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo is often considered some of the greatest video game music ever conceived, so there was very little chance it’d be topped in a film adaptation. While returning composer, Brian Tyler, still does a nice job at incorporating these recognizable tunes into a cinematic accompaniment and the pop songs are thankfully omitted, there’s a distinct grand sound and orchestral majesty to Galaxy’s soundtrack, and it doesn’t really feel like this movie captures any of it, which is a shame even if it’s not a huge problem.
THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE isn’t in any danger of failing even with critics trouncing it, as it already earned $330 million on its opening weekend (almost double its budget), so it might already be on the rainbow road to $1 billion once again, but it does feel like Nintendo and Illumination won’t be able to get away with this remarkably shallow delivery forever. While this sequel isn’t bad to get through as the voice actors are still good, the animation and score are still good and vibrant even if they don’t live up to what they’re replicating, and it has just enough heart to not be a complete mindless adventure, its inability to fix the sparse character development, or at least be able to keep focus on a very simple end goal without trailing off, is going to make them run into trouble one of these days. That isn’t the case for now though, as with this sequel’s success and the clear promise of more movies from other Nintendo IP besides Mario down the road, this Nintendo universe is set to get a whole lot bigger real soon.
