Brief Story Line
Mario (Chris Pratt - The Tomorrow War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom etc) and his brother Luigi (Charlie Day - Pacific Rising Uprising, The Lego Movie etc) just started their own plumbing business in Brooklyn. When they were working on some plumbing problem, both of them were somehow transported through pipes into different world, but unfortunately they were separated. While Luigi was trapped in Dark Kingdom ruled by Bowser (Jack Black - Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, Shallow Hal etc) the king of Koopa, Mario arrived at the Mushroom Kingdom led by Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy -Amsterdam, Glass etc).
Mario wanted to rescue Luigi and decided to work together with the Princess who was seeking the help from Kong kingdom's army to fend off Bowser's threat. Together with Toad (Keegan-Michael Key - The Bubble, The Predator etc), they went to meet king Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen - The Lego Ninjago Movie etc) where they also met with his son, Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen - Long Shot, Superbad etc).
So what would happen to Mario as he tried to rescue his brother and fight off against the huge army of Koopa? You could find them all in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Just like my wife, I am also a fan of the hugely popular Mario Bros games, so both of us were definitely interested in seeing this movie. And as we watch this in the theater that was full of children who saw it together with their parents, the strong nostalgic feeling was immediately felt as soon as we heard the game's theme song and the sound effects. My wife was even teary as she remembered the moments she played the game years back.
During the movie especially since the time Mario and Luigi were transported to this other world, it was full of so many references to the game, like the trademark running and jumping to get the power up, going inside the pipe and turning up somewhere else to reach other locations. The appearance of Mario and Princess' enemy Bowser with his Koopa army and the lovely Mushroom kingdom was truly awesome as well. There was even the use of Karts like in the Mario Kart games. And of course they had to add the character of Donkey Kong where Mario appeared for the first time. All of these obviously helped in enjoying the movie more.
The film only has 92 minutes duration which included the closing credit. There was a funny enough mid end credit scene and a post end credit scene that would likely be understood by people who play the games (and possibly hint for a sequel?). Now I read that critics have mixed views of the movie as they felt the characters were under developed and the voice acting were not too great especially Chris Pratt and Charlie Day. It might be true for those who are not familiar with the game as it did feel the movie was a really fan service type with so many references to the Nintendo games, but for me and my wife, we were not too particular of those. I think most audience did not really bothered it either as could be shown by the box office performance, which is good news for fans as I think sequel is looking very likely.
As Super Mario Bros and Donkey King were very popular games back in the 1980s, it was only natural that there were songs from that period (I was very familiar with two of them titled Holding Out for a Hero sung by Bonnie Tyler and Take On Me by A-Ha). There were also plenty of other songs like the Donkey Kong's theme and a new one written and sung by Jack Black titled Peaches that was just hilarious. The good enough sound effect in the studio did give sufficient entertaining value, though I did notice that the film actually has Dolby Atmos sound effect. The movie was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic who were experienced in developing many animated TV series. It was produced by Chris Meledandri (founder of Illumination studio) and Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo's director and creator of Mario, Donkey Kong and other successful games).
The story itself was very simple and in general followed the plot in the original Mario game where he had to fight against the Koopa armies and ultimately Bowser. But instead of saving the Princess, he was saving Luigi while the Princess was a very capable person here. It is certainly very appealing to young children whether they play the games or not and adults who had or still play the games till now. In fact, after seeing this movie, it made me interested to play it again.
Overall to me and my wife, we were really entertained by this movie. We had plenty of laughs and enjoyed the fun and exciting adventure, the lovely animation and the nostalgic feeling. My wife was also very touched by the brotherly love between Mario and Luigi which sometime gave emotional feeling. So if you are fans of Mario or you just want to have fun watching light and fun adventure animated movie, then you would enjoy this one. Just do not expect it to be a very deep animated movies from other brand that focused on story and characters development.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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