Movie Super Mario Bros. A film full of clichéd animated films, but enhanced with beautiful animation and a lively soundtrack.
Light and cute, Super Mario Bros. there is little to challenge the status quo of children's animated films.
The latest work from Illumination, the animation studio best known for the Despicable Me franchise, is sure to appeal to a younger audience, among other successes. It can also serve as an appetizer for old, nostalgic Mario fans. The film was released on April 5th.
The film's release marks the return of the Mario Bros. to cinema for the first time since Super Mario Bros. Because outright failure was the only time a major studio made a Mario movie, it didn't set much of a precedent for theatrical adaptations of popular video game franchises.
The 92-minute film has a very simple plot: Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) go their separate ways. Marion, along with Peach (Anya-Taylor Joy) and Toad (Kegan-Michael Key), must rescue Luigi from Bowser's lair.
Simple plots have become typical of light films, but for a film of about 90 minutes, simplicity works and is not welcome. Luigi deserves a few extra points for taking Peach's place as the stereotypical damsel in distress.
It stars Mario and Luigi as enterprising plumbers trying to grow their plumbing business in New York City. After a major plumbing malfunction wreaks havoc in Brooklyn, the brothers attempt to make a name for themselves by saving Brooklyn, but are instead sucked into a pipe leading to the Mushroom Kingdom.
An advertisement for Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario generated many semi-joking reviews online. The film did not feature any Italian actors, which caused some outrage, but Pratt's association with the extremely homophobic Hillsong Church did rattle some.
After all, Pratt did a good job on the film. There is nothing necessarily outstanding in his vocal work, but at the same time nothing unusual either. He does an Italian accent only at the beginning of the film to advertise the brothers' plumbing.
The voice acting of various minor characters is one of the strongest parts of the film.
Jack Black brought Bowser to life, especially in some of the whimsical piano riffs. Seth Rogen in Donkey Kong, Key in Toad and Fred Armisen in Cranky Kong also have a lot of charisma.
As with most big-budget children's films, the soundtrack consisted of popular songs, in this case "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" by the Beastie Boys, "Take on Me" by the Beastie Boys, and even "Battle Without Honor". Humanity Tomoyasu Hotei. (signature song "Kill Bill"). Let's hope these hits, perhaps as big-budget as Universal Pictures, will be appreciated by older millennial parents who take their children to see them in theaters.
The color palette used to design the Mushroom Kingdom (and the many frogs that inhabit it) provides a colorful spectacle for much of the film.
Brightness helps to highlight beautiful and well-designed animation. Perhaps that's why, despite the bouncing walls of simple clichés and the overloaded undertones of children's films, Super Mario Bros. Very good feeling.