This review was made possible by Popped receiving an advanced screening of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Illumination is finally back on the big screens, but this time not with the little yellow villain supporting characters; you’ll have to wait a little longer for them. No, this time, they’ve come back again in collaboration with Nintendo to provide the sequel to the box office record-breaking The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
There were many directions that this sequel could’ve taken, with some of the following games being Super Mario World or Super Mario Land that they could’ve loosely adapted from, but Illumination and Nintendo have gone intergalactic and expanded the scale to unreachable places with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie takes place after the first film and follows Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) as they meet new friends such as the green dinosaur Yoshi (Donald Glover) and must travel across the galaxy to assist Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) in rescuing Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson), who has found herself kidnapped by Bowser’s (Jack Black) son, Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), who aims to use her cosmic power to control the universe.
The Princess Is In Another Castle
Princess Peach isn’t the only princess that exists within the Mario universe, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie introduces a new one that’s central to the Super Mario Galaxy games, and that’s Princess Rosalina, who’s voiced by the enthusiastic Brie Larson. At the start of the movie, we meet her at the Comet Observatory (a hub location in the games), where we see her reading a bedtime story to the Lunas.
She’s abruptly disrupted by Bowser Jr. who’s controlling the Megaleg robot. What we get is an explosive, cosmic battle between Rosalina and Megaleg that shows she’s not a princess to be messed with. What we see from Rosalina in this moment is not only her rageful side but also her motherly, caring side that unfortunately gets her captured.
Princess Rosalina is a character that you’d believe would get a lot more screen time, but unfortunately, she’s relegated to the Luigi role from the first film, and we barely get to see her in action aside from the first act. She’s involved with the story and Princess Peach’s development as a character, as Nintendo finally decides to break the truth on an age-old theory revolving around the two characters, which does bring some depth to the both of them. Even with that being said, Rosalina still feels like an afterthought in a movie that should truly celebrate her as a character but instead chooses to have non-Mario characters like Fox McCloud (Glen Powell) gain more screentime than her.
Celebrating Mario’s 40th With A Bang
It’s important to notice that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is releasing in conjunction with Super Mario’s 40th anniversary. That means that this movie has placed a heap of Easter eggs for fans to spot, and also a lot of the scenes that exist within this movie are simply for pure fan service and nothing else.
Since the first movie, there have been complaints about the story being thin and underdeveloped, and I can confidently say that at least for the most part, the first film had a cohesive narrative. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie doesn’t seem to have a narrative structure that it wants to follow, and instead, writer Matthew Fogel just decided to do whatever his heart intended and stick together a bunch of scenes that would eventually lead to a conclusion.
If this were any other movie, I’d be left disappointed, underwhelmed and baffled at the decision to not develop an actual story, but just like the Mario games, the film focuses on taking its audience on an interstellar ride that’ll bring them joy. It’s a film where you’ll find yourself just smiling at characters interacting, and I personally think something as small as that is enough to make this movie worthwhile. We go to the cinema to escape life, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie does a fantastic job of taking you away from the real world and just injecting you with a euphoric feeling.
One moment, you’re watching Peach kick total ass as she faces off against Wart (Luis Guzmán) and his allies; the next second, you’re being gifted a Yoshi’s Island reference with Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, and Baby Toad riding on top of Yoshi as they escape a Tyrannosaurus Rex. What has that scene got to do with anything else in the movie? Absolutely nothing. You could remove the scene, and the film remains the same, but it’s a hilarious sequence that’s there for the simple reason of being fun, and it works incredibly well.
You’re transported to a world where you’re witnessing the likes of Fox McCloud interact with Mario, making your Super Smash Bros dreams almost come to life. There are many other Nintendo characters that make an appearance, such as the Pikmin that just make the world feel much more alive. It also goes without saying that Illumination goes the extra mile when it comes to the animation with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, as it’s one of their best-animated films yet, with visuals that transcend this world.
The vibrant colours of the film match with composer Brian Tyler’s game-changing score that energises the movie with many pulls from the various Mario games and specifically the Super Mario Galaxy games; it highlights that despite what some people may think, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a film made out of love for the 40-year history of Mario. There’s even a specific moment where they introduce Fox McCloud and use 2D animation that’s extremely reminiscent of 90s anime that just screams Star Fox.
Like Father, Like Son
Bowser Jr. is introduced as the villain for this movie as he aims to rescue his father, who previously lost to Mario and Luigi in the last film and was turned small by the blue Mini Mushroom, in hopes of proving himself as the villain his father always wanted him to be.
We come across Planet Bowser, where at the top is mounted their “Boomsday” weapon, which will help them take over the universe but also must be powered by Rosalina’s cosmic energy. Bowser Jr. is easily as villainous and evil as Bowser, even more so in this film where Bowser begins to have himself a little redemption arc which delivers with a fine Jack Black performance where it seems like he’s having his most fun.
It ends up being a rather disappointing conclusion for the father/son duo because although there are many calls to Bowser’s parenting skills, Mario telling Bowser that maybe his son needs guidance and even Bowser stopping his son from initially killing them, it feels like the movie completely forgets all of this development to return him to the state he was in during the first film. I don’t want to see a fully reformed Bowser, and I’m all in for villain Bowser, but I would’ve liked to have seen a slower regression back into his villain state. But The Super Mario Galaxy Movie moves at such a speedy pace, it’s almost like Fox McCloud is piloting the ship.
Benny Safdie surprisingly gives a decent performance as Bowser Jr., coming across as one of the three main standouts of the cast alongside Brie Larson as Rosalina and Donald Glover as Yoshi. If you had told me that they brought back the original voice actor, Kazumi Totaka, to voice Yoshi, I would’ve believed you, but Donald Glover does an unbelievably shocking job at bringing Yoshi to life. His voice work for the character and the small moments we get with Yoshi and the gang make up for this movie not initially being a fully Yoshi-focused adventure, but with how the world’s expanding, there’s always room to see Yoshi come back in his own big-screen, theatrical adventure.
‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ – Final Thoughts
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie might lack an actual story and also move at a pace that rushes to the finish line, but it’s a celebration of everything that’s been Mario for 40 years and has you excited for the next 40 years of the franchise. It boasts colourful, vibrant visuals with an out-of-this-world score by Brian Tyler that just transports you back to your childhood.
Is this the loosest adaptation you could get for a Super Mario Galaxy game? Yes, it sometimes feels more like a loose adaptation of Odyssey instead, but this is a film that’s still worth every second of its runtime despite the grievances that I might have because it simply exists to create a good time, and it does exactly that.
It goes without saying that kids are undoubtedly going to love this film, and it’s understandable why some adults are struggling to enjoy it, but as a huge Mario and Nintendo fan, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie left me with a grin on my face as it brought so much warmth. The possibilities are endless with what Illumination and Nintendo can do with this franchise, and this movie was only a taste of what’s to come.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie releases in theaters on April 1, 2026. Check out the trailer below:
The Review
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie might lack an actual story and also move at a pace that rushes to the finish line, but it's a celebration of everything that's been Mario for 40 years and has you excited for the next 40 years of the franchise. It boasts colourful, vibrant visuals with an out-of-this-world score by Brian Tyler that just transports you back to your childhood.
