The Super Mario Bros. movie tells the story Mario and Luigi being transported to a different universe after trying to save the city from a massive plumbing emergency. 

Caution: spoilers ahead

The movie opens in Brooklyn with Mario and Luigi responding to their first call after starting their own plumbing company.

The brothers bring their best plumbing game, but things don’t go as planned.

This film focuses on themes of friendship and perseverance, as the characters seek power-ups such as magic mushrooms, floating question mark boxes and an army of monkeys to help them defeat the King Koopa, Bowser, the antagonist we all recognize from the Mario games. 

If you are not familiar with the popular Mario games, I recommend watching some playthroughs because there are lots of references to them in the movie, and the film will not be as enjoyable (but still enjoyable) if you don’t appreciate these references.

Viewers will immediately recognize the iconic pipes that take the characters to surprising locations, but there are also subtle details such as when Princess Peach, Mario and Toad were traveling to the Jungle Kingdom, the background changed (to show they were traveling) and those backgrounds referenced the video game Super Mario Odyssey. 

Another reference to video games were the power-ups, like the fire flower, the mini-mushroom, the super mushroom and the super leaf, all of course released from the famous ? block featured in many Mario games. 

Another amazing aspect of the movie is the music. Most of the music is remixed by Brian Tyler using the original themes from Mario composer Koji Kondo. The music made me feel a strong sense of nostalgia, as it reminded me of all the time I spent playing Mario games as a child.

But the song that has gotten the most attention has been the top 100 song Peaches, sung by Jack Black in character as Bowser. Black’s performance was over the top and cringey, bu his persona and uninhibited performance make it hard to stop watching. 

The song is a tribute to Princess Peach, whom Bowser is in love with, and who does not love him back.

Another song that I enjoyed was the DK Rap, sung by the crowd before Mario’s fight with Donkey Kong. The song has a funky beat, builds suspense for the fight and made me smile.

The plot of the film was not too bad. I mean, the movie made a big deal about Luigi being lost, but I wish the filmmakers had included aspects of the games such as more bosses, more obstacles and more enemies. It would have been nice to have seen scenes set in the Ice Kingdom, Sand Kingdom and Water Kingdom as well. It also could have ended with a really big fight between Bowser’s troops and the Kingdoms. But that’s just my thinking. 

Then there was the subplot with the emotional blue star character who is imprisoned by Bowser and talks about looking forward to death as a release from his misery. I could have done without this character. After doing some research, I found out that the star’s name is Lumalee and he is in only three Mario games. He is a member of the ‘Hungry Luma” species from the games, which is kinda funny. He’s not as weird in the games, so I’m not sure why they did all of that in the movie.

Another big aspect of the movie is the love story between Bowser and Peach. Bowser, even though he is a giant turtle and Peach is a human, loves the princess dearly and sings songs for her. He fantasizes about how he will propose to her. 

On the other hand, Peach doesn’t know about any of this, and when Bowser finally has her in his grasp and proposes to her, the princess is shocked, leading Bowser to compel her to marry him. 

At the end of the movie, the wedding apparel worn by Peach and Bowser was actually identical to the ones worn by Peach and Bowser in the game Super Mario Odyssey when they were going to have a wedding.  

If you want a fun and relaxing movie with some laughs mixed in, then this is the right movie. I recommend watching it with friends, that’s what I did. If your friends have played Mario games, you will each point out things that were cool or interesting, and it will kind of feel like you’re analyzing the movie for what it really is: a great-joyful-kidlike-(but for teens too)-movie.