March 31, 2026
By Carla Hay
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie”
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Culture Representation: Taking place on various fictional planets in outer space, the animated film “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” (based on Nintendo’s “Super Mario” video game series) features a cast of characters who are humans and non-human creatures.
Culture Clash: Adventurous plumber brothers Mario and Luigi get caught up in various battles and chase scenes after Princess Rosalina is kidnapped, which sets of a chain of events.
Culture Audience: “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the video games on which the movie is based, the movie’s voice cast, and overstuffed animated films that have jumbles plots.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” falls into a movie sequel trap of adding characters in attempting to cover up a messy plot. This animated film has eye-catching visuals but an unimpressive story reduced to generic chase scenes and battles. If you ask people who’ve seen “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” what the movie is about, it’s highly unlikely they can condense it in one sentence because the movie tries to do too much in its 98-minute runtime, resulting in undercooked subplots.
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” (written by Matthew Fogel) commits a sequel sin of assuming that everyone who sees the movie will already be familiar with either Nintendo’s “Super Mario” video games or 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which was the first theatrically released animated movie based on the video game series. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (also directed by Horvath and Jelenic and written by Fogel) wasn’t perfect, but at least it had a plot that was easy to follow and did a fairly good job of introducing the main characters. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” also didn’t have a lot of distracting subplots.
By contrast, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” has the attention span of a hyper bee and zips around from subplot to subplot, with many of these subplots left hanging or having sloppily written conclusions. The movie has multiple villains and can’t consistently decide which villains should also be anti-heroes. One particular villain goes through so many changes in this movie, this disjointed metamorphosis dilutes the character’s personality and the impact that this character has on the overall story.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” begins in the Comet Observatory, a large spaceship that travels through the universe. Princess Rosalina (voiced by Brie Larson), the leader of the Comet Observatory, is reading a fairy tale book to her adopted kids: the Lumas, who are various twinkling star characters with children’s voices. Suddenly, a giant robot creature comes from out of nowhere and kidnaps Princess Rosalina.
It’s soon revealed that a villainous creature named Bowser Jr. (voiced by Benny Safdie) is operating the robot and is the mastermind of kidnapping Princess Rosalina. Bowser Jr. is holding her as ransom hostage on Planet Bowser in exchange for setting free Bowser Jr.’s imprisoned father Bowser (voiced by Jack Black), who was the chief villain in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Bowser and Bowser Jr. are creatures called Koopa, which look like a combination of turtles, dragons and reptiles.
Princess Rosalina was not in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” For a very long stretch of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” her connection to Bowser is not adequately explained to viewers who might be finding out about these characters for the first time if “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is their first introduction to these characters. There’s a fine line between pandering to existing fans and not showing enough respect to viewers who are new to the franchise. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” frequently crosses that line.
Meanwhile, adventurous and often-bumbling plumber brothers Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (voiced by Charlie Day) are seen racing motorcycles in a desert. Mario is the cynical and brave brother, while Luigi is the kinder and more cautious brother. They go into a cave, which has the ruins of a palace. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” doesn’t show Mario and Luigi doing any plumbing in their native New York City, which was part of the plot of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
Inside this broken-down palace, the brothers find several creatures that are hiding, including a young dinosaur named Yoshi (voiced by Donald Glover), who has a friendly and eager-to-please personality. It’s a departure from the 1991 video game “Super Mario World,” where Mario and Luigi meet Yoshi after finding a giant spotted egg in Dinosaur Land. Yoshi becomes a sidekick of Mario and Luigi for the rest of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”
Mario and Luigi, with Yoshi tagging along, go back to Mushroom Kingdom, a place populated by mostly by Toads, who actually look like vest-wearing human kids with mushroom-like hats. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” doesn’t really explain that fact, which is why newcomers to this franchise might be confused to see characters called “Toads” who look like miniature human kids. Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy) is the leader of Mushroom Kingdom. She was rescued by the Toads when she was a toddler and has no memory of who her family is and how she ended up in Mushroom Kingdom.
During a celebration for Princess Peach’s birthday, she is feeling a little sad because she has now knowledge of her true identity. “Today’s not my real birthday,” Princess Peach tells Mario. “It’s just the day that the Toads found me. I have no idea who my family is.” Mario tries to cheer up Princess Peach by giving her a Luma light show.
One of the yellow Lumas breaks out of the pack and says to Princess Peach: “I finally found you,” before fainting. The Luma is revived and explains: “Our mama has been taken. A scary monster took her outside the Gateway Galaxy. Can you please come help us?”
The Luma also says that the kidnapped mother is a princess who told her children to find Princess Peach if anything bad happened. Princess Peach is a generous and valiant leader, so she doesn’t hesitate to help. She’s also curious to meet another princess in this universe. And so, Princess Peach goes with her most trusted Toad (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) to the Gateway Galaxy, as she starts to have snippets of flashback childhood memories that include Princess Rosalina.
Meanwhile, Princess Peach leaves Mario and Luigi in charge of the Mushroom Kingdom while she’s away trying to rescue the kidnapped Princess Rosalina, whose connection to Princess Peach is exactly what you think it is. Bowser is being held in Mushroom Kingdom as a prisoner that has been shrunken to about six inches tall. Bowser tries to convince Mario and Luigi that Bowser has been reformed and redeemed. However, Bowser keeps showing his conniving and manipulative nature and isn’t able to fool Mario and Luigi.
It isn’t long before Mario, Luigi and Bowser find out that Bowser Jr. has kidnapped Princess Rosalina and is demanding that Bowser be set free, in exchange for Princess Rosalina being set free. Bowser tells Mario and Luigi that Bowser Jr. is his long-lost/estranged son whom Bowser hasn’t seen since Bowser Jr. was a very young child. Bowser is emotionally touched that Bowser Jr. wants to reconnect with Bowser, so Bowser convinces Mario and Luigi to take Bowser along in this rescue mission.
The rest of “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is a frenetic mush of chases and fights, with some characters being introduced along the way. One of them is a cocky and roguish pilot named Fox McCloud (voiced by Glen Powell), who is basically a “Super Mario” version of the “Star Wars” character Han Solo. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any original ideas in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” There’s even a scene with a T. Rex dinosaur that is a blatant homage (or ripoff, depending on your perspective) to 1993’s “Jurassic Park” movie.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” voice cast members give servicable performances but are stuck in a movie that makes the characters have flat or muted personalities. The characters who are new to “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” just exist and don’t have much character development. Brie, Safdie, Glover and Powell are perfectly adequate as Princess Rosalina, Bowser Jr., Yoshi and Fox McCloud. However, these characters are treated like pawns in an already crowded chess game. Luis Guzmán (as the voice of Wart) and Issa Rae (as the voice of Honey Queen) have roles that are so small in the movie, they are really just glorified cameo roles. The movie has a mid-credits scene that is lightweight and unncessary, while an end-credits scene reveals another well-known “Super Mario” franchise character is making an appearance in a sequel.
“Super Mario” purist fans might be annoyed that Pratt makes no effort to have an Italian accent as Mario, while Day’s Italian accent as Luigi comes and goes. To its credit, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” has Mario and Luigi spending most of their time together, perhaps in an effort to address criticism that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” kept Mario and Luigi apart for too long. However, except for a few middling jokes, the brotherly chemistry in these “Super Mario” movies is inferior to the brotherly chemistry that Mario and Luigi have in the video games.
Bowser was a scene stealer in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” thanks to Black’s standout performance. But in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” Bowser is often sidelined for the first half of the movie. A lot of it has to do with Bowser being miniature-sized for a significant part of the story. Bowser’s personality is watered-down in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” and he doesn’t have a singing performance in “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” when his singing performance was a highlight of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” makes half-hearted attempts to bring tension to the plot by trying to set up a love triangle between Mario, Princess Peach and Bowser. As already seen in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” Bowser has an obsessive crush on Princess Peach and is intent on making her the queen of Planet Bowser. Meanwhile, Princess Peach and Mario are attracted to each other, but they won’t admit it to each other. Princess expects Mario to make the first move, but he misses her flirtatious cues, much to the dismay of Luigi and others in the Mushroom Kingdom who witness Mario blowing his chances to start a romance with Princess Peach.
The “Super Mario” franchise has many generations of fans. However, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” spends too much of its time looking like a visually busy cartoon that is aimed mostly at children under the age of 7 who have short attention spans. Most of Pixar Animation’s films are admirable examples of how to make animated films appealing and entertaining to adults and underage kids. By contrast, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is too lazy to do anything but copy ideas from other projects and limit the characters to predictable scenarios and forgettable soundbites.
Universal Pictures will release “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” in U.S. cinemas on April 1, 2026.