Alright, everyone! Today, we review the newest film from Universal & Illumination. Not only that, but, apparently, it is, thus far, the highest grossing film of 2026. Oh, and it is the sequel to the 2023 hit, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Presenting to you all my review of the animated film that was made by Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo, it is the one, and only, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, starring Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, and newcomer to this film series, Glen Powell, to name a few in the cast.
Plot: When Princess Rosalina (Brie Larson), the long lost sister of Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), gets captured by Bowser’s son, Bowser Jr. (Benny Safdie), one of Rosalina’s friends, a creature called the Luma (Michael Jelenic), circumstances cause Peach, and Toad (Keegan Michael-Key), and later, Mario (Chris Pratt), Luigi (Charlie Day), and newcomer Yoshi (Donald Glover), to get back into action. Now, can they stop Bowser Jr. from carrying out his evil plans against Princess Rosalina, and the galaxy?
Well, though this new Super Mario sequel did somewhat improve from some of the flaws of the 2023 hit, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie still does end up having flaws of its own. First of all, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie might have still had a little too much going on for it. Granted, not quite as much as the first film, but still. Also, there were times when The Super Mario Galaxy might have been a little too dark for an animated film, especially for young kids. To the surprise of some of the audience, there was some CGI that probably didn’t quite blend in with some of the rest of the animation in this film. I know it might be hard to explain unless you’ve seen this film already. Still, let’s just say that some of it was weird at times. Oh, and this film doesn’t seem to provide the best example of lessons. There are some good lessons incorporated in. It’s just that there are some potential lessons that maybe don’t seem to set the best examples for kids in the process. Finally, and this is probably the biggest flaw of them all, some of the writing for this film didn’t work as well, most notably with how some of the characters were written, and/or handled in this sequel. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say that there were one, or two, of the famous Nintendo characters in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie that especially could have been handled better.
Still, in the midst of these flaws, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie does have more high points. First of all, the story, though still somewhat scattered, does also feel stronger. Seeing as there is less going on, and there are less things thrown in, that is most definitely saying a lot. In addition to all of this, though there were one, or two characters that felt a little underdeveloped, the rest of them definitely seemed more fleshed out this time around. Seeing as character development didn’t seem quite as strong in the first film, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, that helped this sequel improve from the first, and was one way in which this sequel ended up being even better than the first film. One of the ways in which this ended up being the case was that, let’s just say that there were some unanswered questions from the first film that seemed to be clarified this time, especially when it came to how certain things happened with some of these characters. What’s more is that the world building not only felt expanded upon more, but also felt more strong as well. Then, there is the voice acting. Yes, we have Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Chris Pratt, Keegan-Michael Key, Kevin Michael Richardson, and, of course, Jack Black, to name a few. This time, we have newer cast members such as Benny Safdie, Donald Glover, Brie Larson, and Glen Powell, to name a few, joining this animated film franchise. Let me tell you, it is definitely a great cast, especially Glen Powell. I won’t say who he voices for those of you that have yet to see this film. However, let’s just say that you’ll likely find it shocking for who he does voice. In addition to all of this, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie boasts of some really great animation, including some 2D anime-like animation at one point. Pretty cool, if you ask me! Finally, even if there were some lessons that weren’t the best for a family film like this, there were one, or two good lessons to take away from this film.
And that’s my review for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Even though neither this one, or the first film, may be the best films to come out of Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo, it does have some very good things to go along with it. Still, it did have the potential to be a better sequel. Yes, it still was better than the first film. It’s just that it could have been a better sequel even more if the filmmakers might not have seemed to try too hard to stick as closely to the games, but maybe could have taken liberties a little more than they did. But hey, for what we got, it’s a film, and sequel, that’s worth seeing, for the fairly better character development, good animation, good action, and more. Definitely see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie if you’re into either movies, or video games, or even both, and/or if you’re okay with not necessarily great, but at least good film!
Final Rating: 8.5/10
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 