The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)

It’s Game Over for a Frantic Super Mario Galaxy

By any standard metric, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie isn’t good. Spectacularly animated? Yes, I will give the sequel credit on that front. But featuring a lucid, well-constructed script? Interesting world-building? The coherent evolution of a larger, ever-shifting mythology worthy of further exploration? Anything resembling intelligible character development? That’s a massive negative on all fronts. The film is a massive, headache-inducing mess, and, at a certain point, all I could do was roll my eyes and start wishing I could teleport myself somewhere, anywhere else.

But none of that matters. This movie wasn’t made for me. For Nintendo fanatics obsessed with everything from Super Smash Bros. to Starfox to Mario Party to everything in between, they’ll be having the time of their lives. For little kids raised on YouTube shorts that are nothing but stream-of-consciousness jokes entirely disconnected from one another (and from reality, too, for that matter) who will exit the theater urging their parents to pick up the latest Yoshi plush, Mario mini motorcycle, or Princess Rosalina wand for their toybox, this will undoubtedly go down like gangbusters. They’ll all almost certainly love it.

That makes reviewing this follow-up to 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie pretty much impossible. As lovely as it all looks, as amusing as a few of returning composer Brian Tyler’s incorporation of iconic video game series musical cues into the proceedings can sometimes be, I truly hated almost every second I sat there trapped in the theater. The gags, with precious few exceptions, fell flat. None of the vocal performances made a lasting impression (not even from series newcomers Brie Larson, Benny Safdie, Glen Powell, Issa Rae, or an unrecognizable Donald Glover). I found it all deeply annoying.

And yet, the kids in my promo audience had a blast. They giggled. They chortled. I even heard one afterward asking — almost pleading — with their parent to watch it again as soon as possible. Their excitement when Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi’s (Charlie Day) mischievous mini green dinosaur best friend Yoshi (Glover) made his initial appearance was palpable. I could feel all of the “oohs” and “aahs” when Princess Rosalina (Larson) and all her pipsqueak star children were introduced, especially when she went into battle mode to protect them from a confidently determined Bowser Jr. (Safdie). And don’t even get me started on the moment the dashing Firefox (Powell) offered his intergalactic barrel rolling flight skills to assist Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) in their quest to save the day. Those children ate every last dollop of it up with an oversized spoon.

The plot, as nonessential as it may be, concerns Bowser Jr. kidnapping Princess Rosalina as one part of a master plan to free his estranged father, Bowser (Jack Black), from Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach’s clutches. When word of her abduction reaches them, a rescue mission is launched, with Yoshi and Toad tagging along for the ride. They get separated into two separate groups before finally rejoining forces to journey to Bowser Jr.’s mechanized Koopa Troopa-filled battleworld, defeat Bowser once and for all, and save Princess Rosalina from a fate worse than death.

Or something like that. It honestly doesn’t matter. The script is once again solely credited to writer Matthew Fogel. However, if someone were to try to sell me on the idea that the animators and directors made it all up as they went along during the storyboard process, and that the vocal ensemble adlibbed all of their lines in the recording booth, I’d be tempted to believe them. It’s one scene of chaotic nonsense right after another, and while there are plenty out there who will find that appealing, I’m not one of them.

No matter. Kids will love it. Audiences worldwide will undoubtedly purchase well over a billion dollars’ worth of tickets. Future sequels and spin-offs will be released in theaters for many years to come. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie wasn’t for me, but for all of those game to its, err, “charms,” I guess the sequel is worth playing. For everyone else? There are no easter eggs, secret tricks, or hidden warp pipes to ease your pain. Best to trip over a turtle shell or walk into a fireball and call it a night.

Film Rating: 1 (out of 4)