Let's-a-Go: See The Super Mario Bros Movie

Now I've never been interested in most films created by Illumination. The Despicable Me franchise definitely wasn't one I looked out for every year. Even the initial casting for Mario put everyone off. Chris Pratt as an Italian Plummer? No way this was going to be a good movie, but then the first teaser dropped and we heard Jack Black's rendition of Bowser and it was perfection. At the end of the day, it was more like Bowser acting like Jack Black than Jack Black acting like Bowser, and who cares! It was everything the movie needed. It was easier for most of the voice actors in this movie because, besides Mario, the other characters don't have a lot of long-winded speeches to base what they sound like. Mario on the other hand is so specific, a cheesy over-the-top Italian accent? Pratt was never going to live up to this.

That is until I got into my seat to watch the movie two weeks ago. I heard with my own ears a Brooklyn accent. I was very impressed, this was a great move, I can forgive a butchered Brooklyn accent any day. I don't even know what they are supposed to sound like. Changing Mario's accent was a great direction and a smart move on the production's part, oh, and another thing about Brooklyn.

Toad from the 1993 Super Mario Bros Movie

I find it so fascinating that the writers went for a similar approach to Super Mario Bros. (1993) where they were two Italian running around New York and traveling to a sci-fi world where Toad looks like a villain straight out of the fifth element. The only key difference between these two movies is that someone who actually cares about Mario (or at least bothered to look up the games) wrote this movie. It was filled with a cheerful charm and well-placed throwbacks to the games every kid has come to love since the 1980's Not to mention all of the great additive rules, and these are essentially all the things that writers of a narrative story have to come up for reasons as to why things exist. A perfect example is the training course scene. That is an additive rule, never in the game has that been shown as a training course but to include it in the movie they made an explanation for it and gave it a whole new light. Or even their outfits, why the red and green? Because of gimmicks, what a great answer. This movie did a great job building the Mario universe out more and expanding it. This was truly a well-told kids' movie in my opinion and I honestly don't say that often.

I mean seriously for one example the pacing of this movie was fantastic. It just kept at a jog. In the whole movie, we barely had a second to breathe because they were on a mission. I will say some things didn't make sense like how going to see the Kong family was half a day's walk but they needed to take a super long rainbow bridge to get home. As well as how all of the kingdoms are extremely close but Bowser took days to FLY to the Mushroom Kingdom. Okay, okay I know that it's something I shouldn't dread on. Seriously, though this movie was written well and didn't depend on things like... fart guns to seek out laughs. It felt like a movie that actually took the kids watching seriously and wanted to give them more to dream about when playing Mario instead of just capitalizing on his name.

Whether you like it, love it, or hate it. The Super Mario Bros movie is doing so well at the box office that it might help crack open the unsufferable hatred that production houses have for animation. At least a tiny bit, it's a great watch and I mean who doesn't like listening to Jack Black sing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW7bzd8uwyQ