Let's-a-go to the theaters! (Super Mario Bros. Movie in review)

     Wahoo! The day has finally come where I can say that I've seen a movie based on the Super Mario Bros. series in a theater, and I'm happy about that no matter what. When the cast was first being announced, there was more than a little criticism being leveled for almost all of the people announced to play different characters. Many even went so far as to say that the movie wasn't going to be very good based on these castings. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is not only out in theaters now, but selling like hot cakes. The movie has topped the box office for two weeks now, and has already made over $700 Million dollars globally as of Monday, April 17 according to the Hollywood Reporter, which is the highest grossing film of the year so far. Of course, just because it's doing well doesn't mean that the movie is good, so I'll talk a bit about this film today without going into too deep details. I especially don't want to give away all of the easter eggs, though I will touch on a few, just because there are some great ones in here. Let's hop down this theatrical warp pipe and talk a little bit on how I felt about this movie, shall we?

1-1: The Characters!

    Right off the bat, I have to say that I am extremely biased when it comes to this movie. At the beginning of the movie, there was a title card for Nintendo that had an animation of 8-bit Mario and Luigi jumping around, then playing the classic music from Super Mario Bros. which played at the end of every stage, and even that was almost enough to make me tear up. I am a huge Nintendo fan, and I'm happy to say that this movie was very much geared towards me. With the Super Mario Bros. series of games, you go into the game already pretty much knowing what you're going to see. Princess Peach is going to be kidnapped by Bowser, and you'll have to play as Mario (and Luigi along with some other friends in some cases) who will rescue her in the end. This movie throws a curve in this formula by having Luigi be the one who's kidnapped, and Mario and Peach along with a brave Toad have to work together to rescue him as well as save the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser's destructive power. It's a really cool move, and while I do like that a lot, I wish Charlie Day had been given more to do as the Green brother here, since a lot of the movie, he's just trapped in a cage. My fingers are definitely crossed for a Luigi's Mansion movie, but who knows if that will ever happen.

    Mario, voiced by Chris Pratt, does a great job in this movie being a definite counterpoint to Luigi's overstated cowardice with his heroism and determination to stick up for his little brother. There were a few genuinely touching moments between the Mario Bros. which I really didn't expect, but it was a nice surprise, and ultimately they play off of each other well. The biggest stand-outs to me in this movie were Jack Black as Bowser and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach. Bowser really plays along with Black's standard "heavy rocker" vibe in this movie, and he crushes the performance, his voice really lending the pipes required for the monster that Bowser is, while having some of the humor of the Paper Mario series injected in. This version of Princess Peach, however, is a very different character than we've seen before. This Princess is all about protecting her Toads, and they love her for it. She's very no-nonsense, but still in a fun way where she seems to genuinely enjoy her role as the protector, while also the fact that she doesn't remember where she came from definitely opens the door to sequel potential. Toad is also a great character, voiced by the hilarious Keegan-Michael Key, and the music tells us that he's much more than a regular Toad. The Kongs are also well represented here, with Donkey Kong being suitably foolish and full of himself, and Cranky being the disapproving father figure, though I feel like Cranky was DK's grandfather in the games. I could definitely be wrong about that, of course. Donkey Kong was voiced by Seth Rogen, who always sounds like Seth Rogen, but that fit this version of the character, I thought. Fred Armisen, the voice of Cranky Kong, did a great job of making him a kind of silly character, while also definitely showing how he belittled Donkey Kong's contributions and efforts, just not taking him seriously.

1-2: The Music!

    As a huge Nintendo fan for my entire life, there were so many musical references in there to pick up on. The aforementioned musical cue about Toad when he is first introduced reveals that he is much more than a normal toad, but he's Captain Toad, as is evidenced with Captain Toad's theme playing in the background! That's only the beginning of the musical references in this game though, Peach's Castle theme plays several times when the castle first comes into view, as well as when they enter it for the first time. Bob-Omb Battlefield's theme from Super Mario 64 is referenced several times, and there are quite a few references to the Donkey Kong Country games as well as Donkey Kong 64 once the heroes reach the Kong kingdom. There are tons of references to different music in the expanded "Mario" Canon, but I really don't want to blow any surprises here, so I'm trying to stay tight lipped about a lot of tracks. I do have to give a special shout out to one track in particular that only plays in the credits. Gusty Gardens Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy got a new recording, and anytime that happens is cause for celebration. So much of the movie is just full of the music from the games, which is definitely something that I love to see, and something that I felt was really missing from the first two Sonic the Hedgehog movies (save for the stellar piano cover of "Green Hill Zone" from the end of the first movie). That being said, not all of the music in the movie was from the games, there were also some 80's tracks which struck me as a little weird, such as AHA's "Take On Me." While it's a great song, I can't say I ever imagined that I would be hearing it in the Super Mario Bros. Movie! It's not a bad touch, don't get me wrong, since they couldn't have just had video game music and potentially alienate people who aren't interested in that, but it's just a weird decision in my eyes. What isn't a weird decision is the amount of fan-service and easter eggs in this movie!

1-3: The References!

    This movie was almost like a "Where's Waldo" book to me, because it seemed like for most of the movie, I was scanning the screen to see whatever I could find. While I don't want to spoil too much about this movie, I do have to give a shout out to a few franchises that I saw references to. Punch-Out has a lot of references pretty early on, which I actually couldn't believe, along with some from Duck Hunt, Ice Climbers, Wrecking Crew, F-Zero, Kid Icarus, Pikmin, and even Game and Watch. I was fully expecting the movie to go in and only acknowledge Mario things, but I was so happy to see all of the references all around. My favorite, and most unexpected reference though, came in the form of Diskun, the mascot of the Japanese only Famicom Disc System, which showed up on a building at one point in the movie. I always knew that being a huge Nintendo nerd was going to pay off some day, and I only hope that this kind of creative placement of different properties will continue if Nintendo movies continue to be made. Along with the references to all these other properties, there were of course tons of references to Mario's power-ups and the worlds that have appeared in the different games in the series. I don't want to give any of these away, because I felt more excited every time they showed something new that I didn't think they would. I should also mention Charles Martinet, who is the voice of Mario in the video games, and has been the voice for many different characters in the Mario Universe since Super Mario 64 (Or earlier, if Mario Teaches Typing was an official property). Charles voices a character who shows up a few times, and he's playing the Donkey Kong arcade machine at the beginning, and his name is Giuseppe, according to the IMDB page, but he just sounds like Mario in the games. Charles also is the voice of Mario's father, who only shows up a handful of times, but I sincerely love the fact that he got to be a part of this movie, even though he's not voicing the character that he's probably best known for. 

    As I've said many times by this point, I went into this movie expecting to have a good time, being the huge Nintendo fan that I am, but I liked this movie even more than I thought I would. The Super Mario Bros. Movie stays true to the source material with its simple story, though expands the characters and world to an extent that we've rarely seen before. Peach is far from a damsel in distress this time around, and is really one of the main driving forces around this movie, which I love. The references made me happy the entire time, and every time they showed a new power-up, I got even more happy that I was watching an actual Mario Movie. At the risk of me rambling on for a bit longer, I'll cut myself off here, but suffice it to say that I really liked this movie, and I hope they'll make more movies like this in the future.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends. I really appreciate the support, as always! Have you seen The Super Mario Bros. Movie yet? What did you think about it? I'd love to hear from you somewhere, and I really hope you enjoyed. Thanks again for reading and I hope you have a great week! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed Toad, and I'll talk to you again soon!