Hello. Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. Today I’m going to be giving my thoughts on the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. One of the most anticipated movies of the year, I just watched it over the weekend, took some time to collect my thoughts, and now I’m ready to share my thoughts with everyone. I’d loved the first movie and was excited for the second one when it was announced. Once again there was division between critics and fans. Not as bad as the first movie, but still a big gap. Not here to address that, just going to give my opinions of the movie and leave it that. Feel free to agree or disagree but do it in a respectful manner. With that said, let’s get started.
Story
So the story this time around is that Bowser Jr. voiced by Benny Safdie has captured Rosalina voiced by Brie Larson, guardian of the Lumas and a princess apparently. His plan is to use Rosalina to power his planet destroying canon on his self-made planet (yes, the kid has his own death star) and rule the universe along side his papa, Bowser. One of the Lumas manages to make it to Peach and begs her for help in saving Rosalina so she leaves with Toad to rescue her. I was a little confused why she didn’t bring Mario and Luigi with her. The conclusion I came to was that she didn’t want to leave the kingdom unprotected and trusted Mario and Luigi enough to take care of things in her absence. Anyway, Bowser Jr. attempts to reclaim his papa but fails. However, he stranded the castle on another planet and now Mario, Luigi, their new friend Yoshi voiced by Donald Glover (didn’t see that coming), and Bowser must find their way to Peach and help her save Rosalina. As far as the story goes it’s straight forward like the first movie. Like I said you don’t need a complicated plot in these movies. Just have these characters go on an adventure and let them interact off each other. The movie does the adventure just fine, but where they fall short at is the interaction of the characters. That’s the one thing I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about. Don’t get me wrong, the movie does have the characters interact with other, but it seems more focused on trying to cram in as much stuff from the games as possible. That’s my biggest complaint with the movie, it’s trying to cram in too much stuff. Hello bee queen, hello Wart, hello Ninji, hello Birdo, hello R.O.B. Hello Lumas. Fox McCloud! What a surprise! What are you doing here? While seeing all this stuff is cool and everything, they sacrificed character interactions and story development. While we still get a decent story, some good character interactions here and there we fall short of seeing more enjoyable scenes like in the first movie.
Characters
Moving onto characters, this movie corrects their mistakes from the first one and has Mario and Luigi interact more. Their interactions are funny. Chis and Charlie play off each other well. They do act like brothers, and I like how Luigi teases Mario about Peach but also supports it. He knows his brother is awesome, any woman would be lucky to have him, and he’s happy Peach sees how awesome he is as well. Speaking of Peach, they still make her a badass princess always ready for action and to help others in trouble. They actually do reveal her past where we find out that she and Rosalina are sisters. Okay that’s a huge reveal and I’m actually okay with that. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was cannon. Even when she first appeared I said Rosalina looked like an older Peach so them being related, I’d buy it. Moving on to Rosalina, I was shocked at the way she was handled in the movie. Aside from her cool moment at the start, she spends most of her time locked up and barely has any screentime. Isn’t she like Nintendo’s favorite character right now? Have you seen her in Fever Tennis? She is literally the best character in the game. Best stats and everything and yet she barely does anything in the movie. A real shame, especially now that they revealed that she’s Peach’s sister. Speaking of which I’m surprised they didn’t have a moment where she told Mario or Luigi this. We could have had them talk about siblings and what it’s like to have them. Hopefully, they have a moment like that in the third movie. Toad really doesn’t have much presence in the movie either. I remember him being one of the funniest characters from the first movie. Come on guys, use Keegan. We all know he’s funny.
For the new characters, we get Bowser Jr. and Yoshi. Benny’s voice as junior is fine. Probably could have made his voice a little more childish but this voice is fine. I do like how he uses technology more than his father. I think it works for his character. A kid being more interested in technology rather than magic. His relationship with Bowser was my favorite part of the movie. It started off confusing with Bowser saying he was a terrible father, but every time we see him with junior, I never got that. The kid literally tried to chop off Mario’s head just to save him and when they do reunite, he’s happy to see him. Hell, their flashback was so cute and wholesome. How was Bowser a terrible father? He cared for junior and loved him with all his heart. All things considered, he is a good father. Side note, I do find it funny and nice that they’re the resident father/son representatives of Nintendo. Bowser is still funny but terrifying as well. We do see him develop a little bit of a friendship with the Mario Bros. only to turn his back on them. Not out of hate, but because of his son. He has good within him, but it’s not about being good or evil. It’s about being a good father for his son. Mario is attempting to destroy everything junior has built for them. What good father would sit back and let his son’s dreams be crushed? Bowser can handle his dreams being crushed but he will die before he lets someone crush his son’s dream. We then come to Yoshi, who quickly establishes his role in the movie as the lovable pet. I do like how he just fits in right away. It wasn’t that different in the games. You meet him, instantly become friends, and he helps out wherever needed. Even though he only says one word he has so much character and personality. We see more Lumas this time around, but they’re not all that different from each other. I was disappointed that Luma from the first movie didn’t appear. Finally, we have Fox. They ruined the surprise by leaking him before the debut. Some fans said he got more screentime than Rosalina, but no. Rosalina got more screentime, Fox just did more and got a better backstory. Glad to see they took my Nintendo-verse idea into consideration. I also like how he and Mario instantly become bros. There’s no need to run the Mario and DK dynamic again, just make them friends. Again, seeing Fox was cool. They’re in space so it makes sense and they plant the seeds for a future movie with him trying to get back to his team.
Comedy, Easter Eggs, and Action
The movie has its funny moments. Didn’t get that many laughs out of me like the first one. We do get plenty of Easter eggs like seeing Fox, R.O.B, Wart, Birdo, Mr. Game and Watch and many other characters from the games. The action is also good. Peach’s battle against the Ninjis was pretty cool, the fight against junior is well-choreographed, and the final fight between the Mario Bros., Bowser, and junior was pure nostalgia and a gamer moment. The movie is beautiful to look at. Once again they brought this world to life and I love looking at it.
Final Thoughts
So, is this movie trash as some people are calling it online, no. It’s fine, there are some good things in the movie, it’s just not as good as the first movie in my opinion. The stakes aren’t raised and it lacks some important interactions and character focus I would have liked to see.
Final Score
My final score for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie is 5.5/10. If you see it you’ll like, you just won’t like it as much as the first one. It’s a still a movie that has some good moments and music. I’m sure there’s going to be a third movie. They’d be stupid not to make one with the money it’s making and with that end credit scene. Hopefully, they don’t try to cram in too much stuff in the third one to allow for character moments where they engage each other, better story development, and if Wario is to appear let him be voiced by Danny Devito. That is a perfect match and Charlie can get him to do it. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.