The Super Mario Bros. Movie (PG)

Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi are fixing a leak to a water main when they are transported down a mysterious pipe into a magical land. The brothers are subsequently separated and Mario embarks on a quest to track down Luigi, assisted by Princess Peach, ruler of Mushroom Kingdom, and her loyal subject Toad.

LondonNet Film Review

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (PG) Film Review from LondonNet

For more than 40 years, moustachioed Italian plumber Mario has been the enduring symbol of the Nintendo video game company. He has clambered up scaffolding and ladders to defeat Donkey Kong, rescued Princess Toadstool from Bowser in Super Mario Bros., intentionally caused high-speed collisions with discarded banana skins in Mario Kart and somersaulted through colourful environments on the N64, Wii and Switch consoles. With his acrobatic abilities, daredevil attitude and comical costume changes into a yellow cat, bumblebee, raccoon and flying squirrel, Mario is perfectly suited to the big screen but one previous effort in 1993 to translate his hijinks was an unmitigated disaster (a live-action Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo)…

Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic sensibly choose computer-animation as their medium to gallop through a colour-saturated origin story, which includes a training montage set to Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero” that gleefully explains mystery blocks and power ups. Screenwriter Matthew Fogel demonstrates unbridled affection for Mario’s legacy, engineering set pieces around different iterations of the games such as styling the brothers’ journey to their first plumbing job as a side scrolling 2D platform level then upgrading to eye-popping 3D for a turbo-charged kart race along Rainbow Road and a fiery final showdown.

Brooklyn-based brothers Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) quit their day jobs with demolition company the Wrecking Crew to kickstart a family plumbing business. It’s a baptism of fire for the siblings and their old foreman (Sebastian Maniscalco) mocks the decision to go solo: “You’re a joke and you always will be.” To disprove the naysayers, Mario and Luigi venture into Manhattan’s sewers to repair a burst water main and they are sucked into a mysterious green pipe.

Luigi is propelled into the Dark Lands and falls into the clutches of fire-breathing turtle Bowser (Jack Black) and his Koopa army, spearheaded by sorcerer Kamek (Kevin Michael Richardson). Meanwhile, Mario emerges in the Mushroom Kingdom, where Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) rules benevolently over loyal subjects including Toad (Keegan-Michael Key). Peach hopes to repel Bowser’s imminent attack by forging an alliance with the Jungle Kingdom and she travels with Mario to a royal audience with ruler Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) and his son Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen).

The Super Mario Bros. Movie appeals unabashedly to die-hard fans, almost to its detriment by shoehorning so many characters into 92 breathless minutes, but Horvath and Jelenic’s picture doesn’t alienate newcomers to this topsy-turvy universe. The divisive issue of Pratt’s accent is dismissed with tongue wedged in cheek while Black scene-steals as a lovesick Bowser, who croons a hilariously overwrought ballad in Princess Peach’s honour in a Tenacious D stylee. Subtlety: game over. Fast-paced, family-friendly fun: game on.

– Jo Planter