animated comedy
Happy Comic World: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”
Mario and Princess Peach who is a talented fighter. photo
© -/Universal Pictures/Nintendo/dpa
Moustache, bright blue dungarees and red cap: The famous video game character Mario is coming back to the cinema – after the bizarre film flop in the 90s. Will the Nintendo animated comedy succeed?
He climbs, runs, jumps, suddenly slides, falls – and gets up again in a great mood: For decades, fans have steered the character Mario through daring obstacle courses. In the new animated comedy “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, however, the plumber travels independently through the brightly colored worlds – and not at the push of a button. Cinemagoers have to lean back in the 92 minutes for better or worse, even if their fingers are itching.
At least Mario has his brother and colleague Luigi by his side. The unsuccessful but optimistic Brooklyn plumber duo is in desperate need of new work. A dripping faucet could put the two tradesmen back in business. After a breakdown that is not entirely their fault, the brothers lose themselves when they are torn through a pipe into a magical world. In order to find Luigi again, Mario (“I’m just getting tired of feeling so small”) embarks on a wild journey through the well-known, brightly colored universes.
Not just a Mario movie
Especially refreshing: Princess Peach no longer needs to be rescued. On the contrary: the talented fighter offers Mario daring training in obstacle crossing (“Well, we have a long journey ahead of us, mustache”) and keeps a cool head in tricky situations. The animated comedy is not just a Mario film: Nintendo and the animation studio Illumination breathe life into the other characters as well. Donkey Kong’s self-assured monkey business, Bowser’s choleric nemesis’ freaks out and Toad’s funny facial expressions don’t miss out.
The special gaming feeling
The focus is not actually on the plot, but on the gaming feeling. With the iconic sounds and the Mario soundtrack, you almost feel like you are in front of the game console. The figures jump from stone to stone, fly through the air, shimmy along green pipes. In their racing cars, Mario and his friends hurtle down the shimmering Rainbow Boulevard and other lanes from the Mario Kart games.
The recognizable, cheerful comic style also makes reconciliation possible. And with those who watched the bizarre real-life adaptation “Super Mario Bros” in the 90s. The 1993 film flop, which was a bit too gloomy, was not at all reminiscent of the cheerful comic world for children. Lead actor Bob Hoskins also summed up the project in a 2007 interview with The Guardian: “The whole experience was a nightmare.” The new film, on the other hand, invites you to join in the excitement.
Mario became a cult
Mario first appeared in the 1981 game Donkey Kong. In 1985, the Japanese company Nintendo launched the now world-famous video game “Super Mario Bros” – in which the lead role was played by the plumber who had to save the princess. More than 200 games and millions of sales made the little mustachioed character a cult.
“Mario was one of the first video game characters you could grow up with,” said Linda Breitlauch, game design professor at Trier University of Applied Sciences, the dpa. “The brand has existed since the beginning of the commercial computer games industry.”
The story is less convincing than the gameplay. “Jump ‘n’ Run is the classic for children and young people,” says Breitlauch. The target group is best at mastering the necessary hand-eye coordination. The Mario franchise is also popular because it allows for competition and social experiences through play with friends and family. “And if you grow up with a video game, of course it sticks in your memory,” says Breitlauch. So it only remains to say: “Let’s-a go!”
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, USA 2023, 93 minutes, FSK 6+, by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, original voices: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day