Monday, April 24, 2023

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Review











The Super Mario Bros. Movie


Release Date: 5th April 2023 - Australia


Production Companies
Universal Pictures (present)
Nintendo (present)
Illumination Entertainment
Dentsu (presented in association with)
Fuji Television Network (presented in association with)

Distribution
Universal Pictures Australia


Genre: Animation/Family

Rating: PG

Runtime: 92 minutes


Budget: $100,000,000

Box Office Gross: $871,836,610 (Worldwide - figure subject to change)


Plot Summary
Two plumbers from
Brooklyn, Mario and his
brother Luigi, find
themselves transported
down a mysterious pipe to
a magical new world while
working underground to
repair a water main. When
the two brothers are
separated, Mario sets off
to find him. Mario unleashes
his powers with the help
of Toad, a resident of the
Mushroom Kingdom.
He also receives training
from Princess Peach, the
strong-willed ruler of the
Mushroom Kingdom.


Voice Cast
Chris Pratt - Mario
Anya-Taylor Joy - Princess Peach
Charlie Day - Luigi
Jack Black - Bowser
Keegan-Michael Key - Toad
Seth Rogen - Donkey Kong
Fred Armisen - King Cranky
Kong
Kevin Michael Richardson - Kamek
Sebastian Maniscalo - Spike
Charles Martinet - Mario's Dad/Giuseppe (Cameo)
Jessica DiCicco - Mario's Mom
Rino Romano - Uncle Tony
John DiMaggio - Uncle Arthur
Khary Peyton - Penguin King
Juliet Jelenic - Lumalee
Scott Menville - Koopa General

Crew
Directors - Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Co-Directors - Pierre Leduc and Fabian Polack
Writer - Matthew Fogel
Executive Producers - Brett Hoffman, Bill Ryan and Yusuke Beppu
Producers - Chris Melendari and Shigeru Miyamoto
Co-Producer - Christelle Balcon
Production Designer - Guillaume Aretos
Art Director - Matthieu Gosselin
Additional Art Director - Yoriko Ito
Character Designers - Tohru Patrick Awa,
Daniel Fernandez Casas, Maxime Mary,
Sam Nielson, Nicolas Olivieri, Tony Siruno
and Philippe Tilikete
Head of Story - Ed Skudder
Studio CG Cinematographer - James C.J. Williams
Animation Directors - Christophe Delisle
and Ludovic Roz
Supervising Animators - Adrien Keeochim,
Aymeric Palermo, Basile Heiderscheid,
Benjamin Faure, Benoit Guillaumot,
Ludovic Savonnière, Mathieu &
Nicolas Menard,
Pierre Avon and Quentin Piq
Editor - Eric E. Osmond
Additional Editors - Tiffany Hillkurtz,
Ken Schretzmann, Julian Smirke and
Andrew Walton
Supervising Sound Editor - Daniel Laurie
Sound Designers - Jamey Scott
and Randy Thom
Re-Recording Mixers - Pete Horner
and Juan Peralta
Foley Artists - Ronni Brown,
Sean England and Jana Vance
Original Nintendo Themes - Koji Kondo
Music - Brian Tyler


Review
Five years in the making, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE has been in the pipeline since 2014, and it seemed the right option to adapt the franchise into an animated feature. It is also an apology letter to fans, who were gravely disappointed by the 1993 live-action iteration, which is untrue to the games. Illumination is the only animation studio other than DreamWorks willing to produce an animated movie based on a popular video game franchise. Given it had a mixed track record of successes like the Despicable Me series, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing. I'm unsure if they are the right people to handle this sort of film, but thankfully, they proved me wrong.

Audiences loved the movie more than critics, who gave it mixed reviews and are not huge fans of the games. THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE brings back nostalgia to those who have played the games and remained loyal to its accuracy. However, I am delighted to see it maintain its colourful spirit, world and menagerie of characters brought to life by its splendid animation. The storyline is average, but that's a minor misstep I won't have to worry about. Bolstered the film is an ensemble voice cast with highly-trained, well-known actors and a killer soundtrack.

Chris Pratt was incredible as Mario (when he took over from Charles Martinet of the video games, who, surprisingly, does a cameo in the film as Giuseppe and Mario's dad) despite what other people thought of him not being perfect for the role. Pratt nailed that part, even capturing the accent. Jack Black undergoes a role shift in a villainous portrayal of Mario's arch-nemesis, Bowser, rather than the heroic characters he's portrayed, like the shark in Shark Tale and Po in the Kung Fu Panda series. It isn't the first time Black has played a character that bad since The NeverEnding Story III, in which he didn't want to acknowledge its existence.

In hindsight, this is a much better movie adaptation than its critically-maligned and in-name-only live-action interpretation. It's an introduction to some youngsters who have never even heard of the Super Mario Bros. games, let alone didn't have a Nintendo Switch. THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE is in general release and recommended to Mario fans who have played the game before on every Nintendo console.

Star rating: (8/10) Very Good Movie


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