A Trip To Nintendo Land: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) Review

Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome

Your rating: None Average: 4.3 (3 votes)

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is Illumination's latest release from their vast catalog of animated filmography. The film is the inevitable sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie from 2023, which was one of the most successful films of that year. While there are improvements from that original film, the film still does possess major flaws that the original has that are made even more apparent in this sequel.
 
While the animation quality is not a huge step up from the first film, the dynamic camera work is very exciting and made action scenes a lot more engaging than in the first film. In regard to character design, the characters transitioned from their video game iterations to cinema very well.
 
One of the major criticisms that the first film received was the lack of original compositions in the soundtrack in favor of licensed music. This film contains a lot more compositions from the Super Mario franchise in its soundtrack that helps elevate this film above the standard Illumination film.
 
The voice acting is quite mixed. Some actors do a great job at portraying their characters. Jack Black as Bowser has definitely improved from the first film, now speaking with a deeper and rough voice that is akin to Bowser. Donald Glover as Yoshi is another standout for his accuracy in depicting Yoshi by sticking to iconic Yoshi sounds rather than speaking like every other character. However, such standout performances highlight a lot of the weaker performances. Chris Pratt as Mario and Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach feel weaker than others due to their stiff vocal performances. Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr. is another lowlight due to his nasally voice just not fitting the childish Bowser Jr. The weak voice performances from some of the characters made it a lot more evident that these characters are voiced by celebrities rather than traditional voice actors, which does take a lot of immersion out of the film.

 
If you thought the original film threw Nintendo references at you, this movie puts that original film to shame. It really feels like this film has so many references and nods to the Super Mario franchise in almost every frame of the film. While some references are a lot more hard to notice, some scenes feel designed only to show off references. This movie definitely does feel like a film that was made to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Super Mario franchise, but that doesn't necessarily translate to a good narrative which leads to this film's major flaw.
 
Just like the original film, this movie seems to not contain any nuanced narrative. The movie is too fast paced and fails to capture what makes the games so captivating as a result. Character arcs feel so underdeveloped due to the fast pacing of the film. Every character just feels extremely static because they are not given develop or change. Some scenes felt that they were made to develop characters develops later in the film, but such scenes are not present.
 
Super Mario Galaxy is one of Mario's most atmospheric adventures because of its gorgeous space setting, allowing for some of the most creative level design seen in the genre of 3D platformers. This film does not use such a setting to its benefit. In fact, this movie contained more set pieces from Super Mario Odyssey than Super Mario Galaxy. There are also only a few power-ups from Super Mario Galaxy games, with the film deciding to show a wide variety of power-ups from the Super Mario franchise such as the Frog suit from Super Mario Bros. 3 and the flying cape from Super Mario World. The movie is less of a Super Mario Galaxy movie and more of a general Super Mario movie.

 
The most baffling aspect of this movie was the inclusion of Fox McCloud. The film was a lot more entertaining with Fox on screen. There was an interesting 2D animated segment that introduced the character that was nice to see. Glenn Powell even does a great job at portraying the character. However, Fox's inclusion questions how does Star Fox even tie into the Super Mario universe. Besides Super Smash Bros., the two franchises are not connected and are completely different in narrative, setting, and gameplay, making the character feel like a plot device for the film rather than a natural inclusion to the cast. What's even more baffling about Fox's inclusion is that he gets more screen time than Princess Rosalina, who is one of the central characters in the original Super Mario Galaxy game.

 
While the more dynamic action scenes and the use of original Super Mario compositions are appreciated, this film feels more like a 98 minute trip to Nintendo Land at Universal Studios rather than an actual film. Video games are able to provide a narrative with their nuanced gameplay. The interactivity that video games provide make them standout from any other form of media. Cinema is reliant on its narrative since it doesn't have direct interactivity. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie fails to provide an engaging narrative due to its fast pacing and references. Though, the movie does make a play-though of Super Mario Galaxy all the more alluring.