The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

There's a moment in The Super Mario Bros. Movie where the screen just explodes with colour, the music swells into something you half-recognise from childhood, and you catch yourself grinning like an idiot. And then the moment passes, and you remember the story hasn't really given you anything to hold onto beyond that grin. That's the film in a nutshell, really. Fun while it's happening, a little hollow when you stop to think about it.

Let me be clear though: this isn't a bad film. It's a genuinely impressive piece of animation. The visuals are stunning, packed with detail and colour, and if you grew up with a Nintendo controller in your hand, the references come thick and fast. Power-ups, side-scrolling sequences, kart racing, it's all in there, and it's handled with obvious affection. You can feel the care that went into making sure every frame felt true to the games. Whether that's enough to build a film around is a different question entirely.

The voice cast is where things get a bit more interesting, and a bit more uneven. Jack Black as Bowser is an absolute joy. He commits fully, he's funny, he's menacing in a cartoonish way, and then there's that song. You know the one. "Peaches." I'm not going to pretend it hasn't lodged itself permanently in the back of my brain, because it has, and I've made my peace with that. It's ridiculous and brilliant. As for Chris Pratt as Mario, I'll put it this way: he doesn't ruin it. It's passable. Functional. But there's nothing there that makes you think he was the obvious choice, and the performance never really disappears into the character the way Black's does.

The script zips along at a pace that's probably just right for the kids it's aimed at, but it means everything gets a bit breathless. Nothing really gets room to land. The story is thin, and moving quickly doesn't disguise that, it just means you don't sit with the thinness for very long before the next colourful set piece arrives. Compare it to something like Guardians of the Galaxy, another franchise-adjacent crowd-pleaser built around humour and nostalgia, and the difference in script quality is pretty stark. That film earned its emotional beats. This one largely skips past where the beats should be.

It's also worth saying that if you're expecting Pixar-level writing or any real emotional weight, you're going to be disappointed. This isn't that kind of animated film. It's not trying to be. The ambition here is to be a faithful, fun, crowd-pleasing adaptation of a beloved property, and on those terms, it mostly succeeds. There's just a version of this film that could have been all of those things and also had a bit more going on underneath the surface. The ingredients were there for something genuinely special.

What it is, though, is a decent watch. It's light, it's cheerful, it's inoffensive, and it'll keep kids entertained from start to finish. If you're a lifelong Mario fan, you'll get a kick out of the references and the sheer visual energy of it all. Just don't go in expecting it to do anything surprising or emotionally ambitious, because it won't. It stays firmly on the well-lit, well-signposted path, and it seems perfectly happy there.

Three stars. Fun, flashy, and exactly what it says on the tin, for better and for worse. Just maybe don't go in hoping it'll jump to the top of the platform.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2023  | Watched: 2025-04-09

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Rent: Google Play Movies · Sky Store · YouTube
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Peacock Premium · Peacock Premium Plus · Peacock Premium Plus Amazon Channel
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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