super mario bros movie review ign

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

I can vividly remember playing the first Nintendo version of “Super Mario Bros.” when I was just a boy in the ‘80s. It was at a friend’s house, my first buddy to get an NES, and I went home and had a dream about the game. The goofy, jumping plumber has been a part of my entertainment life ever since. I’ve passed my love for the franchise down to my boys, who have all played the stunning “Super Mario Odyssey” to completion more than once. Mario has come a long way since the notoriously awful 1993 version of his adventure starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo , but the new “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” doesn’t reflect the franchise’s creativity in the slightest. The latest animated blockbuster from Illumination is their most soulless to date, a film that feels like ChatGPT produced it after data and imagery from the games were fed into a computer. It is “The Chris Farley Show” of family entertainment, mistaking making references to something that was “awesome” for actually making a movie. And it is one of the most drenched-in-desperation animated films I’ve ever seen. “Remember this?!? Remember how much you liked it?!? Please like it again!” I so desperately wanted to see something that sparked the imagination of the kid in me, like that first game, or spoke to the fun I’ve had playing installments across multiple Nintendo platforms. Instead, I got a movie that’s as hollow as a trailer, something that willfully avoids anything creative or ambitious. Mario and Luigi deserve so much better.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” opens in Brooklyn with the plumbers Mario ( Chris Pratt ) and his brother Luigi ( Charlie Day ) trying to get their new business off the ground. Some Nintendo easter eggs in the background of these initial scenes should produce a small smile from people of my generation, and there’s a bit of inspiration structurally, like a clever early shot in which Mario and Luigi race through the city in a side-scrolling manner that mimics the earlier games. There’s also a nod to The Odyssey on a bookshelf in Mario’s room, implying that we’re about to watch a hero’s journey and a reference to the incredible Switch game. What follows doesn’t live up to either inspiration.

In a way that makes little sense, Mario and Luigi find a massive chamber of pipes under Brooklyn, get sucked into one, and end up in the Mushroom Kingdom, which is being threatened by the villainous Bowser ( Jack Black ). The notorious bad guy has found the Super Star he needs to make his final assault on Princess Peach ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) and the residents of her kingdom, including Toad (Keegan-Michael Key). Bowser doesn’t just want power; he wants to make the Princess his bride, singing some truly uninspired songs about his love for her. How on Earth a film like this gets a rock talent like half of Tenacious D and doesn’t let him unleash a few clever Bowser tunes is one of this film’s many mysteries.

Although Luigi lands in the pipeline that drops him immediately in the dark lands and makes him Bowser’s prisoner—a dumb decision that sidelines him for an hour—Mario meets Princess Peach, who introduces him to power-ups. And so all the question-mark cubes get a chance to shine as Mario grows, shrinks, and even turns into a raccoon. They eventually recruit Donkey Kong ( Seth Rogen ), race down Rainbow Road, and save the day. That’s not a spoiler if you’ve ever seen a movie.

Fans of this movie will shout from the rooftops that the scripting for something called “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” doesn’t need to be a strength. And, to be fair, there are a few strong settings in terms of design. I enjoyed the choices made by the team in the structure of Donkey Kong Country, and the Rainbow Road “Super Mario Kart” sequence is well-directed. But I would ask why fans of a franchise that has inspired so much love for generations must be satisfied with the absolute minimum regarding storytelling. 

There are so few actual decisions made in the construction of this film. It’s just a collection of visual and character references cobbled together to form a 92-minute movie. Take a risk. Just do something . Anything. It got me thinking about the fun spin-offs that could exist, like a “ Mad Max: Fury Road ” version of the “Mario Kart” sequence that gets energy out of non-stop motion. Or a version that unpacks like “The LEGO Movie” that’s more sharply aware of its references and world-building—something that even incorporates the player like that movie does in the end. I swear that almost everyone who has played a game like “Odyssey” could come up with something more inventive. Heck, almost any ten minutes of that game is more creative.

It doesn’t help that the voice work is uniformly mediocre too. Chris Pratt can be charismatic with the right material, but it sounds like he pounded this out in three hours in a voice studio. Charlie Day has such an expressive voice, but the movie barely uses him. Seth Rogen is always a welcome presence, and he at least seems to be having some fun. I wish I was too.

With the nostalgia craze merging with the power of Nintendo and Illumination, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” feels too big to fail. That means we’ll get a sequel, and I expect another cycle of the debate of “critics vs. fans.” I am both. And I want a world where the people who made films for a fan base as devoted as this one don’t take that fandom for granted. This is far from over. I suspect we will get a ton of films from the NES universe, including “Donkey Kong Country” and “The Legend of Zelda” (and let’s not forget “Kid Icarus”). But we need creators who don’t just see these games as products to be referenced but as foundations on which new ideas can be built. That ‘80s kid who dreamed of Mario deserves it.

In theaters today .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Chris Pratt as Mario (voice)
• Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach (voice)
• Charlie Day as Luigi (voice)
• Jack Black as Bowser (voice)
• Keegan Michael Key as Toad (voice)
• Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong (voice)
• Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong (voice)
• Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek (voice)
• Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike (voice)
• Charles Martinet as Giuseppe (voice)
• Khary Payton as Penguin King (voice)
• Eric Bauza as General Toad (voice)
• Aaron Horvath
• Michael Jelenic
• Brian Tyler
• Eric Osmond

Composer (original Nintendo themes by)

• Matthew Fogel

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Where to watch.

Watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie with a subscription on Netflix, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

While it's nowhere near as thrilling as turtle tipping your way to 128 lives, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a colorful -- albeit thinly plotted -- animated adventure that has about as many Nintendos as Nintendon'ts.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Aaron Horvath

Michael Jelenic

Chris Pratt

Anya Taylor-Joy

Princess Peach

Charlie Day

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Critics’ consensus on ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’? It’s a-mixed

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Opening weekend, here we come.

Reviews are officially in for Nintendo and Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which hits theaters Wednesday and has generated quite a bit of buzz leading up to its Easter-weekend release.

The animated film based on the cherished video-game series of the same name boasts a star-studded voice cast, including Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong and Chris Pratt as Mario.

When the family flick was announced back in 2021, fans and social media users immediately questioned the decision to cast Pratt — who has been racking up credits in blockbuster movie franchises like item boxes in Mario Kart — as everyone’s favorite Italian plumber.

Review: ‘Wahoo!’ isn’t quite right for mildly amusing, hectic ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’

‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ starring Chris Pratt, is mildly amusing, swift, noisy and unrelentingly paced.

April 4, 2023

In her review for Tribune News Service, film critic Katie Walsh deemed Pratt and Day’s vocal performances as sibling duo Mario and Luigi “so unremarkable that it could have been anyone at all.”

“Fortunately, this loud, hectic movie doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it wouldn’t have the material to last a second longer,” Walsh writes .

“It’s bright, busy, inoffensive and exactly the opposite of the weird, dark, edgy 1993 movie adaptation. That may be better for the business of Mario, but it’s not exactly terribly interesting either.”

Here’s a sampling of reviews of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” ranging from “Oh, no!” to “Wahoo!”

Entertainment & Arts

Mario’s ‘dad’ Shigeru Miyamoto on ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ and watching his creation grow beyond him

We sit down with ‘Super Mario Bros.’ creator Shigero Miyamoto ahead of the opening of the new animated film.

April 5, 2023

Arizona Republic

“There are also plenty of Easter eggs to be enjoyed by gameplayers as well as humor that can be appreciated by adults ... and kids alike,” KiMi Robinson writes .

“Much credit goes to the cast for having so much fun with their characters; Charlie Day, for one, manages to infuse as much Charlie Day into Luigi as he does in any live action role. ... ‘The Super Mario Bros.’ is family-friendly movie theater catnip over the Easter weekend, and it’s sure to be an enjoyable watch for the average viewer.”

Associated Press

“It makes you ... want to play Mario,” Jake Coyle writes .

“As nice as it is to look at ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ it’s not anywhere near as fun as it would be to play it. It’s a-him, Mario, but it’s no a-masterpiece. The storyline is only a touch above the interstitial bits of plot you usually get between gameplay. With the exception of Jack Black’s grandly lovesick Bowser ... there’s nothing here that deepens these characters beyond their usual 2-D adventures. Mario may be a modern-day Mickey Mouse but his kingdom is on the console.”

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Entertainment Weekly

“It’s all quite fun, with a good sense of humor and a consistent computer-animated aesthetic — plus, at 90 minutes including credits, it’s short, sweet, and over before anything can get annoying,” Christian Holub writes .

“But it’s hard to escape the feeling, especially during the ... Rainbow Road sequence, that you would probably be having more fun just playing a game together instead.”

Hollywood Reporter

“After the debacle that was the 1993 live-action Super Mario Brothers movie adaptation, the creators of the new animated version clearly felt the need to restore the faith of the wildly popular video game’s legions of fans,” Frank Scheck writes .

“While devoted players will weigh in on whether the film fulfills that goal sufficiently, The Super Mario Bros. Movie feels like a labor of love that should easily weather any nitpicking from purists. It should also prove a major cash cow for co-producers Nintendo, Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures, with sequels and spin-offs virtually guaranteed. While Matthew Fogel’s screenplay won’t win any awards, it builds a reasonable framework for the 90 minutes of nearly nonstop mayhem that ensues.”

‘Broken’ Chris Pratt jokes about checking out Katherine Schwarzenegger in church

‘Super Mario Bros.’ star Chris Pratt opens up about meeting wife Katherine Schwarzenegger at a time when he felt ‘broken.’ The two connected quickly.

“The movie’s mostly excellent use of its source material does contrast with some ill-advised blockbuster animation tropes which can occasionally be grating,” Tom Jorgensen writes .

“Moments like this — as well as the frequent use of slo-mo to highlight jokes — are a bit too cute, and hint at how easily The Super Mario Bros. Movie could’ve slipped into ‘generic animated movie’ territory had it given way to more of these low-hanging stabs at making sure Uncle Jack has his ‘I understood that reference!’ moment, too.”

Independent

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie ... is nothing more and nothing less than what you’d expect from a Mario film,” Clarisse Loughrey writes .

“Its comfortable mediocrity is no better captured than in its choice to cast Chris Pratt — the current face of generic, easy-to-market heroism — in the starring role. Pratt, it should be said, is perfectly capable of the sort of outsized performance Mario needed, having previously turned in himbos of equal, puppyish élan in The Lego Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy. But the Pratt called upon here is of the blandly sincere, hire-a-hero variety, delivering lines like ‘let’s-a-go!’ and ‘mamma mia!’ with all the vigour of a contractual obligation and not a trace of Italian.”

“From the decision to cast the onetime Least Offensive Actor on the Planet Chris Pratt in the titular role to the production design that seems to be an exact replica the Wii-era Mario games, ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ largely plays things by the book, which is exactly what the assignment called for,” Christian Zilko writes .

“Co-directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic have delivered a perfectly serviceable movie that is going to make a lot of kids very happy and a lot of adults very rich.”

New York Times

“While the details are meticulous, the attitude is all wrong, trading the simple, unaffected charm that has served the character so well since his introduction in 1981 for a snarky and fatuous air that leans hard on winking humor and bland, hackneyed irony,” Calum Marsh writes .

“This is Mario in the Marvel mold: every line a punchline, every gag an arcane meta reference for the nerds who can’t get enough of that sort of thing. Served some spaghetti with mushrooms, Mario winces and says he hates mushrooms. Because in the game he’s always eating mushrooms, you see. Sound like fun yet?”

“There’s a perfect Mario game for nearly every kind of person — which gives the little plumber and his endless incarnations the sort of magical appeal that every modern movie franchise is desperate for,” Joshua Rivera writes . “Illumination’s animated adventure The Super Mario Bros. Movie attempts to bottle that appeal, but mostly just ends up referencing it. ... The Super Mario Bros. Movie feels like it’s made to be screenshotted more than watched. Nearly every frame is packed with a dizzying number of Easter eggs and references to Mario games and other Nintendo franchises.

“Cataloging them all might be the most enjoyable way to watch the movie, because when it comes to regular movie things like plot and character, well, all that gets blue-shelled to hell. (If you got that reference, you’ll probably like this movie more than the average viewer.)”

Screen Rant

“Black’s performance is truly what makes Bowser sing, ensuring every scene featuring the villain is one of the movie’s highlights. Beyond Black, Day is also pitch perfect as Luigi and Rogen is extremely fun as Donkey Kong. Taylor-Joy and Key are good, if unmemorable as Peach and Toad,” Molly Freeman writes .

“Pratt, whose casting as Mario was met with skepticism, doesn’t make a strong case for why he was a good choice to voice such an iconic character. He’s simply fine — not so bad as to be distracting, but not strong enough to be at all interesting either, which is about the same as The Super Mario Bros. Movie as a whole.”

“It’s going to be a huge, huge hit, but not just because of its beloved gamer pedigree. (That didn’t help “Super Mario Bros.” in 1993)” Owen Gleiberman writes .

“It’s because the movie, as directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (from a script by Matthew Fogel), is a serious blast, with a spark of enchantment — that je ne sais quoi fusion of speed and trickery, magic and sophistication, and sheer play that … well, you feel it when you see it.”

Washington Post

“The artistry is enough to keep children and adults watching. It may help that Mario gains power by eating mushrooms — a good message about healthy eating, on the one hand, yet one with an obvious psychedelic resonance at the same time,” Pat Padua writes .

“At its 8-bit heart, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is ultimately about family. (You know, the people you spend time with when you’re not playing video games.)”

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‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Review: Sheer Animated Fun, and the Rare Video-Game Movie That Gives You a Prankish Video-Game Buzz

The second time's the charm for Mario on film, as Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy and a delectably villainous Jack Black voice a digital fairy tale that connects.

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Mario just wants to rescue his brother, but then he meets Princess Peach ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), who rules over the Mushroom Kingdom’s denizens, who have spherical mushroom heads and the faces of airbrushed babies; they’re led by Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), a cuddlebug with attitude. Mario then teams up with Princess Peach to save her kingdom from Bowser, a fire-breathing beastie who commands a vast army of Koopas, who are turtles. Bowser is a turtle too, if a rather monstrous one — he’s like a fusion of Lionel Barrymore, the Wayland Flowers puppet Madame, and, a T. Rex plushie made for toddlers.

Jack Black , who voices this horny demon, gives a stupendous performance. Bowser is in love with Princess Peach, even as he’s planning to attack her empire, and Black, conjuring something very different from his usual hipster-stoner vibe, makes Bowser a domineering but deeply insecure romantic, like the Phantom of Opera as a neurotic troglodyte. Having a villain who’s a vulnerable ogre you’re at once appalled, amused, and fascinated by makes this a very different sort of kinetic kiddie fantasia. When Bowser is onscreen with his flaming red eyebrows and S&M arm bands, his gap-toothed reptile leer, his Meat Loaf-meets-Axl Rose soft-rock odes to Peach, and his nerd’s megalomania, the audience is in heaven.

There’s a way that mainstream animation, not to mention my own taste in it, has been evolving. So much of it has become rote, with an empty fractious dazzle that doesn’t ultimately sustain interest. And the Pixar brand, much as it saddens me to say it, has in recent years lost some of its humanistic luster. The animated movies I’ve been most drawn to have been off the Pixar grid — movies like “Trolls” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” which merge a kind of kinetic virtuosity with an emotional flair that sneaks up on you. I’d put “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” in that camp. It’s going to be a huge, huge hit, but not just because of its beloved gamer pedigree. (That didn’t help “Super Mario Bros.” in 1993.) It’s because the movie, as directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (from a script by Matthew Fogel), is a serious blast, with a spark of enchantment — that je ne sais quoi fusion of speed and trickery, magic and sophistication, and sheer play that…well, you feel it when you see it.

There have been approximately 50 movies based on video games, and most of them are terrible. I’ve had limited patience even for the ones that “work,” like the coolly depersonalized “Resident Evil” series or that first “Lara Croft” film. It’s not that I’m hostile to video games; it’s that the game and film mediums are so different. Then again, not all video games are the same — the funky nihilist hellscapes of Grand Theft Auto couldn’t be further removed from the interactive innocence of the Mario franchise. Mario presides over a digital playground that lifts the spirit to a place of split-second wonder, and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” stays true to that. Its ingenuity is infectious. You don’t have to be a Mario fan to respond to it, but the film is going to remind the millions who are why they call it a joystick.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, April 3, 2023. MPA Rating: PG. Running time: 92 MIN.

• Production: A Universal Pictures release of an Illumination, Nintendo, Universal production. Producers: Chris Meledandri, Shigeru Miyamoto.
• Crew: Directors: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic. Screenplay: Matthew Fogel. Editor: Eric E. Osmond. Music: Koji Kondo, Brian Tyler.
• With: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco, Charles Martinet, Kevin Michael Richardson.

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie First Reviews: Packed with Nostalgia and Easter Eggs, but Mostly Aimed at Kids

Critics say the movie has lots of fun details for observant fans of the franchise, but the thinly plotted story may leave some viewers wanting more..

TAGGED AS: Animation , First Reviews , movies , Video Games

Here’s what critics are saying about The Super Mario Bros. Movie :

Does it live up to expectations?

Purposefully focusing on a simple and beautiful adventure, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a solid success. –  Brandon Zachary, CBR

For better and worse, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is exactly what you’d expect from a Mario movie made by Illumination Entertainment. –  Reuben Baron, Looper.com

For some people, perhaps, it will be a point in the win column that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is exactly what it looks like, and nothing more. –  Josh Spiegel, Slashfilm

Does it honor the games?

The fast-paced action effectively approximates the gaming experience. –  Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

If you’ve ever wondered what it would feel like to be inside a Super Mario Bros. level, this film gets deliciously close. –  Lex Briscuso, The Wrap

The movie doesn’t so much duplicate the logistics of a Mario game as conjure the spirit of the game. –  Owen Gleiberman, Variety

It’s the ultimate in comforting familiarity. –  Jake Wilson, The Sydney Morning Herald

The only difference from the Nintendo games is that viewers don’t have to replay a section 45 times because they keep getting nicked by a rogue Koopa shell. –  Matthew Huff, AV Club

It leaves one feeling like they’re standing to the side and watching someone else play a video game. –  Zaki Hasan, San Francisco Chronicle

(Photo by ©Universal Pictures)

Is it packed with Easter eggs?

Perhaps the film’s greatest asset is its clever reliance on the treasure trove of IP that Nintendo has to offer. – Matthew Huff, AV Club

This movie has a lot of fan service… This is not a bad thing; in fact, it is quite the opposite. Whenever it was possible to sneak something in, they did it. –  Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The quantity of in-jokes and Easter eggs is high enough that fans of the games will likely enjoy themselves while watching it… The fan service really works. – Reuben Baron, Looper.com

There is some super fun stuff thrown into the background, even if it adds literally zero to the story itself. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

I found myself craving A LOT more video game humor than I was given (there were SO many missed opportunities for Nintendo jokes). – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

Far too often, The Super Mario Bros. Movie feels like it’s simply content to check off to-do notes and scratch the viewer’s nostalgia itch. That is, the film is a series of Easter eggs in search of a story. – Paul Attard, Slant Magazine

Does it help to be a fan of the games?

You don’t have to be a Mario fan to respond to it, but the film is going to remind the millions who are why they call it a joystick. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

While the references are sure to charm Nintendo lovers, and the standard Illumination-style cartoon humor will please youngsters, the film otherwise doesn’t have a ton to offer. – Matthew Huff, AV Club

Even Super Mario superfans might prefer the game. – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

Is it mostly for kids?

From its very first scenes, it’s clear The Super Mario Bros. Movie is made for children. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

For certain demographics (i.e. families lamenting the fact that it’s been months since a major kids movie hit theaters), this is going to be an absolute godsend. –  Christian Zilko, IndieWire

The Super Mario Bros Movie is very much a kids’ movie that adults will have fun with. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

It’s one of the best kids’ films in recent years. – Ross Bonaime, Collider

If you’re a parent, you’re probably already going to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie regardless of what critics say, and you’ll probably have enough fun with it not to feel disappointed. – Reuben Baron, Looper.com

Kids will have a blast, especially with its nods to popular games, such as Luigi’s Mansion and Mario Kart . However, its childish sense of humor and lacking narrative fall short. – Jeff Nelson, Showbiz Cheat Sheet

But is it still entertaining?

The film features one jam-packed sequence after another, one highlight being Mario’s titanic battle with Donkey Kong. – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

It’s is a serious blast, with a spark of enchantment — that je ne sais quoi fusion of speed and trickery, magic and sophistication, and sheer play that… well, you feel it when you see it. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Even if it’s not your thing, everyone should find a way to coexist with this franchise very quickly. – Christian Zilko, IndieWire

How does it look?

This is a gorgeous movie. The 3D animation works extremely well. It is bright, vibrant, and colorful. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

The film looks gorgeous… The attention to the world-building is perhaps the film’s best achievement, constructing an entire universe that feels colorful and unique compared to anything else in recent film. – Brandon Zachary, CBR

I was pleasantly surprised how the bright colors and crisp visuals expanded the Super Mario universe to the big screen in a fresh, exciting way. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

The different worlds of the film—the Mushroom Kingdom, the Jungle Kingdom, Bowser’s Kingdom, and more—are all so rich and full of life. – Lex Briscuso, The Wrap

Stunningly beautiful… The movie might work even better if you could mute it, pause, and zoom around its designs. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

While the animation is crisp, it’s not enough to overcome the film’s many deficiencies in every other aspect of its composition. – Sean Mulvihill, Mulviews

It’s visually bland in ways that reminded me of European knockoff animations. – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

What about the script?

Parents shouldn’t expect a Pixar-level experience, but Matthew Fogel’s script has as at least as much narrative heft as the best Mario games. – Christian Zilko, IndieWire

Fogel is asked to juggle an insane amount of elements here, and yet, he’s able to make all these parts come together in a satisfying way. – Ross Bonaime, Collider

The plot is as basic as can be, and character development is clearly not a priority. – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

It might not have the depth of something like Turning Red , Wolfwalkers , or Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio but it’s not trying to. – Brandon Zachary, CBR

When it comes to molding all that gimcrackery into, you know, a story, they lose the electronic pulse that made the game addictive. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

It is very formulaic and was clearly made so that even the youngest fan can understand and enjoy it. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

A lot of the film’s jokes don’t land, at least for an adult audience, which will certainly make up a vast group for this picture. – Lex Briscuso, The Wrap

The Super Mario Bros. Movie feels as if Fogel was handed a list of iconic video game elements and was told to reverse engineer them into a barebones story. – Sean Mulvihill, Mulviews

Do any of the voice performances stand out?

One of the film’s biggest MVPs is Keegan Michael-Key’s Toad, who is responsible for half of the movie’s most comedic moments. – Lex Briscuso, The Wrap

Jack Black, who voices this horny demon [Bowser], gives a stupendous performance. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

The real standout here is Jack Black as Bowser. His penchant for the grandiose makes him the perfect choice for the character. – Ross Bonaime, Collider

Jack Black as Bowser is one of his best performances ever. My favorite character hands down. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

So it has a good villain?

Having a villain who’s a vulnerable ogre you’re at once appalled, amused, and fascinated by makes this a very different sort of kinetic kiddie fantasia. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

He’s the full package: menacing and vicious with a soft and insecure side that bubbles over at the perfect comedic moment. – Lex Briscuso, The Wrap

Black’s performance makes Bowser more than just a villain to be toppled. – Ross Bonaime, Collider

What about Chris Pratt’s work as Mario?

What Pratt does works. I promise you that. It makes sense and even if it bothers you at the beginning, you are going to quickly forget it as the movie continues. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

Sorry to disappoint, but Pratt is a good choice for Mario, finding just the right amount of inflection for the character and without sounding like little more than a collection of the character’s famous lines. – Ross Bonaime, Collider

Pratt nails a modernized, slightly subdued version of a stereotypical Brooklyn accent that comes off natural and inoffensive, a logical portrayal of the Mario character. – Lex Briscuso, The Wrap

He’s not doing a terrible job so much as I’m not sure anyone really knows what the job is. – Reuben Baron, Looper.com

How is the length of the movie?

The brisk 92-minute running time is another plus, especially for younger attention spans. – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

With a runtime of only 92 minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. – Matthew Huff, AV Club

It’s a shame that the svelte 92-minute runtime means we don’t get much time to linger in this vibrant setting. – Fay Watson, Total Film

Will we want more Super Mario Bros. movies?

There are multiple hints at what could be coming next for the franchise. I just have my fingers crossed for more Luigi. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

As far as I’m concerned, it’s Game Over. – Sean Mulvihill, Mulviews

The Super Mario Bros. Movie opens in theaters everywhere on April 5, 2023.

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‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Review: This Ain’t No Game

A famed video game character side-scrolls once again to the big screen in this bland, witless and flagrantly pandering animated comedy.

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By Calum Marsh

One thing every great Mario game has in common, from 2D classics like Super Mario World to seminal 3D installments like Super Mario 64 or the recent Nintendo Switch masterpiece Super Mario Odyssey, is a certain effortless charisma. No convoluted backstory, no sardonic attitude, no pretension whatsoever: just easy, straightforward video game fun, elevated by splashy visuals, tight controls and an attention to detail that borders on perfectionism.

Illumination and Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the second attempt at a big-screen adaptation of the game franchise after the woefully unsuccessful “ Super Mario Bros. ” (1993), gets many things about Mario right, often painstakingly so. The Mushroom Kingdom, the magical land in which the film is largely set, looks pretty much exactly like the Mushroom Kingdom of the games. Fireflowers, super stars and question mark boxes all look, sound and function like they’re supposed to, and when the notoriously vexing blue shell makes a fan-baiting appearance, it spins, crashes and explodes in a way precisely faithful to the source material. Even Mario (a grating, unctuous Chris Pratt), who doesn’t sound like the Mario of the games, still manages to invoke trademark catchphrases like “it’s a-me” and “let’s a-go.”

But while the details are meticulous, the attitude is all wrong, trading the simple, unaffected charm that has served the character so well since his introduction in 1981 for a snarky and fatuous air that leans hard on winking humor and bland, hackneyed irony. This is Mario in the Marvel mold: every line a punchline, every gag an arcane meta reference for the nerds who can’t get enough of that sort of thing. Served some spaghetti with mushrooms, Mario winces and says he hates mushrooms. Because in the game he’s always eating mushrooms, you see. Sound like fun yet?

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New AI Model Can Simulate Super Mario Bros. After Watching Gameplay Footage

Last month, Google's GameNGen AI model showed that generalized image diffusion techniques can be used to generate a passable, playable version of Doom . Now, researchers are using some similar techniques with a model called MarioVGG to see whether AI can generate plausible video of Super Mario Bros. in response to user inputs.

The results of the MarioVGG model —available as a preprint paper published by the crypto-adjacent AI company Virtuals Protocol —still display a lot of apparent glitches, and it's too slow for anything approaching real-time gameplay. But the results show how even a limited model can infer some impressive physics and gameplay dynamics just from studying a bit of video and input data.

The researchers hope this represents a first step toward “producing and demonstrating a reliable and controllable video game generator” or possibly even “replacing game development and game engines completely using video generation models” in the future.

Watching 737,000 Frames of Mario

To train their model, the MarioVGG researchers (GitHub users erniechew and Brian Lim are listed as contributors) started with a public dataset of Super Mario Bros. gameplay containing 280 ‘levels” worth of input and image data arranged for machine-learning purposes (level 1-1 was removed from the training data so images from it could be used in the evaluation). The more than 737,000 individual frames in that dataset were "preprocessed" into 35-frame chunks so the model could start to learn what the immediate results of various inputs generally looked like.

To "simplify the gameplay situation," the researchers decided to focus only on two potential inputs in the dataset: “run right” and "run right and jump." Even this limited movement set presented some difficulties for the machine-learning system, though, since the preprocessor had to look backward for a few frames before a jump to figure out if and when the "run" started. Any jumps that included mid-air adjustments (i.e., the "left" button) also had to be thrown out because "this would introduce noise to the training dataset," the researchers write.

After preprocessing (and about 48 hours of training on a single RTX 4090 graphics card), the researchers used a standard convolution and denoising process to generate new frames of video from a static starting game image and a text input (either "run" or "jump" in this limited case). While these generated sequences only last for a few frames, the last frame of one sequence can be used as the first of a new sequence, feasibly creating gameplay videos of any length that still show "coherent and consistent gameplay," according to the researchers.

Super Mario 0.5

Even with all this setup, MarioVGG isn't exactly generating silky smooth video that's indistinguishable from a real NES game. For efficiency, the researchers downscale the output frames from the NES' 256×240 resolution to a much muddier 64×48. They also condense 35 frames' worth of video time into just seven generated frames that are distributed "at uniform intervals," creating "gameplay" video that's much rougher-looking than the real game output.

Despite those limitations, the MarioVGG model still struggles to even approach real-time video generation, at this point. The single RTX 4090 used by the researchers took six whole seconds to generate a six-frame video sequence, representing just over half a second of video, even at an extremely limited frame rate. The researchers admit this is "not practical and friendly for interactive video games" but hope that future optimizations in weight quantization (and perhaps use of more computing resources) could improve this rate.

With those limits in mind, though, MarioVGG can create some passably believable video of Mario running and jumping from a static starting image, akin to Google's Genie game maker . The model was even able to "learn the physics of the game purely from video frames in the training data without any explicit hard-coded rules," the researchers write. This includes inferring behaviors like Mario falling when he runs off the edge of a cliff (with believable gravity) and (usually) halting Mario's forward motion when he's adjacent to an obstacle, the researchers write.

While MarioVGG was focused on simulating Mario's movements, the researchers found that the system could effectively hallucinate new obstacles for Mario as the video scrolls through an imagined level. These obstacles "are coherent with the graphical language of the game," the researchers write, but can't currently be influenced by user prompts (e.g., put a pit in front of Mario and make him jump over it).

Just Make It Up

Like all probabilistic AI models, though, MarioVGG has a frustrating tendency to sometimes give completely unuseful results. Sometimes that means just ignoring user input prompts ("we observe that the input action text is not obeyed all the time," the researchers write). Other times, it means hallucinating obvious visual glitches: Mario sometimes lands inside obstacles, runs through obstacles and enemies, flashes different colors, shrinks/grows from frame to frame, or disappears completely for multiple frames before reappearing.

One particularly absurd video shared by the researchers shows Mario falling through the bridge, becoming a Cheep-Cheep, then flying back up through the bridges and transforming into Mario again. That's the kind of thing we'd expect to see from a Wonder Flower,  not an AI video of the original Super Mario Bros.

The researchers surmise that training for longer on "more diverse gameplay data" could help with these significant problems and help their model simulate more than just running and jumping inexorably to the right. Still, MarioVGG stands as a fun proof of concept that even limited training data and algorithms can create some decent starting models of basic games.

This story originally appeared on Ars Technica .

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