The word “Movie” in the title of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is perhaps a bit misleading. While it follows the basic structure of a narrative feature film, it is much better understood as a 100-minute brand extension. It’s a sequel to 2023’s “The Super Mario Brothers Movie,” but anyone who has played a Nintendo game in the past 40 years should be able to follow the plot without having seen its predecessor. We join Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi (voiced by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day) as happy protectors of the colorful Mushroom Kingdom, serving the beautiful Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). The evil King Bowser (Jack Black), having been shrunk to pocket size at the end of the first film, is working out his demons through art therapy in his tiny, enclosed castle. However, Bowser’s long-lost son, Bowser Jr. (voiced by filmmaker Benny Safdie), still has designs on universal domination, kidnapping interstellar Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) to power his evil lair. Fortunately, the brothers have a new ally of their own: friendly dinosaur Yoshi (Donald Glover, bizarrely mimicking the character’s signature baby talk without a hint of embellishment).
For kids (and kids at heart) with a fondness for video games, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” does a fine job at tickling nostalgic pleasure centers. It’s packed with all the characters, locations, and musical motifs from the past four decades of Mario games, mixing in the iconic (the familiar mushrooms and flowers of 1986’s “Super Mario Bros.”) and obscure (an extended sequence patterned after the DIY “Super Mario Maker” for the Wii U). Even characters from other games join in; a cameo from vulpine space pilot Fox McLeod, voiced by Glen Powell, is almost certainly included to kickstart a future “Star Fox” movie. But there’s not a whole lot of storytelling RAM under the hood, and non-gaming grownups will likely be in for a long, enervating slog. The action sequences are so faithful to the source material that the film frequently feels like watching someone else play video games without ever giving you a turn. It made me wish I was home playing my old SNES instead (which, I suppose, is probably half the point). As kiddie entertainment goes, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is satisfactorily funny and diverting. As cinema, I’m afraid it’s Game Over. — Oscar Goff
Opens Friday, 4/3 at Kendall Square Cinema, Apple Cinemas Cambridge, and AMC Assembly Row
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