2023 was not a bad year for animated movies, I mean it had Nimona and Across the Spider-Verse as big releases, it couldn't be bad. The thing is, it was just kind of a... quiet year? It was very clear that the pandemic projects were starting to wrap up and if anything began work during 2020 or 2021, this was the last year we would see any of that. 2022 was just absolutely full of releases that everyone was going crazy over, and 2023 definitely had a lot of those as well, by comparison it felt much quieter, of course 2024 was also quiet by comparison so we'll have to see what 2025 brings us. I think doing my best list of 2023 was largely easy to do, because the top five was comprised of two movies I really loved, two movies I liked a lot, and one movie I really respected. There was, however, one movie I did not put on that list, and one might wonder why. Was it simply because I hate the studio that made it? Was it because it was not actually that good? Was it for any other reason other than that I wanted to give a shoutout to Elemental? Well, let's take a look; This is my review of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
The plot follows Mario as he and Luigi are sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom via a pipe they found while secretly fixing the Brooklyn Water System. Luigi gets dropped in the lands under the control of Bowser, who has stolen a power star in order to get Princess Peach to marry him, but Mario has teamed up with the Princess and a brave little Toad to gather the Kong army to fight back against Bowser and save Luigi. I think the best thing about this plot is that it very much is in spirit of the video games. I could very easily imagine a Super Mario game that is a lot like this movie's plot, something akin to Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 3D World, and maybe a reverse of Mario is Missing. I think the big fault of many video game movies is that they can often deviate too much from the initial video games in spirit, but I feel this movie manages to within the spirit of the Mario games.
I think most of the characters are the same, close in spirit to the games. Luigi is still your scared of everything coward, Bowser is still your lovesick villain, of course Mario did not have much of a personality in the games, other than that guy who will always help out with a smile on his face because that is what he likes to do. They definitely fleshed out Mario a lot more here, and I like it. They also took a lot of influence from other sources for Peach, she reminds me a lot of the Super Mario Adventures comics that were originally published in Nintendo Power. Overall, the characters are good, the ones that are similar to their game counterparts are well-done, and the ones who do deviate are still recognizable. However, I think the voice cast is the biggest part of these characters, specifically one Chris Pratt. Honestly, I think we are so used to Mario's cartoony Italian voice that we probably would not have been too accepting of any voice actor in his role, though there probably had to be picks we would be more accepting of than Chris Pratt. I dunno, my biggest issue with Pratt is that he's just given roles he is not best suited for, but I think he does an okay job here.
The rest of the voice cast are definitely much better cast, Anya Taylor-Joy captures the determination, excitability and authoritativeness of Princess Peach (those were a lot of big words), Charlie Day definitely captures that timid nature of Luigi, and I don't think there could have been any better casting for Donkey Kong than Seth Rogen. My biggest criticism for the voice acting, as I've said before, goes to Jack Black as Bowser. He does a fine job, but his singing voice is too close to his normal singing voice for me to separate the two, and later in the movie he sounds more like Jim Cummings as Pete, I like Jack Black, the Kung Fu Panda movies I think are some of his finest work, so I think this was more of a direction thing than an actor thing. However, one place I can give credit to is the voice cameos, everyone talks about Charles Martinet's roles, a character who represents the original Mario design, and Mario's father, and those are very fitting roles for him. I also noticed Scott Menville in one scene, and it's always difficult for me to hear him voice anyone, because the first thing I immediately think when I hear him is Robin from Teen Titans.
Before I forget, I did like the music of the movie. You will hear a lot of classic Mario tunes integrated into the movie's score, and I was one of the many people who cheered when they heard the DK Rap in the movie.
When it comes to animation, I'll be honest... I think Illumination was the best studio to make this movie. I know how that sounds, but Pixar and DreamWorks both have this very noticeable and recognizable style, both of which are more focused on realistic movement and texturing. I think the cartoony world of the Super Mario Bros. games truly did benefit from a studio that is more known for Cartoony and Stylized looking animation. It might sound weird, or look weird, that I'm praising Illumination, but my gripes with them were never about animation, mostly. I was always eyeing them for their stories and that they never seemed to really reach for much with their movies. I don't think they make entirely bad movies, but by the same token I don't think they make entirely great movies either. Animation wise, sure they started off kind of basic, but I do think they've gotten better, and my biggest example of that? The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is bright, colourful, expressive and full of life. So, is this Illumination's lone "Great" Movie?
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is good, absolutely. The story is good, the characters are good, the animation is good, what is holding it back? I think a lot of it is that the movie is simple and only really takes risks as a product and not as a movie. It's kind of hard to really love a movie like this unless it is really damn good, Transformers One was really good, but it also came out in a bit of a dead year for animated cinema. I don't think it really is the fault of the movie that I can't say that it's one of the best animated movies ever, I think it's more the year it came out and the track record of the studio behind it. It's easy to be the best when everything around you doesn't try. That being said, I do think The Super Mario Bros. Movie is good, Illumination's animation style does suit the Mario world perfectly, the casting is pretty good, and frankly, it was just nice to get a good movie with Mario in it, so for what it's worth, I do think this movie warrants a viewing, if only for being one of the few, if not only, Illumination movies I can say is better than alright.
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