The Super Mario Bros Movie

Overview

The movie starts out with the brothers starting their own company. Making a mess with their first job, which sets up the transition to where the actual story takes place. They get separated and it’s on Mario to find and save his brother Luigi. Along the way he meets Princess Peach, who teaches him to survive an obstacle course that resembles the game. They head out to save her people in the Mushroom Kingdom, from the evil Bowser. Mario gets to fight Donkey Kong to win over their army. He gets a really cool vehicle to travel over the rainbow road, which gets blown up. Luigi and a host of other captives get saved from being dropped in lava. Then they all land in Brooklyn for the final showdown.

Pros

-Flower power

-Fireballs

-Pipes

Cons

Review

I was lucky enough to see this film with my kids and grandkids, which helped me appreciate how the three generations viewed the movie. I am not a gamer, nor was I a gamer during the 1980’s and 1990’s. So, this left me at a disadvantage as to the various references the movie had to the game itself. So, I watched the movie from the perspective of just watching a 3D cartoon, that had a budget that would give you all of the marvelous abilities of modern technology with regards to animation and 3D. From this viewpoint, I felt the movie delivered. The graphics were amazing, and I felt they spent what it took to captivate someone in my age group. If you have children and grandchildren, you inevitably watch a lot of animated movies. There are plenty of those that definitely disappoint when it comes to the technological effort they put into them. The producers of Mario Bros, seem to realize that they need to offer something beyond a cartoon with a plot that is designed to entertain kids if they plan to satisfy parents and grandparents, who by the way usually pay. The opening scene reminded me of an episode from Game of Thrones, or the initial battle scene from Troy. The ambush on the Rainbow Road kept me on the edge of my seat. When the bullet was launched and eventually exploded, it looked amazingly real in 3D.

Looking at it from my kids viewpoint, which are mid-thirties, They really liked the game references. The opening scene reminded them of all the jumping and dodging you go through playing the game. The pipes, the power star, brought back a wave of nostalgia for them. The talked about a lot of little things, like the original voice for the bros former boss and some of the phrases they used. They liked the Donkey Kong reference, and how most of the characters were used from the game. To add to the draw for their age group, Toad had a massive monster truck, which most males would appreciate and get a kick out of. Then the song, “Take Me On”, was used at the opening scene of the Monkey Kingdom, which was a popular song for that group when it first came out.

As far as the grandchildren, aged 4 through 7, they sat mostly attentively and watched the whole movie, while they ate their popcorn and nachos. The three year old was the most distracted, but I must say even he sat through most of the movie entertained. They laughed during the funny parts and were thoroughly immersed during the fight scenes. They have since seen the movie at the drive-in and were just as entertained. I’m sure it will be one of the go to movies they watch, now that it is available on “on Demand” at home.      

Memorable 3D scenes

Rating

Final thoughts

The Super Mario Bros Movie had a basic plot that followed the game to a degree. Using great animation and 3D effects they managed to deliver in a lot of ways. It was entertaining enough for parents and grandparents to enjoy and sit through. It had enough reference to the game to instill a sense of nostalgia for the gamers that spent a fair amount of time playing the game. Then it was enjoyable for the actual children the movie was purportedly made for.