The Super Mario Galaxy Movie review: "Never quite reaches Galaxy's gravity-defying game heights"

After The Super Mario Bros. Movie's whirlwind success, it seems the only way is up for Nintendo and Illumination – but no one would have expected them to go quite so sky-high by bringing The Super Mario Galaxy Movie into theaters.

But there's little time to consider the merits of Mario jumping over much of the portly plumber's video game history to (very loosely) adapt the Super Mario Galaxy series as the sequel immediately shifts into high-gear, speeding into an opening that sees Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson) kidnapped by Bowser Jr. (a scarcely recognizable Benny Safdie) in a bid to rescue his father, Bowser (Jack Black).

That sets into motion a cosmic caper that brings in Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) as they race across the stars alongside new dino pal Yoshi (Donald Glover) in a bid to save the day – and the universe.

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Starry, starry fight

With The Super Mario Bros. already having their feet under the billion-dollar table, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie largely shines the spotlight on several newcomers, though they are, as soon becomes a running theme throughout Galaxy, frustratingly inconsistent.

Safdie's impish, anarchic Bowser Jr. poses a fearsome threat and remains entertaining throughout, with a handful of heartwarming and hilarious Bowser and Bowser Jr. scenes – including a puppet show slice of exposition – ensuring the new villain never outstays his paintbrush-twirling welcome.

Other arrivals also slide seamlessly into the burgeoning franchise, including Glover's surprisingly delightful Yoshi and fearless flyboy Fox McCloud (Glen Powell).

But there are some baffling choices among the treatment of these fresh faces that mirror Mario creator (and executive producer) Shigeru Miyamoto's long-running philosophy to prioritize excitement over all else.

Larson's Rosalina is the main victim, being inexplicably sidelined for large chunks of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie instead of being an obvious focal point. Much of the marketing has been around the Captain Marvel actor's unashamedly nerdy Nintendo fandom and, worse, the film's premise revolves around Rosalina. So leaving her character out of the bulk of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie does create an odd disconnect that the sequel never really shakes off.

There's also a Mario/Peach romance sub-plot that never gets going, with the narrative taking even more of a backseat than usual in favor of a scattershot of jokes and jaunts across various Kingdoms that may be familiar to Super Mario Odyssey players. Remarkably, that listlessness even extends to Jack Black's rambunctious Bowser having his edges filed off for the first half of the 98-minute runtime, thanks to being miniaturized at the end of the first movie. There will be no 'Peaches' encore here, clearly.

However, there is plenty of relentless imagination and pacing elsewhere in the sequel's set-pieces to make up for it, even if it never quite reaches the game Galaxy's gravity-defying heights. In that sense, the desire to motor through sequences and ideas adheres to the Mario series' conveyor belt of avoiding boredom: if one gimmick falls flat, rest assured, there's another one around the corner.

That's best evidenced by Anya Taylor-Joy's Peach picking up the baton (or should that be a parasol?) throughout, with an exceptional second-act casino fight sequence being an undoubted highlight.

Elsewhere, a charmingly rendered 2D Mario section, complete with Super Mario Maker's fiendish courses, and a thrilling final showdown prove that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie surpasses the original in both the action and animation departments, all without stopping for breath.

Lost in space

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie also builds on its predecessor by squeezing in a myriad of references to Mario and Nintendo's storied history.

While kids are likely going to revel in the bright lights and even brighter colors as Mario and company leap through constellations onto their next destination, long-time fans will feast on the smorgasbord of nods, references, and surprise tributes to Mario and Nintendo's past.

A jaded observer may arch a cynical eyebrow at the jangling keys of Easter eggs being packed into most scenes, though they mostly don't get in the way. Mercifully, it never quite verges into 'referenceslop' territory despite how plentiful they are and how relatively undercooked the main plot is.

Depending on your perspective, the biggest offender is Powell's Fox McCloud, who zooms into the movie to put the 'pilot' in backdoor pilot with a promising backstory that begs to be picked up in a sequel or spin-off. But it only ends up creating the feeling that, at times, you would rather be watching a Star Fox movie than Mario jumping and 'Wahoo-ing' his way through the cosmos.

If 2023's The Super Mario Movie is the cinematic equivalent of World 1-1 – a safe, frictionless big-screen beginning for Nintendo's iconic mascot, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie does at least expand on a promising start with a starry sequel that sporadically lives up to the Galaxy moniker.

Yet, the boundless inventiveness Nintendo is known for never quite bleeds through as you would expect, especially as an adaptation of one of Mario's most beloved 3D platformers. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, then, shoots for the stars and ultimately comes up just short.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie leaps into cinemas on April 1. For more, check out the upcoming video game movies – from Sonic 4 to a BioShock adaptation – currently in the works. Then see what tops our ranking of the best Mario games around.