‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ Is Delightful Fun

I’m pretty sure The Super Mario Bros Movie proves that movie critics are wildly out of touch with audiences when it comes to video game adaptations, and really when it comes to lots of ‘genre’ stuff in general. When I saw that the movie was at a lousy 54% on Rotten Tomatoes I was initially pretty worried. When I went out and read some of the reviews—including reviews lamenting the movie’s story or calling it offensive because Bowser wants to marry Princess Peach against her will—I knew it was more likely because the critics must be crazy.

Sure enough, the movie ended up being absolutely delightful. It’s a great, fun, beautifully animated story of Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, Donkey Kong and a colorful, zany cast of Nintendo characters fighting off Bowser and his armies in the Mushroom Kingdom. There’s Mario Kart racing. There’s a Donkey Kong arena battle. It’s wonderful. The music is straight from the games with a nice cinematic once-over. And it’s just the right length: One-and-a-half hours long. The theater I saw it in had lots of very enthusiastic kids, but all the teens and grownups were having fun, too.

This is all reflected in the film’s Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score, which currently sits at 96% compared to the grumpy, out-of-touch critics score of 54%. That’s Certified Fresh vs decidedly Rotten. And the critics are wrong on this one, folks.

Beyond just the audience score on RT, the CinemaScore for the movie is a solid “A”. Many consider this a much more accurate sampling of moviegoers since that score is taken in post-screening surveys at the theaters themselves rather than just the most enthusiastic fans online.

All I can think is that the target audience here is Nintendo fans. Not just kids as some have suggested, but fans of these games going back to when I was a kid. I’m 41 and grew up with Nintendo games and these characters have been as important and dear to me and to many of my peers as any comic book superheroes or Lord Of The Rings characters. There just has never really been a great Mario movie (other than The Wizard) made until now. It’s crazy! Within a week the first really excellent D&D movie and the first really excellent Mario Bros movie came out. What are the chances?

In any case, a lot of these movie critics must not play much Mario or know much about Mario because the magic is apparently lost on far too many of them. That’s a shame. This movie is absolutely great, a very faithful, very fun adaptation of one of the most popular and beloved video game franchises of all time. Go see it on the biggest screen you can find!

You can read my review of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves right here. I’ll post my full review of The Super Mario Bros Movie here on this blog soon.

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