12 votes

‘Super Mario Bros’ hits high scores: Record opening for animated pic at $377M+ worldwide, 5-day US record $204M+

3 comments

  1. stu2b50
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    I watched it and enjoyed it. In a complete vacuum, if you were to have no knowledge of the Mario IP, as an adult it'd be a pretty meh movie. The plot is both simple and... doesn't really make any...

    I watched it and enjoyed it. In a complete vacuum, if you were to have no knowledge of the Mario IP, as an adult it'd be a pretty meh movie. The plot is both simple and... doesn't really make any sense without prior knowledge. That being said, for a reason I'll get to later, I think it's more watchable than many other kids movies.

    That scenario is kinda rare, though. Mario is such a large IP that there's a lot of adults that have played mario games. I wouldn't even say they need to be a fan - just that if you've played mario games, and enjoyed them, you'll enjoy the references. That's an incredibly broad category of people for perhaps the most well known video game IP (or second to Pokemon).

    I watched a pretty late 9pm airing, and 1) it was packed, which was shocking considering the airing time on a weekday 2) it was all adults (which also makes sense given the time, but would be unheard of for other animated children's movies).

    The movie is packed with references, and it's genuinely just enjoyable to see the familiar Mario world beautifully animated (Illumination has stepped up their game recently) as someone who grew up playing Mario games. It's clear unlike low effort adaptations, that Nintendo had a say in what and how things are adapted (and also, it's fairly likely that the staff have played mario games, because, it's mario).

    I also found it, for lack of a better word, "not cringe" from an adult perspective. e.g when I watch all those fart jokes in Despicable Me, I take psychic damage. I don't remember any kid-gags in Mario that gave me psychic damage. At worst, I just ignored it. So I could enjoy the Mario references and world without dying.

    Chris Pratt as Mario was surprisingly fine? They lampshaded the lack of an egregious Italian accent in the opening scene (with cameo from OG Mario VA Charles Martinet), and since this is a Mario origin piece, with Mario starting out as a normal person in Brooklyn, the voice makes sense.

    Peach's characterization felt a little weird out of everyone. I get that they want to make her more of an active character, and that's a good thing, but Nintendo has done a lot towards that in her portrayals in Mario RPG games, her own platformer games, even Smash, which doesn't really have a plot but she has been a higher tier in strength than Mario in every game so far, and in a more nuanced way than in this movie, where she feels a bit like a copy paste of Hollywood's extremely generic idea of a strong heroine (which would fit Daisy more out of the Mario princesses). It didn't make that much of a difference, though.

    8 votes
  2. cloud_loud
    Link
    Now that this movie is on its way to making well over a billion worldwide, I think I can say that I really did not care for it. It is way too much of a kids movie. I don’t know if it was made with...

    Now that this movie is on its way to making well over a billion worldwide, I think I can say that I really did not care for it. It is way too much of a kids movie. I don’t know if it was made with anyone older in mind. Which was disappointing cause I was honestly expecting a Shrek-like tone, but that was probably mistaken considering the studio behind it.

    I can see why video game nerd are loving it. And actually the screening I went to didn’t have any kids and were all adult nerds and some even dressed up for it. But yeah it’s not good. And I actually think I like the 90s movie more because it has a weird and interesting personality to it.

    Other than that, I’m glad Air is doing relatively okay. For an “adult drama” that has been struggling at the box office, those are decent numbers. Probably not good enough for its 90 million dollar budget, but considering it’s Amazon I’m not sure they’ll care. And it’s being set up for a decent awards run.

    5 votes
  3. NoblePath
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    As a non mario fan (except for mariokart wii), I was able to sit through it with my kids. My daughter, also not much of a gamer, had a similar experience. My younger son loved it. It was pretty...

    As a non mario fan (except for mariokart wii), I was able to sit through it with my kids. My daughter, also not much of a gamer, had a similar experience. My younger son loved it.

    It was pretty for the most part. Some of the character were too obviously left over code from other illumination movies.

    Despite its derivation from the lego movie, lumalee definitely stole the show.

    4 votes