With Illumination and Nintendo’s long-awaited The Super Mario Bros. Movie set to make its debut at cinemas tomorrow a large number of reviews have now come rolling in and they are sadly decidedly mixed. The critics seem to be in love with the sublime animation and visual splendour of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but aren’t entirely impressed with the films script and the juvenile jokes. It should be noted though that of all the voice actors in the Super Mario Movie, Jack Black’s portrayal of Bowser seems to have gotten the most nods of approval from the movie critics. Overall the Super Mario Bros. Movie has a score of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 54 critic reviews (9pm UK time)
“This comes from Illumination, a studio that never quite earned the critical cred of rivals like Pixar or Sony, but through their Minions and Sing franchises have certainly figured out how to make millions of family-friendly dollars. You feel that half-term hymn sheet being sung from in the endless peril, the bright colours, the largely unfunny gags, the empty sentiment (“Nothing can hurt us as long as we’re together!”). The studio brings experience and talent; the standard of animation, crisply rendered and richly art-directed, is undeniably high. It’s-a-gonna win many box-office gold coins, no doubt. But the Bob Hoskins version is far more imaginative.” Empire magazine 2/5
“Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. movie fails to hit the top of the goalpost. It succumbs to the lazy animated feature tropes its studio is known for but gets a mushroom power-up through its breathtaking animation and imaginatively directed action set pieces.” Rendy Reviews 2.5/5
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a fireball of animated fantasy. Mario, Luigi, and Peach’s adventure delights with its infectious energy and smart implementations of video game callbacks, and the top-shelf animation renders the Mushroom Kingdom as an Oz-like wonderland that begs to be explored in the inevitable sequels that will follow. The assembled voice cast puts a unique spin on each of their characters, but undercooked emotional arcs don’t get the same attention as the aesthetics, something not helped by a paint-by-numbers plot that bafflingly keeps Mario and Luigi away from each other for half the movie. Illumination and Nintendo set out to deliver a Mario movie that anyone could enjoy, and that anyone with even a passing knowledge of the games could get lost in – they’ve undeniably succeeded on both fronts.” IGN 8/10
“At first there are some zany and ingenious panning-right 2D-obstacle sequences pastiching the gameplay action, as if by accident, but once the brothers have left planet Earth, the game dimension has to be repeatedly, cumbersomely and boringly crowbarred into the story itself. And unlike the brilliant Lego Movies, there is a fierce insistence on not being ironic or funny or self-referential about any of this – odd, as screenwriter Matthew Fogel worked on The Lego Movie 2. The only exception, arguably, is when Bowser is seen thoughtfully playing power-ballads on his piano. Even Super Mario superfans might prefer the game.” The Guardian 2/5
“It’s just a shame that the svelte 92-minute runtime means we don’t get much time to linger in this vibrant setting. The story races through locations, character introductions and story threads so quickly that when the final act nears, you can’t help but wish directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic had gently nudged the brakes. There are casualties along the way – Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong doesn’t get much of a look-in – but it’s the Mario and Luigi relationship that really suffers. And given how much of the later plot hinges on it, this underdevelopment means one particular pay-off doesn’t hit the required emotional beats. Horvath and Jelenic do a lot to rewrite Mario’s on-screen legacy, but TSMBM ultimately doesn’t match the lofty genius of Shigeru Miyamoto’s beloved games. Although with all signs pointing to a sequel, there’s plenty of Rainbow Road left for the characters to explore.”
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