Name: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Released: 2026

Stu Kline

+11 clout

Sep 14, 2026

Look I'll be honest, I sat through The Super Mario Galaxy Movie last weekend with a bucket of popcorn and low expectations after that first Illumination flick left me wanting more actual game energy. This one's about Bowser Jr. springing his old man from lockup and dragging Mario and Luigi across half the cosmos to shut the kid down. It's pure space-hopping nonsense and it mostly works. Three things jumped out right away. First, the set pieces actually feel like you're playing Super Mario Galaxy again. Those little planetoids with their own gravity, the spinning flips, Luigi screaming every time the floor drops out—it's all there and they don't phone it in with cheap shortcuts. Second, the score keeps the old Nintendo bounce but layers in big orchestral swells when the brothers launch between galaxies; it hits harder than I expected and doesn't drown in modern pop covers. Third, Bowser Jr. is a real pest instead of cartoon cardboard. He wants the family name back and he cheats, throws tantrums, and still somehow makes you half-root for the little bastard before Mario socks him again. I kept thinking about the old Super Mario Galaxy game on the Wii more than anything else. That game had wonder baked into every jump and this movie chases the same feeling. The first Mario movie was fine if you liked looking at shiny CG, but it played it safe with the story. This one opens the map. Peach isn't just waiting around. Yoshi shows up and gets used properly. Even the new oddball companions earn their screen time without turning into mascots. You get the sense the writers actually remembered the games instead of treating them like a toy commercial. Pacing holds up better than most kid movies I've suffered through. First act plants the prison-break hook quick, middle act is pure planet-hopping chaos with some clever power-up gags, and the finale goes big without overstaying. There's a stretch on a ice comet where Luigi has to keep the team from freezing that had the whole theater laughing and holding their breath at the same time. No endless chase montages. No forced dance number. Just plumbers doing plumber things in zero gravity. Voice work is solid across the board. Chris Pratt still sounds like Chris Pratt as Mario but he settles into it more this time instead of fighting the accent. Charlie Day as Luigi stays the nervous wreck we expect and it lands. The kid voicing Bowser Jr. brings actual menace under the cute, which is harder than it looks. Jack Black is back as Bowser and he gets less screen time but when he does appear he owns the frame. Nobody is trying to win awards here; they're trying to sell the slapstick and it clicks. Visually it's a step up. Galaxy levels look like someone finally figured out how to light those tiny worlds so the camera doesn't get lost. The warp pipes between systems have that satisfying whoosh the games always promised. I caught myself leaning forward during a sequence where Mario rides a star bit stream while dodging meteors—pure Saturday morning brain candy done with current money. My only real gripe is a couple of side characters that feel like they were leftover from a canceled DLC idea and get maybe two lines each. Not enough to tank anything, just litter. Humor stays light and physical. Mario and Luigi bickering over who gets the last mushroom, Bowser Jr. failing spectacularly at a dramatic monologue because his junior fist is too small, classic stuff. Nothing mean-spirited, nothing trying too hard to be adult. My nine-year-old snorted milk through his nose twice and I didn't hate myself for bringing him. That's the bar. Is it deep? No. Does it need to be? Also no. It's a video game movie that remembers the joy of jumping on things and collecting stars. Compared to most live-action adaptations that treat source material like a branding exercise, this one respects the homework. It clocks in under two hours, which is mercy. Ends clean, sets up nothing more than the next adventure if they want one, and leaves you humming the main theme on the drive home. I'd put it a notch above the first movie and right next to the better Pixar crowd-pleasers from ten years back. Not perfect—there's a mid-movie lull when they land on a dusty moon for exposition that could have been cut—but the highs are high and the whole thing stays friendly. Take the family. Eat the candy. Yell at the screen when Luigi misses the platform. That's the whole point. Four stars, easy. Worth the ticket and the leftover popcorn.

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Stu Kline
+11 clout
Sep 14, 2026
Look I'll be honest, I sat through The Super Mario Galaxy Movie last weekend with a bucket of popcorn and low expectations after that first Illumination flick left me wanting more actual game energy. This one's about Bowser Jr. springing his old man from lockup and dragging Mario and Luigi across half the cosmos to shut the kid down. It's pure space-hopping nonsense and it mostly works. Three things jumped out right away. First, the set pieces actually feel like you're playing Super Mario Galaxy again. Those little planetoids with their own gravity, the spinning flips, Luigi screaming every time the floor drops out—it's all there and they don't phone it in with cheap shortcuts. Second, the score keeps the old Nintendo bounce but layers in big orchestral swells when the brothers launch between galaxies; it hits harder than I expected and doesn't drown in modern pop covers. Third, Bowser Jr. is a real pest instead of cartoon cardboard. He wants the family name back and he cheats, throws tantrums, and still somehow makes you half-root for the little bastard before Mario socks him again. I kept thinking about the old Super Mario Galaxy game on the Wii more than anything else. That game had wonder baked into every jump and this movie chases the same feeling. The first Mario movie was fine if you liked looking at shiny CG, but it played it safe with the story. This one opens the map. Peach isn't just waiting around. Yoshi shows up and gets used properly. Even the new oddball companions earn their screen time without turning into mascots. You get the sense the writers actually remembered the games instead of treating them like a toy commercial. Pacing holds up better than most kid movies I've suffered through. First act plants the prison-break hook quick, middle act is pure planet-hopping chaos with some clever power-up gags, and the finale goes big without overstaying. There's a stretch on a ice comet where Luigi has to keep the team from freezing that had the whole theater laughing and holding their breath at the same time. No endless chase montages. No forced dance number. Just plumbers doing plumber things in zero gravity. Voice work is solid across the board. Chris Pratt still sounds like Chris Pratt as Mario but he settles into it more this time instead of fighting the accent. Charlie Day as Luigi stays the nervous wreck we expect and it lands. The kid voicing Bowser Jr. brings actual menace under the cute, which is harder than it looks. Jack Black is back as Bowser and he gets less screen time but when he does appear he owns the frame. Nobody is trying to win awards here; they're trying to sell the slapstick and it clicks. Visually it's a step up. Galaxy levels look like someone finally figured out how to light those tiny worlds so the camera doesn't get lost. The warp pipes between systems have that satisfying whoosh the games always promised. I caught myself leaning forward during a sequence where Mario rides a star bit stream while dodging meteors—pure Saturday morning brain candy done with current money. My only real gripe is a couple of side characters that feel like they were leftover from a canceled DLC idea and get maybe two lines each. Not enough to tank anything, just litter. Humor stays light and physical. Mario and Luigi bickering over who gets the last mushroom, Bowser Jr. failing spectacularly at a dramatic monologue because his junior fist is too small, classic stuff. Nothing mean-spirited, nothing trying too hard to be adult. My nine-year-old snorted milk through his nose twice and I didn't hate myself for bringing him. That's the bar. Is it deep? No. Does it need to be? Also no. It's a video game movie that remembers the joy of jumping on things and collecting stars. Compared to most live-action adaptations that treat source material like a branding exercise, this one respects the homework. It clocks in under two hours, which is mercy. Ends clean, sets up nothing more than the next adventure if they want one, and leaves you humming the main theme on the drive home. I'd put it a notch above the first movie and right next to the better Pixar crowd-pleasers from ten years back. Not perfect—there's a mid-movie lull when they land on a dusty moon for exposition that could have been cut—but the highs are high and the whole thing stays friendly. Take the family. Eat the candy. Yell at the screen when Luigi misses the platform. That's the whole point. Four stars, easy. Worth the ticket and the leftover popcorn.
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The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

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