"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" Review

A photo of a movie poster for "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie." Photo by Nicholas Ferguson '28

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is a great time for long-time fans, but not a necessary watch for anyone who is not a big supporter of Nintendo video games.

The movie, which came out on Apr. 1, is the follow-up to the 2023 film, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” and follows the Mario brothers on their next adventure. The film takes heavy inspiration from the video games “Super Mario World” (1990) and “Super Mario Galaxy” (2007).

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” mainly follows two groups, with one being Mario, Luigi and Yoshi, and the other being Princess Peach and Toad. Both of these groups are looking for Rosalina, who is a princess who watches over the cosmos. 

Rosalina is captured by Bowser Jr., the son of the first film’s villain, Bowser. Bowser Jr. is looking to use Rosalina’s power to destroy the entire universe, and is also trying to retrieve his dad, who got captured at the end of the first movie. This time, the adventure expands across the entire galaxy as opposed to just the Mushroom Kingdom.

“We’ve been undertaking various initiatives for the Super Mario Brothers 40th anniversary,” said Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Super Mario Bros. franchise and one of the film’s producers. “This movie will be the centerpiece of the anniversary.” 

One of the standout aspects of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is the references to the Super Mario Bros. video games. The movie uses remixed versions of classic songs that are used in the Mario video games. Additionally,  the film introduces new characters from the games like Yoshi and Rosalina, who make great additions to the cast, expanding the Mario universe in the film.

Another core strength of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is the amazing animation and art style, which is retained from the first movie. This faithfully captures and respects the look and feel of the Mario video games. 

Despite its strengths, this film does not come without its downsides. The biggest one is a lack of a solid plot. 

Most of the run time in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” follows the characters going from set piece to set piece, so they can shove in as many cameos and references as possible. 

This is engaging and exciting from the perspective of fans who recognize and appreciate references. However, the problem comes in for people who are not fans of the original video games. For them, the constant movement from one location to another can feel aimless, as no meaningful progress is being made towards the overall plot.

Then, when something meaningful does happen to progress the story, it usually relies on characters who were once split apart randomly happening to find each other. Or, the characters just randomly happen to stumble across someone willing to help them achieve their goal. 

At its core, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is one of those films where most of the enjoyment comes from a lot of cameos where the viewer can point at the screen and say to themselves, “I know that guy!” This movie is a great time for fans, new and old, but it definitely leaves something to be desired for non-fans of the video games.