Buffalo Film: Should you join them on this quest on the big screen, or should you stay in and fire up the Nintendo Switch?

By Matthew Turner
(Image above: Courtesy of Universal Pictures – © Universal Pictures)

Video game movies are a relentlessly fascinating medium.

Hard as they may try, do any adaptations come close to the euphoria that we get from playing a video game? The frustration we feel as we have to learn the challenge set by the game? The countless “game over” screens that we endure before finally achieving a victory? The excitement of exploring a new world with secrets hidden for only the most adventurous gamer to uncover?

Video game movies have tried for decades to replicate this magic, but it is impossible to come close. Film is not an interactive medium. We cannot get the same itch in our brain scratched by both playing games and watching films.

I can say with certainty however, I have not seen a video game film try as hard as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie to make viewers forget that they are not playing a video game.

Where the first film masqueraded as a typical Illumination animated film with a Mario skin over it, this sequel is completely dropped into the video game world for better and for worse.

Gone are the typical ’80s needle drops used to invoke nostalgia to when the games were created, because in this outing the music is non-stop Mario soundtrack bangers across the entire franchise. Remember “Jump Up, Superstar?” You will, because it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the week after seeing this.

With the authenticity of this soundtrack however, the film is also desperate to shove in as many easter eggs as possible to the point of unintentional parody. Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Maker, Mario Kart, Star Fox, Pikmin, and Super Mario Sunshine are just some of the reference points that are mined for reactions.

Just because we recognize an easter egg, that does not make the movie good. At some points in the film, it does not function like a proper narrative with how loaded it is. Is this just an ad for the games that we can all play at home, or is it a hodgepodge of visual and audio references that is trying to force us into thinking that we are having fun?

In any case, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is short enough to not drive everyone crazy with its potentially grating lack of personal identity, and it is a triple jump above the slop that is The Super Mario Bros. Movie. But for my money, everyone is better off staying in and replaying the classics with friends and family. 

Matthew Turner is a scholar of all things film and a teacher of English.