This is Pastor Tim’s article that appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, April 25
The last few articles I have written have been a tad pessimistic. So today, I am choosing to write about something that lifted my spirits. Yesterday I went to see the new Super Mario Bros. movie and it was an absolute blast. It was everything the kid in me who grew up playing Super Mario Bros wanted. I smiled through every minute of the entire movie.
Let me start this review with the part that matters least, what was missing from the movie. All of the modern sensibilities and agendas were gone. There were no sexual overtones, no crude humor, no pushing of lifestyles or anything of the sort. You can allow your kids to watch this movie and they will love it. It was colorful and incredibly fast paced. The action was easy to follow and absolutely crazy. To anyone who has played or is even familiar with any of the Mario games, you will easily follow what is happening. From any of the Mario platform games to Super Smash Bros or Mario Kart. All of the games are represented, and they are all done with break neck sequences that are just a blast to watch. This movie was about as much fun as I have had in a movie theater in quite some time.
And the soundtrack? It was so good I have already bought it from Amazon, and I am listening to it as I type. It is unbelievable what those simple old tunes from those 8-bit games sound like when played by a modern orchestra. It takes me back to those days when I was playing Super Mario Bros and was so excited when either my parents or my aunt were not using their TV and I got to hook my Nintendo to the color TV instead of the old black and white on in m room.! That TV was so huge, it was like 14 inches or something. Ha ha, how far we have come!
Currently I am playing video games on my Nintendo Switch and the game I am occupied with right now is Super Mario Maker 2. In it, people from all over the world can design levels and I can play them. I have to admit, there are many things that 48 year old me cannot do that 14 year old me could, but I have not lost my touch at Mario. I can beat some pretty crazy levels on that game. The me from 1989 would be very proud.
Back to the movie, the voice acting was pretty good. Seth Rogan is not one of my favorite people, but he wasn’t bad as Donkey Kong. Chris Pratt was the voice of Mario and did a great job spending half the movie freaking out. But the one who stole the show was Jack Black as the villainous dragon Bowser. To the people who made this movie, to give Jack Black a chance to sing a power ballad as Bowser for really no reason was one of the best movie decisions made in quite some time. It was pointless, except for being absolutely awesome.
The one extremely minor complaint I have is that it was Mario and Princess Peach who were going out to rescue Mario’s brother, Luigi, where in the games it was Mario and Luigi going out to rescue Princess Peach. But they did not allow Princess Peach to take over the movie and just be a girl boss. She taught Mario the ropes on how the world of Super Mario works, but Mario was always the main character. And Luigi got to come back for the climax of the movie.
If you will notice, I haven’t said anything about the plot. That’s because there really wasn’t one. Mario and Luigi were plumbers from Brookland and through a crazy series of events, were transported separately into another world. In that world, Bowser wants to marry Princess Peach and she is not interested in him at all. Mario meets Princess Peach and they join forces for a rescue mission to save Luigi. On their way, they recruit Donkey Kong to help them. I would have put a spoiler alert on this, but if you are in anyway familiar with Mario games, you already knew all of this. From there, it is mushroom eating, platform hopping, fireball tossing, and kart driving until they arrive at the finale. Look, I know I gave away a lot of what happens, but nothing beats seeing it.
Hollywood, for the love of God, please, learn a lesson from this movie. Make more movies like this, movies that honor the characters we love. Why does everything have to be a deconstruction of characters we all grew up loving? There is a reason why movies like this and Top Gun: Maverick made so much more money than the pathetic modern Star Wars movies.
I guess the only way for me to close this article is by saying: Momma Mia!