by G. E. Uke, Reporter,
Video game movies and TV shows are getting a lot of traction these days. This wasn’t the case until fairly recently.
Before we had shows like Castlevania on Netflix, Fallout on Amazon Prime, or The Last of Us on HBO Max, we had things like Super Mario Brothers (1993) and Street Fighter (1994)…and those were bad. Mario was born the same year I was; in 1981. I grew up with a Nintendo controller in my hand, so I will always think of him fondly. Mario 1, 2, 3, I had them all. And they were good.
When the Super Mario Bros. Movie relaunched in 2023, I had a great deal to say, both positive and negative. Last night, I went to see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Mama Mia. It seems Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo) and Chris Meledandri (Illumination) upped their game quite a bit. Super Mario Galaxy is EXTREMELY targeted toward my generation, with truckloads of fun callbacks and strange critters drawn from some of the earliest games. It builds on the Super Mario universe in a tongue-in-cheek way, depicting all the bizarre and zany creatures from those games as “citizens” in a metropolitan sense. Where the first movie mainly got quiet smiles, Galaxy makes audiences burst out laughing. A lot. I will also say, SPOILER ALERT, that the movie producers tossed in some beloved Nintendo characters I didn’t expect: Wart the Frog King, Mauser, Birdo, and many others. Seeing these characters personified on the big screen made my adult nerd heart squee.
In terms of acting…hands down, my favorite character in this movie was Bowser Jr (Benny Safdie). Everything about him was outstanding, from his lines to his powers to his attitude toward his father. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie incorporates elements of Super Smash Bros. into its narrative, so there are a few very fun combat scenes involving Peach and Mario that reminded me of (significantly less bloody) Kill Bill. Galaxy unfolds more like a kung fu movie than an “adventure romp”, with fun points of narrative connecting a chain of well-planned and over the top action scenes.
Mario and Luigi had a lot more “screen time” than in the first movie, so while Princess Peach remains the true heroine of the movie, neither is as horribly emasculated as last time. Bowser is both wholesome and heroic in his villainy, with a heartwarming depth of character I should have seen coming from Jack Black. There are other characters deserving shoutouts and honorable mentions, but to avoid spoilers I will not list them here. I will simply say: go see it. It’s quite good.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives this movie 5 stars for excellent acting, excellent action, and excellent cameos that bump it from “good” to truly memorable.
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