Movie Synopsis: With help from Princess Peach, Mario gets ready to square off against the all-powerful Bowser to stop his plans from conquering the world. The movie runs for one hour and 32 minutes and is rated PG.

Mohammad says four stars: Enjoyable, yet lacks pacing

A new animated movie was released to theaters by Nintendo titled “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” that brought the characters within the Mario universe to life. It was a great movie with incredible production and animation design for the characters. 

The movie was intended for an entire family to enjoy, and you could tell by the number of comedic scenes within the film. Although, the pace of the film was too fast to understand what was going on. For an hour-and-a-half movie, there are still some questionable scenes that didn’t make sense, especially toward the end.

The film had an incredible cast to make the movie more well-known. Some of the actors in the cast were Chris Pratt as Mario, Keegan Michael-Key as Toad, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach and Jack Black as Bowser. It was a star-studded cast that complemented the massive attraction of characters such as Mario and Luigi.

It’s a fun, lovable and entertaining film that gives audience members a smile on their faces at the end of the movie. I’d recommend this movie for anyone to watch. It’s rated PG or parental guidance, but in reality, it should be rated E for everyone as it doesn’t have anything that parents would be angry about.

It’s an incredible movie that only lacks better pacing. If the movie was a half hour longer with a scene that explains a certain scene, it’d get a better grade for the entire film. However, from what was shown, it’s getting a four out of five-star review.

— Mohammad Najimi

Noah says 2 and a half stars: Stunning production, average story

I wanted this film to be good. I wanted to be knocked out and give it a thumbs up, but, instead, I’m back to being the critical critic. But, I don’t think the film is all that bad. The word I would use would be “misdirected.” The animation is gorgeous, breathtaking and I love the way the camera swoops through the kaleidoscopic world like a hungry bird praying on beautiful production design. The score is also brilliant, incorporating iconic themes from the video games into something both nostalgic and dramatically heroic. I also loved Peach. She was super cool, fun and voiced perfectly by Anya Taylor-Joy.

However, the story is average and the pacing is a wreck. The biggest drawback was not having Luigi alongside his brother Mario the whole film. I strongly believe that the film would’ve been better if it focused on their relationship and how they overcome their insecurities to become the great heroes we know they could be. Also, Bowser, despite being super funny, is a complete joke and lacks any kind of depth who isn’t portrayed as a real threat. He’s not all that interesting or menacing. Finally, the majority of the voice cast is distracting and feels like they were cast because they’re famous. I wish they cast lesser known actors or at least actors who actually sound genuinely scary, threatening, or Italian. 

Nevertheless, you should see this film. It’s still a lot of fun despite the many flaws, but I recommend waiting until it’s free to watch rather than spending your hard earned money to see this in the theater.

— Noah Cannon