The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Review: A Fun And Flashy Nintendo Adventure

When I reviewed "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" for Looper in 2023, I was of two minds about it: my nerd brain had fun, while my critic brain was underwhelmed. There was pleasure to be had in the game-accurate design and Easter eggs, but also a sense this pleasure should have felt guiltier than it did for most of the film's older viewers. It was bizarre seeing so many "Animation is cinema" posts going viral on social media treating this perfectly generic children's babysitter movie as if it was somehow the artistic equal of even second-tier Disney, let alone Studio Ghibli or some *gasp* actual adult animation!

Then again, none other than Martin Scorsese told Deadline, "Films like 'Mario Brothers' are excellent for younger people." And his definition of "younger people" seemed to include people in their 30s and 40s, so maybe I was being too much of a snob for letting issues of plot and dialogue interfere with the Nintendo nostalgia-gasms. I respect Italian kings standing up for one other!

Both my critic brain and my nerd brain are happy to say that "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" is superior to its predecessor. It hasn't somehow become great cinema — it's still barely a story — but it has a greater sense of wonder and excitement, correcting some of the bigger issues interfering with my enjoyment of the first movie. Basically, this sequel reduces the amount of Illumination nonsense (obvious jokes, even more obvious pop music selections) and increases the amount of Nintendo nonsense (oh, if you've enjoyed any "Mario" game over the past 40 years, you will be pandered to, and you are not immune to corporate propaganda). It's still nonsense, and the more time passes since my screening, the more my critic brain finds quibbles, but it's nonsense I could surrender to for 98 minutes.

"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" takes much of its inspiration from the "Super Mario Galaxy" games, of course, but also mixes in elements of "Super Mario Bros. 2," "Super Mario World," "Yoshi's Island," "Super Mario Sunshine," "Super Mario Odyssey," and several other Nintendo titles. If that sounds like a lot to pack into one movie, it is, but for a movie operating primarily on spectacle and fan-service, that too much-ness works in its favor. The planet-hopping conceit of "Galaxy" makes it easy to jump between setpieces, and with introductions and explanations out of the way, the variety of settings lend themselves to more creative animated action.

Like almost every "Mario" game, this movie opens with a princess being kidnapped. This time, it's Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), the neglected son of Bowser (Jack Black), taking Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) away from her Luma children so her cosmic magic can power a super-weapon. Rosalina was not a damsel in distress in the games, but the games' usual kidnapping victim, Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), is here empowered to the point she's more heroic than Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day), so perhaps it's a fair trade-off? The princess story adds a wrinkle to the "Mario" universe mythology that will have some fans going crazy, while everyone else shrugs and goes, "Oh yeah, Nintendo and Illumination want their own [SPOILER-Y DISNEY REFERENCE REDACTED]."

So while Peach and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) are traveling the galaxy to save the day, Mario and Luigi have to hold down the fort in the Mushroom Kingdom. The sequence of them running the Kingdom is the first of a few funny montages making clever use of gameplay elements. Of course, danger finds them, sending them on their own quest with two new companions: the instantly-beloved dinosaur Yoshi (Donald Glover) and their enemy/prisoner turned unlikely ally Bowser.

Bowser remains the most entertaining part of these movies. Still shrunken down from the end of the last film, Bowser is now a reluctant adventuring companion to the Mario brothers, and even as he regains power, he does now have to deal with a begrudging respect for those "losers." It's the sort of characterization that makes sense for how he'd end up a sportsmanly rival in "The Mario Tennis Movie" or whatever. His concerns about being a good villain parent to Bowser Jr. provide the film's most dynamic comedy and its closest thing to actual substance.

Another positive: Yoshi! Everyone loves Yoshi, except the cops because Yoshi's a menace who absolutely evades his taxes. He's cute, he's funny, he's one of the gang instantly, and Donald Glover can add "does perfect Yoshi noises" to his resume of being annoyingly great at almost everything. Sadly, we barely get any screen-time and no credited actor for Yoshi's fellow dinosaur Birdo, one of the first transgender video game characters. Seeing her in the trailer got my excitement up, but alas, Hollywood in 2026 is not brave enough to let, say, Jinkx Monsoon make wacky dino noises. The way that her only scene ends, as well as the fact she somehow got a Happy Meal toy for such a brief cameo, makes me suspect she might have had more scenes on the cutting room floor.

Other new additions to the cast include some non-"Mario" Nintendo characters, building inevitably to "The Super Smash Bros. Movie" (will live-action Link and Zelda join in?). Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) gets the hardest sell, trying to convince kids this character from games way older than they are is the coolest guy ever — yet with the help of some awesome 2D anime-style flashbacks, it works! One big cameo that hasn't been revealed yet cracked me up — and with a joke that would still be funny even if you didn't recognize the character. 

I laughed at more jokes than I expected to in "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie." When I wasn't laughing, I was entertained by the vibrant animation and Brian Tyler's epic orchestrations, which are mercifully left uninterrupted by groan-worthy "Take on Me" or "Holding Out for a Hero" needle-drops. Maybe I'm just used to it, but even Chris Pratt's voice acting feels more confident and consistent this time around. I can make no great intellectual defense of this movie, and it doesn't belong in any serious "Animation is Cinema" memes, but I had a good time.

"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" opens in theaters April 1.