‘Super Mario Bros: the movie’ is everything that could be expected from it, no more, no less. Thirty years it has taken Nintendo to shed its shame and bring its most beloved character back to the big screen. It is not for less. The fiasco that supposed ‘Super Mario Bros.’ (1993), that strange and futuristic flesh and blood story in which Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo put themselves in the shoes of the two plumbers to hunt down a Bowser played by Dennis Hopper, led the Japanese company to rethink its role at the cinema.
In these three decades, the interest in the character created by Shigeru Mijamoto in 1981 -he was the hero who tried to knock down the gorilla in ‘Donkey Kong’, but would not receive his name until ‘Mario Bros.’, in 1983, and would not star in his first big adventure until ‘Super Mario Bros.’ of Nes, in 1985- not only has it not declined but it has been strengthened with each of the installments in which he is the protagonist.
This time Nintendo has done its homework well and has chosen to leave the film in the hands of the Illumination studio, responsible for the Gru franchise and the adorable Minions. Always, yes, under the supervision of Christopher Meledandri and Shigeru Miyamoto himself, who sign as producers. Aware that they had a delicious universe on their hands, directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic have taken advantage of the aesthetics of video games starring Mario to their advantage, without budging from it.
The film begins with an amusing nod to the Italian origins of the two brothers. A television advertisement to try to attract customers allows them to put on the characteristic Italian accent with which actor Charles Martinet, also present in the film as the patriarch of the family, voices Mario in video games. The brothers, who live in New York, have just left the company they worked for as salaried employees and have opened their own business as plumbers. But things are not going well. His first assignment, which seemed simple, ends up going wrong due to a very funny unforeseen event.
When they return to his parents’ house, Mario can’t help but feel like a failure. A feeling that goes further after the words of his father, that he has no confidence that the new business of his sons will go ahead. Frustrated, Mario goes to his room and starts playing the NES. When Luigi comes to cheer him up, the news gives him the clue to follow: Brooklyn is flooding due to some problems in the pipes, if they manage to fix it, they will become the heroes of the city. But when they descend to the underground of the city, a pipe ends up separating them and taking them to two different kingdoms: the dark Koopa Kingdom and the colorful Mushroom Kingdom. Mario will have to rescue Luigi, but along the way he will have to learn to handle himself in this new world with its rules and with magical mushrooms -and he doesn’t like them!- and face Bowser, who wants to rule all the kingdoms of that world as magical as mysterious.
It is a very simple and not very innovative plot, although at least this time the brilliant plumber does not have to rescue Princess Peach, but it is developed with Swiss precision and in just over an hour and a half -a very wise decision-. The separation between the two brothers not only allows them to be characterized very well -Luigi is the scary one, while Mario is brave and adventurous-, but also gives the opportunity to play with very different settings: the fantastic color of the Mushroom Kingdom against the terrifying darkness of the Koopa Kingdom. Visually powerful and attractive, ‘Super Mario Bros: The Movie’ never forgets what its inspiration is and establishes parallels with the videogames in which it is based on different sequences from the film, even going as far as placing the camera as a if I were shooting one of the 2D Mario of a lifetime. They are nice winks and do not tire because they are contained, they are well integrated and he does not spend much time on them.
And yes, there are also nods to the Mario universe, but Matthew Fogel, the creator of the script, has made the intelligent decision not to saturate the world with references to video games that would surely dazzle the plumber’s followers, but would have made the audience limp. movie pace. In this sense, it is a very well-balanced film, which does not get lost in the character’s legacy, with well-resolved action sequences and very fine, sympathetic and parodic humor -the most romantic Bowser, who in the original version is dubbed by Jack Black, is a delight.
In short, ‘Super Mario Bros: The Movie’ is a good children’s movie, salty enough for an adult to have fun without problems. Of course, do not expect here the depth of a Pixar script, nor the acid and corrosive humor of some of its proposals. It is, quite simply, a Mario movie, without fanfare or surprises, in which oblique issues are touched on, such as the need to believe in oneself, family or bullying.
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