March 31, 2026, 7:00 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
For more than 40 years, Super Mario has been jumping and running through a variety of video games, most of which bear his name. The creation of the Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has significantly influenced the entire video game industry, particularly the platformer genre. Now, the mustachioed plumber is once again conquering the big screen. But how worth watching is “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” really?
What It’s About
Briefly about the plot: After Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach defeated the nasty Bowser in the predecessor, peace seems to have returned to the Mushroom Kingdom. But one day, Peach receives an urgent message from another galaxy: Princess Rosalina has been kidnapped by none other than Bowser Jr.! Peach embarks on a dangerous journey to help her and discover something about her own past. The two plumber brothers lend her a helping hand–as much as possible amid the chaos that follows them at every turn.
Technically Brilliant Game Adaptation
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is the direct sequel to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” from 2023. The direction is clear: The fun is animated, colorful, and packed with action, gags, and various references to different Nintendo and especially Mario game worlds. This remains true in the second part as well.
Fans of the iconic characters will get their money’s worth just from the abundance of characters and references, although for a “Mario Galaxy” adaptation, as the title suggests, there are surprisingly frequent nods to “Super Mario Odyssey.” But who cares when the result looks this good? Visually, the film by returning director Matthew Fogel is a real feast for the eyes, with colors and effects that are simply mesmerizing.
A particularly memorable sequence features a shower of shooting stars. The multitude of magically animated and designed objects and their interplay with colors and light is truly enchanting. Even Disney Pixar’s “Hoppers” pales in comparison to such splendor.
Just in Time for Easter, It’s Easter Egg Hunting
And because both Nintendo and Super Mario have a long history, fans can start searching the entire screen for Easter eggs, or hidden references, right from the first minute of the film. But even those who are less attentive will get a full dose of Nintendo pop culture.
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The soundtrack naturally includes unmistakable jingles and melodies from the games, as well as the immortal sound of someone sliding through a pipe. Occasionally, the action switches to a pixelated 2D view, as if it came straight from the good old NES. And after Donkey Kong made an appearance in the predecessor, this time, fitting the “Galaxy” theme, an interstellar tough guy makes an appearance–it shouldn’t be hard to guess who it is.
97 Minutes Without a Break
Audiovisually successful and full of Nintendo brand maintenance–but does that automatically make a good movie? The pace of the story is relentless, with the plot never taking a moment to rest. And even amid all the action, the script tirelessly inserts one gag after another.
However, in my view, their hit rate is quite limited. In most cases, they rely not on inventive wit but merely on volume, clichéd slow-motion, and speed to impress–and that’s essentially the main problem with the film. Because you can hardly speak of a real story in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”
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The Attention Span Gets Shorter
Instead, a continuously escalating chain of events is presented, bombarding the audience’s nerves at increasingly shorter intervals and with growing frenzy, leaving no time for thoughts and emotions.
Thus, it is the perfect film for the doomscrolling TikTok generation, which only stays engaged if it is continuously bombarded and never given the chance to think about anything else. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” requires no active attention. It is more like the cinematic equivalent of a stranger getting uncomfortably close to your face, giggling incessantly, and constantly asking, “Isn’t that funny?” Only the aforementioned person finds it amusing.
No Fire Flower Can Help Anymore
Specifically, this means: The plot jumps from one point to the next without satisfactorily building any of them dramatically. Many moments end as abruptly as they begin, and potentially exciting side characters remain woefully underrepresented in the story. Entire character developments occur from one scene to the next. What remains is a film that doesn’t trust itself or its audience and prefers to numb rather than touch.
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And despite all the aggressive cinematic kinetics, it is primarily one thing: boring. As pure fan service and uncomplicated fun for the little ones, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” will surely find many viewers. And maybe I’m just being unfair, and Mario, Luigi, and Co. simply don’t have any significant narrative potential. In that case, I’d rather grab the controller and jump through the levels myself.